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Sunday, May 4, 2008

Wait Faithfully

Seventh Sunday of Easter

Scriptures: Acts 1:6–14; Psalm 68:1–10, 32–35; I Peter 4:12–14, 5:6–11; John 17:1–11; II Nephi 1:63–77; Doctrine and Covenants 76:3g–h

Sharing Christ’s Peace

There are many issues that could easily consume the time and energy of the church. However, the challenge before a prophetic people is to discern and pursue what matters most for the journey ahead. —Doctrine and Covenants 163:11b

Prelude

Hymn

“Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart” HS 181
OR “Teach Me, God, to Wonder” HS 176

Call to Worship: Doctrine and Covenants 76:3g–h

Tell the congregation that this will be read three times with a pause between each reading to give time for meditation.

*Congregational Hymn

“What Is This Place” SP 2
OR “Beneath the Forms of Outward Rite” HS 339

*Invocation

Disciples’ Generous Response

Each Sunday, as part of the Disciples’ Generous Response, we ask you to integrate the message of “share equally” between Local and World Ministries Mission Tithes. Offertory stories are provided to keep the church in touch with how contributions to Mission Tithes spread the peace of Jesus Christ. Please use the stories, testimonies, and up-to-date contribution information as part of your offertory ministry. Visit www.CofChrist.org/offertory to print a copy, or contact your pastor, congregational financial officer, or worship coordinator for a copy.

Scripture: Psalm 68:1–10

Have each verse read by a different person, or have two people each read every other verse. Have this Sunday announced weeks ahead as a “Brown Bag Sunday,” and encourage the congregation to bring dry or canned food items to offer in thanks for the bounty of God. These items could be donated to a local food bank or a family in need.

Blessing and Receiving of Oblation and Mission Tithes

Hymn

“I Am Standing Waiting” SP 27
OR “Brothers and Sisters of Mine” HS 388

Scripture Reading: Acts 1:6–14

Focus Moment

Read Water Hole Waiting by Jane and Christopher Kurtz (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins, 2002). ISBN 0-0602-9851-0

Message: Based on Acts 1:6–14

Ministry of Music or Congregational Hymn

“God Is Working His Purpose Out” HS 324
OR “Light Dawns on a Weary World” R-3

Preparation of Emblems

Blessing and Serving of Bread and Wine

*Hymn of Commitment

“Now Let Us from This Table Rise” HS 327
OR “Your Cause Be Mine, Great Lord Divine” HS 420

*Benediction

*Response

Sermon Helps

Scriptures: Acts 1:6–14; Psalm 68:1–10, 32–35; I Peter 4:12–14, 5:6–11; John 17:1–11; II Nephi 1:63–77; Doctrine and Covenants 76:3g–h

Exploring the Scriptures

Acts 1:6–14 is a text of waiting. It begins with Jesus “giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.” He is preparing them (and therefore us) to continue his ministry on earth after he is no longer physically present. Will they be able to do what Jesus does when they can no longer see and hear him? The gift of the Holy Spirit is the one and only way they can do so. It plays such a prominent role here that the book is sometimes called “The Acts of the Holy Spirit” instead of “The Acts of the Apostles.”
These disciples had been waiting expectantly for the restoration of Israel as a political kingdom and have consistently seen Jesus as the Messiah who would bring about that restoration. Now the resurrected Christ has told them to wait in Jerusalem “for the promise of the Father” and to expect to be “baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” They ask, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” They have been waiting for too little, because the kingdom Jesus sees extends “to the ends of the earth.”

Jesus ascends to heaven, and the disciples stand looking up after him, just as you and I would. One can almost see the thought-bubble form—“What do we do now?” The angelic figures that interrupt their “upwards waiting” by asking, “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” speak for the point of view in Acts that “discipleship is defined in terms of an active witness to the risen Jesus” (The New Interpreter’s Bible on CD-ROM, Abingdon Press, 2002). When Jesus says (v. 8) that “you will be my witnesses,” the emphasis is on what they will speak, as much as what they have seen. The New Interpreter’s Bible reminds us that “the biblical interpreter must take care to bring together the ‘task discipleship’ of Acts with teaching of a more contemplative pattern of discipleship from, for example, John’s Gospel (John 14–17), where God’s Spirit is given to cultivate an intimate relationship with the living Jesus.” The final act of waiting in this text takes place in the upper room where the apostles and others who have been drawn to Jesus “devote themselves to prayer.”

All of these disciplined pauses—waiting for the Holy Spirit, waiting with questions, waiting for the kingdom to be restored, waiting for the opportunity to do what Jesus would do, waiting in prayer—connect well with the sacrament of Communion that we celebrate today. We pause, expectantly, waiting to remember that it is not our work that brings about the kingdom of God, but the work of the Holy Spirit in, on, and through us.

Central Ideas

1. Waiting is one of the more difficult tasks to which the church is called. We want to be in action, but always have to resist the temptation to act as if our will is primary. In this text, waiting is an act of discipline.

2. The Holy Spirit is introduced here as a dependable force with as much power to direct, assist, encourage, and support as the living Jesus himself possesses.

3. In this text, emphasis for doing ministry shifts from Jesus to the disciples. They are named as individuals and called to witness to the whole world of what they have experienced in their journey with Jesus.

Questions for the Speaker

1. How can you create a spirit of expectant, open-hearted waiting for today’s sacrament of Communion?

2. How has the Holy Spirit interrupted and informed your discipleship at specific times?

3. What would you imagine going through your mind if you were standing with the disciples looking up after Jesus?

4. Are you waiting for Jesus to do something specific where you have named (and limited) the expected outcome?
    

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