Geneva Presbyterian Church

Weekly Sermon

January 20, 2002 - "Wait on the Lord "

The Reverend Anne Benefield

Geneva Presbyterian Church

Isaiah 40:25-31; Acts 1:1-5

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. "This," he said, "is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." Prayer: Gracious God, As we pause to explore your word, may the Spirit come to us and guide us to wait upon the Lord for we will be renewed and strengthened. Amen. Today we begin a year of sermons featuring The Acts of the Apostles. I'd like to take just a minute to introduce the book. Acts is a continuation of the story of Jesus in at least two ways. First, the author of Acts is Luke. He wrote Acts as a sequel to his Gospel. Luke defined time as three distinct periods: the time before Jesus, the time of Jesus' life on earth, and the time of the church. The Old Testament covered the time before Jesus. The Gospels covered the time of Jesus' life on earth. In The Acts of the Apostles, Luke tells the beginning of the era of the church. Acts is also the continuation of the life of Christ. Christ lives on in his church. In his commentary on Acts, William Barclay writes about Dr. John Foster who knew of a Hindu inquirer that went to see a Christian bishop. On his own the man had read the Gospels. He was drawn to Christ through the stories of his life. "Then he read on…and felt he had entered into a new world. In the Gospels it was Jesus, his works and his suffering. In the Acts…what the disciples did and thought and taught had take the place that Christ had occupied. The Church continued where Jesus had left off at his death. 'Therefore,' said the man, 'I must belong to the Church that carries on the life of Christ.'" [William Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles, The Daily Study Bible Series, (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976) p.10] We are blessed to carry on the life of Christ as the church today. It is helpful for us to study Acts in order to explore how the early church handled many of the same issues we face today. We'll see how relying of the Spirit, Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians worked through their differing theologies. We'll hear sermons preached two thousand years ago that reach us today. We'll learn how the early church survived in hostile cultures. In essence, we will find that our stories are part of the continuing story of The Acts of the Apostles. Now let us turn our attention to today's passage. In the first five verses, Luke recalls Jesus' final instructions-words filled with so much meaning! And Jesus' words to the disciples speak directly to us today. He says, "Wait…until the Spirit of the Lord comes to you." We don't like the word "wait." We're a "GO-GO-GO" people. I talk that way to Johnny and Ricky sometimes. I say, "GO, GO, GO!" We want everything done now, or even yesterday. We're all in a hurry. I think the disciples were in a hurry, too, but as Jesus ascends to heaven, his parting word is "wait." How can Jesus tell us to wait? We are very busy. Companies promise their clients that they work 24/7 on their behalf. I heard a funny commercial on the radio the other day. I don't know what the product was, but the spot was all about multitasking- doing a million things at once. In the ad, one employee is talking about another who is collating a presentation with one hand, calculating profit margins with the another, and typing a report with his toes. What a picture! I read another account of multitasking in which a woman was preparing dinner, holding a meeting on the phone, keeping the baby from slamming fingers in the door, and supervising two homework assignments. I could related! Jesus talks about a different kind of multitasking. It's the kind of multitasking that Brother Lawrence explained in the classic book The Practice of the Presence of God, written by his close friend Joseph de Beauford some 300 years ago. "Brother Lawrence insisted that it is necessary to always be aware of God's presence by talking with Him throughout each day. To think that you must abandon conversation with Him in order to deal with the world is erroneous. Instead, as we nourish our souls by seeing God in His exaltation, we will derive a great joy at being His…Instead of letting faith rule our lives, we are guided by our petty, everyday, mechanical prayers, which are always changing…[Brother Lawrence] believed it was a serious mistake to think of our prayer time as being different from any other." [Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, Meza, Arizona: Whitaker House, 1982), p.8, 20] I believe that practicing the presence of God-trying to stay opened to God at all times-is central to our faith and has always been central. Waiting on the Lord is the most basic form of multitasking. Not only are we frantic and impatient, we have an opinion about everything, too. "In 1995, KGO talk radio in San Francisco conducted a call-in poll. Ronn Owens invited listeners to express their opinions. Thirty-five percent said yes. Thirty-three percent said no and thirty-two percent were undecided. One listener, aghast at the large number of undecideds, protested, "It's this sort of apathy that's ruining America." The only problem with all these responses was that the radio station had never posed any question. It's not apathy that gets most of us in trouble. It is shooting off our mouths and shout out our lungs over things that we know nothing about." (Homiletics, "Say What?" 2/26/1995) We are so busy talking about our own opinions that we forget to consult the only one whose opinion ultimately matters: God. Waiting on the Lord means opening ourselves to a wisdom and love greater than our own. We know that waiting on the Lord can bring us a more focused life and we know that waiting on the Lord can give us wisdom, but there is one more thing that waiting on the Lord gives. It gives power. Jesus told the disciples to wait for the coming of the Spirit because without the Spirit, they could not carry on his work. They could not be the church. Without the Spirit we could not baptize Claire and Tommy. We could not welcome them to the family of God. We would not have the focus, power and wisdom to teach them how God loves them in Jesus Christ. We are blessed because among us are witnesses to the Spirit who have been practicing the presence of God for many years. We are blessed that Mabel Hamilton shares her focus, power, and wisdom with us. Her life is a testament to her Savior whose Spirit rests upon her. Tomorrow we celebrate Martin Luther King Day. As I prepared these words for you, I couldn't help but remember a quote from him that I read years ago. A reporter asked him how he got so much done between his work as a leader of the Civil Rights movement, a pastor of a church, and a much sought speaker. He answered that he couldn't possibly get it done if he didn't begin early each day on his knees praying for two to three hours. Only in prayer did he find the focus, power, and wisdom to lead the church and the country forward. At the beginning of this millennium we face new challenges both as a church and as a country. It would be behoove us to listen to the words of Jesus to the earliest church for only if we wait on the Spirit of the Lord will we have the power to go forward.