Weekly Sermon: Lifted Up - 06-01-25

The Holy Gospel according to Luke. Glory to you, O Lord.

Jesus said to the eleven and those with them, These are my words that I spoke

to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law

of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And he said to them,

Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead

on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed

in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father has promised.

So stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them.

While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.

And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

And they were continually in the temple, blessing God.

This is the gospel of our Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ. I invite you to be seated.

Well, it is again good to be with you all this Sunday.

I've been waiting for this opportunity for a while now. When Pastor Linda announced

that she was going to go on sabbatical, we were looking at dates to work.

And boy, it's been a busy spring.

A lot's been going on, so it's good to be here on the first day of June,

a new year, and on Ascension Sunday, as we remember Jesus ascending to heaven

and leaving behind us to do the work of the gospel,

of course, with the help of the Holy Spirit, but we'll get to that.

But it is good to be here and to have this opportunity, and again,

I apologize on behalf of the Synod for the miscommunication last week and the

pastor who was on our supply not showing up for worship when he was supposed to,

that we expect that of our pastors who are on our supply list.

And I'm thankful for Ashley for filling in so well and taking care of things

and for your spirit of understanding that sometimes people make mistakes.

It happens. But that doesn't mean there's not accountability, right?

Any of you had to raise any kids?

Right? We make mistakes. We also have to learn about accountability.

We don't always do what we are supposed to do.

We are now into our summertime, and what a gift that is.

As I was thinking about this text from 1 Corinthians, I was thinking about your pastor, actually.

She and her husband have been traveling through Greece and having wonderful

experiences of seeing the places where the Apostle Paul and others proclaim

the gospel and its truth for the first time when he was asked to go to Macedonia

and beyond to preach the gospel.

And so she's having this wonderful opportunity to stand in those places.

And her husband's been sharing some photos on Facebook and things.

And I've been privileged to go twice now to Greece and to be in some of those same places.

And I remember when I was in Corinth.

And Corinth is a city in the south of Greece. It's where the Corinthian Canal

is, which is a great marvel of achievement of ancient technology,

so that boats could pass from the east to the west and such without having to

go all the way around Sparta.

But the city of Corinth was a thriving trade center.

The city of Corinth is a place that has always been, because it's on the sea,

had a lot of different people coming into it, and about different ideas, different thoughts.

Not unlike Athens, where we heard a couple weeks ago, where Paul said to the

Athenians, I see you have many gods, you would have unto an unknown God,

Paul proclaimed to them Jesus.

But in Corinth, they're the same thing. There's all these different ideas,

all these different things are happening. But one of the most interesting things

I saw in Corinth was the cathedral there, the church there, they have their apostolic succession.

Now, I'm really getting into the weeds here of church nerdery.

But bear with me, there's a point.

Apostolic succession is that each bishop is ordained by another bishop.

And so there's a line that would be traced back. This became a little bit of

an issue for us as Lutherans a few years ago when we joined the Episcopalians in full communion.

They wanted to make sure that our bishops were installed according to the apostolic

succession that goes back to Peter, right?

Peter, the rock upon which Jesus will build his church. See,

I told you this is getting really nerdy.

But it's a big deal, right? Because in the Roman church, the pope is the successor

of Peter, and this idea that there is a line going back to the ascension of Jesus.

There's a line going back to a person actually there who was there when Jesus ascended.

And so we have these lists of apostolic succession. But in Corinth,

they have a list that goes back to Paul.

Because Paul founded the church in Corinth.

And so it was really interesting to see and to think about how over thousands

of years here, the church has morphed and molded itself, and that this church

traces their succession back to Paul.

Now why does that matter for us? Well, it matters for us because of what we

heard here in 1 Corinthians.

Because even early on in the church, people were beginning to draw distinctions amongst themselves.

They were beginning to draw distinctions among themselves to say,

well, I was baptized by Paul, therefore I have a better baptism.

Or I was baptized by Apollos, and Apollos can preach a heck of a better sermon than Paul.

And such on and such on. I'm sure there were many others who were claiming their baptism.

And what Paul gets back to is he says, who is Apollos? Who is Paul?

We're just people. You're baptized into Jesus Christ.

I planted, Apollos watered, but who gives the growth?

God gives the growth. I think that's important for us as the church today in

2025 to be reminded that God is the one who gives the growth.

Certainly, we need leaders. We need pastors. We need strong lay leaders.

We need folks to make things happen.

But we have to remember, always have to remember, that it's God that gives the growth.

Why is that important for us today? Because I think we're living in a challenging time as a church.

We're living in a challenging time to proclaim the church and to proclaim the

gospel of Jesus Christ and a gospel that welcomes, a gospel that includes, not excludes.

Living in a time when the most popular expressions of Christianity,

quite frankly, right around us in our very midst, are welcoming to a point.

You're good, yes, fine, you can come, everybody's welcome, until a point.

Except, it comes with a caveat.

Your sexuality might disqualify you.

Your immigration status might make you not safe.

And we could just go on and on. Your economic value.

All of these things are qualifiers in what is being proclaimed out there as Christianity.

And what we're forgetting is that it's God who gives the growth,

and it's our job to plant and water,

to not get wrapped up in all of these human distinctions, and to be people who proclaim good news.

And I think that's what you're trying to do here at St. Luke's.

From what I hear from your pastor, from what I hear from others who talk about

you, and guess what? People do talk about you.

And because all of this is on the internet now it's all out there,

I can see it's kind of fun, I get to watch pastors preach they don't even know if I'm watching.

But as I think about what you're trying to do here at St.

Luke's is to be a place that is open and welcoming and not just it's okay but

you are invited and that I think is a really important distinction,

It's to be a church that doesn't just say, if you show up, you're welcome here,

but actively inviting people to be a part of the community,

actively speaking about your faith in the world, actively living out a welcome

to say, yes, we welcome you.

We are inviting you. We want you to hear this gospel.

And that's the challenge that Jesus left the disciples with all those years ago.

He said to them, see, I'm sending upon you what the Father promised.

That's the apostle, that's the paraclete in the other gospel, the helper.

I'm sending upon you the Holy Spirit so that you can go into the world and proclaim

the gospel and tell others and to do the work that Jesus has been doing.

And that's what we're called to do.

And I think you're doing it here at St. Luke's, and I want to encourage you to keep doing that work.

As your pastor is on sabbatical, keep doing that work. When your pastor comes

back from sabbatical, don't say, oh, great, she's back. She can do all the work.

It's got to be y'all. It's got to be us. And that's why we do this thing together also as synod.

We talk to the young people about being synod, walking together.

We do this thing together so that we can be a voice in the metroplex of the gospel.

I mentioned this afternoon at 2 o'clock, I'll be back in Arlington on the other side of 360.

I'll be in Arlington because we're going to make a new pastor.

Connie Ortega is going to be ordained to serve the Adviento community.

And that you will be there even if you're not physically there.

You're going to be there because I will be there and others from the Synod will

be there and you are represented there in that place in Arlington.

And you're there all over this all over our territory and across our nation

as part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

You are part of something bigger than just your community.

And that's good news because it means we can do good things in the world and

we can proclaim the gospel.

But at the end of the day, it comes back down to individuals being touched by the Holy Spirit.

Ashley said something profound to me earlier because, well, Tom didn't show up.

They want to do something so that someone may be touched by the Holy Spirit

today. He didn't just cancel worship, right?

You could have. You could, oh, the pastor didn't show up. We're just going to

cancel worship. No, that's not what you do.

Figure it out. You worship together anyways, right? Because the pastor isn't

the essential piece to the puzzle.

The Holy Spirit and God's presence, and you gathered around word and sacrament. That matters.

That's what does it. And that's what Jesus is challenging us and sending us out.

So as you are beginning this summer season, I pray that you will be lifted up.

That's your theme today, being lifted up. I pray you will be lifted up as Jesus

was lifted up, but lifted up to share with others the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And just as those disciples went after he had blessed them, what did they do?

They returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

I pray you go out into this summer with great joy, knowing you have the truth of God in your hearts.

And you can share that and invite others to know as well.

So thank you for being you. And continue that work in Jesus' name. Amen.

Filled with joy, the joy of new lives, Go in peace to love, serve, and love them all.

Thanks to God, and we will.