Date: May 26th & 29th
Preacher: Pastor Ashley Rosa-Ruggieri
First Reading: Acts 1:1-11
Psalmody: Psalm 47
Second Reading: Ephesians 1:15-23
Gospel: Luke 24:44-53
Let me tell you a couple of quick stories about things that happened to me on a field trip. When I was in elementary school, I accidentally went into the boy’s bathroom on a field trip, I didn’t pay attention to the door as I went in, and so I was stuck in a stall for a few minutes before I could rush out back into the hallway, being greeted by one of our confused male chaperones. There was also a time that I was made fun of by some other students on a field trip, to the point of tears, and I ran away crying, ignoring where I was going.
Now, if I was elaborating on these two stories, I might give more context and explain about where I was and what the situations were like in more detail. But it is not exactly the details of these encounters that matter for today’s message, it is the fact that they happened on the same day. What if I told you that the two short stories I just shared were not only connected, but were part of one larger narrative? Because in fact, these two stories are actually one in the same, two parts of the same story. Some fellow students made fun of me, I ran away in tears, and I ended up in the boys bathroom accidentally, because I didn’t check the doors through my crying, all while we were on a field trip. This same idea is true for two of our readings today, from Acts and from the Gospel of Luke.
Scholars overwhelmingly agree that the book of Luke and the book of Acts were written by the same author. This is why at the start of our Acts reading, the author says, “In the first book…” meaning, in the Gospel of Luke, and then goes on to explain that it was all about Jesus’s time on earth. And so, Acts picks up where Luke left off. Our reading from Luke today consists of the final verses of the book of Luke. And our Acts readings are the first verses of the book of Acts. Both of them mentioning Jesus’s ascension, which is commemorated today 40 days after Easter, making it in this (past) Thursday. After defeating death through his resurrection and spreading this news to the disciples, Jesus finally ascends to heaven, blessing and commissioning the disciples, while giving the promise that he will return. And so, both our Luke and Acts readings today are the same story in different words, a continuation of the narrative.
These final verses of the book of Luke and beginning verses of Acts overlap and create a bridge that connects these two stories, making them the same story, told again. This theme of a continued story stuck out to me this week, the idea that a narrative that repeats is one to pay attention to. I think the importance of connecting these two passages stuck out to me this week because of the news of yet another mass shooting in our country. My sermon for this week was already starting to be written, I had some ideas of what I would preach and then the shooting in Uvalde happened on Tuesday and I could no longer read these texts the same way as I had before. In the wake of a mass shooting just two weeks ago in Buffalo, New York at a grocery store, and now one this week in Texas at an elementary school, I cannot ignore the reality that these incidents are a continued story. These moments do not happen in an individual moment of time, and they are not disconnected from one another. Just as they are not disconnected from the countless shootings we have seen this past decade.
But this connection of a continued narrative is not the only way that our Bible passages this week urge us to examine our reactions and actions in regard to gun violence in the United States. These two accounts of Jesus’s ascension offer two different perspectives on how the disciples continued their lives after Jesus ascended. In the Luke passage, it says that the disciples worshiped Jesus after, and then returned to Jerusalem and were always in the temple blessing God. This was their reaction after Jesus ascended, to draw close to their faith community, and continually place themselves in a space of worship. When incidents of violence happen, I think this is one reaction that we can have too. We turn to mourning and lamenting through prayers. Our faith upholds us in the midst of tragedy, as does being in community. And so, whenever this narrative again arises, we can turn to prayer, and the solace that we find in God’s loving embrace. So that the Lord can take on our fears, anxieties, grief, anger, sadness, or other emotions we might feel. For people of faith, this opportunity to turn to God in prayer is an important and natural one.
But at the end of the Acts passage, the reactions are a little different. Jesus ascends, and the disciples are merely watching the space where he was and where he has gone. But two figures in white robes suddenly say to them, ‘why are you looking up to heaven, Jesus has gone, and will return in the same way.’ This urges the disciples in the coming verses to do as Jesus told them just before he ascended. With the promise that the Holy Spirit would be with them, he told them to go out and witness to the world what they had seen and what Jesus had done, spreading this news to the ends of the Earth. The two figures in robes act as momentum for the disciples to do something. To not only stand there and think about what has already happened, but to continue the story as Jesus called them to do, knowing what has already occurred.
We too are called in the wake of violence to notice what has already happened, where the story has already been repeated, and to move forward in a new direction. What can we do to make sure this continued story of violence is not one that is repeated again and again? I do not have that answer to give you, that is not my call. My call is to preach the Gospel, and today the Gospel I am called to preach is convicting. Convicting because I do not think anyone wants mass shootings to be a distinct narrative that is constantly repeated in our country, and yet here we are in the wake of another incident.
So much like the disciples did not stay staring at the place where Jesus ascended, we too cannot stay in this same place and wait for something to happen yet again. We can discuss, we can advocate, we can comfort, we can pray, but what we cannot do is let this story be repeated over and over again. Our scripture this week urges us to notice the connections between stories, and I urge us in this time to do the same with incidents of gun violence in our country. As Jesus says in the Luke reading just before he ascends, “You are witnesses of these things.” In light of that, may we be faithful witnesses, able to notice the connections in these stories, and move toward a country where this story of violence no longer exists. Lord in your mercy, here our prayer.