Footprints
This sermon can be listened to here:
Gate Pa – Easter 7/Ascension Sunday 2016
Readings
Psalm: Psalm 97
First Reading: Acts
1-11
Second Reading: Rev
22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
Gospel: John 17:20-26
What I want to say:
On this last Sunday in
Easter, as we commemorate the Ascension: what does the ascension offer us? What
does resurrection mean to us? We are the people of the footprints, and today we
baptise Dylan to join us as we seek to stand in footprints of risen Christ.
What I want to
happen:
The Sermon
1. Introduction:
A story to start with
Read story last week about Centre in
America run by Roman Catholic sisters, welcomed children whose families were
homeless, families with no addresses.
Heard similar stories from this
country.
One day the sisters took the children
to the Jersey shore. The 3 and 4 year olds scrambled up the sandy dunes,
falling and giggling their way to the top of what must have seemed like
mountains to their little legs. When they got to the top, they could hardly
believe their eyes: water as far as they could see -- more water than they had
ever seen. They slid down the dunes and ran to the ocean’s edge. They chased
the waves that teased their toes. Then they went off for a picnic in a nearby
park. After lunch they begged to go back to the dunes. One little boy named
Freddie outran the rest and climbed his way to the top. He looked out, then
turned to the others and shouted, “It’s still there!”
In Freddie’s short life, so much had
disappeared -- even the ocean could disappear over lunch.
While we’re older and know the ocean
is there even when we’re not looking.
What about other things. What are
sandy dunes we at struggling up
What seems disappeared while not
looking
2. Happy birthday
Lot happening
today
Lot to get
through
So first of all –
happy birthday to Marion
Thank you for all
you have offered and still offer this place
And this
community.
You are like
ocean
Always seem to
have been here
In a good way
Trust day great
celebration
Years ahead
filled with God’s peace and goodness
3. Mother’s Day
Also Mother’s Day
Happy mother’s
day to all mothers
Day to remember
the importance of mothers
Often ones in child’s life like ocean
Rock on which children build lives on
Applaud mothers
Give thanks mothers
Need remember
that today brings with it a lot pain for many people
Whole lot reasons
Let us remember
them and grow in our compassion
4. Sunday after Ascension Day
Also Sunday after
Ascension
Which heard in
readings from Acts
What does
Ascension offer us?
Why take any
notice
Ascension
Where our theology around Jesus
needs to be good
Need to keep hold of incarnation to
make sense of it all
Jesus was and is
fully human and fully divine
Fully human fully
divine crucified and risen Christ “ascends” into God
Use that word
ascend loosely
->usually used
as floating up into heaven
Heaven far away up there somewhere
Usually depicted
as
More like
dematerialised into the cloud
Back to what
happening here:
Incarnation is
The Word of God coming among us as
one of us
Jesus who is fully human and fully divine
remind us who we are
Made in image of God
Not replica of
God
Not statue God
Made with essence of God in each of
us
the Love, wholeness of God is within each of
us and all of us
in life and death Jesus we are shown what living as people made in
image God looks like
lives filled with
compassion, generosity, love, wholeness
Ascension is
return journey
Word of God who is fully human returns
to Godhead
Be part eternal life, love and worship that is at heart of God who
is 3 in 1
In ascension
Through Jesus fully divine,
and fully human
We are welcomed into that life, love and worship
Ascension reminds us that
we are welcomed into that life, love and worship
To put that
another way
Eternal life is
not when die and go to heaven
Eternal life is
when we realise that we are living in God
In heart of God
That starts now
Heaven is here
Ascension is not
about God being somewhere else
And Jesus going off to be with God
Actually about
God being here
like ocean
here all the time
Not going anywhere
Welcoming us into
the heart of the life of God
Who is here and now
5. Last Sunday of Easter
Also last Sunday
of Easter
Great 50 days will end on Saturday
Raises the
question
What does Resurrection Jesus mean for us?
As we ponder that
question
Given end Jesus great high priestly prayer in John
Prayed at end of last supper
One commentator
read described what we heard today as Jesus’ mothers prayer
They felt was
pretty cool on Mothers Day
kind of prayer mother might pray when
children go out
especially when
some risk
kind things we thought when each
children started driving
or drove up Auckland for
first few times
or went away for university etc…
In essence it
says – look after them God.
this prayer is
not just for those gathered
for all those who
will believe
includes us
this prayer is
being prayed for us
now
kind of like
ocean
this ongoing prayer
In it Jesus says
I
am in Father
Father
is in me
Met
Father in me
Father
is in you through me
You
are in Father through me
Which is pretty much what I think
Ascension reminds us of but is acted out
So what does resurrection have to say
then
God is like the ocean
utterly
dependable
not going
anywhere
absolutely
committed to us and this world
6. Footprints
One last thing to
say about Ascension and Resurrection
One commentaries
read talked about woodcut Jesus’ ascension by Albrecht Durer
Many ways traditional
piece of art
Love about it is
footprints
Angels said – men
of galilee why are you looking up into the clouds
Might have said
Look
There are his
footprints
He has left them
all over
Go find them
Go join in
Go be the footprints
What do these footprints look like?
7. Origins
Story of origins of American Mother’s
Day offer some examples
Last year (I think) – talked about
work Anna Jarvis
Following her
mother’s 1905 death,
conceived of
Mother’s Day as a way of honouring the sacrifices mothers made for their
children
The roots go back further back to the
19th century.
Talk about two people act as examples
for us today
One those was Mother of Anna Jarvis - Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia
In the years
before the Civil War (1861-65), helped start “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” to teach
local women how to properly care for their children.
These clubs later
became a unifying force in a region of the country still divided over the Civil
War.
In 1868 Jarvis
organized “Mothers’ Friendship Day,” at which mothers gathered with former
Union and Confederate soldiers to promote reconciliation.
Another precursor Julia Ward Howe - abolitionist and suffragette.
Wrote Battle hymn
for the Republic
In 1870 Howe
wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation,” a call to action that asked mothers to
unite in promoting world peace.
In 1873 Howe
campaigned for a “Mother’s Peace Day” to be celebrated every June 2.
8. Baptism
We are now going to baptise Dylan
In doing so we are declaring that
God is in him,
and he is in God
In Christ he is
being welcomed into life, love at heart of God
In doing so we are also declaring
our
hope is that his life will be shaped God’s generosity, love, mercy, peace and
goodness
we are also declaring he is now part
of this ongoing story that goes back to these people heard about today
he will be part
of community that Jesus was and is praying for
He will join us looking for footprints
of risen Jesus in our world today
He will join us being the footprints
of Crucified and Risen One
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