“The Story Isn’t Over Yet” a sermon on Acts 1:1-11 & Luke 24:44-53

Acts 1:1-11
Luke 24:44-53
“The Story Isn’t Over Yet”
Preached Sunday, May 17, 2026 at Boardman United Methodist Church

I am a reader and I am primarily an audiobook listener. I put one earbud in and I can listen to my book while doing dishes, “watching” TV with my kid, or doing any fairly mindless activity. Sometimes, as I’m listening to the book, I think “wow. It sounds like the story is wrapping up. I must be near the end” - and then I look at my phone and I’m only like 60% through. And I go, “Oh no! What horrible thing is going to happen to the characters to keep that plot going that much longer?” I know I need to buckle in, because the story isn’t over yet.

It made me think, if we were listening to the story of Jesus on audiobook, paying no attention to the percentages - when would we think the story was going to end?

Perhaps we’d think the story would end at the Crucifixion. Many of the disciples certainly thought this was the end of the Jesus story. A heartbreaking, horrible ending. Nothing like they had hoped. Empire and Death had won, their hopes dashed. Time to pack up the bags and go home.

Of course, that wasn’t the end of the story.

Perhaps, if we were listening to the Jesus story, we’d think the Resurrection would be a good place for the story to end. End on a triumphant note! A happy ending! A miracle! That which was dead has come back to life! The story can end now.

Of course, that wasn’t the end of the story.

Perhaps the story would end with the Scriptures we heard today - the Ascension. In a plot structure this would be a good place to end a story - you’ve had the tension of the Crucifixion and death of Jesus, resolved in the climax of the Resurrection, and the nice wrap-up of the post-Resurrection appearances and the Ascension - Jesus has said goodbye and left the scene and the story can end. Many thought this was the end of the story.

Of course, that wasn’t the end of the story.

Thankfully, the story of Jesus and the story of God’s involvement in this world does not wrap up like a nice novel with a beginning, middle, and end. The story continues.

The Ascension, that is the Scriptures we read today of Jesus ascending into heaven following his Resurrection, is not the end of the story - in fact, it ushers the story into an in-between time, a liminal space. The time between the Ascension and Pentecost. The time between Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit (that’s next week’s story - spoiler alert!) and the time between Jesus and the rest of the story…

Because with God’s story, there is no end to the story.

Even the book of Revelation which comes at the end of the Bible is not the end to God’s story and those who read it as the end of all things are missing the point. Revelation 21 paints a picture of a new heaven and a new earth, when all things are re-made, made whole, made right. The end of the Bible is not an end at all, it is a beginning.

In fact, we are missing a whole lot of the story of God if we think the story of God is only what is contained within the pages of Scripture. Just because the Bible has been canonized does not mean that it is the full and complete picture of God. Our siblings in the Jewish faith understand this much better than us, having a rich history of what they call midrash. This is using study and Biblical imaginations to “fill in the gaps” of the Biblical narrative, imagining and uncovering the ways God has been and is at work in the world, even if it’s not written down.

We can learn this from our siblings in another Christian denomination as well. The United Church of Church (The UCC) has a denomination tagline “God is still speaking,” - and there is purposefully not a period at the end of that statement. It is not “God is still speaking PERIOD” - it is, “God is still speaking COMMA” - it leaves room for us to listen to the still-speaking God.

The UCC website says this about their belief that God is still speaking:

“If you think God’s not finished with you yet, guess what? God’s not even finished with God yet. God isn’t finished with you, or finished with the church or our world, or even letting us know more about God’s own compassion, justice, hope, and truth. If you are open, if you listen carefully, you’ll discover what God is saying to this generation at this time in history. There’s more good news to be heard!

This understanding of God’s ‘revelation’ is a central aspect of United Church of Christ faith. We believe that God was revealed in the past, but also in the present and the future. In the Bible, God was known through covenants with people and nations, through prophets and teachers, through conflicts and commandments, in visions and songs, and through the followers of Jesus and the church. God acted profoundly in the life and ministry, even in the death, of Christ. On Easter, God declared in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ‘I’ll never, never stop speaking. Alleluia!’ Throughout history, in moments of compassion, justice, and peace, in our worship, sacraments, prayer, seeking, action, and silence, God continues to speak.”

End quote.

God is still speaking. God is still at work. The story of God continues.

We would be remiss if we thought God paused the story at the end of Scripture until God’s return.
We would be remiss if we didn’t see the ways God is still working in this world
We would be remiss if we don’t see see ourselves as active participants and tellers of God’s continuing story in this world.
We are called to continue the story and be storytellers - we call this being disciples and being witnesses.

Today we are welcoming a new member to our church. In the membership vows we promise to participate faithfully in the ministries of the church through our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Whenever a new member joins, all of us renew this covenant together. Now, the thing is - your hymnals do not have the word “witness” in them - that word was added in 2008 and the printed hymnal is older than that. I am going to ask you today to try and remember that word in our vows - to say it even if it’s not written there. Witness implies both sharing the story of God with our words and with our whole lives - witness means all we do and say points back to the story of Jesus AND thus, continues the story of God in our world.

At Jesus’s ascension, he tells his disciples that they have been witnesses to his story - how God has been at work in the world. The telling from Luke says: “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 then in Acts, Jesus tells them that they will be - future tense - witnesses. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

This is what it means for us today to be witnesses. It wasn’t just the disciples gathered on that hilltop some 2,000 years ago. It is for us to be witness too. To tell the story, to point to the story - and to be active participants in the ongoing story of God’s work in this world. A story that has no end. This is what we are called to be - storytellers, witnesses, disciples.

The story of God continues in this world - thanks be to God.

Amen.

"With Great Joy" a sermon on Acts 1:1-11 & Luke 24:44-53

Acts 1:1-11
Luke 24:44-53
“With Great Joy”
Preached Sunday, May 12, 2024

Have you ever said to yourself “Now what???”

There are times in our lives we all ask this question. Graduation is a big one - whether it’s high school or college or whatever. The future can seem wide open and we may be filled with excitement and anticipation. I still recall this feeling post high school and college…but I also remember the stress and anxiety of it all too. Where am I going to live? Am I going to have a job? What’s next? The future was supposed to be exciting but it also stressed me out!

And there are other times we ask ourselves “Now what?” I know many of you asked that of yourselves when you retired or even now as you approach retirement. It’s a huge life change and I bet it is also a mix of anticipation and excitement and maybe a little bit of loss and anxiety too. Just all wrapped up together.

There are the “now what”s of divorce, of a diagnosis, of the death of a loved one, of becoming empty nesters, of pastoral transitions, of…anytime when our lives as we know them changes.

Perhaps you are at a “Now what?” moment in your own life - or you can certainly recall a time that you were in this liminal space.

The disciples asked “Now what?” after Jesus ascended. The Ascension is what we call that event that we read about in Acts today. When, 40 days after his resurrection, Jesus ascended into Heaven. After dying, rising again, and making many appearances among his disciples, it was time for Jesus to pass the baton. To give the gift of the Holy Spirit. And to ascend to his eternal throne. The book of Acts starts with the Ascension. You may have noticed that in the bulletin or when our liturgust read the Scripture out loud today. Chapter 1, Verse 1. Because the rest of the book of Acts is the disciples trying to figure out what’s next for them as followers of Jesus. “Now what?” they asked. What do followers do when the one they are following is no longer here?

When Jesus was arrested and put on the cross the answer was run away, scatter, deny, hide. But this time was different. Jesus was not here anymore but he was not dead - he was alive - they had seen him with their own eyes, touched him with their own hands - everything had changed. They no longer believed that death had the final say and that changed everything for them. So the “Now what?” could not be to give up and go home. It could not be to continue business as usual. It had to be something new. The followers of Jesus now became leaders of a whole movement. Leaders of the church. They were now the only hands and feet and mouths that Jesus had on this Earth.

The disciples were followers when Jesus was alive, almost more observers than anything.

When Jesus died, they went on the defensive, scared and afraid.

And now, after their Lord’s resurrection, after his ascension…it was finally time to say, “Now what?”

And to look at, and partially answer, this “now what?” question, we are going to kind of combine the two tellings of the Ascension that we heard from today’s Scriptures.

In the telling of the Ascension that we have from Acts, Jesus Jesus gathers his disciples together, blesses his disciples, commissions them to be his witnesses, and then is lifted up toward heaven and disappears from their sight.

At that time, two men in white robes appear and ask them, “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”

Uhhh...Cause Jesus just went, you know, up, there…

But I don’t think they were simply asking why their heads were upwards. “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” Maybe it was more, “Get your heads out of the clouds and look around.”

Friends, sometimes as Christians, as the Church, and just as people - we have the tendency to look in the wrong directions.

Sometimes we look up. Now, don’t get me wrong. We are to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. And I can’t say that without thinking of a favorite hymn, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace…”

And yet, sometimes we can only look at Jesus as up there, our heads in the clouds, and fail to see the Jesus with us here and now: moving around, through, and with us in our world. Jesus in the face of our neighbors. Jesus, ascended, yes, but active in this world through the Spirit and through the actions of our siblings in Christ. God is not just in a distant heaven, Christ is here, now, as we embody his love and mission to the world.

So look up - yes, but don’t get a crick in your neck.

Now I said we often look in the wrong directions - plural. Just as our heads can get stuck in the clouds, a crick in our necks, it’s all too easy for us to look backwards.

Raise your hand or nod your head if you’ve ever said or heard the phrase in the life of the Church, “We’ve always done it this way…” Okay, good. Hands down. Now what about having said or heard the phrase, “We USED to…” Hands or nods? Yupp. Now, tradition can be a good, beautiful, and gratifying thing. We can also give thanks and learn from ministries in the past… The trap we can fall into, however, is looking backwards not with gratitude, appreciation, and learning, but with an all-consuming desire to live in the past - which is just not possible or healthy.

Following the Ascension, the disciples could have kept looking up. Their heads in the clouds, focusing on where Jesus went - rather than the gift of the Holy Spirit which they were about to receive, and how the Spirit, with and through them, was going to change the world.

Following the Ascension, the disciples could have just looked backwards, looked to the past. Focusing on what it was like when Jesus walked among them. What it was like when they sat at his feet. What it was like to see him heal, walk on water, perform miracles. What it was like to eat together, laughing, talking… What it was like for him to appear to them after the Resurrection. The shock and the joy. The disciples could have become an entirely backwards, past-focused group. Only ever talking about what was. Only ever talking about the glory days when there were 5,000 men plus women and children gathered to hear Jesus preach… They COULD have only looked up or looked backwards…

But instead they asked themselves, “Now what?”

And the answer was - look forward… and they did so, as it tells us in Luke, with great joy: “While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy…”

The disciples return to Jerusalem as Jesus told them to, to wait for the new thing that was about to happen, to turn toward the future. They did not yet know all that the future would hold for them - the day of Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit, the life and world-changing evangelism of the Gospel, how they would preach, teach, and perform miracles in the name of Jesus, and how many of them would become martyrs for the sake of the Gospel…

It’s surprising enough that the disciples didn’t get stuck looking up or backwards - that they instead looked toward the future and the amazing God-driven things that were about to happen. It’s even more surprising though that they looked toward the future with great joy.

It’s very human to look toward the future, especially the unknown and unclear future when everything has just changed, with uncertainty, anxiety, and trepidation… But the disciples had great joy for the new thing that God was about to do.

They didn’t yet know what that new thing was, they didn’t fully understand it, but they trusted in their Resurrected Lord. They trusted Jesus. And because they trusted in him they were not left panicking saying, “Now what??” Because they trusted Jesus they were able to be filled with JOY. Because whatever the future brought, it would be God-led. Whatever the future brought…God would be with them. Which is counter-intuitive because Jesus just said goodbye, Jesus left them…but he left with a promise that he would always be with them. And while at that time that may not have made any sense to them, they trusted God! And so they were filled with great joy.

On this Ascension Day, in the year of Our Lord 2024, I feel we have a lot to learn from the example of the Disciples.

We must ask ourselves: What direction am I facing?
We must ask ourselves: Do I trust God? Do I trust my future, the future of the Church, and the future of the world to God?
We must ask ourselves: Can we too be filled with great joy?

And here’s what I hope our answers can become even if they are not there yet:

We are facing forward - looking toward the new things that God intends to do with us, the Church and the world. Because yes! We trust God! We trust all that we have to the hands of Jesus. And yes, we can and are already filled with great joy!

May it be so.

Call to Worship for the Ascension based on Luke 24:44-53

Leader: We gather together today to worship God!
People: With great joy!
L: We will open our minds to the Scriptures.
P: With great joy!
L: We will sing hymns and praises.
P: With great joy!
L: We will pray and wait for the Holy Spirit.
P: With great joy!
L: We will leave, ready to bless God and neighbor.
P: With great joy!
All: Let us worship our Ascended Lord with great joy! Amen.