In A World of Darkness, New Hope Emerges
Star Wars has been pretty top of mind this week for me, between Star Wars Pub Theology on Thursday night and the release of the first two episodes of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Friday. Not to mention the birth of my nephew last week who just so happened to be named Ewan, the name of the actor who plays Obi-Wan Kenobi. So of course, my mind when to Star Wars in preparing this sermon for today. Especially when I thought about what the disciples were experiencing when all of a sudden, Jesus disappears into the clouds and is gone.
The gospel of Luke tells us that the disciples are filled with great joy when Jesus leaves them and are continually praising God in the temple for days afterward. And that’s where Luke ends the story, holly jolly and full of joyful hope. Now don’t get me wrong, I am sure the disciples felt joy and hope on seeing Jesus ascend to heaven, that Jesus was returning to the father to bring the kingdom come. But let’s be honest, it must have also been a little confusing to see him disappear and then nothing happens. Poof, he’s gone. What now? A little anti-climactic, don’t you think?
I find the Acts account in our first reading to be a little more on the nose when it comes to what really happened at the ascension. It’s a little interesting, because it’s thought that the same author wrote both Luke and Acts, that Luke is the first half and Acts is the second half of the same book. Maybe like a musical, the author thinks he’ll end the first act with an upbeat cliffhanger before intermission and then when the second act begins, he’ll go back and introduce the complications with the story, that not all is as rosy as it seemed….the plot thickens and we find our characters are wrestling with a bit more than we imagined.
So Acts tells us again about the ascension but instead, this time, we hear about how the disciples are asking Jesus to restore the Kingdom of Israel as they walk to Bethany. As Jesus is trying to tell them about the Holy Spirit, that He will be doing a new thing through them, it’s like they’re saying uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, sure Jesus, sounds good, now let’s get to the good part, when are you coming back?
So it’s no surprise that the disciples are still standing there, looking up at the sky, after Jesus ascends. They think this is it, he’s going to the Father and coming back to usher in the new Kingdom…maybe it’s a quick costume change?
But the two men in white robes appear and nudge them along, saying “Why do you stand here looking up at the sky?” And instead of leaving with joy, we hear they go back to their room in the city, praying with each other.
If I were a disciple, I would be feeling quite a mix of emotions here, wouldn’t you? Joy that Jesus has returned to the father but then wait, that’s it? He’s gone? What do we do now? The world around them seems like nothing has changed. People are still suffering, Injustice is still happening, the powerful are still in control, including those that had Jesus killed. We hear in John that they were hiding in this room in the city because they were afraid of being arrested and persecuted as followers of Jesus. And indeed, later in Acts, they are arrested for witnessing to Jesus.
In the disciples’ shoes, I would feel confused about what is happening, mourning the absence of my leader Jesus and feeling a bit abandoned and alone. I would feel a little lost, maybe struggling to hope that things would ever change. Maybe they wondered, like many of us: how long, Lord? How long will you let the injustice, suffering and brokenness rule all creation? We still have a reason to hope, right?
It’s at this point I think of Star Wars, of this new chapter of the story we’re experiencing with Obi-Wan Kenobi. The series picks up 10 years after the end of Episode 3: the Revenge of the Sith, where the Jedi are defeated by the Sith and the evil empire. We see Obi-Wan is tired, afraid and pretty hopeless about the future. He is surrounded by injustice, from the foreman at his job who arbitrarily cuts their pay, to the empire’s inquisitors who threaten and maim innocent people in their quest to hunt down the Jedi.
When another Jedi finds him and asks him for help, Obi-Wan tells the other Jedi that the fight is over, the Jedi lost, hide your lightsaber and run away. The darkness has won and Obi-Wan has lost his faith that anything will change or that he can make any difference.
This week, we may feel that way, too. Surrounded by a world where sin seems to be overwhelming, I am staring up at the sky too, wondering where God is in all of this. The violence in Ukraine continues to rage while we experience more mass shootings, one in buffalo motivated by racial hatred and white supremacy, and one in Texas, perpetrated against young children and teachers in yet another school shooting.
It may feel like there’s nothing we can do in the face of all this horror. Like Obi-Wan, we may think it’s beyond us, there’s nothing we can do. Like the disciples, it may feel like Jesus has left us stranded on this planet to bear it all the best we can.
But here’s the thing: we may have lost our faith in our ability to change things but Jesus hasn’t. Like the disciples, we are promised the Holy Spirit, too. Which, spoiler alert, we are going to hear more about next Sunday. And God gives the Holy Spirit because God doesn’t force redeeming and healing on creation, God invites us and all creation to be part of the renewing and healing of the world. And with the power of the Holy Spirit, we CAN make a difference, together.
And it begins with us talking about gun violence and taking action to find a better way. As a pastor, guns are the one issue that I have been warned not to preach about or talk about or even pray about. It is one issue that the church hasn’t been willing to touch with a ten-foot pole. How can this issue be so sacrosanct that we can’t even mention it? If God is a God of life, what can be more important than protecting life? How can we love our neighbor if we allow unlimited gun rights to be more important than their lives?
I speak as someone who has guns in her home, who is from a very pro-gun family, who grew up in rural Iowa and completed the mandatory hunter’s education course in the 6 th grade…yes, that’s a thing….but I also speak as someone who lost an uncle to gun violence, at the hands of a mentally-ill family member who should have never had access to a firearm but did because of the lax laws we have in this country.
It all may seem too much at times like these. We have to lament and pray together. But we also have to cling to our hope in Christ Jesus, that a better world is possible. And we have to trust in the Holy Spirit that God gifts us that yes, we can make a difference.
In the spirit of lament but also of courage and hope, I close with this blessing by Duke theologian Kate Bowler. It’s called: A Blessing for Collective Grief (When Thoughts and Prayers are not Enough). She says:
This world. Impossible.
Unthinkable.
We are brought to our knees.
God, today, there is no true north.
And when I last checked,
the sun did not rise at all.
Today, the innocent still suffer,
teachers still risk their lives,
families still grieve.
A world has ended without
any reasonable fanfare.
And we are sold the fantasy that nothing can be done.
Help us to know what to feel – rage, grief, sorrow.
And what to do – advocate, protest, lament.
Blessed are we who let reality in,
though our bodies shudder.
Blessed are we who ask and wait, and ask again
for the courage to change our culture
whose laws and complicity subsidize death.
God, give us hope that seems hard to find.
Like the Jedi who can’t help but show compassion and act, even though it puts them in danger, may others recognize who we follow and whose we are in the compassionate actions we take to defend, protect and save the lives of others. As followers of Christ, may we remember that our hope is in Him who is making all things new. And may we remember, like in Star Wars, that the even when all things seem lost, there is always a next chapter, a new hope. Thanks be to God, Amen.