Christians

The Gospel reading we have just heard this morning comes from very near the end of Luke’s gospel. Only five verses follow those we just heard. "‘You are witnesses of these things,’ Jesus says, ‘And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised [the Holy Spirit], 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 worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God." The end.

It is still Easter day. All of this occurs on Easter Day. This is the evening of the same day that the disciples discovered the stone rolled away. The day they discovered Jesus’ body missing. The day Jesus appeared to some on the road to Emmaus. And now the evening of that same day, they were gathered in Jerusalem.

What a day! Can you imagine their confusion, excitement, fear, speculation? I don’t know if everyone would have been talking at once, or no one talking at all. And then Jesus appeared. Stood there right next to them, among them. Jesus. Speaking to them. Offering them proof of his identity and proof that he was flesh-and-blood alive, not just some apparition or ghost. He spoke as he had before, interpreting the Scriptures to them with the power and authority of God himself. Granting them God’s peace. They heard God’s voice. They felt and knew God’s peace, that day from Jesus.

And then, five short verses later, the story is over. Jesus has said his goodbyes, blessed his followers… and then, withdrawing from them, he was carried up to heaven. The end.

Annie Dillard has written a reflection on Luke’s gospel: "The Gospel of Luke ends immediately and abruptly after the Ascension outside Bethany, on that Easter Sunday when the disciples had walked so much and kept receiving visitations from the risen Christ. The skies have scarcely closed around Christ’s heels when the story concludes on the disciples… What a pity," she continues, "that so hard on the heels of Christ come the Christians. There is no breather. The disciples turn into the early Christians between one rushed verse and another. What a dismaying pity, that here come the Christians already, flawed to the core, full of wild ideas and hurried self-importance."

In an instant. The world has changed completely. The Story has ended. The story of Jesus’ physical presence, his teaching authority, his healing love, his limitless peace have vanished into the clouds. That story has ended. And our story has begun. The story of a world, filled not with Christ, but with Christians, just Christians, "flawed to the core," Dillard says. What a pity that so hard on the heels of Christ come the Christians.

We might well agree with Annie Dillard, whether or not we share her dismaying opinion of Christians. We still might think it a deep pity that the world or Christ has given way to the world of Christians. What a pity, we might think with longing and yearning, that we don’t live in that former world, that world where Christ was present in the flesh. If only we had lived then. Then we could have assuaged our doubts, because we could have touched his side, seen the wounds, eaten a broiled fish with him, tested the proof of his resurrection ourselves.

If only we had lived then, we too would have known the deep, true meaning of the Scriptures as he interpreted them to us. Instead of our own feeble attempts at interpretation, we would have known God’s clear directive, spoken by Jesus. What a pity that we do not live in that time. Rather than this time, filled with flawed Christians. When even the wisest Christian scholars bicker and debate about the true meaning of Scripture.

What a pity, we might muse, that we don’t live in that time when Jesus was the Body of Christ in the world and we wouldn’t have to be.

What a dismaying pity that we don’t live in that time when doubt was unknown, when uncertainty didn’t exist and therefore no one needed to struggle to discern God’s meaning or purpose. What a pity that we don’t live in that time when people were just the recipients, not needing to be the providers, of God’s grace.

What a pity that we live, not in the time of Christ, but in the time of Christians.

This is a seductive, though profoundly misguided, line of thought.

Misguided, of course, because the human beings of Jesus’ own day, even the disciples who knew and touched Jesus, were still flawed human beings, just as handicapped by doubt and sin as we are. Peter doubted and denied Jesus when Jesus was standing in the next room. It is human sin that mars our faith, not the time in which we live. We cannot claim that excuse.

It is also false to imagine that somehow Jesus voice and power were stronger or clearer or more real then than they are now. He still speaks. He still acts. "Open the eyes of our faith that we may behold him [present tense!] in all his redeeming work," we just prayed in this morning’s collect.

Open our eyes that we may see and hear now today what Jesus is saying, what Jesus is doing, to redeem the world, our world. This morning’s collect echoes the one we will say on Ascension Day. "Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages…"

Open our eyes, give us faith to perceive, how Christ abides with his church, a bunch of flawed Christians, by his presence enabling us to be the Body of Christ today. It is a wonderful thing to live in a time when any ordinary, unexpected, flawed Christian can be the bearer of God’s grace.

Any Christian as the bearer of God’s grace… Peter and John for example in this morning’s reading from Acts. Peter, of all people, healing a man lame from birth… healing him in the Name of Jesus… and then finding his tongue in a big way to proclaim Christ’s healing power to others. What a wonder! To rewrite Annie Dillard, we might say, "What a wonder… what a blessing… that right upon the heals of Christ came Christians, so that the world would never be without the healing power of Christ."

We live in a time when someone just like you or I can be the instrument of Christ’s redeeming work. We are the Body of Christ. And when we seek the presence of Christ in our own lives, we need to seek in the past for the singular, physical body of Jesus Christ, but we may find Jesus present in any of the thousands upon thousands of Christians who continue to live and act in his name.

Today is the last day of April. I was flipping through Lesser Feasts and Fasts, noting some of the memorable Christians whom the church remembers this month. People like Bishop George Selwyn. He was a young Englishman of the 19^th century. After a brief curacy, he was appointed (at the mature age of 32), First Bishop of the then wild and untamed land of New Zealand. On the voyage over he learned the Maori language so that he might interpret and open up the Scriptures to the native people of his diocese. To this day his grave in England is a place of pilgrimage for the Maoris to whom he first brought the light of the Gospel, the living presence of Christ.

In April we also celebrate and remember Frederick Denison Maurice, James Lloyd Breck, Richard of Chichester (who wrote: "Dear Lord, of thee three things I pray: To see thee more clearly, Love thee more dearly, Follow thee more nearly."), Martin Luther King (on the day he entered eternal life). In April we also remember William Augustus Muhlenberg (who brought the work and worship of the church to the streets of New York City in the early 20^th century), Dietrich Bonhoeffer, William Law, Alphege of Canterbury, Anselm, Saint Mark the Evangelist, and just yesterday, the mystic Catherine of Siena.

These are just some of the Christians who followed upon the heels of Christ. Flawed Christians. People no different than you or I. No better, no worse. People who, like us, never saw or touched or heard the physical presence of Jesus, but who were the bearers of the living presence of Christ in their own times. We who live in this time have the rich gift of their stories from the past. They serve as reminders that it is people just like us, just Christians, who may and must bring Christ’s healing into the world, share the truth of the gospel with those in darkness, and live the faith. And their stories also bring us the reassurance that just about anyone, any ordinary, flawed Christian may bring into our lives the healing, the hope, the truth… the very presence of Christ.  Thanks be to God.