Sunday Sermon - May 17, 2026

Text: Acts 1:1-14

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Scripture quotations from the COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. © Copyright 2011 COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

A reading from Acts. Luke writes, In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up to heaven. After giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. This, he said, is what you have heard from me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel? He replied, It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath-day journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying. Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, son of Alphaeus, and Simon the zealot, and Judas, son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers. The word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Amen. So I apparently have field games on the mind this week. But have you has anyone has anyone ever played tag? Yes, you've played tag? Okay, wonderful. Has anyone at least watched people play tag? Like you understand the concept of the game, yes? Okay, good. Uh how many different kinds of tag can you name? How many different kinds of tag can you name? Like three, what are the three? Freeze tag? Tag. What was that? Cops and robbers? Alright, that's a new one to me. Uh what other kinds of tags have you heard about? Toilet tag? Sharks and minnows. Shadow, I don't know, shadow tag? Sounds like a tag. What? I'm getting some nods of yes. Has anyone ever heard of amoeba tag? It's chaos. Basically, the amoeba tag, you have you you run and then you tag someone, and then they become part of the amoeba, and you link arms, and you have to stay together, and then you keep collecting the people, and then eventually when you get a ton of people, you like an amoeba, and there's like one person left, you like engulf them so that they can't get away. Um so tag, there's a bunch of different tags, and the whole premise of any one of them, basically, is at the beginning you pick a person and they are it, right? And some people love to be it, some people don't. And what does the it do? They they tag people, right. And then what happens after that kind of depends on the different versions of tag. So that's a fairly simple concept, but at some point each of you had to learn how to play tag. Has anyone ever watched little little kids play tag? I'm from the chuckles, I'm guessing the answer is yeah. Sometimes when a little kid gets tagged, they do what? Yeah, they just like they just keep running. They're like, I don't know what to do. And you've like, no, no, no, you're it. Now you chase people. Now you're being chased. Now you like you've got to explain the game step by step for them. And so when we look at today's ascension reading and this pivot in the church calendar that's happening on this day, there's a bit of a tag game going on, if you will. So Jesus has been on the earth doing his thing, right? Doing the ministry, doing the healing, doing the feeding, doing the loving. And the disciples this whole time have been following along, watching, helping out here and there, um, but largely just taking their cues from Jesus. So Jesus is it. And then in today's gospel, or I get them mixed up because they're so similar. In today's reading, uh, Jesus looks at his disciples and says, You are witnesses to these things. And what is Jesus doing there? He's going, Tag, you're it. Because when Jesus ascends, the disciples continue the work that Jesus began. And so they then become the ones who are going out into the world to offer love and healing and food and ministry and service, um, if you will, something along the lines of living among God's faithful people, uh, sharing in the Lord's Supper, uh, proclaiming the good news of God and Christ's word indeed, hearing the word of God, serving all people, following the example of Jesus and striving for justice and peace and all the earth. That's what they're sent out to do, basically. But in today's ascension story, they get tagged. And then what do they do? Uh they get a little lost. They're like a little child when they get tagged. They don't know what to do. So they just kind of keep doing what they do. And these two men in white robes come and they're like, Stop looking up, what are you doing? Jesus told you what to do. Tag, you're it, go. But Jesus, in his infinite wisdom, had a sense that maybe these disciples were not really quite ready to go out there and start doing some things. They weren't ready to be it. And so Jesus says, go and wait here. Wait in Jerusalem. Because I know even though we've had a three-year internship period where I've tried to teach you everything that it is to do ministry and everything that it is to continue my work, I know, disciples, that you're gonna struggle out there on your own. So Jesus promises to send an advocate, a helper, a companion to help guide them and lead them, aka the Holy Spirit. So Jesus says today, tag your it, but just give it a second. Wait. Wait for the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit will teach you how to play this game, basically. And the Holy Spirit will help you figure all this out. Because we as modern-day disciples know full well that when Jesus is very literally present, when we are in a community in an area where there is peace and harmony, where we have love and community, where all are cared for, it's easy to be like, yeah, Jesus, we get it. We're with you. It's easy when we're looking into the reign of God to be in that mode. And we would rather continue to look up into heaven, up into the reign of God, than to look out into the world. When we see sometimes that hatred wins out over love, when we see scarcity, when we see uh people struggling, people in pain, people suffering, people hurting other people, we don't want to look out there. Because A, it's scary, it's heartbreaking, it's intimidating, and B, how are we, as puny little humans, supposed to go out there and continue the work of Jesus, which in his words will be greater than the work that he does? How are we supposed to go out there and do anything about everything that's out there in this world? All the all the hate, all the scarcity, all the suffering, all the struggling, all the pain, all the grief. How are we supposed to do anything? So we, like the disciples, would rather just kind of we'll just wait for Jesus to come back and do Jesus' thing. He's got it under, he's got it figured out, he knows how to do this game. But that's not where we're at. Because we are at the point where Jesus has reached out to us and says, You have been with me, you have learned from me, you have heard my teachings, you have been fed by me. Now tag you're it. But wait, because I know you can't handle this on your own. I know you need God to be a part of this. So wait for the Holy Spirit, wait to hear how God is calling you forward into this mess of the world. Wait. And in that waiting, there can be holy moments. Waiting itself can be a holy ministry activity. Because waiting can be a time for us to prayerfully empty ourselves and allow God to fill us instead so that God can direct our paths forward. Waiting can be a time of community, it can be a group project, if you will, because waiting is a time when we can gather together and sit in solidarity. And that's exactly what the disciples did. They went to Jerusalem and they waited. But they didn't go back to their homes to wait. They didn't go into individual quiet places to wait and stare at a candle. Instead, they waited in community and they continued to praise God, to pray to God, and to expect that God will come and give them the guidance and the power and the direction that they need to go out into the world and to continue the work that Jesus began in his earthly ministry. So Jesus knew when he said tag your it, he knew that they didn't quite get the game yet. They needed some guidance and some help. And so he said, the Holy Spirit will come, and the Holy Spirit will help you figure out which way to run, what to do when you get tagged, if it's sit down or pretend you're a toilet or whatever, wait for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will guide you and direct you. But for you to hear the Holy Spirit, you have to wait. You have to listen, and you have to pray. And really, if we think about that tag metaphor just a little bit more, and regular standard tag, when someone comes up and says, tag, you're it, I'm no longer it, right? I get to be like, your turn, I'm out, I'm gonna go hang out on the base and no puppy guarding. Instead, I like to think if Jesus is playing tag right now, Jesus is playing Amoeba tag. Because Jesus is not sending us out on our own. Jesus is collecting us into himself through the Holy Spirit and saying, Hey, come with me. Your turn to do some stuff now, but I'm staying with you this whole time. And then we go and we continue to proclaim the good news and word and deed that we are freed and forgiven in the love and power of Christ, and we get to share the experience of that life we have in Christ. And in sharing that experience, we touch the lives of others, and the Holy Spirit continues to fill others, put their hearts on fire for Christ, and welcome them into the amoeba blob. It sounded really poetic until I got to the amoeba blob, but if you imagine that, if you imagine that as we go out, we are continuing to collect and welcome people into the love of Christ, into the family of Christ, and we're never at it alone. This is a work that Jesus Christ began. This is a work that God began ages and ages ago, and it is continuing in and through each and every one of you every single day. Because you have been tagged in these waters of baptism, whether you knew it or not, when that water got crossed on your forehead, Jesus was calling you and saying, Tag you're it. Because in these baptismal waters, you have promised to do the work of ministry that I, Jesus, began. The work that includes living among God's faithful people, hearing the word of God and sharing in the Lord's Supper, proclaiming the good news of Christ in word and deed, serving all people, following the example of Jesus, and striving for justice and peace in all the earth. It's easier to sit on the base and stare into heaven, waiting for Jesus to do Jesus' thing. But we have been tagged. And now we are waiting to see what God is gonna do next in and through us. We are waiting for that fire of the Holy Spirit. Amen.