Suit Up
RCL Year C • Sermon • Submitted
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I remember several years ago meeting someone who told me that they would love to be like the monks and the hermits from earlier centuries. Living out by themselves in nature, reading the Bible, and contemplating the teachings of Jesus. He talked about the serenity of it all and the time to constantly be in prayer and thanksgiving for God. A time to live into the scripture of being prepared and ready for when he will return ‘like a thief in the night’. To look up to t he mountains and find his help in the Lord. As I listened to this serene description of living in a quiet place and spending your life focusing on scripture and living off the land sounded like a joyful and fulfilling thing to do.
As I pondered this life more and more that this friend of mine described to me the more I began to think of it in the sense that he was living out a life that the disciples could have lived had they out at Bethany and just watched Jesus ascend into heaven and then stayed there and waited for Jesus to return to them or just stayed there and celebrated the life that Jesus lived. It doesn’t sound so bad. Jesus had just given the disciples all this understanding and had blessed them as he withdrew into heaven. Seems like a wonderful moment and place to stay.
Jesus though, doesn’t invite us into a life of contemplation. Jesus doesn’t invite us to stay behind the closed doors or to the place of his ascension, instead he invites us to go back to the city, to go back in and amongst the people. He does invite us to wait, or to stay here in the city, but only until they have received what they were promised from God, and when they have been clothed with power from on high. When they have received those things then they are supposed to do what Jesus has called them to do. They are to proclaim in Jesus’ name the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is available to all nations. Or to put it another way, the primary mission or purpose of the disciples is to forgive people and to help them change their hearts and lives from one that is focused on the world to one that is focused on God.
We aren’t called to sit in a secluded meadow and ponder the Bible. We aren’t called to sit on the couch in our lounge pants and do nothing in response to what Jesus did for us. We are to announce to the world all that God has done through Jesus Christ. Bekkah and I have recently been rewatching a show that we saw several years ago called “How I Met Your Mother”. In the show there is a character named Barney Stinson and he is always wearing a suit. He is always trying to get his two friends to ‘suit up’. Usually the whole idea behind suiting up is to meet women, but his idea is that they need to do something, rather than nothing.
To use the words of Barney Stinson, Jesus is inviting the disciples to ‘suit up’. This time it’s different. Last time Jesus left them was at his crucifixion and they were sad and depressed and locked up for fear of what might happen. Now they have a clear purpose and mission and they take that clarity and they do exactly what Jesus has called them to do. Because of all that understanding and joy in what it means for them and the world they praise and bless God while they wait. I believe the major difference is that the way in which they understand this leaving is that it really isn’t a leaving at all. Jesus may have been carried up to heaven but I think they know and we know that Jesus hasn’t left. It simply means that he isn’t physically with us in the way that he was with the disciples and all those whom he met and encountered while he was still with them. I say that becuase that is exactly how he starts this part of his conversation with the disciples.
Even though Jesus may not physically be there the promises and blessings from him and God are still there. And the promise of the Holy Spirit is coming. I don’t want to talk to much about that becuase then I’ll have nothing to talk about next week on Pentecost. But what I do want to talk about is this idea of presence. Luther, in his understanding and describing communion, uses the term Real Presence. He describes Jesus as ‘in, with, and under’ the physical bread and cup. We fully live into and embrace the idea that Jesus is present in this world and the next just as we believe that God and the Holy Spirit are present in this world and the next as one God. And see how Jesus is having the disciples remember his life, death and resurrection now that he is the resurrected Jesus as he opens their minds to what it all means. A part of that understanding and remembering is his Last Supper with them when he told them to have that meal in remembrance of him. That this is bread is my body and this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Christ is present.
Jesus also reminds us in Matthew’s gospel that where two or three are gathered, he is there with them. He’s not talking about his physical presence but his life, death and resurrection and what that means for those who gather to remember, celebrate and share that life. To help change the hearts and minds of people toward God and to forgive them no matter what has happened in their life. All of this is the radical shift that happens between the first absence or leaving of Jesus and when he ascends. This realization of what it all means is now there.
That realization is what changes everything. It’s the whole reason why you and I are here today. The radical and life changing love, grace and forgiveness of a God who deeply and passionately loves us, and who is present with us through it all. Who invites us to be present and engaged with God and just as importantly with the world. So that we can proclaim to all nations, to all people that God loves and cares for them too. Becuase of that radical love, becuase of that incredible gift of presence and the incredible gift of the Spirit, we gladly and joyfully praise and bless God, and suit up so that we can go out into the world to proclaim all of it. So the world may know that God is love and they are a part of that love, now and always. Amen.