WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TOMORROW?
Acts 1: 1-11
Today is Ponder Day...or at least that is what Robert Fulghum would call it. It is a day for pondering. Did you ever do that? Ponder, I mean.
Fulgham, in his book It Was On Fire When I Got In, writes:
I've thought about that word ever since I came across it in the story of the birth of Jesus. "Mary pondered all these things in her heart" is what the Scriptures say. When you think about what the phrase "all these things" refers to, it's no wonder she pondered. Here's a teenage kid who has just had a baby in the back stall of a barn....Her husband is muttering about taxes...there's all this traffic of visiting astrologers, sheep ranchers, and angels, who keep dropping by with questions and proclamations and chorales. ... It certainly would give a person something to do some heavy thinking about. I'd say "ponder" is the perfect word for what Mary was doing.
It is in that spirit that I would invite you today and tomorrow to do some pondering - about your life and the direction you are traveling, about the church and its future, about what it means for those of us in the Church of the Brethren to Continue the work of Jesus.
Let me begin with a personal story.
In the Spring of 1976 I was finishing my studies at Bethany Seminary, considering my future while also working part-time for a church in Lombard. It was a warm April afternoon and the ice cream stand directly across the street from the church seemed to be calling my name. As I walked out the front door of the church and started down the sidewalk, I was confronted by a young girl about 4 or 5 years of age riding her tricycle. She rode right up in front of me, stopped, and greeted me with these words: "Hi, Mr. Minister!" And then followed this intriguing question: "What are you going to do tomorrow?" And then, without waiting for a response, she was gone on her tricycle, on down the sidewalk.
In that moment, I had no answer; for I did not know what my tomorrow held. It required some careful pondering. Over the past 20+ years, my mind has frequently flashed back to this little girl on her tricycle and her question -- "What are you going to do tomorrow?" -- and to do some further pondering on my life and my tomorrows.
I would suggest that question confronts each of us and calls us to do some important pondering: "What are you going to do tomorrow?"
According to Fulgham, "to ponder is not to brood or grieve or even meditate. It is to wonder at a deep level." How long has it been since you pondered on what you are going to do with your tomorrows?
Our scripture from the 1st chapter of Acts reminds us of a time when Jesus left his earthly ministry in the hands of his disciples. They could have become discouraged, feeling that their best days were now behind them. They could have relived the past and forgotten to live in the present or to dream for their tomorrows. We do that sometimes.
But hear again this passage beginning with Jesus' final instructions, in verse 8: "...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."
And then we read that "...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?"
These verses in the first chapter are but the introduction to what we know to be The Acts of the Apostles. For we read that they returned to Jerusalem where, first, they devoted themselves to prayer and then, after the coming of the Holy Spirit, they spent time together in worship, in fellowship, and in continuing the work of Jesus.
The early followers of Jesus needed to spend some time pondering what life would be like without the physical presence of Jesus. Was this the end or was this the beginning? Had not Jesus told them that he was going "to prepare a place for you" and had he not promised to send "another Advocate to be with you forever"? And they pondered Jesus' closing words: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
They pondered their future and then they set about continuing the work of Jesus.
We today need to do the same. Too often we wonder aimlessly through life, like the Israelites during their first 40 years in the Wilderness, rather than pondering on where we are going and where it is that we want to arrive at.
Hear this conversation taken from Lewis Carroll's book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In chapter six of the book, Alice has become lost and strikes up a conversation with the Cheshire Cat.
Alice says, "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to walk from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where," said Alice.
"Then it doesn't much matter which way you walk," said the Cat.
"...so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough!"
And so it is that I invite you in this time apart to spend some time pondering. Like Mary, in Luke's Gospel, ponder these things in your heart:
Pondering ... wondering at a deep level ... reflecting on a child's question: What are you going to do tomorrow?
I cannot do your pondering. I cannot answer the question for you, I can only ask the questions. I cannot answer how you will continue to serve your God with your tomorrows, I can only encourage you to think of your values and vision and invite you to ponder on these things.
But I do believe that the God who called Abraham and Sarah ... calls us as well;
And I believe that the God who used the first disciples to build the early church
will continue to use us as well;
And I believe that the promise spoken by Jesus on a mountain in Galilee --
"I am with you always to the end of the age" -- is the same promise made to us as well.
May this time together be for each of us a time for pondering ... as you, too, seek as answer to the little girl's question: "What are you going to do tomorrow?"
Sermon by Herman Kauffman
Pastors Sabbath at Camp Mack
November 7, 2002