It is Friday...

and I finally have a pathway toward a sermon.

I pray that I'm never writing a sermon Sunday morning, but on weeks like this one it seems very very possible.

Anyway, after getting halfway through a sermon on guilt that as I reflected on it had absolutely nothing to do with the texts for Sunday, I started over. I read, and I read, and I read, and at some point I begin reading with sarcastic eyes and it hit me.

Acts 1.11, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?"

But as it was heard rattling around my mind, "hey morons, he's gone, now what!?!"

It is a valid question to most, if not all Christians today. "Why are you staring slack-jawed at the sky? The Christian life is lived here, now."

And, I might add, it is based on trust in the promises of Jesus. He said he'd rise from the dead, and he did. He said the Spirit would come, and (while the disciples don't know it yet by 1.11) he did. He said he will come again, and he will. But in the meantime the question still stands, "why are you looking up toward heaven?" Even if he's coming back this afternoon, he's gonna be mighty peeved if you spent your years of discipleship sitting on your rear staring up toward heaven. Instead, he commissions his disciples (and by extension us) to "be [his] witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." That's what a life of faith is; proclaiming the good news of God in Jesus Christ to your household, your neighborhood, your enemies, and to the ends of the earth.

So what am I doing? Well in the hopes of finding a sermon text up there, I'm staring at the ceiling. Hopefully by Sunday, I'll be prepared to be Christ's witness.