A sermon preached at The Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on May 8, 2016.

Ephesians 1:15-23
and Acts 1:4-17, 21-26

In the early 1880’s,
the Second Industrial Revolution was changing everyday lives
with everything it touched;
a new type of building—the sky-scraper—began to appear;
the electric light began production.

This was the heart of the Gilded Age
that saw the assassination of President Garfield,
and then, 18 months later,
the massive, unprecedented eruption of Krakatoa
in the Dutch East Indies.

The world was changing so radically and quickly, that in 1884
Edwin Abbott struggled to find a scientific metaphor
for religious experience appropriate to his day.
The result was Abbott’s story,
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions.[i]

In the story, the two-dimensional square, who is narrating the tale,
encounters, for the first time, a three-dimensional sphere—
–and, just like that, the square’s perception of reality is CHANGED.

Now, in a bit of a PANICK, the square cries:
“Either this is madness, OR it is hell!”


“It is neither,” calmly replies the voice of the sphere,
“It is KNOWLEDGE—it is three dimensions:
Open your eye once again and try to look…”

And after getting used to this new reality, the square finally responds:
“This is a beauty which, until now, I thought could only be dreamed.

NOW…it is REAL!”

The same might have been said of the followers of Jesus
in the days and weeks immediately following Easter.

This was a time of massive ADJUSTMENT for followers of Jesus.

PENTECOST –the gift of God’s lively and empowering SPIRIT is blowing next week.

BEFORE we get to that, the Bible records the strange scene
of Jesus ascending into the clouds—
–with the instruction to WAIT for the Holy Spirit.

Jesus departing from the earth through the clouds…

…Why isn’t this a BIGGER DEAL? [Read more…]