The disciples and Jesus were walking and talking. Then “he suddenly started floating, rising up into the sky, away from them, away from them all over again,” says the Rev. Dr. Amy Butler, Founder of Invested Faith and former Senior Minister of the Riverside Church in New York City. She preaches from Acts 1:1-11, the story of the Ascension. Butler continues, “Luke uses this event to begin his story of the first Christian church…What could Luke have been thinking? What could this turn of events possibly mean?” This event means we have a choice. Do we stand around staring at the sky, waiting for God’s kingdom to come or do we get out and work to bring this kingdom “into full and tangible reality?”
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NOTE: this sermon was originally released as B25: Ascension Sunday, Year B (2021)
Amy Butler, is a former Senior Minister of the Riverside Church in New York City, Founder of Invested Faith, and author of Beautiful and Terrible Things.
Michael Curry is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church (USA), and the author of Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times
Brian McLaren is a speaker, an activist, and bestselling author of We Make the Road by Walking, Faith after Doubt, and his latest, Do I Stay Christian?
Will Willimon is a retired bishop in the United Methodist Church, a powerful preacher, and a prolific author. Click HERE to see his available books.