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Last week I began to preach from the first chapter of Acts, in the New Testament, as a place we can look to help us through some of the in-between times in our lives: in between jobs, in between relationships, in between stages of life - or, in a church, in between spiritual movements.

Four Circles of Hope - Acts 1: 6-14 - May 9, 2010 - Cicero United Methodist Church -
Everett J. Bassett

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Last week I began to preach from the first chapter of Acts, in the New Testament, as a place we can look to help us through some of the in-between times in our lives: in between jobs, in between relationships, in between stages of life - or, in a church, in between spiritual movements. It seemed like Acts 1 offered five important activities for those times: 1. Trust that a God of promise is watching over you. 2. Stay close to your spiritual base. 3. Stay together with those individuals and groups that give you support. 4. Pray constantly. And 5. Sharpen your resources. I think that's a great list.

As we pick up the story today at Acts 1: 6, the emphasis shifts to the purpose of doing all of those things. That list of five keys would be helpful in most any project. But God has a particular project in mind for us - a responsibility that goes way beyond mere personal survival, or finding our own happiness, or our own success. In fact, I would argue that true happiness, or true success, will always elude us unless we are carrying out this purpose. That purpose is captured in this phrase that Jesus said to this disciples in Acts 1: " ... you will be my witnesses..." If you project that out to all of us -- and especially to those of us who have been convicted and convinced that God loves this world - then we are not here just to survive or find self-realization. We are here to deliver a message. We are witnesses of something that the world needs to hear about. And I suppose there are a lot of ways to say it, but the word that keeps coming to me as I read Acts 1 is hope. We are here to tell this world that carries so many burdens and struggles under so many disappointments and discouragements that there is hope. That God's promises are secure; and no matter how dark things may seem, hope will survive.

So often when you talk about Christian hope, many people think you're talking about
the end of the world as we know it. There are many Christians today whose Christian hope is invested in the Second Coming of Christ, and the end-times, and the victorious Lamb of God taking over the world and restoring the new Jerusalem described in the Book of Revelations. And the thoughts of those disciples in Acts head right in that direction. They ask Jesus, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?"

But it turns out that that is not what Jesus is talking about at all. Jesus is talking about a message of hope that is ready to be delivered. So, to answer their question, Jesus says, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses ... " Jesus turns the focus away from some distant vision of the future, to how you and I live right now as people of hope.

To be specific, he describes the carrying of hope to four different circles that ripple out from the center -- and that's what I'd like to focus on right now. His actual words in the NRSV translation are, "... you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Those are the four circles of hope, and here is one way to look at how we might apply them.

The first circle is Jerusalem - and that might represent to us the circle closest to home. That, of course, is a good circle to talk about on Mother's Day. As I said last week, for many people of faith, Jerusalem stands for the spiritual base, and, when things are lined up at peak performance, that is just what home can be. Home can be where we experience our greatest joy - where spirits are nurtured and built up, where love flows freely, where marriage and family are strong foundations for happy living, or, in single or non-traditional homes - a good percentage of the homes represented here this morning - where friendships and other deep relationships are built. Those family ties that bind us most intimately are a big part of why we honor mothers, because motherhood at its best is such a basic part of that home base. That's Jerusalem, our home spiritual base, at its best.

But, of course, as we know, Jerusalem in reality has rarely lived up to that ideal. Today Jerusalem is a city divided into at least four parts, certainly many more. Just a couple months ago the conflict of Jerusalem flared up yet again, as the Israeli government announced new Jewish housing in contested neighborhoods, placing a bitter obstacle in the Arab-Israeli peace talks. Jesus wept over Jerusalem; Jerusalem was where prophets died; Jerusalem was where Jesus died. The spiritual home base is easily tom apart.

And tragically, that is true of many homes. Someone has said that every family is dysfunctional in some way. And as affirming and uplifting as the ideal of home can be, so can home be a place of crushing disappointment and bitter conflict. I remember a hospital I visited in one of my first parishes that discovered they had two brothers admitted at the same time. Some naive admissions person thought putting them in the same room was a good idea. Not so much. These brothers had not spoken to each other in decades, and for the sake of the healing process the hospital quickly got them as far apart as possible. Serious conflict touches so many homes, and crushes so many spirits.

God wants to do something about that. God wants our family circle to be a circle of hope, and so God wants witnesses to carry hope into Jerusalem. And that's you and me. We are the disciples in Acts 1 - we have encountered the Christ who died for us; and we have encountered the Risen Christ. And that means we have encountered hope, and God wants to send that hope into our homes, and we are the only vehicle God has. God knows that is not easy. God knows that in that tightest circle, the home circle, is where we can be most fearful, or most stubborn, or most vulnerable to try to be messengers of Good News. In reality, sometimes walls are so high that all we can do is plant one fragile seed of love and pray that someday it will take hold. But even that can be a powerful tool in God's hands. Let us pray that our own home circles can be places of hope.

The second circle is wider than that. Jesus told his disciples that not only were they to
witness in Jerusalem, but in Judea as well. And Judea might represent the wider society- your neighborhood, your village, your nation - the entity with which you are united by common culture, or government, or values. For us, we might say suburban America, as it's expressed here in Central New York. People that think like we do - not completely, of course, but enough that we know who they are and understand how to talk with them and share a mutual history.

And our Judea is a great society, but there are many places of hopelessness - there is poverty and racism and shootings and unemployment and fear in our society - but God has a message of hope! And God needs witnesses, and that's you and me! And I don't think it's an exaggeration to project Jesus' words - you will be my witnesses in all Judea - to mean something like, "you will take food offerings and go on mission trips and hold prayer vigils in Syracuse and talk about the Good News of Jesus and gather those having employment transition and those having cancer treatments and all sorts of challenges - and you will tell them that life is not hopeless - it is filled with the power of a living God who raised his Son from the dead, and that's a message to take to Judea."

But it doesn't stop there. The third circle, says Jesus is Samaria, and Samaria, in the
days of Acts, represents the outsider - even the enemy. Samaria was the hated one to those Jews -- the one on the other side of the fence - the stranger, the immigrant, or even the one you cross the street to avoid. And now the job seems impossible. It's one thing to ask me to bring Good News to Jerusalem, and then widen out to Judea. Those are hard enough. But Samaria? The ones that hate me? The ones I am at war against?

But, if we look closely at it, so much of the Good News that Jesus brought was about breaking down barriers between peoples. The apostle Paul put it this way in his letter to the Galatians: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." And not even halfway through the Book of Acts, God was breaking down that barrier between Jew and Greek; and through the centuries God has been breaking down the barrier between slave and free; and the barrier between male and female as well. And it's easy to see why: there is so little prospect of true hope when people are walled up against each other. Who have you walled off? What bold step might you take to break that wall down? Jesus wants witnesses in Samaria.

And then, finally, the biggest circle of all- 'you shall be my witnesses', says Jesus, 'to the ends of the earth.' Yes, bring hope to your home circle; bring hope to the wider society of those of your village and nation; even bring hope beyond the barrier to the stranger. But then, go further. There is no limit to the desire of God's heart that all His creation live in hope. Hope for every one of the six and a half billion people; hope for the delicate balance of life; hope for the ecology of all creatures; hope for the earth and the universe.

To be sure, when Jesus said those words to his disciples, the world they knew was much smaller than ours. But they also had no jet planes, no live newscasts from around the world, no Internet. We have the miraculous opportunity today to have a close covenant relationship with a nurse practitioner in Zimbabwe, to make a personal loan to someone in Bolivia on kiva.com, to understand how our purchases intersect with a sweatshop in Myanmar, or a diamond war in Zaire. We have - not anyone of us, but all of us together - the ability to bring hope to the entire planet earth. It will not come easy; in fact, it will only come with upheavals that will threaten to tear this world apart. Many people believe it can never happen. But another group of people - those who have seen the glory of Christ, and who have submitted to the power of the Holy Spirit - know better. They know that there is a power that has been unleashed that cannot be quenched by close-mindedness, fear, and hopelessness. And they are witnesses that God holds the last word, and it will be delivered with unbelievable love. That's what I want my life to stand for; what about you?

After Jesus delivered that challenge to his disciples, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And the astonished disciples stood there looking up at the cloud. And Acts 1: 10 says this: "... suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven ...?'" And I imagine that's God saying to you and me that there's a time to worship, and there's a time to imagine that Jesus will come and set things right. But now is the time to look around us at a hurting world, and roll up our sleeves and be the church, and see where we can serve the cause of hope by bringing the love of Jesus to our homes, our neighborhoods, the stranger, and to our ever shrinking global community. What will you be doing this week to make that happen?