Acts 1:1-11
Reader one: We have a story about saying goodbye.
Reader two: What do you say, when you say goodbye?
Reader one: I say, “bye-bye.” “Toodle-loo.” “Chow.” “See ya soon!”
Reader two: What do you say when you say goodbye – forever?
Reader one: Forever? You mean, like, when somebody dies?
Reader two: Yes. When somebody dies. Or when you know you’ll never see them again. Ever.
Reader one: Like when Jesus came to say goodbye to his friends.
Reader two: Yes. We have a story about saying goodbye. It’s a story written by someone called Luke, and it’s part of two long letters we find in the Bible – letters he wrote to his friend Theophilus. The first one is called the Gospel of Luke. The second one is called, The Acts of the Apostles. Luke had no idea, that 2,000 years later, we would be reading his mail.
Reader one: Luke wrote these letters about 50 years after the death and resurrection of Christ. So Luke relies on his memory and on the stories he has heard from his friends in the church.
Reader two: Luke begins his second letter trying to describe to Theophilus what it was like, the last time they saw Jesus. How to you put into words an experience that was so life-changing, so powerful, so unimaginably beautiful – an experience that was beyond words? This is the story beyond words, as Luke told it to Theophilus.
(one second pause)
Reader one: In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. Here is what Jesus said.
Reader two: "This is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
Reader one: So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?"
Reader two: "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 in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Reader one: When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
(one second pause)
Reader two: So why didn’t Jesus tell them? It would have been so much easier, if Jesus had just filled them in on what was going to happen. Then they could have been prepared, right?
Reader one: Wrong!
Reader two: But why?
Reader one: Because if you could foretell the future, it would drive you nuts. Think about it.
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