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Retracing Jesus' Steps 5.17.26 · St. Paul Podcast

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone and welcome to the St.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Podcast.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Mark Needhammer, Senior Pastor at St.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Lutheran Church, located in Davenport, Iowa, part of the Greater Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right here each week you will find beautiful music and a message of hope and good news to guide your life.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hopeful that this podcast can inspire you and help you on your journey of faith as you grow in love and trust in our God.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: This week we're marking a special day in the church in the life and the witness of Christ.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: We call this special day the Festival of the Ascension.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: After Jesus rose from the dead, he spent 40 days hanging out with his friends.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: He walked on the road to Emmaus, showed his wounded hands to Thomas, ate a fish breakfast on the beach, not to mention his countless unknown meals and conversations.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of those 40 days, Jesus gathered his friends together.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: And in sort of like a graduation speech or a coach's locker room talk, he prepares his friends for the task ahead.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: He readies them to take up the work of sharing his love with the whole world.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: An invitation to live our lives, continuing the work of love that Jesus began so many years ago.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe as you listen to this story today, imagine yourself as one of those disciples, one of those friends of Jesus.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: What do you see?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: How does it feel?
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: How might these words move you?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, listen in to that story of the ascension from the first chapter of the book of Acts, beginning with the sixth verse.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: So when they had come together, the friends of Jesus asked him, Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom of Israel?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus replied, It is not for you to know the times or the periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: When Jesus had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in dazzling robes stood by them.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: They said, People of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: When they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: When they had entered the city, they went to a room upstairs where they were staying.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, son of Alpheus, and Simon the zealot, and Judas, son of James.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer together with certain women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, now let's listen in to some thoughts on that glorious ascension so long ago.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, friends, when I became a parent, there were some things which I expected that I would have to teach my children.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the basic things like how to tie a shoe and the best way to brush your teeth, uh, how to use a fork and zip your coat.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: And as they've gotten older, the things have gotten a little more complicated.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Things like how to make a new friend or how to apologize, how to say no to something when you know it's not the right thing to do.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: All those kinds of things are lessons that we teach our children.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: But there's this skill that I didn't realize was an important one to learn, and yet it turns out it's an important one.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's this.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: How to look for something when you've lost it.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: It seems obvious, but it's actually kind of an important skill to learn, to figure out.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Some of us, the more absent-minded among us, have a lot of practice in finding lost things.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: I've come to think that there are three steps to finding something if that's lost.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: The first is to remember, to kind of retrace your steps about where you've been, what you where you've gone, the last time you had that lost thing.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: The next thing is that you have to move.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: You can't just sit there.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta, you know, move around, look under the couch, take up the sweatshirt, do the things to dig around a little to find that lost thing.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: And lastly, of course, if needed, it's okay to ask for help.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: Recruit a second set of eyes.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: I remember um once trying again and again.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: I lose my keys pretty regularly.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: And um, my keys had again gotten lost in the house, and I was tearing everything apart and running late, and you know how things get in those moments.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: And my husband said to me, Sarah, you're looking in all the wrong places.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: They're right where you left them.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: A more obvious thing has never been said, but it was not particularly helpful at the time.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I've been thinking today about lost things and about looking, more importantly, and how often we look in the wrong places.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, I too may be thinking of that fabulous little song, Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places, which, though different than what we're talking about, is somewhat uh kind of the same.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Today, we're remembering that day we cut now call Ascension Day, 40 days after that first Easter.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus was with his friends on a mountain.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: He had already told them that he was going away, but that he'd still be with them, which is confusing, but maybe one of the most beautiful puzzles of our faith.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus meant, of course, that he was leaving, that he would no longer be in that physical body, but he'd still be present with his friends, with this world, just in a different way, and would be in this world in a capacity that was far beyond what a single body in a single place at a particular moment in time could ever be.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: Christ would be, is now present in and among this world through his spirit, the Holy Spirit.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: He's among us, in us, with each one of us.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: But on that day, so long ago, I imagine his disciples were full of all kinds of feelings as they stood on that mountain and watched Jesus ascend.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: They were probably fear full of such hope and fear, such grief and amazement.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: They'd been through a lot.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: His teaching and his ministry, all of that healing, identity, his awful death and incredible resurrection, all that time together after he rose.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: In Matthew's account of this very same story, we read about these friends of Jesus on the mountain, and it says that they worshipped him, but some of them doubted.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Even then.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: They were full of such complicated things, standing there, shocked and amazed in awe and doubting on this mountain as Jesus ascends up into heaven.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: And as they're standing there staring up into the sky, these men in sparkling robes appear and say to them, people of Galilee, why do you stand there looking up to heaven?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: This Jesus who has been taken from you will come in the same way as you saw him go.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: These men were saying to them, You are looking in the wrong place.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus is not up there in the heavens.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus wasn't leaving them.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: But he needed but they, those followers, needed to learn how to look.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus will come to you in the same way, the same places where you saw him before.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to find Jesus, you'll see him in all those things, all those ways of being within which you have always found him.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it generally wasn't up high in high places.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: So for those friends of Jesus, they had to retrace Jesus' steps as they looked to find him.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: And likely they would remember that meal right before Jesus died, when he took some bread, a cup of wine, and said, When you break the bread and share in this meal, I will be with you, loving you, forgiving you.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe they'd think and retrace the steps to the time when Jesus knelt at their feet and washed them and said, This is my mandate that you ought to love one another.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: And wherever there is love, that is where you will find me.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to find Jesus, retrace his steps.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: Look for love, for service, for mercy, for humility, for compassion.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: There are, after all, times in our lives when we have a hard time seeing Jesus.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: The truth I know, in the bones of my bones, is that Jesus is present, with us.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: No matter what.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: I know that we have not been abandoned, that no matter where you go, no matter what happens in your life, Christ is with you.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Love holds you even in the darkest sadness.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: You are not alone, even in those places of your deepest isolation.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: But sometimes it's hard to see this.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: To know it, to trust it.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, like those disciples long ago, we worship and we doubt.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: We stand still looking up to heaven, paralyzed in fear, looking for Jesus, wondering where in the world he is.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so maybe this lesson on how to look can be a lesson for us too.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe we can allow those sparkling men of so long ago speak to us as they say.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: Why are you looking up to heaven?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus will come in the same way that he lived.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: We too can learn how to look.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, we'll see God in that glorious awesomeness in that those clear summer night skies when the stars declare the glory of God in the beauty of a mountain vista or the ocean's edge.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: But life isn't always glorious.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: And we don't live on mountaintops.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: So we do that first step of finding, which is retracing.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Retracing those steps of Jesus, and we'll discover that we often find him by shifting our gaze downward.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see Jesus in the people who are around us, in the meals that we share, in mercy that is given and received, and acts of tenderness and compassion, and times that we're forgiven and cared for, and our vulnerable vulnerability in the midst of our struggles and our suffering.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: But there's more to this way of looking.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: We retrace our steps and that next step is to move.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Those sparkling men from of old said to those friends of Jesus, why are you standing there?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: As in why are you standing still?
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't you move a little?
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't ja uh Jesus give you a job to do.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: Don't just stand there, those sparkling men said.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: And the same is true for us.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: We live our feet, faith with our feet in moving, in serving.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: And the crazy thing is that not only will we make a difference in the lives of the people we serve and love, but that's also where we will find Jesus.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: A few months ago we were uh doing this live taping of our podcast, the Sword of Sacred Podcast here at St.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: Paul.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: And we were doing an Ask a Pastor, and one of the questions we received was um something about how um what to do in those times when we're struggling or um lonely or how we can feel better in those sort of low moments of our lives.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: And my wise colleague, Pastor Katie, whoever she is here, she said something about how sometimes we can find healing and connection by caring.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: We can help ourselves when we help others, as we think about other people, as we get outside of ourselves.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: There's something that is helpful about this moment of serving, of giving ourselves away.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: We find ourselves by losing ourselves, as Jesus said.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Those lessons on finding are not just for lost keys, but they're for ourselves.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: When we are lost, when we're looking for Jesus who is always here.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: So first we retrace those steps.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: And we don't just stand there.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: And the third thing is sometimes we just need to ask for help.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: We need each other.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: Those first followers of Jesus, uh, they didn't go at it alone.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: We read today that they gathered together in that upper room devoting themselves to prayer.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I imagine as they were together, they told a lot of stories, retracing the steps of Jesus, helping each other to see.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then once that spirit came on that amazing Pentecost day, they spent their whole lives helping other people to see Jesus, being witnesses to Jesus' saving grace and healing goodness.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: They learned how to look and then helped others to look to.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: And the wonder of it is that we are here.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: Two thousand years later, on the other side of the world from that mountain, because those first friends of Jesus did not just stand there looking up to heaven.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: They and so many others claimed the Spirit's power in their lives and joined with others as witnesses and worked together to help other people discover Jesus.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: And in doing so, they found themselves.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: So now it's our turn.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus ascended into heaven and is still here with us and in us.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: And we can find him not by gazing up and not by standing still, but by retracing his steps, by following his way of service and humility and generosity.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: And the great miracle of all of this is that in doing so, we will not just find Jesus, but we might just help others find him too.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: And together, all of us will be found.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: And all the people said amen.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: And all the people say amen.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: Now we turn to God in prayer, saying those words Jesus taught us in the Lord's Prayer.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: Give us today our daily bread.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, dear wens, let's not just stand here gazing into heaven instead.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: Let's take up the mission Jesus has left us to be witnesses to his presence all around us, to tell everyone we meet who Jesus is and how he has changed us.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: And may the grace of God, the love of Jesus Christ, and the presence of the Holy Spirit empower you, bless you, and keep you forever.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you've enjoyed this podcast and thanks for your support of the ministries of St.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Lutheran Church.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Our commitment to endeavors that lend hope to other people stretches across the country and around the world.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: We hope that in a good way you feel a part of that reach.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Tune in next Thursday for another edition of the St.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Podcast.