The Only Plan

In terms of the church year, we are now between Ascension (which was this past Thursday) and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost 10 days later. In tomorrow's Gospel reading Jesus tells the Father concerning those who believe,

All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.

I preached in this passage six years ago saying in part,

There is a story told about what happened in heaven when Jesus returned from his earthly ministry. It’s not biblical. It’s just a story to make a point. It goes like this. Jesus returns in glory to heaven. All the angels gather round to give the Son of God a high five and a pat on the back. Everyone is pretty fired up at first. As the excitement dies down a bit, the archangel Gabriel, who was so involved in announcing Jesus’ birth, speaks up.

“So what happens next?” Gabriel asks. "What's the plan?"

Jesus explains, “My disciples take over now. They’ll spread the Good News to the whole earth so that everyone will come to know that God loves them and wants a relationship with them.”

“You mean those fisherman, that tax collector and the like that you’ve been walking around with?” Gabriel asked with more than a little concern creeping into his voice.

“Yeah, those guys,” Jesus answered. “They’ll take over now. The Holy Spirit is with them. They’ll do great.”

There was a long pause. Then Gabriel asked tentatively, “What’s the backup plan?”

Jesus looked Gabriel in the eye with great seriousness and said, “That’s the only plan. There is no backup plan.”

That still is the only plan. The only way God has to reach the world with the Good News of Jesus is through his disciples. Had those first disciples hoarded their knowledge of Jesus, then there would have been no Christianity.

The full text of that sermon is online here: The Only Plan.

There is also the reflection at Day One from the Rev. Dr. James Lemler You can't keep a good man down.