DON'T GET CAUGHT LOOKING UP John M. Buchanan
Acts I:6-11 Broad Street Presbyterian Church
September 20, 1981 Columbus, Ohio

The first authentic opponent of religion I ever encountered was a college
professor who simply dismissed the whole business with a phrase I will always
remember. He said religion was nothing more than "pie in the sky bye and bye." His
point was that religion seems largely to have to do with the hereafter, but we must
do our living and working and loving and dying in the here. Religion seems to have
to do with the heavenly, ethereal, otherworldly, but the tasks of human life are
carried on within the mundane confines of time and space. Religion seéms to have
to do with the proverbial debate about the number of angels that can dance on the
head of a pin, while the exigencies of life in 1981 have to do with how many more
human mouths we are capable of feeding before the Malthusian volcano blows its
stack,

The disciples of Jesus were talking with Him one day in that mysteriously un-
real segment of time after His death and resurrection. There is only one. account,
written long after the fact, by a man who was not present. The church calls the
incident the Ascension. Back in the days when creative alternate worship styles
were first emerging, churches regarded as most "with-it" observed Ascension Sunday
by releasing helium balloons, In one church which I know the balloons didn't come
back down on schedule and the irate father of the bride whose wedding was to be held
in the sanctuary demanded that they be shot down with an air ristol 3

Many preachers avoid the Ascension text because it is sc easy to get bogged
down in historic and scientific detail. But more important, the Ascension seems
to direct our theological attention to heaven, which is to say, in the opposite
direction from the incarnation, My experience is that a religion which is heavenly,
“out of this world" is much more comfortable and manageable than one which cele-
brates the fact that the Word of God became flesh.

What a delight, therefore, to discover a nuance in the account I had never
seen before. I am convinced, by the way, that there is humor, whimsy, in Biblical
material which eludes us because of our sober assumptions, or perhaps because a
book bound in black leather, printed in tight double columns on onion skin, doesn't
feel or look humorous, or interesting - or human, for that matter. But I keep
bumping into stories that make me chuckle and I now believe the authors had a
sense of humor and twinkle in the eye, at least part of the time.

There they are talking to Jesus, and He disappears, 4s taken up, and the
disciples are standing around gazing up into the sky, and two men come along and
say, in effect, "Gentlemen, why are you standing there with your head in the
clouds? The business of discipling is down here - on the earth."

That was a new discovery for me. I think it is the essence of the text, the
kernel of meaning. It certainly strikes me as the relevant word of God to His
people. "Don't get caught looking up! The action is down here."

The word is crisp and relevant precisely because standing around and looking
up is such a respectable religious activity. The dynamic is as old as the Bible
iteself.Mosee ran up and. down the side of Mount Sinai between his private meetings
with the Almighty and the people at the bottom of the hill “-ept doing very
human things like building idols and straying from the striahgt and narrow. Amos
and Micah, described a piety more concerned with heavenly matters like incense and

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ritual than earthy concerns like fairness in the marketplace and peace among nations,

The Greeks institutionalized the propensity by teaching that the world of the
spirit and the world of the flesh were distinct and that the realm of the spirit
was good, pure, the domain of God; while the world of human life was singularly
suspect, sinful, imperfect, flawed. The impact of that philosophical position was
immense, Heaven, the realm of goodness and light, is out of this world, Pre-
Capernaum people thought it was "up" - in the sky. Life in the world, in the mean~
time, is to be endured in preparation for the glorious day of release and escape.
We still regard "worldly" as a pejorative word...something churches and clergy
should not be.

Religion based on that premise is not irrelevant by accident. jherworldly
religion is intentionally irrelevant: its focus is intentionally the hereafter, not
the here and now: its gaze is intentionally and vigorously trained on the sky in-
stead of city street. Religion based on the old premise often stands out in stark
contrast to the struggles, hopes and dreams of people in the world.

Yale Chaplain John Vannorsdall writes, "A lot of us don't want to hear that
life is lived in this world. The world, we say, is a bitter place, a dirty place
full of temptation and sin. True enough. But Jesus Christ sent us into the world,
refused to pray His disciples out of the world, and it seems clear that He was
serious."

Otherworldly religion often looks like one of the opponents of human concerns
such as justice, Christianity looked suspiciously like one of the cultural props
for the institution of slavery. The promise of bliss in the hereafter, made servi-
tude seem somehow less atrocious, Only recently to those who perpetrated it have
we discovered that the slaves knew all along the liberating Gospel of freedom, and
that when they sarg"Swing Low Sweet Chariot" it wasn't always pie in the sky but
the underground railroad they had in mind. In El Salvador today the twenty families
which own 70% of the land feel betrayed by the church, which has suddenly and
vigorously taken a stand against the system that allows tremendous wealth and
poverty to exist side by side. For centuries Christianity supported the oligarchy
and solved the misery of the peasants by promising bliss in heaven - later.

In his monumental work, "Does God Exist?" Hans Kung suggests that atheism has
been supported and encouraged, not so much by its academic proponents as by religion
which is divorced from the human struggle for freedom. He quotes the classic
critique of Lenin which I believe religious people should hear in every age. Lenin
wrote: "Religion is opium for the people. Religion is a kind of spiritual intoxi-
cant in which the desire for a decent human exisitence is drowned." Lenin said
that people who are aware of this leave heaven to the priests and fight for a
better life for here and now. (p. 239).

One of the great tragedies of the 20th century is that too frequently
Evangelical Christianity has bowed out of the universal human struggle for a better
life, for freedom from hunger, disease, and political oppression, leaving the
field wide open to Marxism. We have been caught looking up.

The direction of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the meantime is toward the
world. Incarnation means the infinite becoming finite, heavenly word becoming
human being. Vannorsdall put it simply: "God came into the world to redeem the
world, not to facilitate the escape of a few." (The Protestant Hour, 5/31/81,p.28).

oe

And every week we affirm our own commitment to that direction in the phrase of the
prayer repeated so frequently we haven't thought about its meaning for years. "Thy
will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."

The Presbyterian witness, at its best, has looked squarely and honestly at the
world. It has mlled up its sleeves and gone to work on the ambitious project of
building God's kingdom, not in remote commune or in opulently decorated temple but
right in the middle of the world, and all the ambiguities of human life. It is the
greatness of this church, I submit, that instead of looking up, Presbyterian men and
women here have consistently seen the locus of their mission in the world, the
streets of this city to be precise.

You have seen bits and pieces of that story this morning, The Foundations
for the Future project intends to equip this congregation for its ministry for
years to come. We plan no grand ecclesiastical museum, Rather, what I hope every
member perceives is a church that sees itself as an instrument to be used in the
work of God's Kingdom on earth. That work is varied and interesting and lively, and
I don't know of another church more willing to wear itself out and give itself away
to serve its people and neighbors and city tham this one.

The programs of this church today are planned to be worldly. They are not
an exercise in wistful star-gazing. Nor were they in the past. In preparation for
this day I reread Fifty Years, the book by William Hamilton Hannum, which tells the
story of Broad Street Presbyterian Church from 1887 until 1937.

Bear with me while I share a few vignettes from that history. James Hoge,
the father of local Presbyterianism, arrived in Franklinton in 13805 in the company
of the Justices of the Ohio Supreme Court with whom he traveled from Springfield.
At their invitation he conducted services in the courtroom and as a result was
invited to remain and establish a church, The invitation was drafted and signed
by Louis Sullivant. The first church was in the West Bank of the River, and in
1313 the First Presbyterian Church, a log building stood on the corner of Spring
and Third Streets.

After its organization in 1887 the congregation of this church, an outgrowth
of Hoge's First Presbyterian, bought a lot at Garfield and Broad, at the outer
edge of the city; a bold and, some thought, foolish venture. Foundations were dug
and on Christmas day, 1887, a congregation worshipped in the basement-auditorium:
11:00 a.m.worship, Sunday School at 3:00, a Song Festival at 7:30 and that night,
after all had gone home, a fire broke out. By April 22 the first floor auditorium
was finished and used for worship. In 1908 the auditorium was enlarged, solid
pews replaced upholstered folding chairs and the Session informed the members that
seats would not be held past 10:30. A Mrs. Firsbie who lived across the street
donated $50C to the church on the condition that the building be constructed at
least 20 feet back from the street. Her money was returned. A lobby and hall
were added and in 1937 the congregation engaged in a major renovation. The
Sanctuary was rearranged, redecorated, refurnished and the old auditorium and
chapel renovated to house Sunday School rooms.

Even more interesting to me, however, is the way the congregation's outreach
atid mission in the community claimed constant priority attention.

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In 1909 the church took over an existing, independent Sunday School at 164
West Main Street, hired a superintendent and before long held sewing classes and
groups for "physical training and social diversion". We have always been pragmatic
in our concept of the Kingdom, that is to say.

A severe flood in 1913 called the church to a typically generous response as
food, clothing and shelter were provided. By 1915 the church had constructed a
new building at 115 West Main Street and was sponsoring church services, Sunday
School classes, Kindergarten, a free medical clinic, a library and full gymnasium
program.

In 1937, at the rededication of this Sanctuary, J. Harry Cotton challenged
the congregation, in his sermon, to see their Christian vocation in terms of making
a difference in the world, "What will a citizen of Columbus write in his annals,"
he asked,"about the difference this church made?"

The tradition is deeply rooted here. Christian people are not standing around
looking up into the sky, but busily working, helping, healing, serving and pray-
ing for God's Kingdom on earth. The program launched today is designed to continue
and to strengthen that tradition and that commitment.

I made a very interesting discovery while reading that book. The organizational
meeting of Broad Street Presbyterian Church, 105 men and women, convening at Broad
Street Methodist Church, was held on Septmeber 20, 1887, 94 years ago to the day.

One could make too much of that. My hope, my prayer, however, is that what we do
on September 20, 1981, follow the pattern of the past and that Broad Street Pres-
byterians, in our day, see the responsibility and privilege of building this church
and keeping it strong for generations to come.

The temptation in religion is always to stand around gazing up at the sky.
The challenge of this church is to keep its gaze level, focused on the world, the
people of our neighborhood, the streets of the city, the lives of each of its
members. That is where the risen Christ will come - that is where His Kingdom
will be built - that is where human life is lived - life Jesus Christ came to

make whole. May God bless us in this ministry.
Amen.

Lord of the church, we thank you for your call to discipleship. We thank
you for those who have heard it before us, and we pray for those who will come
after us. Now, in this time, bless us - give us strength, courage and love to
do your will, to be your people, to build your church, to establish your kingdom.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.