I’ve shared with some of you that while in college I worked at a domestic violence shelter. Over my last three semesters of college I was the assistant shelter manager, which meant that I spent many nights in the shelter and in the emergency room with victims of domestic violence. The semester before I started working in the actual shelter, I was working as a crisis line volunteer. That means that in the evening the person staying at the shelter would transfer the crisis phone line from the shelter phone to my apartment phone. I was given the responsibility of answering calls all evening for any crisis: domestic violence, assault, suicide. The first night I worked the crisis line stayed up all night. I couldn’t sleep. I was so afraid someone was going to call with a crisis, and I was freaked out. Of course, no one called that evening. But I remember how I felt. I had received a day long training session on how to handle domestic violence, assault, and suicide crises. ONE DAY…not the mention that I was only 20 years old! What did I know about handling a crisis? How could I handle this? I didn’t have the experience or the gifts to deal with this. I hadn’t received enough training. I wasn’t ready!
I wish I could say that my fears eventually subsided, but they didn’t. The crisis calls didn’t come that day, but they came later. Domestic violence, assault, attempted suicide. Those calls came, and every time the phone rang my heart jumped and I felt nauseous. Then I started working in the shelter. A crisis line worker would call me to let me know about a call, and I would go and meet a victim at the police station or the hospital. After over two years of responding to these crisis situations, two years after talking with victims in the shelter, or getting them through an exam at the emergency room after an assault…every time the phone rang, my heart jumped. What was I doing here? What made me qualified? I didn’t have the gifts. I didn’t have the training. I wasn’t ready.
Our first reading for today is from the Acts of the
Apostles. This book was written by Luke,
the writer of the gospel of Luke. It’s
tells the story of the growing, changing church from the ascension of Jesus
into heaven through the arrival of the apostle Paul in
We read today from the beginning of Luke’s story in Acts. Luke tells us of the ascension of Jesus into heaven. Jesus died on Good Friday and was resurrected from the dead on Easter day. He appeared to his disciples in those 40 days following his resurrection. Thursday was the actual day of Ascension, when Jesus ascended into heaven, but we’re celebrating it today. The disciples are looking on as Jesus is taken up into heaven. They stand there, looking up to heaven. They thought Jesus had left them on Good Friday, but Jesus came back. Was Jesus really leaving this time? If so, what were they supposed to do? All they could do was just stand there, staring up into heaven. Two men in white robes appeared to the disciples, asking, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?”
The disciples didn’t think they were ready to do this ministry without Jesus there. That’s why they stood looking up into heaven. The disciples had no idea how they were going to grow Christ’s Church without Christ there with them. They stood looking up into heaven, waiting for Christ to come back and give them more instruction. They were scared.
I attended a Bible study this week where we discussed
Rahab. This woman is mentioned several
times throughout scripture, but the reason she’s mentioned so many times stems
from a story found in the Old Testament in the book of Joshua. Rahab was a prostitute living in
Unlike Rahab, I never felt ready when I was doing ministry at the domestic violence shelter. Each time that phone rang, my heart jumped and I felt nauseous. I never felt ready. Unlike Rahab, the disciples didn’t feel ready. The training they had received from the time spent with Jesus just didn’t feel like enough. They were disheartened when Jesus ascended into heaven, leaving them. They didn’t feel ready.
Rahab, though, gives us an example of how we go about doing our ministry whether we feel ready, or not. A dear friend told me that God doesn’t call the qualified, but qualifies the called. You see, we are ready. We are always ready, because God gives us the gifts to be ready. It may never feel like we’re ready. In fact, if we wait to do God’s work in this world until we’re ready, we will find ourselves staring aimlessly into heaven for the rest of our lives. God qualifies us. God qualified me. God qualified the disciples. God qualified Rahab. God qualifies you—all of you. If God can qualify a prostitute to do His work, then why are we still staring up to heaven waiting for God to qualify us?
Every person in this church is ready to do God’s work in this world. What is your work, your ministry? Every Christian person has many ministries. Are you already doing this work? If not, why? When are we going to start doing this work? If you wait until you’re ready, you’ll be waiting an awfully long time. In the Psalms we’re told that God knit us in our mother’s womb. For nine months God was preparing us to do His ministry in this world. That means we are ready to do God’s work the day we are born.