In crafting this time of worship and praise, Pastor Jim and I have attempted to weave together three separate threads: the festival of Ascension, the National Day of Prayer, and the recent ecumenical agreement between the United Methodist Church and the ELCA. But what are these threads? First, Ascension is the festival of the church year that marks Christ’s return into heaven after his resurrection. As our Scripture readings told, Christ gave commission to his disciples and then was taken up into the clouds. The celebration and remembrance of this blessed event occurs 40 days after Easter, which in this year falls today, May 1.

Secondly, the National Day of Prayer, is a day designated by the United States Congress as a day when all Americans regardless of faith are asked to come together and pray. It is held on the first Thursday in May, which again, happens to be today.

And lastly, the ecumenical agreements between our parent churches. Over the last several years, the ELCA and the UM church have dialogued with one another, and as a result of those dialogues have found cause to enter into a deeper and closer relationship. The joke I often make is that it is about time that our national churches learned what we here in Davis already knew. Methodists and Lutherans have been coming together for a very long time in mission on this mountaintop. But now we have official sanction and the permission for our clergy to preside at table in each other’s churches, something we will be doing very shortly.

Those are the threads. But how do they come together? For that answer, we turn to Christ and his own words on this Ascension day so long ago. “he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” First off, let’s think a bit about geography. Jesus commends the disciples to begin their work in Jerusalem, in the place where they all were, in their own backyard. The National Day of Prayer calls us to pray for our nation, for our communities, for those who work in them and for them. Calls us to pray for our backyards. The parallel is not coincidental. We are Christ’s disciples of this generation and we too are called to bring a word of hope and forgiveness to all the world, starting HERE!

And that is what we will begin shortly during our time of prayer for this worship. But I also want us all to think more broadly. Prayer is more than just words, it is also action. Life and all that it involves can be prayer. The artisan at their craft, the laborer at their work can be at prayer in what they do, if their work is done with the purpose of serving other and proclaiming Christ. So too all of us can be about this prayer as we go from this place into our daily lives. Charity to the poor, kindness to strangers, service to others, these are prayerful acts, ones that bear witness to the truth of the Gospel.

We live in a great country filled with great people, but it is not a perfect country. It is plagued by division and greed, hatred and fear. There are people tonight who are sleeping under bridges instead of roofs. Children and elderly who lack for the medicine to heal and cure them. Family without food or decent work. You do not have to go far to find these evils. There are right here on this mountaintop, in our backyard. And what are we going to do about it?

Let us take Christ at his word. Let our work begin here and let our prayer be about this community and this nation. And may it not be just the prayer of our lips but also of our hands and feet. Let us live our prayers and proclaim Christ in word and deed to all we meet. United as Methodists and Lutherans together, we can make a difference for the people of this community and this nation. We are witness to a tremendous truth, that God has come to save the world. Let us not be idle nor silent, but let us pray Christ’s mercy in all that we do. Amen.