Why doesn’t somebody do something? As the list of atrocities continues to grow the question becomes more and more urgent. School children are slaughtered in Texas. Why doesn’t the Congress do something! Racist murders in Buffalo. Why doesn’t the President do something! Forty-three children under the age of 13 were shot and killed in Chicago last year. Why don’t the police do something! Gun violence is the leading cause of death for those under age 24. Can’t legislators do something? Then there are the chronic problems. Why doesn’t somebody do something about racism and the coronavirus and war in Ukraine and atomic bombs and poverty and homelessness and global warming? If the institutions don’t work is there a superhero we can call on: Superman or Spiderman or Wonder Woman? If those fictional options aren’t possible why doesn’t some billionaire stop building space ships and fix what’s wrong with society here below? All these problems have the cumulative effect of making us feel dazed and confused, powerless, overwhelmed. Stop the world, I want to get off. Somebody, do something!
Why doesn’t God do something? Yeah, that’s the ticket. God has the power, the know-how, the ability to make a difference. God can do it. God makes the sun to shine, the grass to grow the wind to blow. God was there for the Big Bang, the little bang and all the bangs in between. God made the world so there would be a Michelangelo, an Albert Einstein and a Martin Luther King, Jr. The God who made hummingbird and the hippo, the sunrise and the supernova, the quark and the quantum can surely handle our problems. We know God has done so in the past. God parted the Red Sea, rained down manna, tumbled the walls of Jericho. God’s power multiplied the loaves and the fish, calmed the storm, cured the sick and raised the dead. Come on God, you did it before and you can do it again.
The problem comes, when I make that prayer, God answers, Why don’t you do something? Me, how can I do something in the face of such outsized problems? They are so big and I am so small. I have a hardly enough wherewithal take care of my own problems, much less those of the world. What can the likes of me do? But, God says, I will be with you … all of which is a long introduction to today’s Feast of the Ascension. After all that they had been through, the Risen Jesus had shown his disciples what God could do – conquering even sin and death at Easter. They imagined that now was the time for kicking butt and taking names. “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?” They were shocked, therefore, when instead of hanging around and making things better Jesus ascended, left them with all of their problems intact. But he gave them a final word: “you will receive power.” Receive power? What kind of power? Not political power since the oppressive government was still there. Not the power of arms since they were not able to stand up to the Roman legions or even the Jewish police. Not economic power since they were as poor as they had ever been. Jesus told them the kind of power they would have: the power to “be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” At the Ascension Jesus gave them, and us, the power to bear witness. It is this power which will transform the world from a place where children are cannon fodder into the place where faith knows, where hope shows, where love grows. The power to bear witness is the only power we need to transform the world.
The power to bear witness might not seem like much. Wouldn’t it be better to have a laser-beam micro-blaster to make people behave better? How about a old-fashioned lightning bolt like Zeus had to hurl at the no-good-niks. But no, Jesus says the only power we need is to bear witness. Bearing witness equips us so that none of the troubles of this world can overpower us. How does that work? The world says you have to take care of yourself and lash out at anyone who wrongs you. As Christians we bear witness to the fact that true power comes in forgiveness which transforms enemies into friends and provides the building block for a new relationship. The world says you should get a big house and a new car and fine clothes and a TV as wide as your wall. As Christians we bear witness that by giving instead of getting we create a society without winners and losers but one that makes us all into brothers and sisters. The world says you have to take care of your own, that the stranger and those who don’t look like you or think like you or talk like you or pray like you are to be shunned. As Christians we bear witness that there isn’t anyone out there who isn’t a child of God and that seeing them as God sees them will produce a more just and peaceful world.
The scene of the Ascension ends with two men dressed in white garments (traditionally described as angels) saying to the apostles: “Why are you standing there looking at the sky?” The angels challenged them not to pine after some outside intervention but to use the power they had to make the gospel come alive. While bearing witness might not seem like much to us, Jesus tells us it provides all that we need. After all, it only takes a spark to burn down and entire forest. The strongest avalanche begins with some pebbles starting to roll down the hill. A grain of sand in an oyster grows over time to become a beautiful pearl. The tiniest little brook when added to others eventually fills Lake Michigan. Our witness of forgiveness and generosity and love are how we confront war and violence and hatred. Bit by bit the kingdom of God comes. The promise of God is that we need not fear the ocean of troubles out there since our lifeguard walks on water.
