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We hear often about how important last words can be.

"Famous Last Words"           Cicero United Methodist Church                      Jack Keating

May 4, 2008                       Text: Acts 1: 6-11            The Seventh Sunday of Easter

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            We hear often about how important last words can be.

         I'm told that in many jurisdictions in our country's courts of law, deathbed statements, even though they are unsworn and the person is no longer around to check with, are still admissible as evidence.

         And so often, in our lives, what we last said to someone before they leave us, and in response what they may have said to us, are so often the occasion for much joy and encouragement - and sometimes, unfortunately, they are also occasions for much regret and remorse.

            We usually take very seriously the last words that our loved ones have uttered to us;

                        - we turn those words over in our minds,

                        - we consider them so carefully

                        - we store them up in our hearts and ponder them - probably a lot like a                                                young   Mary stored up the words of the angel and shepherds and                                             magi in her heart after she had encounters with them.

         Often if the last words we hear from a loved one are a strong statement, if they are uttered with any seriousness- in the knowledge that soon time and space will separate us, if they ask of us anything, we try to do everything in our power to both remember those words and do that which was asked if us.

         Last words are important words. Famous last words are even more important. Some last words are even humorous. It was, after all Oscar Wilde, who muttered just before he passed away, "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go!" But important last words speak volumes ... like those of Pope John Paul II who's last words were, "Let me go to my Father's house." or Mother Teresa, whose last words were a simple prayer, "Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I love you."

            And thinking about that, today I want us to consider the last words of Jesus.

         If you ask most people what the last words of Jesus were, chances are they might tell you that his last words were: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do" - or maybe ­"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."

         You see, when most people think about the last words of Jesus, they tend to think about the words he spoke from the cross - those words he spoke just before his death - and not the words he spoke to his disciples, and to all the church, after his resurrection, on the day that he ascended into heaven.

         The last words that Jesus uttered, while still here on earth in physical form, while still walking about in his resurrection body were these:

"It is not for you to know the times or the dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes in you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Did you hear that ..... "you shall receive power, you shall be my witnesses.'"

         There is this story told about a man who was called to the witness stand in a local court case. The lawyer was questioning the man about the events surrounding the crime..

         What time was it? Who were you with? Where were you going? The questions went on and on and finally the lawyer asked ... "did you see the accused enter the store?"

            "No"

            "Did you see a man with a gun enter the store ... ?"

             "No"

            Becoming exasperated the lawyer shouted, "Well, please tell us what you did see ... "

            "Nothing"

            "Nothing?" shouted the lawyer.

"No. Nothing", said the man. "When I heard there was a man with a gun, I was afraid and I put my hands over my eyes ... "

         In a court of law a witness is one who has actually seen the event in question and can tell the story. The court is not usually interested in the character or personal attributes of a witness. All the court wants to know is what the witness has seen or heard.

         We use the words witness to day in a two-fold sense. A witness both witnesses an event, and then, when that witness tells someone about the event, he or she witnesses to others about the event.

         "You shall be my witnesses, in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

         The Christian gospels themselves are the early Christian preachers attempts to witness to what they have seen and heard. The gospel, as a literary form, was unknown before Mark invented it with his first account. And these gospels, as attempts to witness to the life and person of Jesus Christ, are not so much history, poetry, or fact - as they are story.

         In the gospel accounts, we aren't just getting information and data about Jesus, we are hearing a story about Jesus and how his life touched the lives of people around him.

And like any good story we find we are drawn into it, just by listening as the story is told.

Our lives become caught up in his life and his in ours ...

         "You shall be my witnesses, in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Not .... You may be .... Or you might be ... but "you shall be."

       "Look, I really like you, really like you. You make me feel stuff that few women have made me feel. Let's stop by my apartment," he said.

            "No, I really don't think we're ready for that. After all, we just met. We've got to spend a lot more time together before getting that close," she said.

            "Is there something wrong? Have I said something wrong?" he asked.

             "No, it's just that I'm not going to your apartment," she said.

            "Why?"

            "Well" she said, without really thinking, "Well, because I'm a Methodist."

            "What's that?" he asked.

            "Well, a Methodist is a kind of Christian," she said.

             "And what's that? He asked.

         "A Christian? Well, it's somebody who believes that some things are right and some things are wrong, that God has plans for each of us and we ought not violate God's plan", she said.

         And he, having never had anyone lately say "No", in a society in which everyone is encouraged to say "Yes"; having never met anyone with such self-possession and presence of mind; asked if he could go with her to that Methodist place called "Church" sometime. And he did.

         Witnessing - telling others about our faith in God, need not be loud and boisterous to the point where it threatens and offends others... in fact, this is not witnessing at all, but brow beating.

         Witnessing is most often done through loving care and personal story telling, through the kind of thing you do all the time.... When you make a telephone call to a friend who loses a loved one, when you share a cup of coffee with a neighbor who is going through some troubling time, when you visit one who is in a nursing home or hospital...

         And in the course of the visit, over that cup of coffee, you express your concern, you offer your prayers, you share the hope that you have found in God...

         As believers in Christ - as people baptized by water and by the Spirit we have the power, a power given to us by God above, to make a difference out there: to bring people to the knowledge and love of God through what we say and do in their presence, through the story we have to share - in love.

         "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

         "And after Jesus had said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. "Men of Galilee", they said, "Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

Why do you stand looking into the sky?

         The same question might just as well be put to us ... Why do we stand looking up into the heavens ... Why do we consider so much those things over which we have no control- the times and seasons of Christ's return, the future of the world, the plight of humankind?

         Why do we spend so much time among those who are already a part of the family of God when there are so many who need to hear the story of God's love for the world, when so many need the hope and the healing that we have found in Christ, when so many need not only a kind deed, but what has been revealed to us through Jesus Christ.

         I remember hearing somewhere that Paul Harvey, the well known radio broadcaster and gifted philosopher once said, "Too many Christians are no longer fishers of people, but keepers of the aquarium."

         I'm taking that to mean that often we are more concerned about the Church than we are about touching the lives of other people, more concerned about preserving our "religion" than we are about helping people discover the source of wholeness, the fountain of living water that wells up to eternal life.

         "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

         Once again I say, as believers of Christ, as people baptized by water and by the Spirit, we have the power - a power given to us by God above - to make a difference our there - to bring people to the knowledge and love of God through what we do and say in their presence.

           One final story....

         On April 14, 1912 the Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and began taking on water. By the time the lifeboats were deployed, it was clear the great ship was sinking. Passengers were loaded into lifeboats, and the lifeboats were lowered into the icy waters. Of the twenty lifeboats lowered into the water, most had room for more people. But despite the cries for help, those in the lifeboats were afraid to return to the drowning people because the boats might be swamped. Resisting the cries for help, the people in the boats rowed away from the hundreds of people floating in the water.

         In Lifeboat 14, Fifth Officer Harold Lowe thought differently and acted differently. He transferred many of his passengers to other lifeboats and returned to the sinking ship to pick up more survivors. Though he could not save them all, he could reach out his hand and save a precious few from death in the icy sea. It seems that survivors saved survivors.

         And today we are all survivors. And we are called to be witnesses - to reach out our hand to rescue those who are perishing. Until that hand is extended, until we row our own boats back for the all the survivors we can help, there is no Gospel - and there is no hope for the world.

         So today let us also ponder seriously the famous last words of Jesus Christ, let us store them up in our hearts, and let us go forth as witnesses to the faith - let us go forth and tell our story so that others might believe.

            Blessed be God, day by day. Amen.