"Why Look Up to Heaven?"

10:30 am, Sun, May 17, 2026 (Acts 1:6-14; Jn 17:1-11) JGW, FBC Amherst

Why look up to heaven? We heard one version of the story of Jesus, risen from the dead, leaving His disciples behind, one day. Up into the clouds He went. Then a couple angelic fellows asked, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”

Heaven, as a realm where God and other amazing beings hang out, was for those ancient people up in the sky, above the sun and moon and stars. It is still natural to look up, to think about God being ‘the Man Upstairs,” to speak of people who are gone being ‘up’ in the heavens. 

From John’s Gospel we read of Jesus, before his suffering and resurrection and departure, praying by looking up to heaven, and speaking out loud; thus His companions heard His prayers. 

As I pondered the things here in Jesus’ prayer, I saw a few important things about living here as citizens of heaven. Eternal life starts now, and is about knowing God, and Jesus the Son. Our life here in God’s Kindom means we know a lot; we get to know what Jesus teaches and shares, who is the living Word. We get to belong, to belong to God, to belong in the Kingdom of the Heavens. We are here in this life, this world, for Jesus, who is not walking around in bodily form anymore. Except in you and me. And Jesus prays that we be protected, so we may be one, as much one as He and God are one. 

That’s my sermon, with those six points to make. I simply want to illustrate them by storytelling. These three stories are from an American preacher of a hundred and twenty years ago, who had a lot of fun being even more old-fashioned, back in the 1920s. Rev. Eleazer Barton published many short stories in papers about his alter ego, Safed the Sage, and Safed’s old-fashioned wife, Keturah. 

Why ‘look up to heaven?’ Well, to pray. To know God, well. 

Here is the first of three stories: The Long Walk. It features the granddaughter of Safed and Keturah.

The daughter of the daughter of Keturah hath a little friend who cometh to see her, and playeth with her in the Yard, hard by the Window, where their voices may be heard inside the House. And mostly they play very Happily; but now and then for the sake of Variety they indulge in Argument and Comparison like grown Folk. And it was upon a day that they got thus into a Friendly Scrap, the first part of which I heard not. But the Argument had reached a stage where the daughter of the daughter of Keturah was advancing and backing the other little damsel off the Map, and the other little girl could only answer, I did not, or You can not, or It is not.

And the daughter of the daughter of Keturah said,

I can walk Fifty-nine miles.

And the other little girl said. You can not.

And the daughter of the daughter of Keturah said, I can take my Grandpa's hand and keep up with him, and he can walk Fifty-nine miles, and I can walk Fifty-nine miles with him if I hold his hand.

And the other little damsel said, You can not.

Then did the daughter of the daughter of Keturah tell unto the other little girl how great and good a Grandpa she had. And I am too modest a man to write down what she said; but if George Washington and Solomon and a few others were to live in one, peradventure he might be a Second-cousin or a Remote Acquaintance of a man such as the daughter of the daughter of Keturah described.

And the other little girl was speechless; for she could not say, Thy grandpa is not the only Pebble on the Beach; I also have a Grandpa whose hair is fully as Grey and whose Bald Spot is larger than thy Grandpa's; for the daughter of the daughter of Keturah had carried the matter beyond all comparison. And the other little girl could only change the subject, and say,

I can kick your whole house down and all your trees.

And the daughter of the daughter of Keturah, knowing that she had won out, said sweetly, 

Go ahead.

Now there is no man who knoweth so well as I how far from right is the estimate of the little maiden concerning the goodness and the greatness of her Grandpa. Nevertheless it pleased me more than any man can understand who is not a Grandpa; for unto none others hath the Lord given wisdom to know of such matters. [And the next time a man goeth by and bloweth a small whistle, she shall have a Red Balloon.]

For apart from her beautiful delusion concerning the poor man concerning whom I pray my God that she may be never undeceived, the little maiden is not wholly wrong. For when she holdeth my hand she can do things which otherwise she could not do.

And I prayed unto my God a prayer, and I said,

O my God, Thou hast permitted us through the gift of little lives such as these to discern spiritual truths which thou hast hid from the wise and prudent and revealed unto babes, that so we might enter into the Kingdom of Heaven as little children. Grant unto me this, O my Father, that I shall hold so fast to Thine Hand that the journey that would otherwise be impossible shall be possible for me, and the task that would have been too great may be accomplished through thy strength. For I can do all things through Him that strengtheneth me and if I hold Thy Hand I can run and not be weary, and walk and not faint.

With this I remember what eternal life is. Jesus said it is to know God and Himself. And we get in on the way things are and will be. We even call Jesus the Living Word. We belong, as friends of God.

The next story is called The Girl in the Blue Dress.

I rode upon a Train from New York even unto Chicago. And the Train was Full. And among the rest was there a Young Mother with a Little Girl. And they were going unto South Bend and the little damsel wore a Blue Dress.

And the little maiden and I became friends; [for Little Girls like me,] and I do verily believe that Good Little Girls are made of Sugar and Spice and all that is Nice.

And she had Dominoes wherewith to play. And she sat with me, and we set up the Dominoes to make Beds. And we made of them Single Beds, and Double Beds, and we tried to make Beds such as were in the Train, but we did not succeed very well.

And we had ridden ail night and much of the day, and it drew toward evening. And I said, This place is Elkhart, and the miles unto Chicago are an Hundred and One; and here do they cut off the Dining Car, and it is our fast long stop. And we shall reach Chicago in Two Hours and Twenty Minutes, and South Bend will be before that.

And she said, I would that South Bend were farther.

And I inquired of her why she said so.

And she said. There will be Very Hard Letters to learn in South Bend.

And I said, Why dost thou think there will be Hard Letters to learn?

And she said, I had just begun to go to school when my father got a new job in South Bend and sent for us. And I learned A and B and C all the way down to X and Y and Z, and how to spell CAT and DOG and COW and many more. And my mother says that now I must begin all over again. And the Letters will be different; and who knoweth how they spell COW in South Bend ?

And I said. Fear not. They spell it mostly with a C, and only a few of them begin it with a K. 

And she said, It will all be so different, and I fear it. I wish this old Train would go on and on, and never come to South Bend.

And I saw that the little maiden was sore distressed by reason of the Very Hard Letters.

And I said unto her. Fear not, my dear. I have been in South Bend; yea, I have passed through it an hundred times. The letters there are A and B and C, and X and Y and Z, and there are twenty-six of them and no more.

And she inquired. Art thou sure?

And I said. Sure thing. And CAT and DOG are the same as in New York, and all that thou didst learn there will be good in South Bend.

And the little maiden was comforted.

Now this hooting, whanging train of human life moveth swiftly; and ever and anon there getteth on some passenger who wondereth how it will be in the place to which he journeyeth, and who approacheth life's destination with fear. And I prayed unto my God that he would send unto all such some of his Experienced Angels, who would say to all such timid souls. Fear not. The Alphabet of Heaven is the kindly deeds and gracious words which thou hast learned|^in the Kindergarten of Life. Heaven and Earth have a Common Alphabet, and all that thou hast learned will be of value there. And the little maiden flung a kiss toward me as the Train pulled out of South Bend, and I beheld her in the arms of her father.

The good that God is up to around here now – we belong to it. And we also find the open arms of Christ for us, welcoming us into the eternal goodness. As mysterious as it is, it is good and excellent. While we are here, we are Christians, little Christs, the body of Jesus, temples of the Spirit. With good word to do, on this Team.

Permit me to read one more story: The Ship that Did Not Sail. Let it be a fictional, cautionary tale; a parable for the People of Jesus.

There was a day when Keturah and I sat both of us together upon the Deck of a Ship and we paid the fare and we said: Tonight we go from Boston to Portland.

And I spake to Keturah and said, Seest thou these three ships? They all leave at Six o'clock, and the one over against us goes to New York. We shall behold a Grand Sight when all three leave the dock together.

And Keturah said. Where doth the one ahead of us go?

And I answered, I know not. But it must leave in order that we may leave. For its stern overlappeth our bow; and because it is now nigh unto six o'clock the ship cannot well leave before that. Therefore know I that the three ships must leave at once.

But I was mistaken.

The ship whose stern did overlap our bow was Not Going Anywhere. The ship for New York did leave promptly at six o'clock and ours began to get ready to leave at six. But the ship that was Not Going Anywhere merely slacked her Cables and pulled ahead Six Fathoms or Some-thing like that, and Barely let us out. And by the time our ship was out in the stream the New York Boat was Two Knots down the Harbor and Going Some, and we were Not In It with her. Our ship left the Dock in Isolation.

Now I spake of this to Keturah, saying, The Church hath great enterprises which call for the Launching of Great Fleets in which many Christians sail abreast, but every now and then it Cometh to pass that some Sleepy Christian who Isn't Going Anywhere, unless it may be to Heaven, and who is Mighty Slow even about that, lieth Moored to the Dock, Fore and Aft, bound Bow and Stern with Cables of Tradition or Habit or Inertia, and not only Spreadeth not his own Sails, but lieth athwart the course of his Fellow Christians till the opportunity is Just Disappearing over the Horizon, and even then he barely maketh Grudging Room for some one else to make a Futile and Belated Start. When they fail he sayeth, I told you so.

And I wish that the Christians who do not Go Anywhere would go To Heaven or Somewhere, and Let Other People Do Things.