What Goes Around Comes Around

What Goes Around Comes Around

26 May 2021

How does the Holy Spirit connect places like Chicago, Dubai, Peachtree City, and Denver? The staff wanted me to share this answer:

Ten days ago, I indicated in my sermon how growing up at Good Samaritan Lutheran Church on the south side of Chicago, Ascension Sunday was my third favorite festival right behind Easter and Christmas. Why? “Because right after service, helium balloons waited for all the worshipers. We would watch them ascend like the disciples watched Jesus ascend long ago. But unlike Jesus, we knew the balloons would eventually lose energy and descend to the earth. So, we tied a postcard to each balloon with an encouraging message for whomever might find it.

How far might the balloons travel? Oftentimes, my friends and I tied our balloons together, hoping a bunch of 8 balloons might travel 8 times farther than just one. We weren’t NASA’s control room guiding every maneuver of the Martian space probe. But we did spend a lot time testing the wind direction and velocity. Each year, a few careless kids were humiliated by a cruel tree branch capturing their balloons immediately. Over before it started! So, you had to calculate the best place to launch!

Watching, watching, watching, like the disciples of old with Jesus, watching our balloons ASCENDING into the heavens. Then the waiting, waiting, waiting began. If memory serves, it usually took a couple of Sundays before any news arrived. But news would come! Usually, most of the return cards would come with a nice, encouraging note from a friendly farmer in Indiana. But depending on prevailing wind directions on Ascension Day, sometimes we would hear from even Ohio or across the great lake into Michigan.

One amazing year, I’ll never forget—a card was returned from not just across one of the great lakes, but the Atlantic Ocean! Actually, farther than that– the middle eastern country of the United Arab Emirates! We were stunned, astounded, amazed. Eventually, we learned the truth: Ed Owens, who was known by all as a really fun usher, and father of three really active boys, was a businessman with connections. So apparently, the Holy Spirit used Pentecost winds to blow our balloon over 7000 miles away via special winds, a business friend of Ed’s who was returning from Chicago to Dubai and then dropped it in the mailbox.

After sharing that illustration, my sermon shifted into the meaning of Jesus’ ascension for us. But here’s what happened: Since COS worship services are now streamed, that worship service and sermon “ascended” into the world wide web so that it was eventually seen by . . . . Ed Owens, the fun and prank-loving usher from my childhood Lutheran church who not only helped fill up the helium balloons but made sure one was sent back from Dubai in the UAE!

Inspired to look through his files, Ed actually found the famous Ascension Day/Dubai postcard from almost exactly 39 years ago and sent pictures of it to our COS website with a nice note of encouragement. (In the attached picture, you can see the Dubai postmark).

Even though Ed now lives in Denver and I live in Atlanta, I chuckle at the Holy Spirit’s humor and kindness in connecting us again about a faith moment that meant a lot to both of us.

In light of this event, here are my thoughts today:

1. God has a sense of humor.
2. It’s often the non-pastors who can make congregational life so fun and memorable. Guys like Ed make sure kids get to release helium balloons. I think of our COS friend, Bill Murphy, (rest his soul) who took it upon himself for several years to buy roses for all the lady worshipers at COS on Mother’s Day. Thanks for all of YOU non-pastors who dedicate yourselves to making COS a joyful place.
3. In this new age of the web and streamed services, our discipleship connections can go to new places.
4. The faith memories and foundation we create for our kids are very important. I praise God that COS holds a heart-beat for our youth.
5. While Ed’s Dubai postcard was “rigged,” there were many other legitimate stories of the balloons/postcards bringing joy to the people who found them. How can each of US, in these post-covid days, offer invitations for people to come back to church, to enjoy the encouraging news of Jesus’ love and God’s blessings?

Let us pray:

Dear God, thanks for helping make faith fun. Remind me that even though I’m not a balloon that can travel in the air for hundreds of miles, I am a “colorful” person created in your image who can that offer in an encouraging message or invitation to those right around me. Because Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, let me be of good cheer, knowing that you will help me rise and ascend over any challenge facing me today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.