Sermon for Ascension Sunday, Acts 1:1-11

Sermon 5/24/20

Acts 1:1-11

Ascension

I don’t know about you, but I find it hard not to read every scripture text these days in light of our current global pandemic. It’s similar to that reaction we now seem to have when we see images, often taken before this pandemic unfolded, of large crowds gathered together. “Crowds? We can’t be in crowds!” It’s hard not to process the world through our pandemic-lenses. And I think that’s true of the scripture too. Our current life experience has so changed our world that it is almost impossible to read the Bible without viewing it anew because of what we’re going through. I think that’s a good thing. Not the pandemic, of course, but that we find that we can’t help but bring our now-everyday reality of global crisis with us when we read the text. I think we’ll find that the scripture is more than up to the challenge of feeding our souls when we come to it with a new perspective.

Today is Ascension Sunday. It’s the day that we remember Jesus’ return to God’s home, his physical departure from the earth, forty days after the resurrection. For forty days after that first Easter morning, Jesus stayed with the disciples, and according to Luke, he continued to give many “proofs” that he was truly resurrected, and he also spent more time teaching about the kingdom of God, about God’s reign. He also spent this time telling the disciples that soon they would receive a gift from God - the gift of the Holy Spirit - but we’ll talk more about that next week. For nearly a month and a half, it must have seemed to the disciples that they could breathe again. Jesus, who had been violently crucified was not dead, and everything could go back to normal. They would follow him once more. They were not abandoned. Jesus was with them again. And then, he leaves again. And although this time he doesn’t die - death has no power over Jesus - and this time he isn’t torn from them through violence, this time, he’s physically gone for good. Jesus ascends, and there’s no mistaking that he’s no longer on earth with them. They see it happen. There’s no tomb this time. His body is not on earth. And I think, particularly in these challenging days, it is hard not to feel the grief, the disappointment, the sense of loss that the disciples experience. We talked about that at Bible Study this week. Donna Peck expressed what was probably running through the minds of the disciples: “Jesus, why can’t you just stay?” Why did Jesus have to leave again? How disappointed and heartbroken they must have been! 

We talked about another aspect of their grief in this text at Bible Study too. Before Jesus ascends, the disciples ask him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore Israel?” This is a question they’ve asked Jesus a lot, in various ways, during his time with them. Remember, all of Israel was under occupation by the Roman government. For minority groups, like the Jewish people, a relatively small and, in the eyes of the Romans, unusual religious group, living under foreign occupation was oppressive and restrictive. To have their homeland, the land God had promised them, controlled by those who were reluctant at best to let the Jewish people worship and live as they chose - it was painful. Roman rule was impoverishing to most of the people. It meant living in fear, trying to be careful all the time not to disrupt or draw too much attention. After all, look what happened when the dispute between Jesus and the chief priests and elders was brought to the attention of Pontius Pilate? So the disciples and others have asked Jesus before about Israel being restored. It’s what people assumed the messiah, the anointed one of God, would come to do. People assumed that the whole point of a messiah was restoring Israel, ending the Roman occupation, letting the people hold the land again that God had given them. Jesus consistently deflected such requests, trying to show that he was not that kind of messiah. The kingdom Jesus was about was the one we’ve been talking about over the last weeks of listening to Jesus’ parables: God’s reign brought to earth, not through overthrowing governments, but through persistently trying to make God’s ways our ways. Still, though, the disciples can’t seem to help but ask again. Because Jesus is now leaving earth, and still, the people are oppressed. Still, Rome is in charge. Has God’s messiah come and gone from earth, and nothing changed? Again in the text there’s a sense of grief and abandonment. Grief over losing Jesus again. Grief over losing hope about what Jesus came to accomplish. So when the men in white - God’s messengers, angels, - appear and wonder why the disciples are gazing up into the sky, trying to catch one last glimpse of Jesus, when the messengers seem to want to hurry the disciples along, I wonder if the disciples are thinking, “Can’t you just give us a minute, an hour, a year to process this? We’re devastated again!” 

I feel like I connect more with the grief of the disciples in these hard days. Maybe you do too. I think we, too, are both wishing that the things that we’ve loved, the “normal” rhythms of life could stay the same, and that the pain and suffering of this season could be alleviated. We know that God is with us always, but sometimes it is hard to feel that God is close to us, and sometimes it seems as if wherever Jesus has ascended is very far away from our everyday experience. What are we to do? Where is our hope? Is there a word for us in this Ascension story? For the disciples, Jesus gave them two messages: The Holy Spirit is coming, and you are to be my witnesses. And I think in those messages, we find comfort and direction too. 

Jesus promised the disciples that the Holy Spirit was coming. The disciples didn’t know what that meant yet. But we know that the Holy Spirit is God, just as Jesus is God. The trinity - that our God is one but also three - God, Christ, Spirit - is sometimes hard to understand. But the gist of it for the disciples was that although Jesus wasn’t going to be present in human form, walking down the road with them, God was going to be very present - as close as their breath, in fact, filling them up with the Holy Spirit. The power that they saw in Jesus would be the same power that would propel them into sharing the good news of Jesus and God’s amazing love. How God was with them was being transformed, but they were not abandoned. 

Some of you know that I enjoy attending - not every year but about every other year - the Festival of Homiletics, a weeklong preaching conference, full of great worship and preaching, and lectures about worship and preaching. It’s really fantastic. I was supposed to have been at the Festival this past week in Atlanta, Georgia. But, like everything else, it was canceled because of COVID-19. A modified Festival moved to an online format, and while it isn’t quite the same, I’ve been enjoying listening to the lectures and sermons. One standout was from Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. He preached about Jesus and the disciples on the road to Emmaus. That’s a story from Easter day in the scriptures, when Jesus travels with some followers after he has been resurrected, but they don’t recognize him. They spend the day with him without recognizing him, only realizing that it is the resurrected Jesus when he shares bread with them at the end of their journey. 

Moss reflected on how Jesus was present with them for the whole journey, but they only recognized Jesus when the physical exchange of sharing food was made - their needs were met by Jesus. Likewise, he said, God is always present with us, but sometimes we don’t recognize God’s presence. Sometimes, he said, God is just “outside the frame.” Moss, who was, like most pastors these days, preaching into a camera in a mostly empty sanctuary, revealed that the whole time he was preaching, there was someone supporting and praying for him just outside the frame of what the camera could show to us viewers - his wife was there, encouraging him. When the camera pulled back, we could see that she’d been sitting beside him all along, but had been just outside the frame. God is with us, friends. Sometimes, though, God is outside the frame that we’re using to look at the world, to look at our lives. We might need to adjust the way we’re looking to witness God’s presence, but I promise, God is with us.   

And because God is with us, we, like the disciples, can have the confidence to carry out the same assignment Jesus gave to them: we’re called to be witnesses. What are witnesses? Witnesses are those who can verify the truth of events that have taken place. Witnesses can say, “Yes, I was there.” Witnesses say, “Here’s what happened.” We witness with our words and with our actions. In fact, our whole lives are a witness to what our truths are. What does your life - how you live, how you love, how you serve - what does your life say is the truth for you? As I mentioned, we spent some of our last weeks talking about the kingdom of God about which Jesus speaks in his parables. We talked about what things are like when God’s reign is not just in heaven, not just for eternity, but for earth, for here and now. We pray that we would be part of making that possible every time we share in the Lord’s prayer. We say, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We pray that God’s way may be our way, here and now. And so we witness to the reality of God, to the work of Jesus, every time we do something that sort of “narrows the gap,” or at least the perceived gap between earth and heaven. Everytime we  live in a way that exemplifies God’s reign, God’s rhythms, God’s values and priorities, we’re being witnesses for Jesus. And if many people wonder where God is, we are witnesses everytime we help people adjust their focus and realize that God is there, just outside the frame of where they’d been looking. The disciples: they did tear their gaze from heaven and get to work. It was not easy. They did not do it all at once. They had to make many decisions about how they would best carry on the work of Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit. But these followers of Jesus became witnesses to the ends of the earth, just as Jesus asked. And slowly, that the work of Jesus in the world does restore and renew us, free us from oppression, conquer injustice, even when it comes about in unexpected ways. In these hard days, what is the witness of your life? 

I can’t promise - and Jesus doesn’t promise - that there won’t be some grief-filled days ahead for us, when we wish we could just go back to a different time, how things were before. But Jesus does promise that God is with us, as close as our very breath. And if God is with us and in us, let our whole lives tell the story. Let our whole lives bear witness to the truth. Amen. 

Sermon for Ascension Sunday, Acts 1:1-11

Sermon 6/2/19

Acts 1:1-11

Ascension

I shared with you a couple of weeks ago my joy that I’d gotten to attend my niece’s first dance recital. She’s been taking tap and ballet, and she loves it. She’s in the three and four year old class, and of course, the skill level is - well, the skills at that point are mostly about being willing to stand up in front of a room of people who are all staring at you and smiling big goofy grins and taking your picture, and of course, the managing to be excessively cute while doing this, and all the children in Siggy’s class managed to accomplish this. No one ran off stage that I could see - everyone got up front and did their thing.

At one point, though, all though the children were standing up front and smiling and being cute enough, they didn’t seem to be doing much dancing. Ok - there was not much dancing happening at the best of moments, but they were mostly just standing there at one point, and I wasn’t sure why. I wasn’t sure, that is, until after the song was over and Miss Jillian, the teacher, stepped up front and asked everyone to clear out of the center aisle. You see, over the course of the recital, anxious family members, wanting the perfect photo or recording of their little dancer, had creeped farther and farther into the center aisle, until it was quite full. (I don’t judge - I certainly had my own camera out even though I stayed in my seat!) And Miss Jillian had been standing at the back of the room, doing all the dance moves so that her students could watch and copy her. But with the family members filling the aisle, the dancers could no longer see the teacher, and so they just stopped dancing. They didn’t actually remember any of the steps on their own, and so if they couldn’t see their teacher, they couldn’t dance.

I couldn’t help but have this image in mind - all the little dancers, no longer knowing quite what to do if they couldn’t see their teacher, as I read our scripture  text for today. Today is Ascension Sunday. It’s not exactly a “huge” Sunday in the life of the church, particularly in Protestant traditions, but over the years it has started to feel more significant to me. It was certainly significant to the disciples. The Ascension is the day forty days after Easter Sunday when Jesus ascends into heaven and leaves earth, at least in his physical human incarnation. We celebrate on the Sunday nearest to the forty day mark. I’m not sure why we don’t make a big thing of the Ascension. I guess Jesus leaving earth isn’t as exciting as Jesus arriving on earth at Christmas, and maybe because we figure Christ never really leaves if we’re talking about his presence, or the way we embody Jesus on earth, so it isn’t such a big deal, and maybe since Jesus has already left through his crucifixion and death but then returned as the resurrected Christ - maybe all of this makes the Ascension feel anticlimactic. But when I think about it, for the disciples - this moment is HUGE! It’s everything? Sure, they are not crushed in grief like they were just after the crucifixion. But this time they know Jesus is really leaving earth, and he’s not coming back, not in the same way, not now. This time, their time spending their every day with Jesus in the flesh is really, certainly done. The disciples must be overwhelmed with emotions. What should they be feeling? What should they do now?   

The scene in Acts 1 just before the Ascension unfolds like this. Luke, author of both Acts and Luke, tells us that Jesus has instructed the disciples to stay in Jerusalem, because they’ll be receiving this thing called the Holy Spirit. They’ll be “baptized” with the Spirit Jesus says. We’ll be talking all about the Holy Spirit next week at Pentecost. They’re to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the Spirit. But the disciples still don’t seem to understand - or at least they don’t want to understand - that Jesus is about to leave. They ask him, “Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” Essentially, the disciples are asking - still, as they and others have been throughout Jesus’ entire ministry - when Jesus is going to put things back in order in the world. It sounds like Jesus is talking about leaving. The messiah has come, and now the messiah is leaving, but Israel is still an occupied country. The Roman government is still in charge. Things still haven’t returned to the way they were in the golden age of David. Everything hasn’t been perfected yet through God’s action in Jesus. If Jesus is leaving, when exactly is all that stuff supposed to happen?

Jesus answers in a way that I’m sure frustrates them if they’re a group seeking concrete answers. He says: It’s not for you to know! It’s not for you to know the things that God has determined! The disciples have some tasks ahead of them, but knowing what God has planned when isn’t one of them. What they can know is this: they’ll be getting the gift of the Holy Spirit, Jesus reminds them, and then they will be witnesses for Jesus both in Jerusalem and to the ends of the earth. In other words, they will be the ones sharing what they have seen and heard and learned from Jesus with everyone everywhere. With those words, Jesus ascends to heaven, and all the disciples are looking up at the sky, following as he moves out of their sight.

While they’re still gazing at the heavens, eyes fixed on the last spot where they could still see Jesus, two messengers of God appear. Their words remind me of the words of the messengers at the empty tomb on Easter, who asked, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” Today, these messengers ask, “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven? He’s been taken up to heaven!” But: there are words of comfort too: eventually, someday, at that time that’s not for us to know, Jesus will return. In the meantime - “in the meantime” is the time that we, the disciples of Jesus, are responsible for carrying out the work with which Jesus has charged us. We’re to be witnesses, people who are recounting to others the truth about who Jesus is, what he has done, and what we are called to do in response to God’s offering of love and grace.

When I think of the disciples, gazing up into heaven, I picture my niece’s dance class, when they can’t see the teacher anymore because of all the people who are standing in the way. For Siggy and her class, they simply hadn’t been students of ballet and tap long enough that they could continue to dance without someone to watch closely. They needed the teacher right in front of them. Eventually, after more years of lessons, they won’t need that anymore. But they don’t know enough yet. They’re beginners. It’s all still so new, and they can’t do it if they can’t watch their teacher doing it too so they can copy.

I think for a moment, the disciples felt just that way. They couldn’t see their teacher clearly anymore, and maybe they should just stop dancing. How could they do it without Jesus right there with them? But they weren’t beginners. They have had years of lessons, years of following Jesus, learning his ways, practicing what he preached and taught. They have to keep dancing, even when the teacher isn’t standing where they can just copy his movements. Because if they can’t, they’ll never be dancers. They’ll always be students, and being folks who always are learning is good, but the disciples have to be ready to take on the work of Jesus themselves. That’s why Jesus had them follow him for so long - so they could be the ones to carry his work to the whole world. If the disciples can’t become dancers - messengers of the work of Jesus in the world - Jesus’s mission and purpose in the world would never be fulfilled. Thankfully, the disciples, empowered by the gift of the Spirit as we see next week, realize that Jesus has given them all the tools they need to do God’s work in the world, to be Jesus’ hands and feet in the world, to be the body of Christ in the world. And beginning with that small group of disciples, the message of Jesus and God’s grace spreads and spreads.

What about us, I wonder? We’re disciples too. We’ve been following Jesus too. Some of us may indeed be beginners. We’re following Jesus for the first time in our lives. We’re new to this Jesus thing. But many of us made the commitment to be disciples long ago. We’ve renewed our commitment again and again. Are we dancers? Or are we still looking for the teacher so we can copy the footwork?

Last week we had a Leadership Retreat - a team of us who are involved in the Council of Stewards, Council on Ministries, and Staff-Parish Relations Committee gathered to talk about our intentional discipleship plan here at the church. Our intentional discipleship plan, something we’re in the process of developing, is our understanding of how we help folks move from being curious about Jesus, meeting him for the first time, to making a commitment to follow Jesus, becoming a disciple, to then committing to a life of growing and maturing in faith, embodying Jesus more and more fully. That’s our hope for each of us who are connected to this congregation - that we are not just static observers of Jesus, but that we are actively growing in our faith - always drawing closer to God, always going deeper, always giving more and more of ourselves into God’s hands. That’s our priority for how we want to do things around here: how can make sure our ministries and programs and worship and studies are helping people grow as disciples.

I’m not sure everyone is meant to be a leader. Some people are called to servant leadership, and some are meant to be followers, and are never called to take a role as a leader, at least in the sense of being in charge of a committee or running a group or leading a study. That’s ok, truly. Jesus called followers after all, some of whom became leaders, but his priority was to call followers who could be equipped as disciples, apostles, people sent out with the message of Jesus. And I think we can be sent out with the message and work of Jesus, I think we can be witnesses to the work of Jesus without being leaders in the typical sense. But I think sometimes our desire to not be a leader gets mixed up, and turns into us not wanting any responsibility, not wanting to be required to do anything. We look around at the things that need our attention as people of faith acting in God’s name, and we keep waiting for someone else to do it, because we’re not leaders.

But friends, we are disciples. We are followers. We are called and equipped to serve God. We are charged with being witnesses to the ends of the earth. We are supposed to be dancers who have learned enough about the steps that we can do the work of Jesus even though Jesus isn’t physically with us. Why are we looking up at heaven? We already know how to follow in the footsteps of Jesus on earth. So let’s get to it. Let’s dance. Amen.  

Sermon for Ascension Sunday, "Head in the Clouds," Acts 1:1-11

Sermon 5/28/17

Acts 1:1-11

Finding Easter: Looking Up

            If you read the May newsletter, you might know that today we’re going to talk a bit more about what the difference is between a disciple and an apostle, and that we’re also going to be celebrating this weird thing called Ascension Sunday. Ascension Sunday isn’t exactly one of our highest holy days. It probably isn’t anyone’s favorite day in the liturgical calendar. There aren’t a lot of well-known Ascension hymns. We don’t have special Ascension decorations, and no one exchanges Ascension-day presents. Many years, if I have been in the middle of a sermon series on Ascension Sunday, I’ve not even bothered to focus on the Ascension during worship. It’s easy to skip right past.

            But it’s an important part of our liturgical season. Right now, we’re still in the midst of the feast of Easter, the great fifty days of Easter. Although many of us could talk a lot about the last days of Jesus’ life - the Last Supper, the foot washing, the trial and crucifixion, and I hope most of us could describe the events of Easter day - Jesus’ resurrection, I don’t think we spend a lot of time thinking about the sort of ambiguous time after Easter. Maybe we know about Pentecost - which we’ll celebrate next Sunday - when God sends the gift of the Holy Spirit on the disciples, that violent rushing wind that rests on them like tongues of fire and sets them speaking in many languages. But I don’t think we give much thought to the time Jesus spends with the disciples after the resurrection, and perhaps even less to how that particular time draws to a close. The Ascension is the celebration of the day Jesus leaves earth, after the resurrection, returning to God’s realm, leaving the disciples behind to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. This happens forty days after the resurrection, and in worship we celebrate it on the closest Sunday to that count.

I think another part of our holding the Ascension of Jesus at arm’s length in our hearts and minds come from the fact that the scriptures depict Jesus literally rising up into the air, into the clouds, to return to God. This makes sense for a first century audience, for whom the realm of God would have been literally up. The heavens were where God dwelt, in the sky, above the earth, hovering over all creation. But most of us don’t tend to think of heaven as a physical place that you could get to if you got in, say, a space shuttle. We know about the planet and the universe and the stars, at least enough to know that God isn’t just floating around on the other side of the clouds. So this image of Jesus ascending isn’t particularly compelling, I think. Or at least, it might be more confusing than compelling. Here it is, though, ready for us to study, interpret, and decide how it impacts us - or not. 

We find the story of Jesus’ ascension both at the end of the gospel of Luke and at the beginning of the book of Acts. Luke is the other of both of those works, and Acts is a sequel of sorts to Luke – the story of what happens to the disciples after Jesus is no longer physically with them. And even though the very same author tells us more or less the very same story in both Luke and Acts, the impact of the Ascension at the end of Jesus’s years of preaching and teaching the disciples is different than the Ascension as told at the beginning of the years of the apostles being sent out in the power of the Holy Spirit to build the church of Jesus. Disciples, apostles. As I said in my newsletter article, disciple literally means “student.” We are students of Jesus Christ. We try to learn from him, follow in his ways, be as much like him as we can. We are definitely meant to be disciples! And we always have more we can learn, as we seek to mold ourselves more and more into Christ-like ways of being in the world. And yet, we are also called to be apostles, which means literally, “ones who are sent.” We are sent-ones. We don’t become disciples just for our own benefit, but so that we are equipped to serve those who are lost, on the fringes, desperate, and unaware or unconvinced of God’s abiding love for them. How will the good news be shared if we, disciples, never are “sent out”? If the gospels, then, are about our journey as disciples, students of Jesus, the book of Acts is about our call to be sent-ones, people sent out in the name and with the mission of Jesus.

Acts opens with the author addressing someone named Theophilus, saying, “In the first book, [which we know is the Gospel of Luke] Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven.” We don’t know anything about Theophilus. The name means literally Lover of God, and so Theophilus might be a person who was interested in becoming a follower of Jesus, or really just a broad name addressing all who claim to love God. The author recounts that forty days pass after the resurrection, during which time Jesus continued to appear to disciples, teaching about the kingdom of God, and directing them to stay in Jerusalem until they received God’s promise of the Holy Spirit. On the fortieth day, they’ve gathered together with Jesus, and they ask him: “Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom of Israel?” Essentially, they are asking if Jesus is going to rid Israel of Roman occupation, return it to its glory, and rule over it as king. They have been asking him this throughout his entire ministry, and throughout his entire ministry, Jesus has been teaching them that that is exactly that kind of ruler and lord Jesus is not. The kingdom of God is not this rule of power and might that will come in and conquer the occupying Romans by violent force, and further, Jesus certainly isn’t interested in talking about dates and times that things will happen. And so I can only imagine that here, even now after the resurrection, even after another forty days of teaching about the kingdom, how very exasperated Jesus must be to have to tell them yet again that that is not what’s all about, or what he’s ever been all about. Still, Jesus moves on quickly, and reminds them one last time that the power they will be getting is the power of the Holy Spirit. What the disciples will be, Jesus says, are his witnesses to the ends of the earth.

While Jesus is saying this, we read, the disciples realize that he’s being lifted up, and taken out of their sight. They stand, a bit frozen, staring into the sky, gazing up towards heaven. But while they’re still looking up, two men in white robes suddenly appear, standing with them. They say to the disciples, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” And that’s where this scene and our text for the day conclude.

There are some parallels here between this account of the Ascension and Luke’s account of the Resurrection. On Easter Sunday, Luke records that the women came to the tomb and found it empty. But as they were wondering over the empty tomb, two men in white appeared, even as the women were gazing at the emptiness, to ask: “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here; he is risen.” At Easter, the messengers of God help to direct the attention of the Jesus-followers away from wherever they gotten stuck at, and instead to redirect it to getting moving, getting the message out, getting the news announced - Jesus is on the move, not stuck in a tomb of death! Jesus is on the move, and the women have to get going to help tell the story. I think the same thing is happening a bit here at the Ascension. The disciples are gazing up at heaven, because the only thing they can focus on is that Jesus has left them. Yes, he’s resurrected. Yes, he’s conquered death. But in that moment, when he’s leaving earth, not going to be with them physically any longer, I can only imagine that they are overwhelmed with anxiety and fear and loneliness. And so they gaze up at the sky, hoping perhaps to catch one last glimpse. The messengers of God appear to pull their gazes from where they are stuck, on the sky, and pull them back into their present reality. Why are they gazing up at heaven? Jesus’ work on earth - at least in that way - is done. Now the work of the disciples is about to begin, and it’s time for them to get moving, get to it.

A good group of us have recently been participating in a study called animate Faith. During our first session, we talked about two fancy church words – kataphatic, and apophatic – two ways of thinking about God. Kataphatic means that we can find meaningful ways of talking about God, like through the images of God we find throughout the scripture – God as rock, God as a mother hen, God as a shepherd, God as love. Apophatic means that we can’t grasp the fullness of God with our words – God is beyond our description. We talked about finding a balance between these ways of understanding. And as we talked about the apophatic tradition, we talked about whether or not we are people who are comfortable with not knowing things. I can tell you that I have always liked to know the answers. When I got to seminary, and was suddenly confronted with reading and learning a lot about faith and following Jesus that was totally new to me, for a while I was overwhelmed to the point of inaction with all that I didn’t know. It was, frankly, a pretty new feeling for me – not knowing – and I did not like it. Eventually, though, I found not that I could simply study enough to be able to know everything I wanted to about God and my task of discipleship, but rather that I could grow in my faith even in the midst of all that I didn’t know, that perhaps coming to terms with how much more God was than I could comprehend was a sign of my maturing faith, rather than of my ignorance. God is so much bigger than any box I can make to keep God in. And even still, we’re called to trust in what we do know, and follow God, even when we don’t know where God is leading, what will happen when we risk it all, and let ourselves be sent out to do the work of Jesus in the world.  

This is the truly amazing message of the Ascension: Even with the disciples asking - let’s face it - last minute stupid questions, Jesus has entrusted into their very imperfect hands his whole work, the purpose of his whole life, his whole vision for the realization of God’s reign on earth, everything that he hopes and dreams for us to be: Jesus has handed it over and left it completely in the hands of the disciples. Essentially, the Ascension represents Jesus saying that he doesn’t have any tasks left that are only his to complete. Everything else that needs doing - it is for those who are left to do it. And certainly, as the messengers note, this can’t be done by gazing up into the sky, but instead, by getting started. 

We are the ones who are here, who are left, who remain to carry out the work of Jesus. He’s made us his body, his hands and feet in the world. To us, to you, to me, Jesus has entrusted the carrying out of all of his hopes for the world. I wonder if we always get the weight and significance of that - how much faith Jesus puts in us, to believe that we can carry out the work of God in the world. Are we doing it? Are we embodying the good news of God’s love and grace in the world? Are we the hands and feet, the body of Christ in the world? We are disciples, students, always. But sometimes, the lesson we need to learn is that we can’t keep waiting until we know everything before we’re willing to go where God wants to send us. If we waited until we felt ready, we’d still be standing with the disciples, gazing up at the clouds, waiting for more information. We’re called to be apostles, too, sent out, witnesses of the work of Jesus to the ends of the earth. So why stand gazing up at heaven? After all, the body of Christ is right here, in this very room in fact, ready to be sent out. Amen.

Sermon for Ascension Sunday, Year A

Sermon 6/5/11

Luke 24:44-53, Acts 1:1-11

Ascension

            Last night I had the pleasure of attending my Uncles farewell celebration at his church. As most of you know, he is leaving Boonville after 20 years there to become a District Superintendent. It was really a joy and honor to hear him praised and honored – obviously, I am biased, but I find him to be inspiring as a pastor, uncle, and colleague. When all was said and done, plaques presented, presents given and received, speeches made, my uncle was invited to say a few words. And in his comments, and in his closing prayer, what he said was this: this church has been a place where my dreams and God's dreams for me have come true because of how you helped that to happen. So please make sure that you also partner with the new pastor to help make his dream and God's dreams come true in the future, in the years ahead as well. Because if this twenty year ministry has been all about me, I’ve been doing something very wrong. This ministry is about building up the kingdom of God. Because I know that for my uncle, the thing that would make him feel the worst would be to hear that Boonville United Methodist just couldn’t continue without him. The worst thing would be watching what he worked so hard to build fall apart. To know that the lessons he tried to teach hadn’t really sunk in after all, that the gifts he shared and cultivated had been in vain.

            Today is Ascension Sunday, and it is a weird in-between sort of day before Pentecost that we don’t spend much time thinking about. It is the day that we remember that Jesus, forty days after the Easter Resurrection, returned to heaven to be with God. That is what the Ascension is. But we need to know the why or it doesn’t much matter. Why is the Ascension important for us to think about? In some ways, actually, I think this time period – the time immediately following Jesus’ ascension, is actually the most critical time for the disciples, for Jesus, for the church, for the mission of the pervasive kingdom of God. Because I can imagine that Jesus, like my Uncle Bill, had to wonder a little bit: how exactly will things unfold after I leave. Jesus would be with the disciples always – but not in the flesh – not to walk with for miles between villages, not to quickly consult with. Jesus had been with the disciples for three years – and they were not getting another Jesus. There is only the one! Yes, they were promised a Comforter, an Advocate to help. But they were in effect stepping into Jesus’ shoes themselves! The students were becoming the preachers and teachers and spreaders of good news now. They had been called, equipped, sent out. But now it was up to them. They could return to their old lives, convinced they couldn’t do anything without Jesus physically present. Or they could believe that Jesus had provided the gifts they needed to be Christ’s presence in the world. What would they do?

            In some ways, we live our whole journey of discipleship in this moment of transition, for I think God is forever asking us the question, watching to see: what will we do? Because although we, like the Twelve, probably feel like we are in some respects always disciples, students, learning more about God, we, like the Twelve, also have, Jesus says, everything we need to change the world, make our dreams and God's dreams come true in us, through us, in our community. What will we do? What will we do?

            Next Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, the day the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, wiping away excuses, giving them boldness, and setting off the birth of what we call the church. We know what the first disciples did, eventually, with God's help. They became the church. They shared about the kingdom and God's grace. They used their gifts. What will we do? I would like you to think about that this week – what will you do? What are you doing? What will we do in this place, this community?

            Today, to help us begin to think more deeply about these questions, I need your help. I want you to take your (index card), and write down three things you are good at. Three. It can be anything. Knitting, football, computers, shopping for deals, whatever. Three things. Three. You don’t need to write your name. Just three things. And if you can’t think of three, even though you are most definitely, I am telling you, good at three things, then at least write three things you like doing. Reading. Watching TV. Riding your bike. But give me three things on your card. I am asking Della to play music for three minutes while you write things down, and pass your cards to the ushers. Please, I really encourage you – just humor me, and fill out your cards! Right now.

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By now, you are probably asking: what is Pastor Beth going to do? Next week, Pentecost Sunday, birthday of the church, I hope you will come to worship and find out!

Today is Ascension Sunday. Jesus is with God. God is with us. And we have a question to answer, and all creation is waiting with bated breath for our response: what will we do?

Amen.