Theophilus, the first scroll I wrote
concerning everything Jesus and taught from the beginning, right up to the day
when he was taken up into heaven. Before
he was taken up, working in the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus instructed the
apostles he had chosen. After his
suffering, he showed them he was alive with many convincing proofs. He appeared to them over a period of forty
days, speaking to them about God’s kingdom.
While they were eating together, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem
but to wait for what the Father had promised.
He said, “This is what you heard from me: John baptized with water, but
in only a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” As a result, those who had gathered together
asked Jesus, “Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now?”
Jesus replied, “It isn’t for you to now
the times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority. Rather, you will receive power when the Holy
Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all
Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
After Jesus said these things, as they
were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going away and as they were
staring toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood next to them. They said, “Galileans, why are you standing
here, looking toward heaven? This Jesus,
who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you saw
him go into heaven.”
It is estimated that by the time
today is over, American consumers will have spent $18 billion on Mother’s
Day. Those flowers, cards, lunches, and
spa passes can really add up! The
greeting card industry certainly knows the meaning of the phrase “golden
opportunity.”
Today, I would like to suggest
that the greeting card industry has missed one.
Today is Ascension Sunday, it is the day we in the church commemorate
that Jesus was taken bodily into heaven 40 days after Easter. In local drugstores, you will not find one
single Ascension Day greeting card. Not
one! Since the greeting card companies
seem to have missed this opportunity, I am inviting all of you to get in on the
ground floor of an untapped market. If
people will spend $18 billion for Mother’s Day, just imagine what they’ll spend
for Ascension Day!
The marketing campaign practically
writes itself - Ascension Day balloons (filled with helium, so they rise on
their own, of course), Ascension Day climbing gear so you can ascend into the
heights, I’m telling you, the sky is the limit!
When it comes to potential, this idea has nowhere to go but up!
I’ll stop here with the puns. All joking aside, why should any of us care about
the Ascension? Why does it matter, as we
affirm in the Apostles’ Creed, that Jesus “ascended into heaven and sitteth at
the right hand of God the Father Almighty?”
When John Wesley edited the Prayer
Book from the Church of England for use by the early Methodists, he left out
all the holy days that didn’t occur on a Sunday, except for three, because they
were too important to skip. Those three
days were Christmas, Good Friday, and Ascension. So, it’s obviously important, but why?
That’s a question I wrestled with
all week. The Scripture we’ve read today
is complex and mysterious, and so today, rather than looking for neat and tidy
answers, I simply invite you to lean into and embrace the mystery.
We know that Acts is written by
Luke, the author of the Gospel by the same name. His first book, the Gospel, was an account of
the life and work of Jesus, and this book will be an account of what his first
followers - the apostles - did. The
Gospel began with a detailed description of the birth of Jesus, and now Acts
begins with the birth of the Christian Church.
Luke, the physician, always shows
a concern for the body. To Luke it is
important that Jesus spent his existence in a physical body, made of the same
flesh and blood as ours, prone to frailty and vulnerability just like us. It’s important that Jesus, in his body, was
born and grew from infancy to adulthood.
His body experienced hunger and thirst and exhaustion.
Throughout his ministry, Jesus was
touching and being touched by people. He
touched children and blessed them, he touched lepers and blind people and
disabled people, he touched people who were considered unclean and sinners, he
touched women and foreigners, he touched outcasts and those on the margins of
his society.
Jesus did all the things in his
body that we do in ours - he ate with friends, he slept when he was tired. When one of his closest friends betrayed him,
his body suffered and eventually died, just like ours. Luke places such strong emphasis on the
physical body of Jesus lest we should miss the point that there is nothing in
this life that we go through - whether joy or pain - that is unknown territory
to Jesus.
Jesus is no stranger to our
situation - a reminder that whatever you’re going through in your life right
now, whether that is good or bad - Jesus has been there, too, and indeed, Jesus
is going through it with you.
But, we also know that the body of
Jesus has gone where our bodies have not.
Even when he tasted death, the taste didn’t stay in his mouth for long. Death itself was not strong enough to keep
Jesus bound, and so central to our faith is a grave with a vacancy sign hung
outside. Everything his body experienced
from cradle to grave helped him get to know us; but everything in his life from
the empty grave forward helps us to know and experience the new life in him.
The resurrection wasn’t the end of
the story; rather, it was like a new beginning.
After he was raised from the dead, the physical body of Jesus was still
with the disciples - still eating and laughing with them, still teaching them
about the kingdom of God.
This is where Luke picks up to
begin writing his second volume, the book of Acts. And the first thing that happens in the book
of Acts is that the physical body of Jesus - that body that was so important to
Luke throughout his Gospel - is taken into heaven.
But here’s the important thing:
Jesus isn’t gone. Jesus hasn’t
disappeared. Jesus hasn’t left the
building. Quite the opposite, in fact. During his earthly life, Jesus lived a bodily
existence full of God’s Spirit. Now, his
ministry will be carried forward by a body of people who are filled with God’s
Holy Spirit.
Jesus indicated as much
immediately before he ascended. He said,
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be
my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the
earth.”
But, before that happens, the
disciples are going to have to get it together.
Only moments after Jesus departs, they are still standing on the
hilltop, staring into the sky like first-time tourists in midtown Manhattan,
when two men in white robes show up and say, “So, uh, what are you looking
at? Why are you staring off into space -
that’s not what Jesus told you to do!”
For a moment, the disciples are
like the crowd who followed Forrest Gump while he was running, running,
running, back and forth across the country, until one day in the painted
desert, he decides he’s kinda tired, and thinks he’ll go home now. As Forrest turns his back and walks away, the
crowd looks longingly after their departed leader, and someone voices the
exasperation they’re all feeling - “Now what are we supposed to do?”
The disciples, fortunately, do
remember what Jesus told them to do, and so they go back to Jerusalem where
they will watch and wait and pray for the promised gift of the Holy
Spirit. Only that gift will empower them
to do what Jesus is counting on them to do - namely, to be his witnesses and
carry on his mission.
Sure enough, the rest of the book of
Acts will fill in the details on the outline from this one verse, as the
disciples receive the Holy Spirit, and are empowered to carry the message of
Jesus outward, outward, outward - like ripples in a still pond, spreading until
the whole world receives the touch of Jesus.
Friends, the call on our lives, as
those who follow Jesus, is exactly the same.
During his life, Jesus was the embodiment of God’s Holy Spirit on
earth. Now, we embody what Jesus
did. Our hands and feet are his hands
and feet upon the earth, and every fiber of our being is meant to witness about
who Jesus is and what Jesus does to the world around us. Our lives are a show-and-tell about who God
is and what God is up to in the world - not in our own strength or power or
cleverness, but only through the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the only influence that
can move us from doing good things to God things.
Being a disciple of Jesus means
being a witness for Jesus. It’s not
enough to simply stare into the sky and think good thoughts about days gone by
with Jesus. Living our lives for Jesus
isn’t a spectator sport, rather, it’s full-contact with the Holy Spirit and
touching the ends of the very same world Jesus touched.
Next Sunday, we will celebrate Pentecost,
the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church, with worship on the lawn - a
tangible reminder that when the first disciples received the Holy Spirit, they
were literally blown out into the streets - out of the safe confines of their
comfort zone. We will remember and we
will pray for the Holy Spirit to be poured out on us in the same way, that
God’s anointing might be received fresh and new in each generation.
But, there is a lag time, a
waiting period, if you will, between the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit
and the fulfillment of that promise. 10 days between Ascension and Pentecost,
during which time the disciples watched, and waited, and prayed to receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit, knowing that without that gift, their work would be in
vain.
As followers of Jesus, we are
called to do as Jesus did - to embody God’s Spirit upon the earth, to be the
love of God with a human face.
For today, it is the essential
thing, to watch, and wait, and pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that
the kingdom of God may come upon the earth, and that God’s will be done on
earth as it is in heaven.
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