Sermon 29th May 2022 – Ascension
Text: Luke 24:44-53
Today we celebrate the end to Jesus being with his followers after his
resurrection. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus
takes his closest friends to Bethany. Here
Jesus tells them that the time had come for the final stage of reconciling us
to God.
He commissions them to keep telling all the people about the good news
that they have witnessed because the generations to come need to hear what
happened. As he said to Doubting Thomas
– blessed are they who believe without seeing.
He raises his hands and blesses them as his final physical action. And
while he was blessing them, he was carried up into heaven - ascended. Gone. And despite his promise to send them
“power from on high,” imagine how alone they must have felt. And just like the
resurrection – this is new territory that they are entering.
The ascension is celebrated on the 40th day after Jesus’ resurrection
which would make it last Thursday.
And because of the busyness or life and work it’s tempting to ignore the
story of the Ascension altogether because it has passed. Unlike Chrismas – the
Ascension never happens on a Sunday – always on a Thursday. It’s hard getting
people to church on a Sunday morning let alone on a Thursday night. And what is
the significance of Jesus floating away like that.
What is there to celebrate with Jesus departing. The significance and
the celebration is in the word – Ascension,
Ascension in one sense means to go “up” as we see in the physical sense
in our reading that Jesus went “up” into the clouds. But the ascension here is
not a physical ascension but a royal ascension as when a King ascends to his
throne.
Such as Psalm 47 - God has ascended with a mighty shout. The LORD has
ascended with trumpets blaring.
Whereas Jesus was lifted up to the cross when he was crucified now God
lifts him up to ascend to his throne in heaven to sit at God’s right hand.
So we see this is a power shift from his physical presence on earth to
now his spiritual rule over the earth. And that’s what Paul is describing in
his letter to the Ephesians where he writes: God put this power to work in
Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the
heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and
above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to
come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over
all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all
in all. And what’s really important for us to understand is that this is a
completely different power and authority to how we usually understand power and
authority. And this is probably one of the biggest struggles that the church
has had to understand. Because we have associated our power and authority too
often in human understanding. So when our physical presence declines we believe
the church is in decline. When our numbers decline, When our influence
declines.
When our presence in public declines – we believe that this relates to
our power and authority. That cannot be further from the truth.
The power and authority of Jesus and of the church is seen in things
that can’t be measured by human means. Jesus shows his disciples just what that
authority looks like. He says that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be
proclaimed in my name to all nations. You are witnesses of these things. It is
very easy for the church to focus on earthly principles.
To begin to measure our achievements in the same way worldly businesses
measure achievement. To some extent it’s important as we need to pay our way in
the world. But when that becomes the drive – when that becomes the measure of a
successful church – finances,, attendances, popularity – then our mission is
based on flawed logic. Jesus has already given us our power and authority – as
St Paul says: God has put all things under Jesus feet and has made him the head
over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who
fills all in all.
It is natural to want to see results for the work we do, just like the
disciples in our first reading. "Lord, is this the time when you will
restore the kingdom to Israel? They wanted results NOW. To which Jesus responded
- It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his
own authority. It’s very tempting, and it’s very natural to want to see instant
results. We get impatient and we want to try something else. We’ll look at what
others are doing and if only we did what they are doing we’d have the same
success. Let’s try another program – another Pastor. But this is where we need
to trust God and his plan for us.
We have been given our mission – to proclaim God’s forgiveness in the
world and we are his witnesses as we have experienced God’s forgiveness
firsthand. And so the question we need to keep asking ourselves – are we doing
that?
Are we being examples of forgiveness. If we want to achieve fullness of
God then we need to put our complete faith and trust in him and at times that
will mean God leading us through the wilderness as he did for Israel – to be
led through the valley of the shadow of death but not being afraid because our
Good Shepherd is with us. The Ascension is about trusting in God who has placed
all things under Christ in the Heavenly Realms and also in the church which is
his body. If we look at the world we will miss that because we will panic – we
will fear. Wars, pandemics, climate emergencies. But when we keep our eyes on
Christ we will allow his Holy Spirit to guide every step we make.
It’s about waiting – it’s about trusting. We are not always that good at
waiting. We tire out if we do not get quick
results.
Waiting in lines, waiting at the lights, at the doctor’s office, online,
on the phone – being constantly reminded that our call is important. Waiting is
not what we do well. Why is waiting so
hard? Because it means someone else, or some other
power, is in charge, not us. Jesus tells the disciples to, “wait”. Wait for
the promise of the Father.” He doesn’t
want them to go off spreading the news of his resurrection yet because on their
own steam they are a small, fearful community that has no power on its
own. Look what happened to Peter when he thought he
could do it on his own: He sank in the water.
He denied knowing Jesus. The disciples also flee when things get tough.
So, the disciples and we, must be patient and trust God. At times we
need to restrain ourselves and trust in God’s timing. The fulfillment will come at God’s timing,
not our own. We are action-oriented – we
are results driven – that’s human nature. We have our projects and plans, we
want to get on with things. Even when
our plans and intentions are noble and serve a good purpose sometimes God
doesn’t figure into them. Jesus urges his disciples to trust in God’s plan even
when that seems not how we should be doing things. Remember how many times
Jesus told people he had healed – don’t tell anyone – and it was the first
thing they did.
Jesus is never in a hurry. When he instructs his disciples he starts at
the beginning to remind them of God’s plan. Jesus had to remind them, by
interpreting the scriptures “beginning with Moses and all the prophets,”. He
reminds them that sometimes suffering and difficulty is part of God’s
mission. And that’s when we can be tempted to try
something else, like Peter – never Lord, this will never happen to you.
Our mission is to be witnesses. And we will be witnesses to Jesus by the
integrity of our lives and the commitment to his ways. Loving one another as he loves us. Loving and
forgiving our enemies. Witnesses at work, with our families, in school and in
sports, in our churches., etc., By human
standards these may not seem effective. Our attempts will be ignored, dismissed
– and we will feel like giving up. We become tempted to try another way. But we
are urged to be patient and to wait as the Holy Spirit strengthens us and
encourages us to keep the course. To keep witnessing to what we have
experienced – the forgiveness and grace of God.
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