Luke 24:44-53, Acts 1:1-11
Ascension Sunday: May 12, 2013
Happy Mothers’ Day! I can’t really imagine how Mother’s Day
and the Ascension go together. So we’ll stick with the Ascension for now.
We can only imagine as to what the Ascension of Jesus must
have been like. I can imagine myself somehow trying to jump and pull him back
down to earth. After all, I probably still have a few questions I would like
answers to: “Where are you going Jesus?” “What do we do next?” “Could you
explain your miracles just one more time?”
But he had to go. If he had stayed the Holy Spirit could
not have done her work. The church would not have been able to grow, stunted by
the physical presence of God. You see, faith is the belief in something that is
not seen. So there would be no need for true faith if Jesus had simply stayed
on earth. Without faith, the Holy Spirit is worthless as she brings the gift of
faith to us.
Because Christ ascended to heaven the disciples—which
includes us—are now empowered to do the work of God here on earth guided by the
Holy Spirit. We have been gifted with the Holy Spirit so that we can aim toward
obeying Jesus’ command to love God and to love one another. Through that same
Holy Spirit we are then led to grow as people of faith, using the gifts and
time God has given us to advance God’s kingdom here on earth.
So then Jesus leaves our midst so that we can grow.
Maybe there is a connection between Mothers’ Day and
Ascension after all!
Jesus spent his last few years on earth teaching and
showing the disciples what his love was all about. The lessons Jesus gave to
them were to show them how to continue after they were no longer physically
together. And the moms in our lives have done the same things. Teaching us the
skills and traits we will need for a successful life as an adult away from home.
Jesus loved, taught lessons, even scolded when necessary.
He used real life examples to show both the strengths and weaknesses of human
life. And moms do that too… do your homework, clean your room, don’t tease your
sister, or one of my personal favorites—if everyone was jumping off a bridge
would you do that too?
But of course the Ascension does far more for us than just
show us who we are. It also shows us
who Jesus is, opening our eyes to
the knowledge that Jesus is truly God. And even better, for the first time we
now can see God as more than being beyond time and space, something greater than all-powerful,
majestic, sovereign, and eternal. As Jesus returns to the Father we can now realize
a God who knows loneliness, betrayal, thirst, rejection, and even death.
No longer can God be portrayed as completely detached from
the human experience. Jesus offers us a God who is vulnerable and even
approachable. So that when we turn to God in distress, peril, or despair; we
turn to a God who knows intimately the pain of the human condition. We have a
God that assures us that affliction will not have the final word because the
risen and ascended Christ will intercede for us; nothing can separate us from
his love.
Today Jesus tells his followers—US!—that repentance and
forgiveness are to be proclaimed in his name to all nations! This is not idle
chit-chat, not a command, not even marching orders. It is a promise to us that
now we have the power to do that. No longer is there only one voice on earth to
proclaim good news to the people but now all who call upon his name are
empowered and equipped with the power to proclaim God’s forgiveness for all who
believe, to declare God’s mercy and goodness for the world, to share God’s love
for all right where we are.
And to put the icing on the cake, the cherry on top, Jesus
does one final act. He blesses the disciples. His very final act is to lift up
his hands and bless us. And during his ascension the blessing continues, it’s
the very last vision the world has of Jesus. And he continues to bless us right
through this very moment and beyond. We continue in these blessings, they are
all around us in the people and places God has placed in our midst. And so it
goes.
When Jesus left the disciples didn’t hang their heads and
feel woe for Jesus leaving them. Because they realized the promise that Jesus
wasn’t leaving them alone. They fully understood their new sense of mission to
be “little Christs” as Martin Luther would later write, recognizing that they
are now servants of all, carrying a message far more precious than the most
expensive jewels, far sweeter than the most splendid perfume, and far more
satisfying than the richest of foods.
And we too, because of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and
ascension, can rejoice in the very same way. WE know we aren’t left alone, WE
are today’s little Christs with a message we can deliver in a multitude of ways
that sounds sweeter than the most beautiful symphony. The Holy Spirit empowers
us to share that marvelous message of Christ’s sacrifice for us. And by telling
the story we then fulfill the proclamation to all nations, one friend, one
family member, one neighbor at a time.
And so Christ really did have to return to the Father.
Because then we receive a gift not just for moms but for all of us here today.
It’s a gift tastier than the finest chocolate, more fragrant than the best
perfume, more lovely than the most beautiful of roses. It’s the gift of the
Holy Spirit. And for that gift and all the other gifts we receive daily from
our Creator…
Thanks be to God!
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