BLCM – Sermon Ascension of Our Lord

SUNDAY, June 5, 2011

On Luke 24:44-53

Today we celebrate Christ’s Ascension. It’s a weird occasion. In fact we don’t talk a lot about it in church. And Luke’s is the only gospel account that mentions Jesus’ departure. Really, what kind of story is this anyway? … before Jesus is done blessing the disciples he is carried up into heaven. Doesn’t that sound more like an urban legend? One of these stories that might have some truth to it but its details have spiraled out of proportion over time.

Well, it was like that for the disciples. Their story had been tough lately. Jesus’ fame had grown over the last few years, and had brought him a triumphant entry into Jerusalem. But after that, things had gone haywire: Jesus’ underhanded imprisonment and unfair trial… his shameful death by crucifixion at Golgatha. The disciples had a hard time getting it all together. It had been too much. Before, they had had the hope that Jesus would change their lives. However, that bubble had burst. They were puzzled about what to do. And then two of their brothers had come to them – and had told them that they had met Jesus on the way to Emmaus. Another strange story in a chain of unfortunate events. They were prepared to leave the Jesus-story behind. No longer were they sure if they wanted to be part of this Jesus movement. They didn’t know how. Events had broken into their lives and tossed them around like helpless leaves in the wind. They felt left behind. And they were scared. Being identified as Jesus’ disciples was dangerous these days.

So, when Jesus appeared to them early this morning they had taken him for a ghost at first. But then he asked for some food. Ghosts don’t eat, do they? And they shared some broiled fish. And now they are sitting around Jesus, and Jesus is talking. It’s almost as it used to be. Them and their Lord… How is that possible?

We can’t blame the disciples for their reaction. Because their doubts and fears, their feeling abandoned and being left behind after Jesus’ death, their withdrawing into themselves is not unfamiliar to us. We, too, have tried to leave some stories of our lives behind. We have tried to pack ourselves in, distance ourselves from circumstances that have become overwhelming, too much, unbearable.

Humans have countless ways of trying to escape life, and even death. When things do not go the way we expect, we are good at moving on. We might hurl ourselves into cyberspace, or hide behind work. We might numb ourselves by taking pills or drowning life in the bottle. A relationship doesn’t work out? Move on to the next. When a loved one becomes ill and dies, we push away the grief and try to pretend that everything is fine. Everything inside us tells us to avoid the pain, ignore the conflict, keep away from the shame. And so we do.

Escapism happens to individuals and entire communities alike. And the Church is not exempt from it either. We might see Church as the haven, a secure place… for life in the world is too hostile. We might use the Bible as an oracle that tells us what we want to hear. We might focus too much on a life after death and the present becomes unimportant.

Or just very recently the world community was gripped by the supposed coming of the Lord. On May 21, 2011 Judgment Day was supposed to happen. Maybe we have shrugged the frenzy off. Or maybe we couldn’t help the tiny uneasy voice nagging us in the back of our head: What if it was true? What if this group of people knew something we didn’t. After all they are Christians… The media had a field day – fuelling the hype. Bad publicity is better than none. It’s not the first time that Christians were ridiculed for their often-obscure claims. And so, some people had anticipated the day. Others were afraid. And others again made a lot of money.

It isn’t easy figuring out what to do when life breaks into our expectations, hopes and dreams… when reality catches up with us, and things don’t fit our plans and ideas and beliefs…

Really, of all people the disciples should have known better, shouldn’t they? All these years and months and days and moments around Jesus… shouldn’t they have been more prepared for what had happened, was happening, and was to come? After all they had seen, heard, tasted and eye-witnessed the new reality that Jesus had brought about.

But they are packed up. And Jesus knows that. Jesus knows about their doubts and fears and questions. And Jesus knows that the disciples need some more preparation for their future without him. Instead of leaving them high and dry, instead of just disappearing Jesus has come back. And he attends to them one last time. He interprets scripture for them one last time, beginning with their forefathers… Moses… the prophets. And he explains to them how he had been there all along. Nothing had happened accidentally, nothing was arbitrary, but everything is embedded in God’s salvation plan. God’s enterprise ‘Salvation of all Creation’ hasn’t failed but had found its completion in Jesus’ own death and resurrection.

Jesus opens their minds and eyes and ears to understand… To understand that God cares for all creation from the beginning of time and always… To understand that the Jesus-movement hadn’t been over, isn’t over, and never will be over… To understand that they are still part of a grand story, God’s story… Jesus opens the disciples up, unpacks them and declares them “witnesses of these things”. He leaves them the promise to “clothe them with power from above”.

And to underline his promise Jesus lifts up his hands and blesses the disciples. And what might seem to be almost too familiar a worship experience for us, the disciples experience Jesus’ blessing for the first time. So far, Jesus had blessed food and little children. But this time Jesus blesses them.

No wonder, that when they return to Jerusalem to wait for things to come, these men are suddenly filled with a wild and freeing joy. They can’t keep from worshiping God. Jesus’ review and prospects for them has changed them. Where they had only seen doom and gloom, grief and despair, abandonment and ridicule, they now can see God with them. Jesus has made them part of God’s new reality. Jesus has given them a story to which they are eyewitnesses. No longer are they afraid but filled with hope and joy and the understanding that they are not alone, that Jesus will stay with them.

And like he has done to the disciples Jesus prepares us, too. For us preparation means planning, organizing, packing, getting ready to go. For God preparing means to linger, to scatter everything, to unpack, to put everything out of the boxes. Like he has done to the disciples Jesus unpacks us and makes us witnesses and blesses us, too.

Being unpacked by Jesus and understanding his promise to care has consequences. We no longer need to escape. We are no longer stuck in some sort of waiting room to get into heaven. We no longer need to sit on packed up suitcases and wait for things to end. Instead Jesus is going through life with us. And life is here and now. And we can look life in the eye. When things become dicey, when life deals us unfairly, when all signs seem to point towards the end of the world, we can cling to Jesus’ ascension promise. With great joy and hope we can trust that no-one and nothing is lost. Because our reality, our life, and our death is shaped by God’s blessing.

And this is what the world needs to hear. We, like the disciples, are embedded in God’s story as witnesses. And being witnesses of and to God means witnessing to God’s accomplished, living, and still unfolding plan for this world.  Being witnesses of and to God means literally witnessing to ALL aspects of life – not the Disney version or the doom-and-gloom-approach… but life in its fullness and richness, including hurts and pain, disappointment and death. God doesn’t help us to avoid and escape death or, as a matter of fact, even life, but helps us navigate through both life AND death. Jesus shows us the difference between packing and escaping and unpacking and staying. Jesus has done and finished the unpacking, and he might be leaving but God is here. And since we are in God’s hands, since Christ is Lord of heaven earth, how can we keep from singing?

Amen.

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