This is Ascension Sunday. The scripture is Acts 1: 3-11.
It's a really strong temptation to preach a Mother's Day sermon and avoid the Ascension all together. And while my sermon title is "Not A Mother's Day Text," you'll have to come to church to find out what that is all about.
The Gospels don't say much about the Ascension. I mean really not much. Mark only gives it one verse-the same with Luke in his Gospel. And if you think some folks have trouble with the idea of bodily resurrection (something which, by the way, I believe is critical to our faith), they turn absolutely green around this 'ascended into heaven in a cloud' stuff.
The Ascension raises a lot of issues. First of all, if you believe in a bodily resurrection, where did the body go? Well, the Ascension takes care of 'disposal of the body,' but is that all it's about? Is the only thing this is good for is getting rid of a body that we don't know what to do with? I don't think so. In fact, it is possible to look at the Ascension as the hinge on which Luke's total picture of the life of Jesus and the growth of the Church swings. It is the move into a new phase of God's work in the New Creation.
Think of it like this......
When I was a young father and my children were learning to ride a bicycle, there was a 'process' to that learning. I would run along beside the bike, holding onto the back of the seat so that they could learn balance and peddling without falling down. Then, I would let go and just run along side so that I could help them stabilize if they needed me. Now while this isn't a perfect image, it tells us a little bit about what is going on. When Jesus was among humanity in a physical body, He was God's hand 'on the bicycle' so to speak. Teaching, healing, demonstrating what the Kingdom looks like in how He related to those around Him. The Ascension is both the 'letting go' and preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit....which is how God' runs along side the bicycle.' The image, of course, breaks down in that God in the Spirit empowers our work for the New Creation; and there is never a time when God leaves us to go riding off on our own.....but you get sorta where I'm going with this.
Our task as the Church is to work toward the New Creation, the Kingdom of God, becoming reality. Scripture tells us in a multitude of places and ways-from Genesis to Revelation-that we are partners with God, called to help in the process of setting right the things in our world that have gone horribly wrong. Some of those things: particularly sin and death; were things that there was no way for us to deal with-we were, and are, powerless over them. Jesus dealt with them on the cross. There are other things: injustice, hunger, violence, etc. that we ARE not only capable of dealing with, but commanded to deal with....this is our call as Church...as the Body of Christ. Jesus spent His earthly life teaching us how to do so.
So....having conquered sin and death, it isn't that Jesus goes away to wait until He can snatch us up to heaven when we die (though we are promised that we will be with Him when that time comes), it's that God moves now to empower us to do our part in the drama of unfolding the New Creation that will finally culminate in the coming of the Kingdom.
What happens when we look at the Ascension, and our relationship to it, in this way? I hope you'll join us Sunday when we try to explore a little what this all has to do with you and me in the here and now.
Shalom,
Stephen