5 June 2011

Festival of the Ascension

The United Church + Die Vereinigte Kirche

Washington, DC

Left Behind, Looking Up

Based on Acts 1:1-11

By James Semmelroth Darnell





May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Hail the day that sees Him rise, Alleluia!

To His throne above the skies, Alleluia!

Christ, awhile to mortals given, Alleluia!

Reascends His native heaven, Alleluia!

Charles Wesley’s hymn bears repeating this morning. It speaks to the glorious exaltation of Christ that we celebrate this morning. Yet, while we affirm as Christians that Christ reigns in heaven, the image of Jesus of Jesus blasting off like a rocket into the sky is somewhat challenging to our post-modern minds. Most artistic depictions of the Ascension show the disciples looking upward at Christ who is lifted up mid-air. Some artists go so far as to only depict his feet. Others show Christ in heaven while the disciples look up from earth. These are often beautiful expressions and help us to experience the mystical nature of the Ascension. But, they also come from a time in which most people believed in a three-tiered universe, with heaven above, earth in between, and hell below. But in a world in which we know so much about our solar system and astronauts travel in space, it is incredulous to believe that if we could travel far enough into the sky that we would reach heaven. I will say that I do believe Christ ascended into heaven, but the physics or anti-physics of how this may have happened are inconsequential. In the grand scheme, the Ascension is not about Jesus defying gravity. United Church of Christ theologian, Rev. Bruce Epperly writes that:

The point of Ascension is perspective. Rising to the clouds gives us a broader perspective on our lives and the planet. Rather than individualistic images of salvation and personal in our world. As the Lord’s Prayer proclaims, “Thy kingdom (or realm) come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” When we live from a higher perspective, we can transcend our own self-interest to embrace the well-being of the whole earth, including strangers, enemies, and non-humans.

So, whether or not you can buy into Jesus literally ascending heavenward or not, there is something to be learned from this passage of scripture. Christ was raised and appeared to the disciples, but then no longer appeared. So somehow, Christ is no longer present in the same way. The Ascension is the explanation. This morning I want to focus on three things we can learn here from the Ascension: trying to know when, being left behind, and looking up.

In our reading, immediately before Christ ascends to heaven, the disciples ask him “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” And Jesus answers: “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8But 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 ends of the earth.” This sounds a bit like a rebuke of the rapture-waiting folk doesn’t it? Now, I don’t want to deride folks who have already had their hopes dashed, and they have certainly gotten disrespect from the media and much of the world – and we are called to compassion as they are indeed brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. But Christ clearly says here that it is not for us to know particular times or periods of what the Creator has planned. The reality is that we are not God and that we cannot know. Jesus told his disciples this on several occasions. Like them, we don’t always get it. We often want specifics and dates. But if we had them would we live out our Christian vocation any better? The ambiguity is difficult to live with. In a world that is constantly changing, certainty in our faith would be comforting. But we do not know when and how God will act in our lives. But, we have been promised the Holy Spirit. As Christ assures the disciples, we are assured that it will empower us. But it empowers us not with certitude, but to witness to Christ – that he has called us by name and redeemed us. The Holy Spirit pushes us out to witness, as Jesus says, in Judea, Samaria, and all the world. The United Church of Christ cross, the ancient symbol of the cross triumphant is based on this –and it is why the orb or the earth of the cross, is separated into three parts, symbolizing Judea, Samaria, and the rest of the world. Despite the uncertainty of our lives, we know that God is present to us by the Holy Spirit, calling us to go out into the world in Christ’s name.

After Jesus answers the disciples in his ambiguous way and promising them his Spirit would come upon them, we are told that “he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” All of a sudden, the Risen Christ, who was there with the disciples, no longer was. They look up – perhaps with disbelief, awe, and maybe even a sense of loss. After all, these guys have run the gamut with Jesus – they left everything they had to follow him, his teachings turned their world upside down, they went into Jerusalem with him, but cowardly ran away when his time came and were not to be found when he was crucified, were stricken with grief, and then with joy when he was raised, they rejoiced as the Risen Christ appeared throughout the 40 days…and now, he was gone, again. It’s hard to imagine what they must have been feeling, after this emotional rollercoaster. We’re often hard on the disciples for being so dense, but can you imagine living this firsthand? Those who emphasize the rapture talk about those ‘left behind.’ But this is the ultimate in being left behind, the disciples are left by Jesus. It’s up to them now. In her blog, the Painted Prayerbook, artist Jan Richardson writes that:

What takes hold of me is this: how Jesus prays for and blesses his friends as he leaves them. How the leaving is part of the blessing. As if the blessing can happen no other way than by his departure, by his letting go of the ones whom he has loved—these ones whom he will never cease to love but must release into their own lives, so that they may enter into the blessing and enact it on this earth.

Being left behind in a relationship can be one of the greatest pains in life –whether it is the death of a spouse or parent, moving outside a particular circle of friends, taking your child to college for the first time or being dropped off at college by your parents for the first time. Our relationships change in the leaving. I know this all too well, having gone through the trauma and heartbreak of a broken engagement and the end of that relationship which I thought would last a lifetime. Through that absence I have been able to see that relationship differently, not in a negative light, but as a different sort of relationship than I expected it to be. Our relationships change through leave-taking and absence. Fr. Ron Rolheiser says that “Absence can help wash clean. What the pain of absence does is stretch our hearts so that the essence, the beauty, the love, and the gift of the one who is absent can flow to us without being coloured by the tensions, disappointments, and the flaws of everyday life.” This is true in our own lives when we allow absence to purify, and it was true for the disciples as well. When a person is not physically present with us in the way they once were, our relationships with them do not disappear into thin air, but change. After the Ascension the disciples’ relationship with Christ had to change. While no longer present physically, he promises them his Spirit. Likewise Christ promises us his Spirit, even in the midst of being left behind in our own lives, we are never really alone. It is with good reason then that we refer to the Holy Spirit as our Advocate and Comforter. Do you ever feel the presence of a loved one who has died or the importance in your life of a relationship that has passed? Imagine how much more powerfully Christ can be present with us and the disciples. With Christ no longer physically present the disciples had to figure out how to carry on what Jesus had taught them, how they would spread the Good News, how they would live out being witnesses to the ends of the earth.

When they look up amazed at Christ ascending to heaven, two men in white robes appear and say to the disciples, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” It’s as if these angels are saying, “What are you waiting for, get to work!” On the Mount of Olives in Palestine is part of the ruins of a church that tradition says is the spot from which Jesus ascended. Inside this small chapel is a set of footprints that the Russian Orthodox believe are Jesus’ last footprints on earth. Again, I don’t want to argue the veracity of the site – but rather to suggest that perhaps the disciples were looking in the wrong direction. Perhaps they should have been looking downward at Christ’s footprints, rather than upward at his feet. To look at his footprints the disciples would see what Christ did, where he went, who he spoke with, who he ate with, how he healed, how he loved, how he taught, how he changed absolutely everything. To look at his footprints is to figure out our own first steps as disciples of Christ. It is okay to look heavenward and hope for eternity, but our call as Christians is to participate with Christ in the healing of the world, not escaping from the world. Often we think being disciples means doing big things like going on mission trips far away or trying to read the whole Bible in a month. But our Christian vocation is lived out right where we live. We can witness to God’s saving acts every day. Do your friends know you are a Christian by your love? Do your co-workers or employees? Do members of your clubs and organizations? Do your classmates? Do your mail carrier, grocery clerk, and barber? Do you spouse, significant other, and children? It is in those places where we are every day, in our homes, offices, schools, clubhouses, stores, malls, and yes, even in church, where we first should be following the footsteps of Christ. We are lucky to follow 2,000 years of church history, as mixed and messed up as it is…we have learned some lessons in that time how to follow Christ in a world that is pluralistic and postmodern. We are lucky that unlike the disciples we don’t have to figure it out for the first time, and likely would be martyred because of it. We follow Christ our Teacher and the array of disciples and saints of the ages, who urge us not to stay staring at the sky wondering when Christ will come back or to develop some crude mathematical formula to figure it out, but to get to work at loving and healing our world, at living with compassion and justice and humility.

So this Ascension, don’t worry if you can’t figure out how Christ really got back to heaven. Rather than focusing on the things which we can never know the day or time, remember that even when you feel left behind, Christ is still present. Christ has promised us his Spirit, which empowers us to share the Good News. We are empowered to go out and share with the ends of the earth that which has changed our lives, and can transform and heal others as well. We celebrate Christ’s glorious Ascension today and pray for the coming of his Spirit on Pentecost. Come, Holy Spirit, Come!

To God be the Glory+