What Do We Learn from Those Who Go Before Us?

Granny taught me to love reading.

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

The Ascension of Our Lord – 8 May 2016

Texts: Acts 2:1-11 and Luke 24:44-53

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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Today, we remember the Ascension of Jesus. On our church calendar, Ascension actually falls on Thursday every year – forty days after Easter. Today we remember that Jesus not only lived among us, and was killed and raised to life again, but that he ascended into heaven, as our creeds remind us each time we say them.

The story of the Ascension of Jesus comes from three places in Scripture, and we heard two of them today: Acts 1 and Luke 24. The Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts were probably written by the same person, Acts being a sequel of sorts to Luke’s gospel. If we think of Acts as a sequel to Luke, then it makes sense that Acts picks up where Luke leaves off. The Gospel of Luke tells us about Jesus – his life and his work - and the book of Acts tells us what Jesus’ followers did after Jesus ascended into heaven. The hinge between the two is the Ascension of Jesus.

Right before the Ascension, Jesus is with the disciples, eating with them and teaching them. Luke tells us that Jesus opens their minds to understand the Scriptures, so that they can begin to see him as the One who has come in the name of the Lord, the One foretold by the prophets, the Messiah who is to die and be raised to life, who brings repentance and forgiveness of sins to all the world. And then Jesus commissions them: “You are witnesses of these things,” he says, and then he tells them that they will be clothed with power from on high.

They go out toward Bethany, and Jesus blesses them, and while he is blessing them, he is carried up into heaven. Eventually, the clouds hide him from their sight, and so, there they are, standing around, looking up at the clouds. Eventually, they make their way back to Jerusalem, as Jesus has instructed, his words of commissioning and blessing still ringing in their ears.

Last week, I said that the word of Jesus is love, and the disciples have received that word, but now have also been told to wait for power from on high. And so, they wait.

One question that I have heard around the Ascension of Jesus is why did Jesus have to ascend at all? Or, why did he leave earth, instead of staying here, continuing to live among us?

Maybe he could have. I’m not sure how that would’ve worked or what that would’ve looked like. I do know that Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world – it’s like the old Advent hymn, “Prepare the Royal Highway” says: “His is no earthly kingdom; it comes from heav’n above. His rule is peace and freedom and justice, truth, and love.” Jesus trusted in the coming of the Holy Spirit to carry on the work he had begun – and, as he said, to remind his followers of what he had taught them.

From very early on in our lives, we are taught by those who are around us. Every so often, I will hear a piece of piano music and it hits me in such an early place in my memories, that I know it must be a piece that my mom or dad was practicing on the piano when I was an infant. We begin to learn very early on, and those memories stay with us.

As we grow older, and begin to gain vocabulary, those people around us as children begin to teach us words. And then we begin to learn phrases and sentences, and eventually concepts emerge. And all of this shapes us deeply, and it becomes a deep place of formation for us throughout our lives.

As I began to reflect again upon the story of Jesus’ Ascension, I began to reflect on this question: What have I learned from those who’ve gone before me?

My Granny Inglis taught me the song, “Que sera, sera - Whatever will be, will be.” From very early in my childhood, I remember my vivacious Granny Inglis belting out the words to this Doris Day song. She taught it to me, and we’d drive around town, running errands, singing together. Beyond the fun of singing with my Granny at the top of my lungs, the message of the song began to stick with me: “Whatever will be, will be.”

My mom taught me the phrase, “Trust the process.” I’m not sure when I began hearing this from my mom, but I think it was in high school, as I began to have deeper questions about all kinds of things in life. “Trust the process,” my mom would say, helping me to learn that sometimes the greatest growth comes not from resolution, but from whatever processes we go through before we reach resolution. (And sometimes, that resolution never comes at all.)

What has the Church learned from those who have gone before us? Those first disciples learned directly from Jesus that word of love – that we are to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. From very early on in the Church’s life, that word of love shaped and formed how we gather, and with whom we gather, how we serve others, and whom we serve. The first Christians met with Christ-followers of different socio-economic backgrounds, different nationalities, different walks of life, slave, free, male, female, Jew, Gentile - and they were unified by the love of Christ.

What has the Church learned from those who have gone before us? We look to the example of Jesus, and to the example of centuries of saints who’ve loved God and loved neighbor. Jesus’ word of love carries through the centuries to us, from the way he healed and taught throughout his life, to his death, his resurrection, and his ascension.

For it is because of his Ascension that we are gifted with the power from on high – the gift of the Holy Spirit. Next week is Pentecost, and on that day, we will celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to those first Christ-followers.

But each day of our lives, we ought to remember and celebrate that because Jesus ascended, we have the promised Holy Spirit with us. The work of Jesus is love, the word of Jesus is love, and the Holy Spirit carries on the work and word of Jesus – in us, now. Amen.

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