Thursday, June 15, 2017

Don't Just Stand There...!

The Rev. Kathi Johnson
Ascension – 28 May 2017
Texts: Acts 1: 1-11; Luke 24: 44-53
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

+ INJ +
We have just heard the stories of the Ascension of Jesus as they are found in the book of Acts and the gospel of Luke. A reminder here that scholars believe that Luke and Acts were written by the same person, so we can think of the book of Acts as being a sequel, of sorts to the Gospel of Luke. If you really want to look at this more closely, read Luke 24, which picks up Jesus’ story at the time of his resurrection and includes his Ascension. Then when you finish, flip immediately over to Acts 1, which – after a brief introduction – also includes the Ascension of Jesus. By reading those two chapters in that way, you’ll get a sense of the continuity between these two books.

So the story of Jesus’ ascension into heaven is told three times in Scripture: in the Gospel of Mark, in Luke, and in Acts – and this is a clue to us that this story held some importance for those first followers of Jesus. Historically, the Church has remembered the Ascension of Jesus on the fortieth day after Easter – which was last Thursday. In order for us to spend some time with the important stories about Jesus ascending into heaven, I typically move our remembrance of the Ascension to the Wednesday evening before, or the Sunday after, or both.

To the Ascension stories: Jesus is with the eleven disciples, giving instructions to them. He tells them to wait in Jerusalem to receive the promised Holy Spirit – or “power from on high” – so that they can be witnesses for him all over the world. And then Jesus blesses them, and as they watch, he is carried away, up into heaven.

Acts tells us that as the disciples are staring into the clouds, two men in white robes (whom we understand to be angels) show up. In Scripture, whenever angels show up, it’s for a reason – they are, after all, messengers from God. So in this story, their role is to move the disciples along, so they ask, “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”

Recently, I’ve seen a car commercial – I don’t remember all the details – but it goes something like this: a skywriter writes a marriage proposal in the sky, and a young woman on the ground (presumably the intended recipient) sees the words. She begins walking toward them – problem is, she’s on a city sidewalk, so she steps off the curb onto the street, completely entranced by the words in the sky, and she steps directly in front of a moving car. The car almost hits her (except that the collision avoidance system stops the car) and she gives a look of thanks toward the car for not plowing her over.

This is how I envision this scene with the angels appearing to the disciples. The disciples are so entranced with looking up at the clouds that it takes something outside of themselves – the angels – to bring them out of staring at the sky. The disciples then follow Jesus’ instructions – they go back to Jerusalem in joy, and go to the Temple to bless God – and to wait.

And it is ten days later – on Pentecost – that the disciples receive the promised Holy Spirit. And then they get to work, sharing the good news about Jesus.

The Ascension of our Lord is an important part of the Jesus story for us. The Ascension is the next step in the journey of Jesus, and it is the next step for the beginnings of the Church. After Jesus ascends up into the clouds, the disciples don’t just stand there, staring into the sky. They move - they act – because they realize that they are part of the story of Jesus.

Do we realize that we are also a part of the Jesus story? We are, and it is because of the witness of those first disciples, as well as countless others over the centuries, and, of course, because of the work of the Holy Spirit. We join the story of Jesus at our baptisms, and we – like those disciples – are called to move and to act.

These are some of the ways the people of ORLC have moved and acted
in our community and around the world during 2017.


+ SDG +

No comments:

Post a Comment