“The Ascension of Our Lord” was preached at First Presbyterian Church of Allentown, PA on May 16, 2021. You can hear/watch this sermon here, starting at 30:16.
--
Luke 24:44-53
44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised, so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and they were continually in the temple blessing God.
--
The passage we just heard today is The Ascension of the Lord, or where Jesus ascends into heaven to be with God his Father. This story is only recorded in the Gospel of Luke, and is often skipped over in the liturgical year because we celebrate it the 40th day after Easter, which falls on a Thursday every year and not on a Sunday. And since many churches don’t worship on Thursdays, although we have been during this easter season, sometimes we just miss this story. That is unless we take what was supposed to be celebrated on Thursday and celebrate it on the following Sunday, like we are doing today.
So today we are celebrating the Ascension of the Lord! We celebrate the risen Christ’s entrance into heaven and his rule over all the earth to be carried on forever.
And we do that as a chosen community of faith. You chose to be here with these family, friends, neighbors, and strangers.
There was a time, and some of you remember this time, that going to church was the thing to do. Every Sunday morning, families were to be in church. Not only was it a normal practice; it was an expected practice. Over time, due to shifts in culture and a secularization of Sundays, what was once expected became more optional. Families with children and youth, due to busy weekend schedules for sports or performances, jobs and vacations, attending church became a less frequent practice. And as those children and youth became adults and due to even greater shifts in culture and a further secularization of Sundays, many of them quit attending church altogether. The pandemic has also had a great impact on whether or not people would spend their Sunday morning in a worship service, whether it be on the couch in their living room or here out in the garden.
Along the way, we know that attending church is now optional, and many Christians came to the conclusion that coming to church even occasionally is not necessary to the praise and worship of God.
And to an extent, I can agree with that. Coming to church is not a requirement for a Christian to follow Christ nor is it the only way any of us can praise, worship, or have a relationship with God.
Yet you all are still here, sitting out in the memorial garden this beautiful Sunday morning. Children, youth, and adults; young and old alike—all here gathered together in the name of Christ.
And I’m sure each of us have our own reasons as to why we are here this morning, but I think for some of us, we are here to sing praises for God with people who share a common experience, similar stories, and most importantly, love for one another. This is our own chosen community of faith and we want to be together.
And I know that next, we want to be with our chosen community of faith in the building. In the sanctuary and the fellowship hall and in the chapel. And we want to sing loud and we want to shake hands and hug – no more masks and no more social distancing. And all of that is coming!
But hear me out for a moment.
When Jesus ascends into heaven, two things happen. The first, Jesus starts he reign over us as King. The second, he tells the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Spirit to descend on them.
Let’s talk about Jesus as King first. When we think of kings or rulers today, we might associate them with controlling dictators or aggressive authoritarians. But not here; not Christ. Christ as king is one that holds all authority and power, but does so with love and mercy.
The Ascension isn’t the end to Christ’s divine story or his relationship with humankind; it’s the beginning! The point of the Ascension is not that Jesus left this world and is somewhere off in heaven waiting for us to die to go meet him there, but rather the Ascension closes the door to Jesus’ earthly life where he was only with his disciples in Jerusalem over 2000 years ago and opens the next door in which Jesus is now humans in every time and place, including this time and place. The Ascension completes the theology of who Jesus is. Jesus withdrew from his disciples not to leave them, but to finish his plan; Jesus the Incarnate Son of God who has been resurrected and glorified ascends into heaven to fulfill his role and take his proper place at the right hand of God as the Lord of Creation, the king of all the earth and the king over the nations. Reformed theologian Karl Barth puts it: “Christ holds in his hands the power of God. He governs in God’s name.”
Simultaneously, Christ as our King, now reigning from heaven, means that we have our very own holy advocate working for and interceding on behalf of humankind. Nothing can give us greater assurance than knowing the ascended Jesus Christ is continually acting on our behalf — in knowing our needs, in forgiving our sins, in mediating for us in the presence of God. Every day there is meaning and significance to all we do and feel because the ascended Christ is for us!
And the ascended Christ is with us. It may seem paradoxical. Jesus transitions from life on earth to his ongoing life in heaven. He leaves his disciples. But yet he is closer to them, more intimately related to them and in union with them. After his Ascension, Jesus is no longer limited by a human body and human history. As Jesus promised his disciples and to us, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” We don’t have to visit a “holy place” to be nearer to our Lord. Jesus Christ is with us, wherever we are; and with us always! We definitely know this from this last year as we worshipped from our homes and out in our community!
So while all of this is happening, Christ taking up his reign, he tells the disciples to wait. To wait.
I want you to think of every electronic device you own that requires charging.
For me, it’s things like my cell phone and my tablet and my two laptops and my shaver and my drill. I even charge my portable charger.
Now you know with these things, whether it be your phone or your laptop, that eventually their batteries run out of power and the electronic devices power down, shut off, they die.
But of course, we all know that all we need to do is connect them back to a charger for a period of time to bring them back to life. And that every time we use them and their power declines, we must charge them back up again. We do this again and again. Charging is an ongoing process.
However, many of us may not know that there is an optimum period of time that a device should charge in order to maximize the battery’s life expectancy. Like let’s say for most smart phones, you have to charge it a minimum of 3 hours for it to be at full power. You cannot simply pull your device from the box and start to use it. If you get a little eager and use it before it has been fully charged, you are negatively impacting its future ability to perform. In other words, you will shorten the life expectancy of your battery if you do not allow the initial charge to be optimal.
For our electronic devices to be at their best, now and in the future, we must let them charge fully.
Jesus instructs
the disciples to wait in the city. And reading Jesus’ instruction to the
disciples through our own experiences of sheltering in place over this last
year sheds new light on the necessity of waiting. Jesus has been carried up
into the heavens and the disciples are waiting “until they have been clothed
with power from on high.” There is no indication in the text that they knew how
long they would have to wait. It seems that the Holy Spirit could have
descended on them at the same moment that Jesus was leaving, but instead they
are sent back to Jerusalem to wait.
Waiting is rarely easy and it can be difficult to endure when you do not know when the end will be. And it might be even harder to wait when it seems the end might be in sight.
But the disciples waited because Jesus told them they must. Their season of waiting seemed necessary in their journey. Much like we must wait to fully charge our electronic devices, the disciples likewise had to wait to be clothed with power. If their initial “charge” had not been full, they would not have been able to operate at their optimal levels. This time of waiting and preparation equipped the disciples to go out and spread the gospel, enabling the church to grow.
With the CDC rapidly changing their statements into what seem like messages of hope and progress, I’m sure we all feel our church should be just as rapid to follow. But let me just humbly suggest we fully charge and prepare ourselves for what is to come so that it is truly better for every single person.
On Friday, the moment the CDC declared masks are no longer required for those who are vaccinated, your pastors spent the morning reading and watching every news article and story to gather more information. We then released a statement sent through the Eblast. It was at that point that I reminded my two wonderful colleagues that we spent another day off working after working every Friday and occasional Saturday in both May and April after an entire year of overworking. This includes my “vacation” I was supposed to take last weekend. Your pastors are not charging fully. And neither is this congregation.
So… here is where we are at. The good news.
We wore masks today. Even those who are vaccinated. And we survived!
Next week we have one service to celebrate Pentecost as our English, Arabic, and Chin communities come together as the family of First Presbyterian.
The Session of this Church, who makes decisions for this church, will meet on May 26th, and there, they will discuss mask-wearing among many other things. They’ll also vote to receive 12 new members – our confirmation students.
On June 6th, we have a combination of outdoor, indoor, and virtual worship services, and we’ll kick-off moving back indoors with the celebration of newest members!
And best news of all?? Christ is still our King, working over us, for us, and with us. Let’s just take a moment; one moment and give thanks for that.
We might not have the answers you want today. We might not be doing exactly what you want today. But we are working toward a better future for all of us. For all of us. So please, be like the disciples, and take delight in the waiting.
There is no power without a season of preparation, without a period of waiting. May we be empowered to do the work of the Lord as we are reminded, that what is to come will always be worth the wait.
We’re in this together.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
--
No comments:
Post a Comment