May 24, 2020
Ascension of the Lord Sunday
Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35; Acts 1:1-14
We are now over 40 days after
Easter. Ascension Day was this past Thursday, which is the 40th day
after Easter, and which we celebrate the following Sunday, which is today. It
means the season of Easter, which lasts 50 days, is almost over. Pentecost, the
birthday of the church, is next Sunday, and then we enter into the season known
as “Ordinary Time.” Jesus’ ascension into heaven is covered only by one Gospel
writer, Luke, although he makes sure to cover it twice, in both books that he
authors. It is how he ends the Gospel of Luke, the last three verses being, “While
Jesus was blessing the disciples, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then
they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed
continually at the temple, praising God.” And it’s how Luke starts the book of
the Acts of the Apostles, which we read this morning. Part of it is for Luke to
show continuity between his two books, as Acts is the sequel to the Gospels.
Another part is that it offers Luke a chance to describe and explain Jesus’
ascension more fully the second time around (which is why we read the longer
version). Our Easter theme has been Rise Up, and today we are reminded that God rises up, too.
What does it mean that God rises,
too? Well, the funny answer that I shared on our church Facebook page on
Thursday is that it means Jesus works from home, too. A more serious answer is
that it means we do not rise alone. We
are not pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We are all rising together,
along with Jesus. We are not in this by ourselves. You are not in this by
yourself. You are not alone. Together, with Jesus, we rise up. We become more
fully who God created us to be, the church. We’ve been living into that
especially the last 10 weeks as we’re showing that “the church is not a
building, the church is not a steeple, the church is not a resting place, the
church is a people.”[1]
We have been rising up during this time of physical distancing. We have still
been the church. You can’t close the church, because you can’t close people! We
are resilient, we are learning new ways to do ministry and to be in
relationship with each other and with God. We never needed a building; the
early church met in each other’s homes. Our identity as the church is not tied
to a building; it’s tied to Jesus Christ. As we sang last Sunday, he is “the church’s one foundation.”[2]
And with Jesus, we rise up.
Second, even though Jesus ascended to heaven, we are not abandoned by God. When Jesus ascended to heaven, he did
not leave humanity to figure it out on our own. Among his last instructions to
the disciples were telling them, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift
my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with
water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”[3]
This coming of the Holy Spirit is what we celebrate next Sunday on Pentecost.
The Holy Spirit is the third member of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, or Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Jesus tells his disciples time and
again that he is not going to leave them orphaned. They will still be cared for.
He will still be with them. It will look different, because he won’t be
physically next to them in the form of a human being. Instead, the Holy Spirit
will be with them. The Holy Spirit who blows as the wind, who nudges us to
action, who speaks to us through Scripture or well, really, God can use
anything. Sometimes it is a fellow person. Or maybe a book you read or a show
you watch. The Holy Spirit moves and inspires and creates and speaks.
Sometimes, we have trouble discerning those movements, but they’re still there,
if we have eyes to see and ears to hear. God rises up, too, yet never forsakes
us. God is always with us.
Third, what it means that God rises
up, too, is that our fears are scattered. Many psalms, including the Psalm 68
that we read this morning, call for God to rise up! The NIV, which is the
translation we usually read at LUMC, phrases it rather politely, “May God
arise, may his enemies be scattered, may his foes flee before him.”[4]
Other translations, however, are a bit more direct, complete with exclamation
points: “Let God rise up! Let his enemies scatter; let those who hate him run
scared before him!”[5] This
isn’t a meek, “God, if it so pleases you, if you wouldn’t mind, if you’re not
too busy, would you please rise up?” This is a calling out, “God, we need you!
God rise up!” A few weeks ago I mentioned that during this season I’ve been
reading a lot from the psalms and whenever I read “enemies,” I’ve been
replacing it with the word “fears.” That’s because lately, my fears have been
my worst enemies. So, let’s paraphrase this verse a little bit: “Let God rise
up! Let fear scatter. Let anything that is against God’s will, that is not of
God, go away!” In our hymn this morning, Charles Wesley wrote, “scatter all my
unbelief.”[6]
It makes a wonderful prayer: “Lord, whatever is not from you, whatever thoughts
are not from you, whatever words do not honor you, make them flee far away from
me, and fill me with your love.” Let God rise up and let fear scatter.
I mentioned Wednesday night that the
Festival of Homiletics, a weeklong continuing education event on preaching was
happening last week online and that I’ve gone to it before. Yesterday a memory
popped up on Facebook of a quote I’d shared from 2018’s Festival of Homiletics.
Craig Barnes is the President of Princeton Theological Seminary and a regular
speaker, and he said, “Fear goes away by being loved, not by being certain.” Certainty
does not drive out fear; it does not cause fear to scatter. Love drives out
fear. And that makes sense, because we know that “God is love.”[7]
God rises up, and scatters our fears. God is our patronus, for any Harry Potter fans out there. And that makes this
prayer from Psalm 68 all the more powerful, “God, rise up! And let your enemies
be scattered.” “God, rise up, and scatter all fear.” What a world we would live
in if there no fear! Can you imagine?
Finally, let’s tie this in to the end of Psalm 68. “Let God rise up” is
the first verse. The last verse says, “Awesome is God in his sanctuary, the God
of Israel gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!”[8]
One way God drives out fear is by giving power and strength to his people.
That’s us. Back to the Ascension story: did you catch the exchange that
happened after Jesus ascended? Jesus ascends, the disciple watch… and they keep
watching, even after Jesus vanishes from their sight. They’re just staring up
at the heavens, even though their necks must start to hurt and mouths so agape
that they might even be drooling and not know it. Luke, in Acts, tells us, “suddenly
two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why
do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken
from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into
heaven.’ These two men in white are to here to remind us that there is still
work to do. Looking up is not the same as rising up. Moreover, don’t just look
up, rise up! Quit gaping at the sky and get back to work. Continue Jesus’
teaching. Keep working to bring heaven here on earth. “Christian faith is an
expectant faith,”[9]
and we know from the expectancy around Advent and Lent that you don’t just sit
idle during a season of anticipation. You work to turn hopes and expectations
into reality. We work, just as we pray, to bring God’s kingdom here on earth as
it is in heaven. We don’t stand around, looking at the sky, waiting for
something to happen. We work with God,
we rise up with God, who will scatter
our fears, who will not abandon us, who will shower us with his love and mercy
so that we, in turn, can shower that love and mercy on our neighbor. Thanks be
to God. Amen.
[1]
“We Are the Church,” UMH 558
[2]
“The Church’s One Foundation,” UMH 545
[3]
Acts 1:4-5
[4]
Psalm 68:1, NIV
[5]
Psalm 68:1, CEB
[6]
“Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies,” UMH 173
[7] 1
John 4:8
[8]
Psalm 68:35
[9]
Daniel Migliore, “Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian
Theology,” p. 231
No comments:
Post a Comment