Ascension

Transcribed from the sermon preached May 24, 2009

The Reverend Max Lynn, Pastor

Scripture Readings: Ephesians 1:11-23, Luke 24:44-53

Eph 1

I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. ¹⁷I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, ¹⁸so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, ¹⁹and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.

Luke 24

Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹And 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.”

⁵⁰Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. ⁵¹While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. ⁵²And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; ⁵³and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

Dave Barry, a preacher’s kid, always looks to poke fun at the absurd.  He has a running blog reporting on strange Jesus sightings.  The latest sighting of Jesus was as a cheeto.  A few blogs on the matter: “What a friend we have in cheesus;” and “in other news, Satan has been found in a bag of flaming hot cheetos.”  And on the Potato Jesus: Hashes to hashes, spuds to spuds; and can’t wait for Lord of the Rings.  And for Burrito Jesus: Holy Guacamole.  Wouldn’t it just be easier if Jesus stuck around as a human being, forever; then we wouldn’t have to worry about spotting him as a cheeto or a potato?

In our liturgical calendar this is Ascension Sunday.   Traditionally the ascension is marked on Thursday, forty days after the resurrection.  Christ ascends into heaven.  He is, it would appear, the Son of God.  He has to return. This ascension is like a second Palm Sunday, a triumphal entry into heaven. 

Jesus was stripped, whipped, beaten, nailed to a cross, and buried in a tomb by the powers of this world.  But, they couldn’t keep this good man down.  He showed up alive again.  And he is lifted up to the heavens, to sit at the right hand of God. 

We celebrate this ascension, affirming that Jesus left this earthly world on his own terms, on God’s terms, on loves terms.  But I can’t help but feel a little sad that, for life’s reasons, we must leave this physical life, and Jesus must rise up, and therefore, he is not still here, physically with us.  We have moments and experiences of divine beauty, grace and love of Christ.  We even argue that the risen Christ, the Holy Spirit is ever present and alive. And, with the eyes of our heart enlightened, we see the mighty power of God.  But that doesn’t erase our sense of loss entirely.  But the Gospel is true. There is loss in life but loss does not prevent growth or joy.

How many of you remember your first day of school? When your parents dropped you off and said goodbye?  Do you remember dropping your kids off?  I was terrified when my mother let go of me and walked away. They needed to go, we needed to go, to be left, to leave, so that we each could grow and move out into the future.  It was an act of love and growth for our parents, and even though there is a sense of loss, there is also joy, for they set us off to grow, to rise up into the persons God would lead us to be.  Whether we go or whether we stay, whether we send or are the ones sent forth we participate in a spiritual journey, a journey for those we love, a journey for ourselves, the journey of the spirit of life itself.

Kahil Gibran writes about child raising:
“Your children are not your children.  They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.  They come through you but not from you.  And though they are with you they belong not to you… You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams… For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.  You are the bow from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.  The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrow may go swift and far.  Let your bending in the archer’s band be for gladness; for even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.”

Jesus leaves us and we are set free to be adult disciples, to follow the path of love, to spread the good news of God’s grace and forgiveness of sins, to embody the Holy Spirit.

Gibran again, this time on marriage: “Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.  For only the band of Life can contain your hearts.  And stand together yet not too near together; for the pillars of the temple stand apart, and the oak tree and the cypress grown not in each other’s shadow.”

M. Scott Peck defines loves thus: “The will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth…Love is a circular process.  For the process of extending one’s self is an evolutionary process.  When one has successfully extended one’s limits, one has then grown into a larger state of being.  Thus the act of loving is an act of self-evolution even when the purpose of the act is someone else’s growth.  …True self love and love of other are indistinguishable.”  (Peck, The Road Less Traveled. P.82f)

The act of loving is an act of self-evolution.  Living such love, Jesus evolved into divine Love itself.  We are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself.  With eyes of our heart enlightened, we also reach out, beyond inertia and fear with work and courage to extended ourselves for the spiritual growth of others, and in this giving we receive, in this sacrifice we are fulfilled, and like Jesus we are lifted up to spiritual union with God.

To some extent, I think it has been a mistake for the Church to focus so exclusively on the sacrifice of Jesus.  It is super important to understand that while Jesus chose to endure pain, suffering and death, he did so because he chose not to sacrifice love and integrity.  It would have been greater sacrifice to give up on love, to sacrifice who God had called him to be. 

In the wilderness the devil gives Jesus the chance to Lord it over the world, to use his powers to determine the outcome of our lives.  In order to do this he would have had to sacrifice our freedom, our individuality and independence.  Out of Love Jesus chooses to leave us our lives, but also, to show us that even under powerful pressure from the world, by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, we have the strength to choose to love.

With the eyes of our heart enlightened, see the hope to which we have been called, the riches of God’s glorious inheritance among the saints, and the immeasurable greatness of his power. Thanks be to God.