It's Still There

Rev. Brian Weinberger

RCL Year B • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

Luke 24:44–53

Ascension of Christ

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“The Nurturing Place” was a day care center in Jersey City.

Few people would have heard of it if Anna Quindlen hadn’t taken us there in her newspaper column. The center, run by Roman Catholic sisters, welcomed children whose families were homeless, families with no addresses. One day the sisters took the children to the Jersey shore. The 3 and 4 year olds scrambled up the sandy dunes, falling and giggling their way to the top of what must have seemed like mountains to their little legs. When they got to the top, they could hardly believe their eyes: water as far as they could see -- more water than they had ever seen. They slid down the dunes and ran to the ocean’s edge. They chased the waves that teased their toes. Then they went off for a picnic in a nearby park. After lunch they begged to go back to the dunes. One little boy named Freddie outran the rest and climbed his way to the top. He looked out, then turned to the others and shouted, “It’s still there!”

For someone who was so young and and yet had experienced so much change in his life Freddie must not have been accustomed to things lasting for very long. Can you imagine what it must have been like for a 3 or 4 year old to not know what it was like to have things stay the same, and because of that think that something so permanent as the might actually go off and not return? For those of us that are older the idea that the ocean would one day not be there is nothing that we even worry about. In fact, having spent much of my childhood summers for a week or two at a beach in California, I knew the ocean all too well. We know that the things that we cannot see any more, like the beach, are still there.

Another group that had been through a lot in their lives were the disciples. They were adults, but that had been through experiences like no one else had ever encountered. It would have been easy enough for them, to be like us, and understand that the the temple was there and it would be there again the next day even though they didn’t always see it. But this whole encounter with Jesus had really turned their lives upside down. For three years they had been accustomed to waking up and seeing Jesus with them; teaching and healing and proclaiming the word of God to everyone they encountered. Even though he had prepared them for it, one day he ends up being arrested and on trial. He is found guilty and dies by being nailed to a tree. Their new norm of life with Jesus had just been flipped on it’s head and now they had to figure out life without him.

The disciples had gone from being disciples, followers, to not knowing what to do with their lives. This is why for the fist couple of weeks after Easter we hear about how the disciples are hiding behind locked doors. They didn’t know what to do. The one person they had been following was no longer with them and not only did they not have Jesus as their leader anymore but they were also afraid that they would be targeted by the Roman and Jewish leadership. Their ‘ocean’ had been taken away from them. That ‘thing’, that person, that had always been there even when they couldn’t see him was no longer there. Which makes the stories of Jesus appearing to them behind locked doors and talking with them all the more understandable when they are in shock and fear. He wasn’t supposed to be around anymore and now he is appearing to them again after he had died.

Jesus doesn’t stay though, he ascends into heaven and leaves them again, but before he does that he opens their minds to understand all scripture so that they would truly understand that not just what Jesus had told them, but all of scripture, from the law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms may be fulfilled. And now they are tasked with being his witnesses to everything that they experienced and now know and they are to begin their ministry when they receive the power of the Holy Spirit.

Then Jesus blesses them and as he is he is carried off into heaven. What I love from our Acts reading that also talks about the Ascension is that the disciples have also been given the commission to go out into the world when they receive the Holy Spirit, but the text goes on to say that the disciples were so focused on staring up into heaven that two men in white robes stood among them and ask why are you standing around looking up into heaven? They also say that he was taken from you, but that he will come the same way he left. Here are some powerful ideas that I believe have some profound impact on disciples and on us.

The disciples were busy staring off into heaven. They were so focused on the amazing event of the ascension, that they didn’t pay attention directly to what had just been told to them. They were given a task, a mission, to go out into the world, to baptize, preach, and teach and all the were doing were standing around looking up to the sky. Heaven is a great place, I’ve been told, but the life we have now is here on this earth. The disciples and all of us weren’t called to sit and stare off into the clouds at a place that we have never seen. Jesus last words weren’t ‘sit around and wait for me until I come back’. His words were to go out into the world, live in this world, and transform this world with the words I have spoken to you.’ Although the disciples weren’t behind locked doors anymore they still weren’t quite on task, they were singly focused on one thing and it wasn’t the right thing. They were again focused on keeping their eyes on Jesus, which isn’t a bad phrase to tell people, but it wasn’t their calling to just watch Jesus anymore, it was their calling to live out the life Jesus had called them into.

Much like Freddie who was so excited the ocean was still there, the disciples were so excited to see Jesus again that they didn’t want to let go of that moment. Perhaps we do the same thing ourselves. We are no different than the disciples, in that we have been called to go out into this great, beautiful world and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, not to sit around behind locked doors or stare up into the clouds waiting for him to show up again. Besides, Jesus is still here, just like the ocean. We may not be able to see him, but with the gift of the Holy Spirit, which has been promised today, and we’ll experience that text next week, we can feel and see Jesus in ways other than physically seeing him.

As we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus today, don’t get so caught up in watching the skies that we forget the task that Jesus has set before us. We are to share the good new about Jesus with all the world. There are many different ways to do that and each of us have been given gifts and talents by the Holy Spirit with which to do them.

That is part of my final word for you today. Never forget the powerful words that Jesus spoke to the disciples and to us which is our promise and our gift for now and for all time, not just meant to be shared, but also meant to be treasured and held dear as blessings for us. Remember that the Messiah suffered, rose from the dead, so that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations. Not only are they proclaimed to all nations, but they are promised and given to you this day and forevermore. Jesus loves this world so much that he gave his own life so that you might receive forgiveness and eternal life with him in heaven. That one day you might ascend to be with God. Just like Freddie exclaimed about the ocean I hope you hold on to that promise. It’s still there! Heaven and all it’s blessings and promises are there, for you, for me, for all time. It’s still there!