Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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This morning we celebrate Ascension Sunday, when Christians all over the world recall the day Christ was "carried off into the heavens" (as Luke puts it), in plain view of his disciples, several weeks after Easter. To appreciate the ascension (the final scene in the drama about God's Word becoming flesh), it helps to see it through the eyes of the disciples.  For, as always, they are we in the New Testament.

Crucifixion and Resurrection: Events Making Boys into Men

Each had aged twenty years in the previous six weeks! Boys had become men, men looked older, grayer, wiser. From that bright, sunny day, six weeks before, when everything was coming up roses for them -- when they paraded him through the streets of Jerusalem as Israel's new king -- to his sudden crash in the public opinion poles, to that sad Passover meal, to his hasty trial and execution (during which they had all deserted him), to his burial in a borrowed tomb, had only been a matter of days. But it had been an eternity of the spirit. That week had been a very long road in their souls. Then had come the first reports of resurrection, from women no less.  Who in those days would believe a woman on something so important? Then each of Christ's staggering appearances (in the upper room, and on the road to Emaeus, and beside the sea), and now this. He gathers them at Bethany, just outside Jerusalem, and says goodbye. And, in the twinkling of an eye, he is gone.

Feeling Abandoned

I can almost hear them cry, "Wait, don't go! We have more questions! We're just ordinary folk. You're counting too much on us. It's you who have been our strength and courage, you who have kept us going. Every time we've tried to go it alone we've failed. We're nothing without you. You've brought us up high, Lord (That's for sure!), and you've taken us down low. We've stood on the mountain tops with you and trudged through the valleys. It's been a rocky road. But to think of facing this world without you is more than we can bear." But he went anyway.

The Messiah's Legacy and Our Responsibility

Towards the ends of the Gospels the players seem to talk in shorthand. So much to say, so little time to say it. In a few brief words, here at the end of Luke, before he ascends into heaven, Jesus summarizes the meaning of his life (tells them how it all fits into God's plan), and then he commissions his disciples, in an unexpected way. "It is written," he says (that means, this is what is "carved in stone" and will never be changed) -- and then he summarizes the whole Old Testament from a Christian perspective. First: "The Messiah must suffer, and die, and rise again on the third day." "You have actually witnessed this with your own eyes," he says. Second: "Repentance and forgiveness of sins must be preached in his name to all nations." This part will be up to you.

"It is written." What do we care what was written in some musty old books centuries ago? At a time like this, who can think of history? Oh, wrong! Most of all, in times of trial, we need to remember our past, our roots -- history may be all we have. For these disciples, who at this moment were thinking that their trials were over (but who, in fact, hadn't seen nothing, yet), for them it would become critically important to remember that what they had witnessed in Jesus, and what they were about to endure for him, was a part of God's eternal plan. Written. Ordained. From the beginning of time. The same God who made Adam and Eve sent Jesus. The same God who called Abraham, and led the Hebrew children out of Egypt, and sustained them through famine and exile. That same God, when the time was right, sent his Son. And that same God was now sending them -- into the world. And he would be with them always and everywhere -- even to the ends of the earth. They were not living in some backwater of history, but were right up in front. They were making history. What they had seen, and what they were about to endure, would not happen to them by random chance -- it would all be part of God's eternal plan. God had never forgotten his promises to his people (although they had often forgotten their promises to him), and he would not fail his people now. He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

Living as the Friend of Jesus is Something Very Big

Lieutenant Gerald Coffee, naval air pilot shot down over North Vietnam in the early stages of that war, prisoner for four and a half years in that awful hell-hole the Americans called the "Hanoi Hilton", tells of the lowest period in his captivity. The guards and the North Vietnamese officers had learned what it was that most effectively broke the Americans' spirits: to tell them they were forgotten. "Nobody back home supports the war anymore," they would say over and over again. "Nobody knows you're here. Nobody remembers you. Nobody cares." Coffee says after you hear that for months on end, and that is all you hear, you begin to believe it. And you feel utterly forsaken, which is one of the worst of all human feelings. Then one day, when Lieutenant Coffee was at his lowest, a new prisoner was brought in. As soon as the man learned the intricate tapping code the Americans used to communicate, he sent his first message: "Back home people are wearing your names on bracelets around their wrists." And Coffee says it was light a ray of sunshine in a bleak and dismal world. Not to be forgotten. To know that yours struggle is part of something big, something much larger than you. That is to find strength. That is to endure. "It is written," Jesus says. What is written? The Messiah must suffer and die and rise again. It's all part of God's plan, part of something big. God knew from the beginning and he still knows. His providence is real. You may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but you'll never walk alone.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
God knows. God cares. God has a plan. "It is written."
 

Part of a Great, Eternal Plan

So, in his good-byes, Jesus assures his disciples that they are part of a great, eternal plan, that they will not be isolated in their suffering, not forgotten. At this point we expect Jesus to commission his disciples directly, as he does in other gospels (you know, "Go ye and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost..."), but in Luke it's different. Jesus does speak of proclaiming repentance and forgiveness to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem -- that's a commission -- but then he tells them not to go but to stay where they are and wait. Luke is setting the stage for Pentecost. In his next volume, which we call the Book of Acts, he will tell how the Holy Spirit filled these men and then how, empowered by the Spirit of God, they went forth into all the world. But that is next week's story. For now the word is "stay", "wait", "tarry." There is an enormous mission awaiting you, you will be part of God's great plan, but for now hang in there. They went back to the city, Luke says, went to the Temple every day, and praised God. And waited. And their waiting was not in vain.
 

Clothed With Power From on High

Maxi Dunham, in last week's excellent Disciple video tape, said something quite simple and quite elegant. He said, "What Jesus was and did for us, we must be and do for others." There are no better words to describe the radical discipleship to which Christ calls us. "What Jesus was and did for us, we must be and do for others." When we are saved by God, our eyes are opened and that is when we see what Jesus was and did for us. When we are commissioned by him, we accept his orders to do the same for our fellow human beings. Martin Luther said we should be "little Christs." That is not possible on our own. To accomplish it, Luke says, we must "be clothed with power from on high."

Christ is gone from us. A hundred thousand Sundays have come and gone since he ascended. We wish he were still among us. Yet, in scripture, we witness what he was and what he did. And he still sends us forth into the world. But first he gives us power. A Christian without the Holy Spirit is like a car without gasoline, or a light bulb without electricity, or like the human body without bread. God's Spirit is the essential energy of our faith. Yes, you are chosen. Yes, you are part of God's plan. You have been adopted by him, in Christ, and made a child of His household. For a time, now, worship and wait. Receive the power of God, right now, this moment, receive it in worship, in the fellowship of other Christians. (Sunday morning worship, for me, is like a gas station. I have to go on a regular basis, or I don't go at all!) Now, after being filled with the Spirit of God, go forth. Trust him. You will be amazed what mighty things God empowers you to do and to endure. It is no small thing he asks of us. What Christ was and did for us, we must be and do for others.