Gone Up with a Shout: Clap Your Hands

Luke 24:44-53 Jesus 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 from Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. 46 He said to them, “This is what is written: the Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and a change of heart and life for the forgiveness of sins must be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 Look, I’m sending to you what my Father promised, but you are to stay in the city until you have been furnished with heavenly power.” 50 He led them out as far as Bethany, where he lifted his hands and blessed them. 51 As he blessed them, he left them and was taken up to heaven. 52 They worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem overwhelmed with joy. 53 And they were continuously in the temple praising God.

INTRO

Over the last few weeks, we began to explore what it means to welcome persons into the community of faith. We learned that Christ, the Good Shepherd, flings the gates of the sheep pen open and invites all persons to accept him as their Lord and to join into a new family - the family of God. We explored the call to be an inclusive church as we discern the guidance and directing of God’s Spirit through our participation in the traditions of the church as we: study scripture, pray, and enter into spaces of accountability with one another to discern both as individuals and a community what it means to follow after the heart of God.

The gospel lessons and the lectionary throughout this season of Easter have been trying to share with us the basic understanding of how the risen Lord shows up in the world not just in the time of the disciples but in our time. Last week, we were given direct examples of how we are to share Christ to the world - as we enter into holy and deeply personal friendships with one another. This week, we begin to understand more concretely our role in all of this.

This Sunday, we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord into heaven. This is the day in which we pause and recognize the moment, after 40 days of appearing around Jerusalem, that Jesus just ascends into heaven. Often times upon hearing this passage we struggle together as we strive to understand the importance of Christ’s ascension – in doing so, we mainly question what it means for us and our relationship with our savior. We examined the almost mystical moment when Jesus goes up, like Elijah, into heaven. Perhaps we even pondered whether heaven was really “up” or whether it was somewhere else in the universe.  We must begin by acknowledging that our Gospel lesson this morning is about so much more than just the Ascension of our Lord.

As his time here on earth comes to an end, Jesus spends his time teaching the disciples. Interestingly, Jesus is teaching nothing new; in fact, he is teaching the same things he had taught over the previous 3 years that he had spent with the disciples. Multiple times before his death, Jesus told the disciples of the suffering, death, and resurrection that was to come. He taught them about what it meant and its importance. Yet, despite all of Jesus’ instructions, the disciples still did not understand the events surrounding the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ, and they were still paralyzed with fear.

Their minds were closed to the true realities of what was going on, and it took the physical loving presence and reassurance of Christ to dispel their fears. They failed to grasp the revelation of God’s plan as the events were unfolding. This begs the question, if the disciples didn’t get it the first time…especially after three years! Why does Jesus even engage them in the act of reteaching the things they should already know? The grace of God continues to engage us again and again and again…even when we fail to understand. The grace of God beckons us back into relationship as God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit constantly re-engages the disciples and us. Upon calming the fears of the disciples and speaking a word of peace to them, Jesus begins the act of teaching again…in hopes that this time they might truly understand.[1]

Surely, Jesus had every right to be upset with the disciples. Their fear led them to abandon the teaching they had heard over the last 3 years. Their fear caused one disciple to deny even knowing Christ. Some ran off scared, others locked themselves in the upper room and others dismissed the reports of the resurrected Christ from the women on that first Easter morning. Yet, Jesus does not choose to be angry.[2] Instead, this morning, Jesus instructs his disciples as he opens the scriptures to them and in doing so beckons them back into relationship with him. We are told that this time, their minds are opened, and they begin to understand more fully the relational love of God.[3] This revelation shows the disciples that Jesus fulfills the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.[4] In fulfilling the scriptures, in making God’s love made known to us, Jesus begins to establish the church whom God will continue to engage over and over again even when we fail to understand.

On this Ascension Sunday, we too are called to open our minds that, through the Power of the Holy Spirit, Christ might instruct us too. We are called to open our hearts and our minds as we have been doing these past few weeks so that, like the disciples, we will be called forth to the work of “repentance and the forgiveness of sins”. In calling us forth and accepting the call, we too can begin to understand the fulfillment of Scripture in Christ, one which beckons us to re-engage with God over and over again. That through such engagement, we might begin to see God’s plan of salvation manifest in our lives and in the world.

Christ shares with us the inbreaking of God in the same way that he shares moves the disciples from fear to understanding – it is done in stages. Do you notice the movement in our Gospel lesson this morning? The movement is not just about Jesus Ascending to heaven. It is about a movement from recognition to instruction to commission.[5] We, like the disciples, are commissioned to go out into the world and spread hope of the Gospel. We and the disciples are to take what we have witnessed in our lives and share it with others. We are to look closely for the God who is at work in one another and share where we see God at work with the whole world. We are to take our witness and go witness to the world. As one theologian writes about the disciples, “They have passively witnessed these things; now they must actively bear witness ‘to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem’ (v. 47).[6]

Now, for the disciples and for us, it can be difficult to imagine this happening without Jesus in the world. How can we proclaim Jesus’ resurrection when he ascends into heaven? How can we proclaim the miracle of the resurrection without a body to point to? In Jesus’ ascension, the space is made for us to be witnesses to the world. In other words, Christ’s ascension is about Christ’s returning to heaven, but it is also about Christ making space for us to fulfill our commission to go out and testify, to witness, and to proclaim the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name.

One theologian writes this saying, “So long as God was in the world in human form, all eyes and hearts were fixed there. Jesus’ ascension makes space for the disciples to turn their gaze upon the world…”[7] In other words, Christ ascends to heaven to be reunited with the Father in Heaven AND to make space that we and the disciples might shift our focus from Jesus’ physical earthly body to the mission field Christ points us to.

This act of making space is an act of the Triune God. God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is a God who wants to leave space for the action of others. Theologian Rowan Williams suggests that “each of the three divine ‘persons’ seeks not to gain pride of place or to assert hierarchical dominion over the others, but to give place to the others, so that they too can most fully be what they are. As such, the divine Trinity models for us the true nature of community.”[8] This model of community is the community we are called to this morning. The church is not called to be a power grab. The church is not called to give one a place to rule over all the others. Rather, the church is to be a chorus of mutual participation and difference.

This is why we focus on gifts and graces in the United Methodist Churches. We know our theological task is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. In planning and executing on this in the local church, we recognize the gifts and graces that each person brings to the table. We know who is strong in working on the building and who is strong in helping with paperwork. We know who is strong in playing the piano or singing, and we know who is strong in teaching Sunday School and leading Bible study.

As our Bishop and District Superintendent discern who will be the pastor of our church, he or she will take into account the gifts and graces of the church. He or she will also take into account the gifts and graces of the pastor so that the pastor and the folks in the congregation will complement and work well with each other. It becomes a beautiful work of mutual participation. Some work in some areas and step aside to give others space to work in other areas.

Jesus steps aside to begin to give birth to the church. He steps aside for the Holy Spirit to come and continue God’s work in the world. Jesus hints at this in our scripture today saying, “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” (Luke 24:49).  Next week the disciples will learn, what we celebrate on Pentecost Sunday each year, that the Holy Spirit is coming.

We, like the disciples, find ourselves in an in-between time. The disciples know that Jesus has ascended. They also know they are to wait for some other power from God to come. We, too, find ourselves waiting. We know that Jesus has gone before us, and we know that God continues this journey for us, but we find ourselves waiting and discerning the work of General Conference. Yet, what we have found is that General Conference has come and gone, and we are still called to be United in our love for one another. Maybe we are still trying to figure out what it all means…we are still dealing with disaffiliations, church closures, hurt, and maybe some regret.

We must be honest about our reality (how we feel) and God’s reign (which calls us to keep on loving) and stand in the blessing that comes from the ever-present God. For the disciples they knew that something was about to happen. They were being called to witness to the apostolic, catholic, and universal message of the gospel. They had to be honest with where they found themselves and continue to be faithful to God’s reign in the world.[9] We, too, must accept our reality. God is still at work. God calls us to continue to make disciples. We must continue to acknowledge that even in our seemingly “divided” realities, God reigns.

But we must also stand in the blessing. You see, Jesus’ ascension occurs in the middle of a blessing. Our Gospel lesson tells us that Christ’s ascension happened almost mid-sentence of the blessing. In other words, the blessing never ends. It seems to suggest that even though the disciples could no longer see Jesus, even though they couldn’t see Jesus with raised hands extending his arms out over them, Jesus was still with them, blessing them.[10]

Even if we have a hard time seeing Jesus in all the changes that have taken place since COVID, even if we have a hard time seeing Jesus in the middle of our lives today, Jesus is still with us, praying for us, blessing us, that we might rise up and continue to live our lives as Disciples of Jesus Christ, blessed and chosen for such a time as this.

This morning we are called out, invited, even in the midst of our current realities, to accept that God is calling us. Like the disciples, we don’t know what that will look like. However, the invitation is to open our minds and our hearts to something new and refreshing. To wait in Danville for God to send God’s Spirit upon us, even when we don’t know what we are waiting on. As we awaken our faith, as we wait on our guidance, as we hold fast to Jesus, might we too give place to one another so that we might move forward together as God’s people in this world.

We are a resurrection people, and we are an ascension people: trusting God, believing God’s promises, making space for God, and making space for one another that we might trust one another and live with one another in presence, and in absence, in death, and in life. This is how we move forward as the Church. This is how we dance again as a revived community of faith. Trusting God’s promises, waiting on God’s timing and God’s Spirit.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.