Ascension (3)

Introduction- Two Things Can Be True At Once

When I am most trying to be funny, one of my favorite sayings is to remind folks that two things can be true at once.

Is that trip to Scotland going to be more work, or more relaxing? (Two things can be true at once!)

Is having a pair of newborn twins while finishing seminary the most beautiful, awe inspiring thing you have ever felt, or is it a trial of the human soul no one is meant to endure? (Two things can be true at once!)

Is going to a 4th grade orchestra concert a full hour of terrible noise that makes you wish you could rip out your own ear drums, or is it an absolutely beautiful moment of watching your young person come to life and grow into the person God created them to be? (Two things can be true at once!)

J, are you taking us out to lunch because you want to hang out, or because you gave up eating out alone for Lent? (Two things can be true at once!)

Look, I could actually keep this up forever.

What’s funny is that our culture seems not to like this reality, two things being true at once.

We prefer A or B, not both.

We prefer black or white, not shades of grey.

We prefer to have our side in the right, and the other side totally wrong.

And as our story would show us, that’s just not how the world works.

Bible Breakdown

40 Days of Resurrection

We have been in the season of Easter since Easter Sunday so long ago.

Easter is much bigger than one day because the resurrected Jesus hung out on Earth much more than one day!

Jesus has brunch with the disciples on the beach.

Jesus shows up and teaches Thomas a thing or two about the nature of doubt.

Jesus shows up and speaks with those who are going to carry his message forward.

Jesus shows up and puts out “many convincing proofs” to those who harbor their suspicions.

And I guess Jesus could have hung around, but he’s insisting that something better is coming.

The Holy Spirit gets a whole bunch of mentions here in this week’s text.

These disciples are going to do a lot with the power of the Holy Spirit.

We’re going to hear a lot more about that with Brian next week I’m sure, so stay tuned!

(Don’t forget to wear red!)

Ascension- A Royal Term

But in the midst of all of this, Jesus is lifted up and a cloud takes them away.

Kind of weird.

In fact, a person who served on CPM with me for a while used to ask Candidates for ordination all the time to explain the Ascension, tell us what’s going on here!

And usually they just, froze up.

A neat way I heard this said by a pastor I love:

Jesus didn’t just raise himself up into space to wait for the Apollo missions to see how that would go.

Jesus ascended to Heaven’s Oval Office.

Ascension is a royal term.

It’s about a King taking the throne.

It’s about power, the real kind of power that our world too often tries to imitate without ever getting to the real thing.

In other words:

Ascension is the iron-clad conviction that Jesus is in charge of this world.

Ascension is a reminder that Jesus has power over the creation.

Ascension is to put our trust in someone bigger and better than ourselves to take care of us.

The Angel’s Question

Naturally, the disciples stand looking up to heaven, trying to make sense of it all.

I have come to learn these last few years of preaching every Sunday that when the angels have a question, it’s usually both really important and often times super snarky!

So two angels show up with these disciples, and mere moments after Jesus was lifted up in the clouds, they ask

Why are you still looking up to heaven?

Ugh! This is so good!

They could have sat there forever looking at something they’ll never understand.

They could have made monuments and gift shops and restaurants.

They could have over-spiritualized it, and just made themselves the monks of the ascension.

They could have been frozen by inaction.

But! The angels know how important it is for these disciples to get to work.

These disciples are the ones who are going to start the church.

These disciples are the ones who are going to spread the gospel.

These disciples are the ones who are going to heal the blind and cure the lame.

If they stay standing there, they will be what one friend calls so heavenly minded that they’re no earthly good.

So the angels come along and ask a super important question: What are you waiting for?

Let’s Go!

Two Things Can Be True at Once

Maybe you already see it coming...

Is Jesus in charge over the whole creation? Or do his disciples need to have some skin in the game?

Is Jesus ascended and reigning? Or should we have some way to govern ourselves and our churches here on the ground?

Is it up to God, or is it up to us?

Two things can be true at once.

Yes, Jesus is reigning over the world, and yes he’s asked us to have a role in that.

Yes, Jesus has the power to bring about change in our world, and yes he’s asked us to be his hands and feet.

Yes, Jesus is the complete risen and reigning Son of God and yes, he’s asked us to finish what he started.

Two things can be true at once.

Two Things:

God’s Action and Our Action

In a few short days, I’m flying over to Scotland to study theology.

One of the theological debates that can take up an entire afternoon for nerds like me is trying to figure out with just about each and every event that happens in life: was that God’s action, or was it me?

Some of you know this story, but a little while ago I was out biking on the GAP trail to get some training in.

And just before the ride, I was kind of grumpy as I always am whenever I have sit in traffic in this city.

Which explains why I’m always cranky.

So I got to the trail a little bit later than I wanted to, and I had a flat tire that needed to be fixed before I could hit the trail, and my shoes wouldn’t stay tied.

Grumble grumble grumble.

And then just as I was coming around the corner by Kennywood, I heard a tremendous crash.

As I came completely around the corner, through the dust and haze, I saw that there had been a HUGE landslide, and much of the hill came down on the trail.

Right where I would have been if there hadn’t been traffic.

Right where I would have been if the tire didn’t need to be fixed.

Right where I would have been if my shoes had stayed tied.

Was that story because of what I did in those moments?

Or was that story because God was looking out for me in that moment?

Two things can be true at once.

Already, but not yet.

Like the disciples, I share a bit of confusion.

If Jesus is risen, ascended, and reigning, then why is the world still the way it is?

Why are there still floods and hurricanes?

Why do countless in poverty struggle to find food?

Why are there still thieves and bandits in the world?

Is Jesus really ascended, or are we still under the power of sin?

Two things can be true at once.

We find ourselves living in the already, but not yet.

We are set free from our sin, and yet we are still burdened by it.

We are forgiven by Christ, and yet we still have to make amends with each other.

Jesus has already overcome the world, and yet we look forward to the completion of his reign.

And that can be frustrating as all get out!

But…it can also be a tremendous source of hope.

Champions of Hope

I don’t know if you remember my first sermon here, but I sure do.

It was about hope.

A friend of mine has defined hope as “a faithful confidence that God continues to author a story that moves us from vision to action.”

That’s the definition of hope I gave on my very first day, and it’s the one I hold to now.

If we’re going to have hope, we need to have faithful confidence in the Acesnded and reigning Christ.

If we’re going to have hope, we need to believe that God is authoring a story for us even in these dark days.

And maybe most importantly, if we’re going to have hope, we need to be moved from vision to action.

And so on that note, here are a few actions I think we can lean in to as we go.

Apprentices

Embrace the tension

One of the great crimes of our world is that we lean so hard in to whataboutism.

Joshua and Julians are masters at this, but then again Joshua and Julian are nine, so that’s kind of the gig.

When one of them gets in trouble, they’ll say “Well what about my brother? He did something bad too!”

Or, more often if I’m honest, when one of them gets a treat, the other will say “Hey, what about me?”

And like any tremendous nine year old, our culture has become masters of what about ism.

And the best part about whataboutism is that when two things are true at once, the system can get bogged down in to finger pointing, and no one gets anywhere.

In each and every situation where we have said two things can be true at once, there is tension.

We badly want to resolve the tension, to only let one thing be true at a time, but it just won’t will it.

That’s ok!

Jon Foreman says that the only way a guitar string can make music at all is to have a good bit of tension on it.

So maybe instead of engaging in whataboutism, maybe we ought to embrace some tension, huh?

Maybe that means we’re going to have to have some difficult conversations in the future. I hope we can be the place for that.

Maybe that means we ought to get off of social media for those conversations, where we really only have to listen to our own side of the argument.

Maybe that means we ought to be really brave and seek out someone who disagrees with us, and face to face have a conversation with them not to shut them down or prove them wrong, but to actually learn something.

We’ll never do it if we don’t embrace the tension.

There is a ridiculous amount of tension serving a reigning Christ and knowing that we have some skin in the game too.

But it’s a good thing, isn’t it?

Do something.

I am fairly consistently amazed at how frequently our political system backs us into the corner of believing there’s nothing we can do about an argument.

Are undocumented immigrants really breaking the law? Or are they the least of these that Jesus called us to protect in Matthew 25?

Are there far too many people living in poverty, or should those folks be able to lift themselves up by their boot straps?

Are politics in our nation really so divisive that we are irreparably damaged, or are we indeed the United States of America?

And beware brothers and sisters: our current cultural system is meant to hold us in this state of suspended anger so that we never, ever do anything about any of those issues.

If the angels showed up today, perhaps they would ask us “Why are we standing looking up to CNN, or FOX, or MSNBC?”

“Why we standing here looking at a Facebook post or an Instagram reel?”

If the risen Christ is calling us under his reign, and we feel like looking after the least of these among our undocumented brothers and sisters is important, then by all means we should have ESL classes.

If the risen Christ is calling us under his reign, and we feel like there are far too many folks who don’t have enough to get by on, then by all means we should work together with our friends at St. James Food bank.

If the risen Christ is calling us under his reign, and we feel like our politics is entirely too divisive, then we should make a concerted effort to reach across the aisle and build relationships and love, even with those who agressively disagree with us.

Lean in to Jesus’ Ascension

This might be the hardest thing to do of all right now.

For all the darkness in the world, we serve the Ascended Light of the World.

For all the violence that occupies our collective consciousness, we serve the Ascended Prince of Peace.

For all the anger and the vitriol and the shouting that has been going on and is likely to continue, we serve the Ascended God of Grace.

We have to put our hope and our trust in him, because two things can be true at once.

Yes, we have to do something as a nation about the climate of our discourse. But we can also trust in Jesus to have our back.

Yes, we are off the rails when it comes to how we speak to each other. But Jesus also wants to give us a new vocabulary in our native tongue of love.

Yes, we have absolutely made a mess of this world, and it’s up to us to fix it. But Jesus is also 100% on the job.

I put my faith in the Ascended Jesus, and over and over again he rewards that faith by placing it back in us.

So, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to stand looking up at the sky.

Or at a news station.

Or at a social media post.

I would much rather have my feet moving.

So church…

Let’s go.