Sermon: Looking Up While Lying Down
Text: Acts 1: 6-14 (Power Point slide)
Date:
(Ascension picture)The story of Jesus’ Ascension is a difficult story to read. To take the story at face-value, one basically has to suspend all reason and known experience to believe it. The story of the Ascension of Jesus has presented believers with that difficulty ever since the first century. The Gospels, themselves, indicate the presence of that difficulty. Matthew, doesn’t even mention the subject. It is interesting to reread the last few verses of Matthew, where the Ascension would have appeared if it were included in the Gospel.
Here are the last four verses of
Matthew (28:16-20). (The Message) Earlier in Matthew the Risen Lord had
instructed his disciples to gather in
(Text on screen)16-17Meanwhile,
the eleven disciples were on their way to
18-20Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge:
"God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train
everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism
in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the
practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day
after day after day, right up to the end of the age."
(Matthew)It is quite obvious why Matthew did not include the
ascension in his Gospel. He ended his
Gospel with what was really to him, and what should really be important to us.
That is Jesus promise in the last verse of his Gospel, “Remember, I am with you
always, to the end of the age.” Jesus
everlasting presence was where Matthew ended his story. If he had included, the ascension, which is
basically a story about Jesus’ final departure, he would have contradicted his
central message that Jesus, the Risen Lord, hasn’t departed he is still with
us. Personally, I am most partial to
Matthew’s treatment of this subject.
(Mark)Let us look at Mark.
Most translations of Mark include two possible endings to Mark,
beginning with verse 9 of chapter 16 the last chapter.
The
shorter ending is indeed short. It
simply says, “And afterwards Jesus himself, sent out through them, from east
and west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.” That is the last we hear of Jesus in the
shorter version of Mark’s ending. It
takes the same angle as Matthew, which is the Risen Lord is still with us, the
ascension is non-issue. In the longer
version of Mark’s ending, which bears much more evidence than the shorter of
probably not having been written by Mark in the first place, In any case, an ascension reference can be
found here. Verse 19: “So then the Lord, Jesus after he had spoken
to them, was taken up into Heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.” Who it was that went to Heaven with Jesus and
came back to tell us the seating arrangement in the heavenly throne room is not
recorded!
(John) John makes one brief reference to the ascension but
the ascension story is not otherwise found in the fourth Gospel. The brief
reference is in the Garden on Easter morning when Jesus says to Mary, “Do not
touch me because I have not yet ascended to my father….Go to my brothers and
tell them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, my God and your
God. Other than that casual reference, John
says no more about Jesus’ Ascension. He
ends his Gospel with a series of stories about the Risen Lord appearing to his
disciples and lets his story end at that.
(Luke)It is Luke who makes a pretty big deal about the
Ascension. n Acts he gives us details
otherwise unknown and also includes the Ascension in his Gospel. I think that when Luke was writing, People
were asking, “If the risen Lord is still with us (as many people were obviously
thinking), then why all the fuss about the coming of the Holy Spirit and its
presence as celebrated on Pentecost?” To
put the question in street language, “If we have the Risen Lord who needs the
Holy Spirit?” Luke’s accounts answers
that question: We don’t have the risen
Lord. He went to be with God. We need the Holy Spirit in his place. He answered that question in a way that was
quite acceptable in his own day even if it ruffles today’s intellectual
sensibilities.
(Sky)So what are we to make of this story. If we accept it as a story of faith coming
from the faith of the early church, there is much in it to speak to our faith
today.
First
of all who among us hasn’t thought once in awhile what a great escape an Ascension
would be. My life is full of problems
and burdens and trials; just take me up, Lord.” “I’ll Fly Away,” which I have noticed you
always seem to get a kick out of singing.
It would be the ultimate monopoly card “Go past go,” collect $200.00,
skip all the messes and pitfalls in between.
(Ascension)I would like to
turn again to art to open up the conversation between the faith of the early
church and our hearts here today. Here
is an old, old depiction of Jesus’ Ascension. I think this picture is the
artist’s depiction of that very moment when the angel of the Lord said to the
disciples, “Men of
When
I let art be my study companion in this way, it becomes very clear to me that Ascension
faith is still very much alive and well in the church today. I have had the privilege of being around a
lot of that faith and a part of a lot of the stories as a pastor in nine
different UCC congregations – including right here. There have been those parishioners, dozens in
fact, whose live were such that their prayers could have been, “Lord lift me
up, Let me out of here.” I remember one,
who I will lift up, as representative of many.
His name was Chet. Chet was diagnosed
with lymphoma and not given very much time.
Once he was in the hospital after spinal surgery. He was strapped to a striker board. (Striker Board) He was completely immobilized in this
contraption. The nurses came in
routinely and flipped the whole device to turn him over from lying on his back
to lying on his stomach. On his stomach,
with his head immobilized too, he could only look straight down into mirrors
arranged on the floor so he could see who he was to whom talking.
It
was horrible. And Chet went through much
more that was horrible. But he never
prayed, “Lord, lift me up.” Instead. He
became much more interested in the footprint he would leave behind. He did everything he could to help
others. He made himself incredibly
useful to the congregation and to me as he came by every week to spend time with
me and to help with anything I might have lying around. And most importantly, he witnessed every day
to his faith that was unflinching and that inspired others to a deeper
faith. He didn’t waste any time looking
up because he himself was too busy lifting up.
Back
to that striker board scene! A few days
after Chet was strapped into that board, I left for seven weeks sabbatical time
in
(Sky)There are a lot a stories of Ascension faith among
us. Those stories ask us, what kind of
foot print are you leaving behind?