Sermon Texts

May 4, 2008

Thursday was Ascension Day, our Name Day as a congregation. For a number of years we have celebrated Ascension Day with a potluck dinner or a recital, but this year we celebrate it just today.

But is this a day really to celebrate? I doubt that those first disciples were much in a mood to celebrate. Acts doesn't say so, but I imagine that they were sad, scared, confused - and perhaps angry that Jesus had abandoned them. I mention "anger," because anger is a normal part of the grieving process, and I'm sure the first disciples were grieving their loss of Jesus - not grieving his death, since he had risen, but grieving their loss of Jesus.

Yes, anger is a normal part of grief. Sometimes it's anger at God. "God, why did you let this happen?" or "God, why did you do this to me?" The disciples may well have been asking such questions of God about Jesus' leaving them. "God, why are you taking our beloved Jesus from us?" Sometime the anger of grief is directed at the deceased. "Why did you abandon me now?" or "Why didn't you take better care of yourself?" This may seem irrational - except in the cases of suicide people don't control the time of their death - but grief isn't necessarily rational. The disciples may well have been asking, "Jesus, why did you abandon us?"

Actually such anger may not be all that unreasonable considering what it meant over the years to be a Christian after the Ascension. In today's Gospel Jesus prays for his disciples; specifically he asks God to protect his disciples because they are in the world. Here "the world" means the secular world that can be an enemy of God and God's people. Our Second Lesson takes the danger to Christians even further; First Peter makes it clear that his readers have experienced suffering because of their faith in Christ. He encourages them to view it as sharing in Christ's suffering, but it's suffering nonetheless. In the First Lesson from Acts the disciples are told that they are to be "witnesses"; that may seem innocuous enough, but the Greek word is our word "martyr." For us "martyrs" are those who die for their faith; that meaning grew out of the early Christian sense that the ultimate witness to their faith was to give their lives because of Christ.

So, yes, it may not be all that unreasonable to be angry and ask Jesus because of the difficulty and suffering that may come with faith, "Why did you abandon us?" I don't suppose that we expect that Jesus could have remained on earth till now, but when we are facing difficulties, especially those arising out of our faith, we may feel anger and be tempted to ask, "Jesus, why have you abandoned us?" or "Jesus, why haven't you protected me from this suffering, this conflict?" "Was the Ascension really necessary?"

Jesus seems to think so. Several times in his sermon that precedes today's Gospel, he talks about how important it is that he leave so that those who believe in him will receive the Holy Spirit. With his absence, physically, the Holy Spirit will enable his followers to do even greater things than he did. Is this something like parenting? As parents we need to empower our children to move out on their own so that they can find their own way, their own gifts, their own way of fulfilling the promise within them. Or, it may be like a play: In Simply Christian, the book we have been studying in the Adult Forum, the author, Bishop N.T. Wright, compares our Christian faith to a five act play. The first act is creation, the second act is the fall into sin, the third act is the story of the people of Israel, the fourth act is the story of Jesus, and now the fifth act is the act that we participate in, the story of the Church, the followers of Christ, and God's promised new creation. The first acts are all important in themselves and also for understanding the action of the play in the fifth act, but the fifth act has its own independent importance. Jesus had to leave for the fifth act to begin, and now our role in this fifth act is to spread the story of Jesus and his message of God's love and promise of new life and new creation.

So, granted that the Ascension was necessary, what does God offer to placate our anger at being abandoned by Jesus? In today's Gospel Jesus promises to pray for us. Think of that - what does it mean for us to know that Jesus prays for us? What might he be praying for? In John he prays, "Protect them in your name." Jesus cares about our safety and security. I wonder if he also prays, "Help them to recognize what it means to follow me." Perhaps Jesus also prays that the Spirit helps us to see what we are called to do, how we are called to live as his disciples. His praying for us may keep providing the challenges our faith brings our way.

Notice what else he prays for: "Protect them . . . so that they may be one, as we are one." Jesus prays for our unity. He's not praying for Christian unity for its sake alone; he's not praying because of some abstract ecumenical ideal. He's praying for unity as part of God's protection. In other words, Christian unity is important because it gives mutual support to Christians as they face the challenges that come from "the world" - that secular reality that may challenge or oppose our faith. Our Christian community - whether that be the community we experience here in our congregation or the community of fellow Christians that extends beyond our congregation and our denomination - this Christian community is God's gift to provide us with support, encouragement, and strength for our faith. I experienced this kind of Christian community especially when I was a pastor in the South Bronx in the 1970's - a time when that area was devastated by poverty. We developed an ecumenical coalition of two Catholic, two Lutheran, a Mennonite, Episcopal, and U.C.C. churches. Together we encouraged one another and cooperated to provide significant ministries that in small ways tried to address the needs of our community.

Notice how First Peter makes a similar promise. "The God of all grace," he says, "will restore, support, strengthen, and establish you," but he adds that God "has called you to his eternal glory in Christ." What else placates our anger? God does promise us eternal life - a foretaste now but fully in the world to come. In other words, our risen and now ascended Lord promises us that what troubles our faith now has only temporary power and will ultimately be overcome by the new creation Christ's resurrection has inaugurated.

So is Christ's Ascension something to celebrate? Yes, it is after all a time to recognize that Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God. We sing "alleluias" to Jesus and offer to "crown him with many crowns" to recognize his divine glory. And yes, it is a time to celebrate that we are part of the fifth act - that for all its challenges and difficulties this is a time when we are graced with God's Spirit who forms us into a loving community and works through us to help the world know the depth of God's love for them. Amen.