Today is the Seventh Sunday of Easter, the beginning of the last week of the Season, and the Sunday after the Ascension (which always falls on the Thursday before this Sunday because that's 40 days after Easter). I recently learned that some cultures celebrate the Feast of the Ascension by eating birds (can we get a KFC in Buffalo?) or feasting on flaky puff pastries, both things that symbolize rising up. Given the choice, I'd go with puff pastries.
All that aside, the Feast of the Ascension is when we celebrate that day when Jesus was lifted up to heaven in the sight of the apostles. We get some of that celebration today as we heard the Ascension story from Luke and hear Jesus praying for his disciples as he knows his time of departure is near.
On its surface, the Ascension might be the strangest event in Christianity. Luke mentions that Jesus ascended to heaven in his gospel, and gives specific details in Acts. The Gospel of John alludes to it when Jesus says that he is returning to the Father. And later additions to Mark were made when people attached stories from the other gospels in order to give it a more harmonized and satisfactory ending than it originally had.
Pentecost, which we celebrate next week (with one service at 9:00 am, by the way), has often been called, “the birthday of the Church,” because it was on that day when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles and baptized them with the power of the Spirit. From there the apostles began to preach and spread the good news to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
But I contend that the arrival of the Church on earth – not its birthday, because the Church has been from the beginning – occurred on Ascension, not Pentecost. It was on Ascension when Jesus commissioned the apostles to continue his work, to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. It was on Ascension when the apostles stood staring up to heaven when two angels appeared and asked, “Why are you just standing around?” And it was on Ascension when the apostles first began to live into the Catechismal duty to work, pray, and give for the spread of the kingdom of God – proving once again that Jesus and the apostles were Episcopalians.
Anyway . . .
So Ascension is the day we commemorate Jesus returning to the Father. But this Feast has more meaning than simply watching Jesus rise up to heaven and disappearing in a cloud. Ascension marks the day when followers of Christ are left to accomplish what Jesus set out to do from the beginning. This is partly why Jesus prays, “Protect them in your name so that they may be one as we are one.”
For three years Jesus taught and preached. He healed and restored. He showed what it was to live in unity with God. He lived a life of sacrificial love and service. He opened the door of peace, offering an alternative way of living that was in direct contrast to how the world asks us to live. And for doing those things he was executed.
Everything about how Jesus lived was one, long training event. He was training his disciples, and us, in how to live in unity with God and in communion with others. And when the time was right, he left this world of his own accord, leaving us to follow his example. In looking at the Ascension, we only need to change our perception of that event to see any number of ascension events in our own lives.
In February of 2004 I was in my final four months of seminary. I had been in school getting my AA, BA, and M.Div for the past seven years. One day I woke up and realized that once I graduated in June, I was going to need a job. So I contacted my bishop to find out where we went from here, and he said I was free to search for a position wherever I could find it. And that's how I ended up in Montana.
In a sense, I was in the same position as the apostles: I had been learning and growing and had been guided along a particular path. Eventually I had gotten to a point where, like the apostles, I was left to carry on without direct supervision. I was being entrusted to carry on and proclaim the faith received, just as the apostles had been entrusted to carry on and proclaim the faith received.
Another Ascension story came in the late summer of 2012. Joelene and I took our daughter to college, like thousands of other parents do every year, and like Mike and Kari will do this year. We got her settled into her dorm and then, trusting that we had done all we could to prepare her, we left her in the middle of the road as she watched us drive away. For us, we experienced Ascension from the point of view of Jesus – leaving those whom you love behind and hoping that what you taught them would be good enough to face the world.
Some people might confuse the Ascension with abandonment. It's important to know that, in the language of today, we haven't been ghosted. It's not like Jesus told us he's going out to buy milk and then never came back. On the contrary, Jesus continues to look out for our well-being. In the lead up to his departure he says he will not leave us orphaned. That he will send the Holy Spirit to be with us. And he prays for our protection.
Jesus has left us, but not orphaned us. If we have been paying attention, we have been instructed in how to live in unity with God. We have been given an example of sacrificial living. And now we have been entrusted to live as Christ taught us. We have been given the keys to the kingdom and it is now our job to carry on and proclaim the faith received.
The Ascension is a major event for the Church that doesn't get its proper recognition, maybe because it just seems a little strange to our ears. It marks the time when Jesus leaves but does not orphan. It recognizes it is now our job to carry on the mission of Christ. And it asks us to find everyday moments in our lives where we have felt like both the apostles and Jesus – times we've been left on our own and times we've had to trust those whom we have left.
May we see the Ascension not as some strange event with Jesus flying up into heaven, but as the moment God entrusts us with the carrying out and fulfilling of Christ's holy mission.
Amen.
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