A sermon preached by The Reverend Canon Dr. David Anderson at St. Jude’s Anglican Church, Oakville, on Ascension Sunday, May 12, 2024.
I speak to you in the name of our risen Lord. Amen.
I suspect that many of us find it difficult to wait. I had a little lesson in waiting yesterday as I was leaving a theological conference at McMaster University in Hamilton. The university was not only the site of the conference I attended, but it is also the site of student protests against what the students view as genocide in Gaza. As I was attempting to leave the university to come home, the path was blocked by protesters. I could see that the protesters were slowly—ever so slowly—moving along. As they moved, the traffic I was in was also slowly—ever so slowly—moving toward the exit from the university grounds. Even with some sympathy for the protesters and their cause, the long wait was frustrating. Whether its is waiting in the doctor’s office or in the queue at the grocery store, whether it is waiting for an expected phone call, or even for the expected child to arrive, waiting is a challenge for us as human beings. We learn that patience is a virtue, but we might pray, “Lord, give me patience, and give it to me right now!”
Today we are celebrating the Ascension of our Lord. The story of Jesus’ ascension is at least in part a story about how some things are worth waiting for.
Luke, as with any master storyteller, tells the story of the ascension without stopping to explain. As readers and hearers, we are left to work out the meaning ourselves, however there are claims that are made in Luke’s account in the Book of Acts worth our attention. The first is a claim that Luke makes throughout his writings, but which is central here: the claim that Jesus is Lord. The second is that because Jesus has ascended, he can send the promised Holy Spirit.
Luke tells us that after Jesus had said all the things he had to say, “as the [disciples] were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight” (v. 9). The cloud is not form of miraculous elevator. The cloud is, as it was for example at Jesus’ transfiguration, or in many other places in the Bible, a sign of God’s presence. Consider, for example the pillar of cloud in the Book of Exodus. If we are wondering where Jesus has gone as he has been lifted up, the only adequate answer really is that he has gone to the Father—not to be understood as a place up there somewhere—but to be with the Father in love and in power. The ascension into the cloud is Jesus’ welcome into the Father’s presence.
So, Jesus has gone. Jesus has left the building. This does not mean, however, that things have gone back to the way they were before. The world has changed. The world has been changed forever. Why? Because Jesus has now been enthroned as Lord.
We have today sung Psalm 47. “God has gone up with shout.” It is the perfect text for Ascension Sunday, and throughout the ages Christians have sung Psalm 47 as part of the Ascension Day celebrations. This is a Psalm that speaks about enthronement, about a procession that celebrates God’s kingship. The idea of God’s kingship has to do with God’s sovereignty over the created order and the forces of history.
Now, it is important to note that all the peoples of the ancient Near East spoke of the deities that they worshipped as kings. So, when Psalm 47 speaks of God in this way—claiming that God rules over the world—it is also a way of saying that Baal, Marduk, and other gods do not. Israel’s neighbours all had stories about how their gods had become the king through their battles with other gods. Psalm 47 and similar Psalms in the Book of Psalms rest on the assumption that Israel’s God always was king.
So, in the ascension, Jesus is enthroned as Lord and King. That means that Caesar is not. Caesar is not Lord. It also means that none of the powers, none of the pursuits, and none of the promises that vie for control of our lives—none of them—are sovereign either.
In Luke’s accounts of both the resurrection and the ascension we hear about two men in dazzling white robes, asking questions. At the resurrection, the men are asking, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5). At the ascension they ask, “Why do you stand looking up to heaven?” (v. 11). There point seems to be that we are looking in the wrong place. Luke is deliberately tying these events—resurrection and ascension—together as a way of trying to focus our attention in the right direction, not searching among the dead, and not gazing up into the sky. Luke ties these events, resurrection and ascension, together because the ascension clarifies for us the meaning of the resurrection.
Easter is not primarily about the promise of life after death. It is not a promise that we will go to heaven when we die. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the sign that God has exalted him—the same embodied and incarnate Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, who welcomed sinners, who suffered and died in shame and rejection by this world—he has been exalted as Lord and Messiah (Acts 2:36). Jesus is God’s promise and plan for the whole world, and not even death can stop that.
As I have mentioned, the second theme that is highlighted in the ascension story is that the stage is now set of the giving of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ going to the Father means that the Spirit will be poured out on God’s people (Acts 2:33). But for now, the disciples must wait. In our reading from the Book of Acts, Jesus promises the disciples, “you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (v. 5). For now, the disciples must wait to receive “power when the Holy Spirit has come upon” them (v. 8). The language here is reminiscent of Gabriel’s words to Mary in Luke 1. Both the Gospel and the Book of Acts thus begin with God’s Spirit moving in the world to bring something new: in Luke 1, it is the birth of Jesus the Messiah, and in Acts 1, the birth of the church and its witness.
But as we have already acknowledged, none of us like to wait. As is perhaps so often the case with us, the disciples see no need to wait. They ask if “now” is the time to restore the kingdom to Israel (v. 6). Luke’s Gospel, particularly the joyous outbursts by Mary, Zechariah, and Simeon in the first two chapters, makes clear that what happens in Jesus will truly be the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel. But perhaps the disciple’s question about restoration—“Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”—indicates a hope that is too small (v. 6). What God has in mind is not just bringing Israel back to the “good ole’ days,” but bringing Israel to its yet-unrealized goal of being light to the whole world. The disciples may have thought they were on the verge of inheriting an old-style kingdom, when in fact they are at the edge of God’s mission to redeem all nations and all things, a mission that will consume the rest of their lives (and ours).
Finally, this text is about the absence of Jesus (see Acts 3:19-21). Yes, Jesus has left the building. So, how do we live as Jesus’ followers without his visible, physical presence? The disciples have to be called away from staring up, in expectation and wonder, at where they last saw Jesus. It is not that they are looking for the wrong thing (or, rather, the wrong person), but they are looking in the wrong place. Luke begins the Book of Acts addressing the one to whom he has written, “In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote to you about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning, until the day that he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen” (vv. 1-2). What Luke is doing here is introducing the idea that the work of Jesus does not end with the ascension. The work of Jesus continues. As part of that work, the church continues to proclaim, to teach, to love, and to serve in Jesus’ name.
This is why our parish has been involved in developing a new Mission Action Plan. Together, we have been discerning how we can continue the work of Jesus among us and through us. In our various consultations we generated a lot of good ideas, and our planning team was quite amazed to witness convergence of ideas. Through the Parish News email yesterday I sent a letter describing our findings and a summary of the three consultations we held in our Mission Action planning. Today, in the Victoria Hall, if you join us for coffee, I invite you to look at the colourful posters we have created with the key priorities that have been identified in our Mission Action planning process. I invite you to come and look at this list of priorities and to begin to pray and consider which of these might speak to you for further involvement and support yourself. Our final parish-wide MAP consultation will be held on week from next Sunday, May 26.
In the work of the Spirit, we encounter Jesus and what he continues to do. We aren’t left staring at where Jesus used to be (whether in history, or in our own life experiences, or in our supposedly settled opinions and interpretations). And no longer are we waiting. Not just although, but because he ascended, we continue to encounter Jesus through our worship, through the fellowship of the church, and through ministry with our most vulnerable neighbours. And because Jesus has ascended as our risen Lord, none of the other departures we experience (departures of relationships, of health, or of life itself) can harm us or rob us of God’s good promise. For that, we can and should celebrate The Ascension with praise and thanks.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
