Ascension-tide Sermon, by John Creasy
Acts 1:6-14
1:6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”
1:7 He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
1:9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
1:10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.
1:11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
1:12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.
1:13 When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying: Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.
1:14 All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.
How far is heaven from earth? How separate is the physical world from the spiritual? How separate is the profane from the sacred? Here’s another question… have you ever had an experience where God felt extremely close? Have you ever had a mystical experience. Maybe it was your conversion experience, maybe in your baptism, for many people it is through subtle but powerful experiences of God in the natural world.
In our scripture the disciples are interested in one thing… the restoration of the Israelite kingdom. That’s what they were hoping for all along… that’s what they thought Jesus would do when he rode a donkey into Jerusalem. But… they were disappointed when he was killed on a cross, when their hopes and dreams came crashing down. Then Jesus reappeared, he had risen! And so their hopes for a restored kingdom were restored! I love Jesus’ response here, basically he says we can’t know about those things… it’s all up to God and God’s not telling his secrets.
The disciples instead will receive the power of the Holy Spirit, that’s not what they asked for, but it’s what God had planned. The power of the holy spirit. For the disciples, this was a first time experience. God’s spirit would ignite the lives of the disciples and this would be far better than a restored Jerusalem, far better than an overthrow of the Roman Empire. God’s Spirit would equip the apostles to bear witness to Jesus throughout Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and throughout all the world! This was the purpose of Jesus, the the restoration of everything.
Then… the impossible happens. The physical body of Jesus ascends to Heaven.
This is the ascension.
I grew up in a Christian tradition that celebrated Easter as the pinnacle of the salvation story. Next of importance was Good Friday. The death and resurrection of Jesus were paramount to the salvation of humanity. That’s all good… but maybe the bookends of Jesus’s life are just as important… if not more. The incarnation and the ascension.
For me, the incarnation and the ascension of Jesus demonstrate Christ’s redemption of all creation. Lets first think for a minute about the incarnation… about Christmas and its meaning. In my evangelical upbringing Christmas was not very important. I mean, sure, it was for all the kids and families, but theologically I was told that Christmas was way less important than Good Friday and Easter. In Eastern Orthodox theology the incarnation is paramount. God becomes fully human, fully descending to the physical. God becomes dust. Can we just let that sink in for a moment? The creator of all… the I AM… the one who is in all, through all, with all… became the same as us all… a body made of carbon, nitrogen, cells and organs. The God of the universe became the universe by becoming one human being. I can’t explain it. We can only dwell with this miracle and have faith that it is true.
Just as we all remember that we were made of dust and we will return to dust on Good Friday, God is formed of the dust of the earth. What this means for all creation cannot be under-stated!
The miracle of the incarnation is made complete in the ascension. In the ascension the dust of the earth… as the body of Jesus… is raised up to God. God becoming one with all creation through the body of one human being leads me to believe that all of creation just might be raised up to God, united with God, restored and redeemed. The ascension of Jesus’ body is the union of all that is physical with all that is Divine. Sit with that for a while… maybe the rest of your life.
The Angels explain that there’s no reason for the disciples to stand looking up to heaven, looking for Jesus to come back down, or something. But they do say that Jesus will return in the same way he just left. We can read about a foreshadowing of this return in Revelation when God comes to earth and Jerusalem is raised up at the same time and they meet. God and the earth meet halfway. Again, demonstrating the kingdom of God bringing unity and redemption to the physical world. In Revelation, again, just like in the ascension, heaven and earth meet and are made one.
The disciples are transformed by this vision… this idea that Jesus ascended and will return. They are to bring this incredible news to all the world. And so… they pray. This is the right response. They get it right this time. The disciples, including the men and the women, devote themselves to prayer… to inner transformation. They are transformed by their experience of Jesus’ ascension. And that inner transformation through prayer leads them to proclaim the good news throughout all the world!
How are you changed by the cosmic, universal, grandiose vision of the ascension of Jesus. The disciples received the “power of the holy spirit.” You have the power of the holy spirit to bring good news to all of creation! I think the response of the disciples is our best response when we realize just how big this good new is. Prayer. And just like the disciples prayer and inner transformation lead to works of good news in this world.
How far is heaven from earth? How separate is the physical the world from the spiritual? How separate is the profane from the sacred? The ascension answers these questions.
There is no separation.