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It is the beginning. It is the end. It is the ascension of Jesus. It is the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles. It is the end of Christ’s earthly presence. The Ascension - Jesus being lifted up to heaven in the presence of his friends and disciples – is an often overlooked event in the life of our Savior. Ascension comes to us each year in between Easter and Pentecost, And this year comes to us in the midst of a busy time in the life of our congregation. Think for a moment how full our worship has been over the last few months. We’ve had the introspection and work of the Lenten season. We’ve experienced the joy of Easter with its alleluias, flowers, and the glorious canopy of color and peace. We’ve had three baptisms in the last month, and last Sunday we celebrated Confirmation and welcomed eight young people as new members of our congregation. We’re already making plans for the celebration of Pentecost next week, with the earth, wind, and fire of the Holy Spirit coming among us. Phew! It’s tiring just thinking about it all, isn’t it? It has been busy and full outside of worship as well: We’ve said farewell with thanksgiving to Jonathan as the Senior Minister of our church family. We’ve welcomed Barbara as our new senior interim. We’ve wrestled with some hard budget questions, made decisions about the timing of the vote for Open and Affirming, and staged a stewardship campaign and are now in the midst of the follow up. Okay, you’re really exhausted, right? Now along comes the Ascension – the mysterious and miraculous story of Jesus returning to heaven - and who even has the energy for it? Well, friends, The Scriptures and the Christian church have the energy for it! The gospels and the book of Acts place the Ascension as a central part of the Easter Story. You see, the Acts narrative is not the only place where Jesus is lifted up to heaven. Although they relate it differently, the gospels of Luke, Mark, and John also tell the good news of Jesus’ ascension. In Luke, Jesus is lifted up while blessing the disciples; In John, Jesus commands Mary Magdalene to tell the others that he is ascending to heaven, And in one of the later endings of Mark, we are told clearly and concisely that “Jesus was taken up into heaven.” And do you recall the Apostles Creed we declared together at the last three baptisms? “I believe in Jesus Christ, (Who) was crucified, died, and was buried. On the third day, He rose again; He ascended into heaven; He is seated at the right hand of the Father.” The earliest Christians considered – And contemporary Christians still confess – This act in the life of Jesus as central to the faith. So, let’s take a breath, Get some energy, And see if there’s a lesson or two or three for us today in the ascension of Jesus – An experience of beginnings and endings. Ascension is placed at the beginning of the books of Acts, but it’s also a significant ending – For Jesus departs from this earth. Before he goes, Before he is lifted up, he shares some final words with his disciples: First, he makes a promise: “You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” And then he tells them what they will do when the power of the Spirit comes to them: They will become witnesses, sharing the good news – even to the ends of the earth. I imagine that when his disciples heard Jesus’ final word, They immediately begin to sense that things are going to change – again. They had experienced the change of Good Friday, And its accompanying grief and desolation. They had experienced the change of Easter, And the joy and new life and transformation it meant. And now, for 40 days, the Risen One had been with them – And things were going to change again. For the followers of Jesus – then and now – A life of faith is a life of change. And a life of letting go. Because even though the ascension of Jesus was beyond their power, The disciples had to let go of Jesus. They couldn’t and didn’t have the power to jump up and pull Jesus back to earth, even though they may have wanted to. After all, he was with them for only 40 days after the Resurrection. How much they still needed to learn from him! How much they still needed his words and presence of peace! As he left, they disciples knew he would no longer be around to teach and preach, Comfort and challenge them. He would no longer be there to heal and break bread with them. The disciples have to release Jesus so that they could begin their lives without him. This letting go comes with every ending in our lives as well, Doesn’t it? It’s hard, though - sometimes very hard. Maybe that’s why the disciples continue to gaze up to the heavens, Wishing things wouldn’t change, Hoping and praying that Jesus would return to them, And return quickly. We, too, are invited to let go so that something new can come into our lives – Be it individually or as a community. We let go of our children when they go off to kindergarten and to college or away on vacation for the first time without their family. We let go of someone when they die or they move away or end a relationship with us. Sometimes we even have to let go of certain dreams or hopes we’ve held onto for days or months or years. But even when we let go – When we let go fully and faithfully, The new thing doesn’t appear right away. We unclench, We release, And we stand with open hands and we wait – For peace, for hope, for grace, for love. We wait – For courage, for compassion, for commitment. And if we’re like the disciples, We wait for the Spirit that Jesus has promised. The ascension contains a lesson about waiting, waiting for the promise of what is to come. One wise person (Jeffrey D. Peterson-Davis) claims that The ascension narrative invites us into an interim time, a time when the disciples “were left wondering and waiting, trusting that the Spirit would come but not certain when, speculating when Jesus might drop down from the clouds. The followers of Jesus found themselves in that space we know as “between.” And that “between space,” that time when we can see only the ending but not quite the new beginning can be an uncomfortable time. We may crave resolution, And want to turn the next chapter in our lives or in the life of our church. But the Ascension invites us into a holy time of waiting. We know such interim times in our lives. Waiting for the birth of a child or a grandchild, Waiting for the results of medical tests, Waiting for a college acceptance letter. We are in such an interim time in our congregational life together, A time between – Between settled ministers, Between a vision that we’ve initially articulated and a vision that is yet to become a reality, Between who we are now and who God is calling us to be. But this interim time is a time to sit passively. It is an active waiting time. If we continue to read on in the book of Acts, The rest of the first chapter, We will discover that the disciples don’t remain transfixed with their eyes toward heaven. They return to Jerusalem, continue to meet and pray and learn together. They make important decisions about their life, their leadership, and their community commitments together. We will do the same, With Barbara’s leadership and skills and gifts, With the leadership of the church council and other committees and boards, And with the prayers and commitment of all of us to be in this time of waiting together. According to gospel math, There are ten days in between the Ascension and Pentecost, Ten days from the time Jesus is lifted up to heaven to the time the promise Spirit arrives. In our own interim times, it may be ten days or ten months, ten years, but we live with the same promise from Jesus: the power of the Holy Spirit will come to us as well, and we will given the power to do what needs to be done. It’s the beginning. It’s the end. It’s a time of Holy Waiting. It’s the Ascension of Jesus. |