Acts
1:6-14
6 So when they had come together, they asked
him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to
Israel?" 7 He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or
periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 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." 9 When
he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him
out of their sight. 10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward
heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 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." 12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet,
which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day's journey away. 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. 14 All these
were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women,
including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.
John
17:1-11
1 After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked
up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so
that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all
people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is
eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave
me to do. 5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that
I had in your presence before the world existed. 6 "I have made your name
known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave
them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you
have given me is from you; 8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to
them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and
they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not
asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because
they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified
in them. 11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and
I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given
me, so that they may be one, as we are one.
…and you
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of
the earth.
·
We have just passed the festival of
the Ascension. It’s one that is not celebrated in each and every church, even
the churches of the same denomination. It isn’t celebrated within this congregation,
for example.
·
I imagine the reason for this could
be simply one of not comprehending a non-Sunday worship celebration. It is a
work day, after all. Oddly enough, the festival is actually a civic holiday in
a number of places in the world.
·
Because we are between festivals, we
could feel somewhat “suspended” in our worship. We’ve seen Jesus depart from
this world and we await the celebration of the entrance of the Holy Spirit into
the Church.
·
There are some things left to say. Ascension
does not mean we are left alone. In fact, since the Ascension is linked to
Pentecost, we are less alone than ever.
·
Jesus has a body. (Not HAD, but HAS.
The Ascension means he is somewhere.) That’s what the Incarnation is all about.
Although his body was changed forever in the Resurrection (as the Gospel
accounts of the Resurrection tell us), it is still a body and is limited as to
where the body can be at any one time. We however, and all of Jesus disciples,
are left here. Jesus’ works are in our hands now.
·
If that worries you, remember this:
Luke tells us in Acts that the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples at
Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is not limited in a bodily way and can be anywhere
and everywhere. The Spirit carries the presence of Jesus to us as well as the
presence of the Father, with all the grace and creative power we could imagine.
Yes, Jesus’ works are in our hands, but not our hands alone.
·
Is it possible that the starting
point of the Gospel is the Resurrection? We see that Matthew and Luke start
with Jesus’ birth and the preparation for it. Mark starts with Jesus’ Baptism.
John goes back to the creation of the cosmos and Jesus’ role there. But for us,
does the Gospel conclude or begin with the Resurrection? Would our discipleship
be different if we believed the words of Jesus, that you will be my witnesses in
Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
·
The disciples who were present for
both the Ascension and the Pentecost event came to believe this. When Jesus was
crucified, the men all ran and hid. (The women didn’t; the culture of the time
discounted them, a mistake we shouldn’t make today.) Even at Jesus’ Ascension,
they didn’t fully understand what was going on. Soon after, they were ready and
eager to be Jesus’ witnesses and to carry the Gospel anywhere, even at the cost
of their lives.
·
In the passage from John’s Gospel we
heard today, Jesus prays that the Father might protect his disciples, referring
to those as table with him, but this can be extended to ourselves as well. We
are part of Jesus’ prayer and we are then part of the narrative and the story
of the Church’s ministry to the world.
·
The Gospel, the Good News of Jesus
Christ, is not ended; our lives as disciples are the continuation of it, just
as they are the continuation of the ministry of Jesus. The Spirit will let that
Good News die, no matter what else may happen. We are Jesus’ hands and feet and
voice in the world that the Father loves.
…and you
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of
the earth.
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