Artist Ed de Guzman* Sermons from Park Hill Congregational UCC Denver, Colorado Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] May 16, 2021 “Never the Same Again: Take a Risk” Acts 1: 1-11 – Common English Bible Theophilus, the first scroll I wrote concerned everything Jesus did and taught from the beginning, 2 right up to the day when he was taken up into heaven. Before he was taken up, working in the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus instructed the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he showed them that he was alive with many convincing proofs. He appeared to them over a period of forty days, speaking to them about God’s kingdom. 4 While they were eating together, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised. He said, “This is what you heard from me: 5 John baptized with water, but in only a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 6 As a result, those who had gathered together asked Jesus, “Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now?” 7 Jesus replied, “It isn’t for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority. 8 Rather, 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 end of the earth.” 9 After Jesus said these things, as they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going away and as they were staring toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood next to them. 11 They said, “Galileans, why are you standing here, looking toward heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you saw him go into heaven.” If you lived in Germany and went to the bank last Thursday, you would have discovered it was closed. You’d say to yourself, oh, that’s right. Duh! It’s Ascension Day. Yes, Ascension Day is a public holiday in Germany. And now you have a piece of trivia to impress all your friends at your first post-Covid party. Despite being a very secular country, Germany has a number of public holidays that are feast days in the Christian church, although not all of them are observed in every state. I would have expected Reformation Day as a more likely country-wide holiday – you know, Martin Luther and those 95 theses in Wittenberg and so forth[1] – but perhaps Ascension Day is still observed nationally because it has evolved into something more than that. In today’s story, Jesus ascends to heaven to be reunited with his father, which may be why Ascension Day in Germany is now a kind of Father’s Day. The Feast of the Ascension has been celebrated since at least the 4th century, but starting in the 18th century, local tradition dictated that all the men in the village would be placed in carts and trundled into the center of town. The man who had fathered the most children would then be presented with a prize by the mayor - usually a large chunk of ham. Nowadays it’s more about beer than ham. In fact, at least according to what I read, (on the internet no less!) many Germans refer to it as the day of “boozing and brawling.” Sometimes things get a little out of hand, which is why every year Ascension Day sees a 300 percent spike in the number of alcohol-related traffic incidents.[2] So, I’m a little off track, but it was too fascinating not to share. Not to mention, it’s an excuse to avoid talking about the ascension of Jesus for as long as I can because among all the implausible theological concepts in Christianity, ascension is right up there along with resurrection and virgin birth. As our Lunch and Lectionary participants noted, at least the resurrection makes a point. The forces of hatred and injustice do not win. Crucifixion is not the end. Despite the worst you can do to someone, ultimately, love wins. On the other hand, what’s the point of ascension? That heaven is “up there?” What’s the point? Well, first of all, the ascension of Jesus marks a transition point. It connects the last words of the Gospel of Luke with the first words of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. You may or may not already know that Luke wrote both the gospel and The Book of Acts. The gospel tells the story of the life of Jesus. Acts tells the story of the church. So, at his ascension, the disciples and followers of Jesus are left behind to act upon his teachings. In fact, in the Book of Acts, they are now called apostles. Disciples are ones being taught. Apostles are people who do what they’ve been taught. So, it’s a transition point. And ascension is the literary device used to describe that transition point when Jesus is no longer physically on earth, although they are not left alone. On the Day of Pentecost, reportedly 10 days later, the promised Spirit arrives in the drama of wind and tongues of fire – as one who unites people, and who is our comforter, advocate, and guide. The Spirit will remain with them – and with us. Ascension may be a literary device for a transition point, but that’s not its only purpose. Ascension tells a story that means something, not in all those details that can get in the way, but in the larger narrative arc that reaches all the way to us and beyond. This is where it begins to matter. After Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to his followers and told them to be his witnesses, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. It’s similar to other biblical characters like Elijah or heroic characters like Hercules. Their deaths also included an assumption into heaven.[3] And then here is my favorite part of the story. After Jesus is no longer visible, the disciples and followers of Jesus are still standing around, looking skyward, when two men in white robes ask, “Why are you standing around looking up?” I love that image. Imagine a frustrated teacher telling a day-dreaming student: “Get your head out of the clouds.” Or hear my father say, “Don’t just stand there. Do something.” The followers of Jesus are asked, “Why are you still standing around looking up?” One of my favorite movies of all time is Ferris Buehler’s Day Off. As I say that, I realize it’s now 35 years old, which puts it in the category of “old movies,” like Legally Blonde and Gone with the Wind. Regardless, it’s a great movie. But one of the funniest lines doesn’t happen until after all the credits have rolled and the lion has roared. Most people have left the theatre. But at that point, surprise! Ferris appears back on the screen and asks, “What are you still doing here? Go home!” But the disciples aren’t supposed to simply go home. They are to be witnesses of Jesus to the ends of the earth. We might ask, “witnesses of what?” Well, one of the most dramatic examples came immediately after Pentecost. The Spirit arrived but when they did indeed go home, it was not to something resembling the old normal. They’re lives had been transformed. Listen to what it says in the next chapter of the Book of Acts: 42 The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. 43 A sense of awe came over everyone. God performed many wonders and signs through the apostles. 44 All the believers were united and shared everything. 45 They would sell pieces of property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them. 46 Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity. 47 They praised God and demonstrated God’s goodness to everyone. Every day, the Lord added to the community those who were being saved. To me, the most important message in the story of the ascension is that if you and I just stand around looking up, we won’t see our neighbor. Our mothers might describe it as someone acting “So heavenly-minded, they’re of no earthly good.” And yes, if our focus is toward heaven, of what earthly good are we? Nothing more should be said about being a witness of Jesus than loving our neighbors with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, sharing our possessions with everyone in need, knocking down the walls that divide us, speaking words of truth… How else will they know we are Christians? While the ascension may indeed be a transitional literary device, Teresa of Avila sums up perfectly the point of the ascension: “Christ has no body now but yours.” Speaking of transition points, we’re at something of a transition in the pandemic – not yet a before and after, perhaps just a beginning to the end. And in many places around the world, the suffering is still worsening. But here we are, feeling our way, tentatively, for example, anticipating returning to the building. We can anticipate resuming some of what we used to take for granted. Except that, we’ve all been transformed by this experience. We can’t return to what we once knew because we are not the same people. The disciples were never the same again. And that’s a good thing. We should feel emboldened by the Spirit to take a risk. To keep taking risks as the followers of Jesus for the sake of love and generosity and truth telling. Therefore, I pray that we do not reestablish or start establishing new patterns and norms too quickly. Not only must we recognize that we all have been transformed by this shared experience of isolation and limitation, we are still being transformed. We hold a lot of unexamined grief. We could allow fear to tempt us to settle too quickly. Remember, we learned to take risks - and because of that we will never be the same. We are stronger and more creative than we could have imagined before all of this. And I pray that the Holy Spirit continues to empower us to keep embracing new ways of witnessing to the love and goodness of Jesus. But my final thought on Ascension Sunday. Remember the words of Teresa of Avila: “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.” Ed de Guzman https://www.jmacreativegroup.com/arteddeguzman [1] It was a national holiday for the 500th anniversary in 2017 [2] https://www.iamexpat.de/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/why-ascension-day-germany-all-about-dads [3] https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/ascension-heavens-ancient-mythology-001471
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