05/21/23 - Into the Holy Beyond - Westminster Presbyterian Church Westminster Presbyterian Church | Serving God and others with open mind, hands and heart - 05/21/23

05/21/23 – Into the Holy Beyond

INTO THE HOLY BEYOND

May 21, 2023
Ascension Sunday
Acts 1:1-1; Ps. 47: Eph. 1:15-23; Luke 24:44-53
Rev. Denise Clark-Jones

Today we observe the Feast of the Ascension, marking Christ’s “ascension” to the kingdom of God forty days after Easter, as it is described in Acts. In many traditions, the Feast of the Ascension is one of the holiest and most celebrated days in the liturgical year; it is also among the most ancient of Christian traditions. The Church recognizes the day of Ascension as a day for celebration because the work that Jesus was sent to do on earth was accomplished and we, his disciples within the Church, were commissioned to continue in the divine quest to establish the kingdom of God on earth. St. Augustine, known as the father of Western Christianity, deemed the Feast of the Ascension to be one of the holiest of days of the Christian calendar alongside Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. The Ascension of Christ is the lead-up to Pentecost, which we will celebrate next Sunday. Why follow a prescribed set of readings and pay attention to particular times of Christ’s life, ministry, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension? Because the cornerstone of our faith rests on these.

As my time here is coming to an end, I hope you have come to appreciate following the lectionary in our scripture readings. I am the child of educators, and I take my role as a teaching elder and interpreter of scripture very seriously. I also appreciate that when we read and interpret these scriptures, we are doing so with Christians around the globe. The lectionary, and the Christian calendar it observes, are not only a guide for worship but an educational tool for faith formation. From the perspective of Reformed theology, the Bible is a written witness to God’s intervention in human history. But it is not a history book in the genre of historical record we might read today. Although one might argue that school history textbooks today are as controversial as the bible always has been! The Bible is not a book of science, it seeks not to answer questions of how, but why. Though made up of various books from different authors, subject to the limitations of the human mind, the Bible is foundational to our faith because we believe the authors are witnesses to God’s character, will, purpose, and steadfast love.

We might scoff at the works of art in paintings and stained glass windows which depict the Ascension with disciples looking upwards and Jesus’ feet above them. Yes, it does seem comical to us, but that is because we don’t consider the scientific worldview of ancient Judaism. From the earliest biblical writings, it is apparent the view of earth and beyond was not what we recognize today. The earth was believed to be flat and contained in a dome. The heavens were above the dome. Outside the circular dome were the heavens and a vast chaotic sea. God was believed to reside in the heavens, above the earth. Thus, the word, “ascension,” meaning “going up,” was used to describe the event of Jesus leaving the earth to be in the presence of God.

If we think of the word, “ascension” as going “beyond” rather than physically going up, we come closer to what early Christians described as Christ’s departure from the physical realm of earth. Consider John’s gospel account of the Pharisee Nicodemus secretly coming to see Jesus to ask how he might gain eternal life. Jesus engaged in wordplay with Nicodemus, based on two different meanings of the Greek word, “anothen.” Jesus told Nicodemus that to become closer to God, he needed to be born “from above,” which Nicodemus interpreted as “born again.” When Jesus used the word, “above,” he was referring to the realm of God, which is beyond the physical confines of the world.

Jesus was a rabbi. A new type of faith leader in first-century Judaism. Rather than follow the priests of the temple and their literal interpretation of the law, Jesus followed the new tradition of a faith leader, who studied the Hebrew Scriptures and educated others in their interpretation. In our readings from Acts and the gospel of Luke, we have a unique insight into the theological world of the author.

Our reading from Luke’s gospel takes place immediately following the description of how two of Jesus’ followers, Cleopas, and an unnamed companion, had left Jerusalem with heavy hearts. Their hopes had been dashed by the crucifixion of the One they had believed to be Israel’s savior. They failed to even recognize Jesus when they meet him on the road to Emmaus. They explained to him what had happened in Jerusalem. Then they invited this stranger to eat with them. “Stay with us, because it is almost evening, and the day is now nearly over.” The Greek word for “stay” can also mean “eat.” The allusion to the Eucharist is hard to miss. Luke tells us: “When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. ³¹Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight.” (Luke 24: 30-31) By the time Luke’s gospel was written, celebrating the Eucharist was an established worship practice in the early church. Luke’s gospel ends with the risen Jesus mysteriously “departing.” No vision of Jesus’ feet as he was propelled into the sky.

We know Luke’s gospel and the book of Acts of the Apostles were written by the same author because he tells us. So why does Luke end with Jesus leaving the earth to be with God on the day of his Resurrection while in Acts, Jesus hangs around 40 more days to give instruction to his disciples? Did the author of Luke have a memory lapse, forgetting how he ended his first book? Did he fail to proofread his first text before beginning his second? Highly unlikely! Biblical scholars have noted that Luke and Acts author demonstrates an educated mind with his use of sophisticated Greek and his breadth of knowledge in multiple subject areas. The author wrote theologically, not historically or scientifically. In the First Testament, the designation of time as “forty days” refers to a significant period of time during which God intervenes in the affairs of humanity to accomplish God’s purposes. In Acts, the author speaks of “not many days from now,” pointing to Jesus’ promise to his disciples that the Holy Spirit would be given to them at the Jewish celebration of Pentecost. The gospels account of Jesus’ life is inextricably linked to the Hebrew Scriptures or the First Testament.

In each of the three Synoptic gospels, Jesus’ departure from the earth was deemed essential for the birth of the Church. According to the gospels, the era of the Church will end when Jesus returns to earth. So don’t count out the Church yet, God obviously still has work for us to do while we wait for his return.

The church has spent far too much of its time and energy focused on the scientific probability of the events when it comes to reading these Lukan accounts. One must recognize that, as one biblical commentator put it, “the author of Luke and Acts is preaching, not reporting; he is sermonizing, not summarizing.” The truth found in these passages is not based on a reporting of when or where, but in what Jesus’ departure means and why it is important for us.

In the Acts account, Jesus was swept up in a whirlwind like Elijah. The allusion to Elijah’s departure from earth is a literary device to press a theological point. The Jewish people in the first century believed Elijah would return to herald the coming of the Messiah. I like Frederick Buechner’s words about the Ascension: “Something [can] Easter up out of the dimness when we least expect it,” so to take his advice, I won’t as Buechner’s warned, “try to recount the gospel with the high magic taken out, the deep mystery reduced to a manageable size.” The story of the Ascension is “telling the truth that is beyond telling.” With Jesus at God’s right hand, we have been swept up into something that is larger and more powerful than our human minds can fathom. We have been gathered up into the presence of God and commissioned to be Christ’s presence in the world. Jesus is leaving the disciples, but this time it’s not a leaving in the form of the agony from the death on the cross. Instead, this time, it is filled with wonder and blessing. As Jesus leaves his disciples, he blesses them.

The disciples were dazed, staring motionless with their eyes to the skies. They are jarred out of their stupor by the two men in white, messengers from God, who ask: “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.” In other words, get your head out of the clouds! Get busy; you have work to do before your Christ returns.

As we ask of all Scripture, what insight does this passage hold for us today? We, too, are challenged by the words the angels spoke: “Why do you stand gazing towards heaven”? We want to be spectators, but what Christ calls us to do is to witness to the Good News with our actions. Our calling as disciples of Jesus is to get to work, to share what we know, and to offer blessings to the communities around us. The challenge for us is to discern the form of that witness, – it is not to look for someone else to do it for us. We celebrate Christ’s Ascension while we answer God’s call to ascend ourselves. In other words, to move beyond the worldly and profane into the space that is holy here on earth. We find that holy space in which God is present when we do the things Christ did – to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to include the excluded, to free the imprisoned, to forgive, and to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of others.

We come to Christ’s table to do as Cleopas and his companion did on the road to Emmaus, to open our eyes and recognize Christ in the blessing, breaking and eating the bread of life. To be made holy as God is holy. We come to strengthen and nourish ourselves for the journey with Christ.

Amen. May it be so!

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