Saint Luke's United Methodist Church, Washington D.C.

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May 05, 2008

Ascension Sunday

Ascension Sunday
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Acts 1:1-11
Rev. Douglas A. Todak

There’s a common saying that I think might be helpful in our discussion of the Ascension this morning: “If you love someone, set them free. If they come back, they’re yours; if they don’t they never were.” Now, I don’t know who first said this, and trying to track down the person who coined it proved treacherous. It seems there are so many people claiming to have first made this observation that I think I might even be the one, or maybe it was you, Allen, I can’t be certain.

Anyway, you’re familiar with it, I’m sure. I used it few times with a few friends in the wee hours of a tear-soaked morning as the best consolation I could muster, and it seemed the right thing to say at the time. Thing is, it’s true, at least more often than not, which might help explain its staying power. As Christians we could switch around a few words here or there, giving God the credit, which God should rightly should get. But the message is the same and it makes sense intuitively: If it’s not for us, it’s not for us: Que sera sera, whatever will be, will be.

Well, in our reading from Acts, the resurrected Jesus is staying with his disciples again, having “presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:3) Jesus gathers his followers after Easter to prepare them for their future without him. They’ve been worried, they’ve been living in one long spiritual crisis, uncertain whether they can follow Jesus’ commands and mission, without seeing or hearing him, without him physically by their side, allowing them to draw strength from his physical presence.

Probably they didn’t want Jesus to leave again—I wouldn’t. Maybe one of them coined our phrase this morning: “If you love someone, set them free. If they come back, they’re yours; if they don’t they never were.” Perhaps they figured their prayers had been answered and the one they had loved and served had come back for good. In fact, in verse six they ask the question outright that is obviously on everybody’s mind: "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" They were ready for the restoration, they were probably tired of waiting and enduring all that anxiety about what to do next, about how to go about preaching this Gospel they had been given to preach.

Jesus tells them it doesn’t concern them: "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.” Their job is to tell others about his offer of salvation and the power he has been given to share with all who believe in him. And, if they don’t think they are up to the task, they’re right, “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." (Acts 1:7,8)

In case they were really at wits end, Jesus gives them more specific direction and a time frame they can wrap their minds around. He “ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This,’ he said, ‘is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’" (Acts 1:4-5) So, they wait. Ten days they wait and pray together.

Waiting is very difficult for us, isn’t it? We are impatient people—I am anyway, maybe I’m the only one—expecting things to be done instantly or as close to that as possible. Waiting is one of the difficult challenges of the church. William H. Willimon writes: “Our waiting implies that the things which need doing in the world are beyond our ability to accomplish solely by our own effort, our programs and crusades. Some other empowerment is needed, therefore the church waits and prays. Our waiting and praying also indicate that the gift of the Spirit is never an assured possession of the church. It is a gift, a gift which must be constantly sought anew in prayer.”

So, we wait, as a gathered community and as individuals who know God’s guidance is the only one we can always trust. Waiting for God, listening for God’s direction, is the business and the work of the church. Waiting with others is an act of solidarity with friends. Comforting those heart-broken friends way back when, staying with them as they cried it out, abiding with them even when we thought the tears would never stop, that was an act of solidarity. We know we can’t take away another’s pain, but we stay to show we care; we stay. The apostles stayed together, too. They do not scatter and go their separate ways to await a private epiphany or a personalized experience of divine faithfulness. They stick together and wait it out.

The disciples do not wait passively, either: Acts 1:14 tells us that “They all joined together constantly in prayer.” So, there was no secret formula that made the Holy Spirit’s power available to these followers, they simply believed in Jesus and trusted his promise, and God did the rest. Of course, this waiting takes effort on our part. Our reading from 1 Peter this morning echoes this sentiment: “Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.” (1 Peter 5:8-9) We’re all in this together. We’re all huddled together, leaning on the everlasting arms, leaning on Jesus.

“If you love someone, set them free. If they come back, they’re yours; if they don’t they never were.” Jesus had promised to rise from the grave and he did. Jesus promised to come to them after his resurrection and he did. Jesus now promises to send them God’s Holy Spirit to direct and guide and comfort them, and as we will celebrate next Sunday at Pentecost, he did this too. Jesus keeps his promises.

“If you love someone, set them free.” Jesus had comforted his followers, challenged them, and instructed them to witness to all the world, starting right there in Jerusalem, then throughout Judea and Samaria, then to all the ends of the earth. It was time for them to set him free and him to set them free. “When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” (Acts 1:9) Jesus allows them to see him ascend to his Father. Remember that there were no eye-witnesses to Christ’s resurrection, the disciples find the linen cloths folded and the tomb empty. But here, perhaps to give them courage and certitude, he gives them something to witness about. “While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 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." (Acts 1:10-11)

These two men in white robes, these two angels asking the awe-struck disciples why they stand motionless, mouths gaping open, echo the two angels in white sitting in the empty tomb in John’s Gospel (chapter 20), asking Mary Magdalene why she was crying? Same sort of question, after all, in both cases: Did you honestly doubt Jesus even for a moment, after all you had heard and seen him do? Did you ever doubt his ability to do all that he prophesized and promised? Of course he arose, he arose, of course he has returned to his Father who he loves and who loves him. “If you love someone, set them free. If they come back, they’re yours; if they don’t they never were.” Of course Jesus has been granted authority over all people so that he might make eternal life possible for every one. Of course.

In our Gospel lesson John 17, we heard Jesus’ prayer to God on the eve of his death. It is one of the most beautiful and important passages in Holy Scripture. Jesus first prays for himself (vv. 1-5), asking to return to the glorious intimate relationship he shared with God since the beginning of time. The work he had been given he accomplished. Then Jesus prays for his disciples (vv. 6-19), “For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.” (John 17:8) They are children of God because “they have obeyed your word.” (17:6) Finally, Jesus prays for all believers (vv. 20-26), asking for protection for them from the evil one. “May they be brought to complete unity,” Jesus prays, “to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (17:23) He’s praying for us. We are a community for whom Jesus prays.

Jesus’ prayer also demonstrates that our lives and the life of the church rest in God’s care. Our future as a church does not depend upon our own labor, but it is rather completely in God’s hands. God is always in control, even when we are not.

As we near the end of the Easter Season, the resurrection of Jesus that we celebrate we find is directly related to the Ascension: Christ died and rose that we—that’s you and me and the whole wide world—might have eternal life; and he ascended that we—that’s you and me, again—that we might be given a share in his divinity, his continuing presence, and hence, his life with God. “I have made you known to them,” Jesus prayed to his loving and faithful and merciful Father, “and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." (John 17:26)

There have been a number of humorous versions of our phrase this morning, my favorite of which is this: “If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it was and always will be yours. If it never returns, it was never yours to begin with. If, however, it just sits in your living room, messes up your stuff, eats your food, uses your telephone, takes your money, and never appears to have noticed that you actually set it free in the first place, you either married it or gave birth to it.” That’s when freedom isn’t free.

And I remember someone else loving someone very much. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17, NIV) May God grant you peace and joy and resurrection in all your relationships this Ascension Sunday. Amen.