Blessed to Be a Blessing

Sermon for Ascension of our Lord Sunday Year C 6/1/25

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

It was a challenging decision to know which readings to talk about and preach on today. We rarely have a choice of which lessons to hear, if we’re following the lectionary, but this time we’re gifted with two fantastic storylines we can choose to chase. If we followed the 7th Sunday of Easter gospel, it would be Jesus praying to God for his disciples–’that they may be one.’ Which is an awesome Gospel.

Or we could choose the readings from Luke and Acts, acknowledging the rounding out of Jesus’ ministry, when he ascends back to the Father.  Even though Jesus’ profound prayer for the disciples is encouraging for all of us, I feel the power of a Jesus’ missionary moment in the ascension, As he commissions the apostles in today’s lessons, we prepare to be commissioned as a congregation–to share the story of our lives in this place over the last year after worship in our annual meeting.

We are inspired by all that God will do in and through our church for the sake of the world. So, it feels like the right time to be reminded of what that first sending out was like.

What is the Ascension really about? The Ascension is actually an integral part of our faith story as Christians, whether we realize it or not. We probably don’t think about the Ascension that often. We speak about it in both our creeds when we say: “Jesus Ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the father” --but do we really know what we’re saying? The Webster dictionary defines “ascension” as the act of rising to a higher, more powerful position. 

I’ve been watching a Star Wars inspired show lately, and someone ascending to power–isn’t always a good thing.  Often if they’re standing on the top of a tower staring down, there are people below–vulnerable and subject to the power on high. If someone has ascended to power within the ways of the world, it can mean they’ve stepped on a number of others to get where they are now.

Thankfully, the ascension in the church’s doctrine, means that Christ has entered into his glory; that he is exalted and enthroned at God’s right hand. This doesn’t mean Jesus is sitting in a throne room somewhere removed from the masses. Jesus receives power and authority and reigns over all of creation with everything he is and everything he has–love, justice, mercy, peace. 

The Ascension is the culmination of the resurrection, and signals Jesus’ ultimate defeat of death. It’s the hinge between the Resurrection and Pentecost. The Ascension is the event that changes the focus from Jesus himself, to those who follow him.  Jesus in the flesh, is no longer around to feed the hungry, preach the good news, and heal the sick. The mission falls to the disciples–and therefore us, as well. 

This is when the rubber hits the road--remember all that I taught you, now go and do likewise. Right before he takes off upwards, Jesus tells them their mission is to extend the good news out globally, as far as the eye can see and then go farther, to the ends of the earth! No wonder they’re standing, gaping up at the sky! They don’t know what to do.

We hear two versions of Jesus’ journey back to the Father today--one from Luke and one from Acts. It is said that Luke and Acts were written by the same author--so one version informs the other.  Luke is focused on worship so it’s no surprise the book begins and ends in the temple with the people worshipping and praising God.

There’s a gentleness and completeness to Luke’s version. After Jesus instructs the disciples to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins for all nations in his name…he blesses them. Their mission becomes less daunting and more personal, because they know God forgives them.  After all they’ve seen and done--after leaving Jesus to die on the cross, after denying him, after betraying him--God still forgives them.  So, they’re sent to share that forgiveness. They are blessed by Jesus, to be a blessing to others. With that kind of closure and kindness, the disciples are fed for the journey--they go away rejoicing and head right to the temple to worship their grace-filled God.

In the Acts version, the moment of Jesus’ departure is more open-ended. They’re left standing, staring up into the sky.  So, God sends two men dressed in white to snap the disciples out of their daze and bring them back down to earth saying: “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 you saw him go into heaven.” These two men robed in what, do they sound familiar?  A handful of weeks ago we might have heard about them on Easter Sunday at the tomb saying to the women: “why do you look for the living among the dead?” He is not here, he is risen.” It’s hard for us to know what to do when the laws of physics and mortality: gravity, life and death, don’t apply.

I think God understands that it takes us a while to come around to the idea of new life. That life can spring up out of death.  It’s a mercy in Acts that Jesus spends 40 days after the resurrection teaching the disciples about the kingdom; spending time with them, breaking things down further. In that time, they were able to see and recognize the risen Christ and soon they’ll be emboldened by the Spirit to share that hope with others.

In recognizing Jesus’ Ascension, we’re given a choice: We can focus on Jesus’ physical absence and keep staring upwards, or we can shift our attention to his spiritual presence around us, and the mission he gave his followers.

We may not be able to see Jesus in physical form any more, but he is all around us in the work of the Spirit. We’re also given the gift of the Holy Scriptures to guide us into all truth. And we are commissioned and sent out just like the disciples–to share the good news starting in Jerusalem, extending to Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

As we near the culmination of our strategic plan with LEAD, our team has been given the gift of thinking about our own mission as disciples of Christ starting in Jerusalem–in ways that link the past with the present: In this analogy, Jerusalem represents home. It is our own congregation, our own families and friends–the people we are closest to and trust. Next, we are called to Judea–the surrounding areas of Jerusalem. Maybe Judea represents those in different Lutheran denominations, or our ecumenical partners, maybe it’s our catholic siblings in Christ. Then we’re called to Samaria–as we know from other Bible stories like the “Good Samaritan” Samaria and its people were the rivals of Jerusalem and the Jews. They had similar enough beliefs but approached worship in different ways.

We, like the disciples, are called to venture outside of our comfort zones and share the gospel good news with all we meet.

Yesterday, as I mentioned, I attended the Metro Chicago synod assembly. The Vice President of mission and spiritual care for Advocate Health shared a phrase that sticks with me. “We are called not only to cross oceans with God’s love, but we’re called to cross our own streets.” We’re called to cross our own streets, with God’s love.

Sometimes that is challenging enough–to reach out to our neighbors or to venture towards someone who is walking on the other side of the road. Not in a “have you met Jesus” pushy kind of way, but in the manner that Paul talks about in the letter to the people of Philippi: “For it is God who is at work in you, enabling both to will and to work for God’s good pleasure” We are told that we are embodied, emboldened by the Spirit and God with us, to be able to share our faith with everybody that we meet.

God beckons us away from gazing into the clouds, to where the world needs Christ and we know that we are not alone in this holy work. -The Holy Spirit comes alongside us, motivates us, moves us and shapes us into the kind of body God needs us to be for the world’s needs. -We are fed with Christ’s body and blood--given food for the journey, in order to become the food we eat–that’s another phrase I heard this week–we eat the body of Christ and then we become the body of Christ, alive for the world. -and we can go on our way rejoicing knowing that God has forgiven us in order to forgive; That God blesses us in order to be a blessing.

So, go, dear church, and witness to this love that fills all in all and remember: Christ above us, Christ below us, Christ is in front of us-Christ beside us-Christ before us

And Christ is in our heartbeat, as well.

Amen.