Ascension Sunday

Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ
ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things:
Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his
promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end
of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and
reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory
everlasting. Amen.

O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son
Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to
strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior
Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and
the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 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.’ When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards 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.’ Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. 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. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers. - Acts 1

This is the Sunday that we consider the ascension of Jesus. We don’t know too many of the details about Jesus’ life after the resurrection before the ascension but what we are confronted with in the ascension is the moment where the disciples experience the loss of Jesus’ physical presence with them. Interestingly, Luke tells us what was on the disciples’ minds and hearts when Jesus sat down with them just before the ascension; it was a burning question - is this the time you will restore the kingdom of Israel? Jesus gives an answer that was perhaps quite unsatisfactory to their ears, at least on first hearing. What he says is basically this: It is not for you to know the times and periods of history set by God. The disciples, like you and like me, were wanting God to act quickly in bringing promises of redemption and restoration to completion. Jesus says, it is not for you, or us, to know the times, In effect, he is saying, be humble, be patient, and wait.

I was telling someone in the church recently, as we talked about the struggle to believe, the struggle to have deeper faith, that I woke up in the middle of the night about two weeks ago and had this overwhelming feeling of darkness and hopelessness. My feelings and thoughts in my half-asleep state were centered on that very sort of question the disciples put to Jesus: is now the time, God when you will act to bring about final healing to this broken world? This is how it played out in my half-awake mind: God, if the whole point of Jesus’ resurrection is to bring about an end to human suffering, to bring about the world to come where judgment will result in renewal and shalom for those who respond to your offer of forgiveness and newness of life, then why don’t you get on with it?! I’m tired of hearing stories of the suffering of children, of human violence, and of the glorification of human violence, etc. I would imagine that all of us followers of Jesus have these moments when we question why God doesn’t just roll things up, say enough is enough, and get on with the new heavens and new earth. Interestingly, the Scriptures tell us that there was a time when God did think about rolling things up, and rolling them up once and for all, a sort of un-creation. In the Genesis narrative comes this from the sixth chapter, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” Let me say as a side note here that I don’t understand the mind of God period and certainly not as glimpsed through this highly anthropomorhpic telling of his sorrow over creating in the first place. However, quickly in this same narrative, we get a glimpse of what God does want us to know and understand about his character when God does not settle on the thought of wiping out his creation but works through Noah to set human history on a redemptive path. Beginning with his covenant with Noah, in every subsequent move forward in the redemptive record of the Old and New Testaments, we find God again and again binding himself to his creation, not giving up and not turning away but pulling everyone and everything towards his goal of new creation and redemption. All along the way he binds himself to his creation more deeply until that means taking the very sin and evil that offends his justice and love the most, absorbing it into himself and breaking its back in the mystery that is Jesus’ atoning death on the cross. And so now, still in my half-asleep moment of extreme doubt and frustration with the way things are, including my own sin and temptations, still wondering why God just doesn’t roll things up already.... but I come to a place where I hear Jesus’ words to the disciples a little differently. “It is not for us to know”, means that it is not just that we don’t know or can’t know but that there is deep mystery here. It is more than we don’t know - we have no idea what we don’t know and we don’t, I think, even know how to question properly about this sort of thing. I mean really, come on, a God who did not need to create, who created to share his love with an immense family of human beings who bear his image.... well, who are we really to say when he should be finished with the progress of the human race and finished with this epoch of human history?

And so this text reminds us that there is a great and tremendous mystery with regard to how long God will suffer with and love the world in the midst of its brokenness.... and in this age we will share with all of humanity a sense of frustration that God is not present in the way that we would like him to be, at least not present according to our deepest desires for wholeness. And so we stand with those who do not profess any faith in God and say to them, we too have these feelings of God’s absence; we too are frustrated with the way the world is but we have learned humbly to recognize in Jesus’ absence a restless hopefulness about what he intends to do in and through us.

What happens next in this passage and in the lives of the disciples is shocking and sobering in a different way because the word to them and to us is that we are responsible to be God’s presence in this fallen world... more about that next week.

Questions for discussion:

1. Luke tell us that the angels told the disciples not to look up for Jesus. Next, we find them in prayer together. Do you think Luke is telling us something about the role of prayer and community in telling the story in this way? If so, what do you think he is saying?

2. Why is it important to acknowledge the questions and frustrations we have towards God and his timetable with human history? Why is it important to acknowledge this, when appropriate, to people who do not share our faith in God?

3. If someone were to ask you why God doesn’t just bring everything to an end and get on with the business of “heaven”, what would you say to them? Where would you start? Would you start with your own life? If so, what would you start to say?