Ascension

June 7, 2017 in Sermon by Scott Landrum

Acts 1:6-14
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8 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.” 9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11 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.” 12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. 13 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. 14 All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers. 

“As they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight,” Luke tells us. Jesus gives us his word and then he just disappears, vanishes, ascends. It’s as if he just said “later.” What now? Are we left to our own devices to fend for ourselves? That depends on what you mean. If you believe God is to be found in every feeling, if you think he is speaking in every coincidence, every circumstance, every stroke of luck that comes your way, every burp or any of the millions of other places people look for God then yes, you are on your own to fend for yourself. The Christian life is not about deciphering whether God is speaking through your hunches and feelings and wishes. In fact, God will hide from you in those things and you won’t know for certain if God or the devil is messing with you or if it’s just you talking to yourself. Perhaps you’ve heard me tell the story of a seminary classmate who had been praying and fasting to “discern” God’s will about whether she should have a bed or a piano moved into her apartment. I suspect she’s still waiting! Look, God has given you a brain and he expects you to use it. Ninety nine percent of your life is about using the six inches between your ears wisely and God doesn’t interfere much. What car, what career, what spouse, bed or piano, whatever; you decide and do it wisely. So, Jesus has left us to our own devices? In the things that are beneath us, as Luther called them, yes. He has left us to the devices he has given us, a mind, experience, the advice of those who’ve “been there done that,” and all the other things we use to get us through this life. But you and I are not abandoned. He hasn’t left us orphaned. He who “rides upon the clouds” to use the words of the psalmist, keeps his promise. “I will not leave you orphaned,” he said. The rider of the heavens sends out his voice, his mighty voice, listen to what he says. “If I go to prepare a place for you then I will come again for you,” he says. “I am with you always, even to the end of the age,” he promises. It is in his words like these that Jesus is very much with us and for us, words of promise given tangibly in bread and wine and water. Words of promise he has authorized me to say which is why I say to you that you are forgiven unconditionally by the Father for Jesus’s sake. These words from Jesus are above you and you cannot control them. They come from God’s mouth not from our doing and so we take him at his word that they are for us. And they are. Find your name excluded from the promise of the Gospel. You can’t! Why does this all matter? Well because we are still in the world as Jesus said and that is a dangerous thing, it’s going to kill you. It wasn’t idle words Jesus prayed for the Father to protect us, you know. The evil one is on the prowl looking to devour people’s faith and he’s good at it. We would do well to heed Peter’s instruction. Discipline yourself to regularly listening to Jesus’s promise for you. You will not hear the gospel on the lake, or at the ball game, or laying in the bed on Sunday morning. Keep alert to schemes of the evil one who tries to get you to listen to what just about everyone, other than your savior, says about you. Resist him by reminding him that you are baptized and therefore nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Using the words of the Lord’s Prayer, your kingdom come your will be done on earth as in heaven,” cast all your anxiety on Jesus, because he cares for you. You have his word. Amen.