The Ascension... Tag! You're it!

This week brings us to the celebration of the Ascension - when Jesus ascends into heaven 40 days after his resurrection. The disciples are told to wait for the moment when the Holy Spirit will come and send them out into the world, which leaves us in a waiting pattern with them after Ascension Sunday as we wait for Pentecost and ultimately for the Great Commission when the disciples are sent into the world to witness to everything they have known in and about Jesus. 

This week's reading comes from Luke 24:44-53 with references to Acts 1:1-14

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Scripture quotations from the COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. © Copyright 2011 COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to this ascension edition of Facets of Faith. Uh this day we talk about the ascension of Jesus, which is a big deal in the church because it's in part so many of the creeds. He he died, he rose from the dead, and he ascended into heaven. But we frequently miss talking about the stories that are around this. And so today we dive into Luke 24 as we explore the story of Jesus' ascension and what it must have been like to wait, to wait for the Holy Spirit to come, to wait for that nudge from God that says, Go.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

So this is from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24. Jesus said to them, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law from Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. He said to them, This is what is written. The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and a change of heart and life for the forgiveness of sins must be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. Look, I am sending to you what my father promised, but you are to stay in the city until you have been furnished with heavenly power. He led them out as far as Bethany, where he lifted his hands and blessed them. As he blessed them, he left them and was taken up to heaven. They worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem, overwhelmed with joy, and they were continuously in the temple praising God.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Thank you. So this is the gospel reading for ascension. And ascension is always 40 days after Easter, which means it is always on a Thursday, which means unless we shift it, we don't get it on a Sunday. So here at St. John this year, we are shifting Ascension to this final Sunday before Pentecost. And this story in Luke picks up right after the walk to Emmaus that we had not too too long ago. And they had some eating of some baked fish just before this, and then we have the ascension. Also on this day, we will read from the first chapter of Acts, and the author of Luke is actually also considered to be the author of Acts, so that way we hear the Ascension story actually twice on this Sunday or on the Festival of Ascension, whenever you tend to explore these texts. So there's a lot of similarities and a lot of differences between the two, but for now we'll just focus in on Luke and see what we come up with.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Well, I'm fascinated by how he says that he had to um open their minds to what was written about him. I mean, like they hadn't already realized that up until now. He had to actually explain it further. Is that what that means?

SPEAKER_00 3:03

I mean, it what it does do is it does rehash what we just heard in the walk to Emmaus, right? On the walk to Emmaus, those two disciples, Cleopas and Cleopas' friend, um, were talking with Jesus, didn't know who Jesus was. He opened up the scriptures for them, and then when they realized who he was, it's like, oh, weren't our hearts burning? And so Jesus is kind of then offering to the original crew the same opportunity of opening things up, revealing things. Um and so I think they knew who Jesus was, but at the same point they didn't fully comprehend. Because in Luke, actually, it says here at the end in verse 52, they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem. This is the only time that the disciples worship Jesus in Luke. And so there is something to, I think, the opening of the scriptures that opens that new relationship that's beginning as he's descending and going in past the ascension.

SPEAKER_03 4:05

Yeah. Is there is this a somewhat, because I do feel like I've heard this told before to me, is this a somewhat veiled reference to some interweaving of the power of the Holy Spirit, right? When when that specific language is used, you know, Jesus opens their minds, whether it's here or on the road to Emmaus or elsewhere, that you know, what there was some mental block that the that this group of disciples had at the at the moment, and then Jesus opened their minds, and the dots were connected, right? And then yeah, the information is there, but like it's oh, okay, I see it now, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:51

And he reminds them not to go out until they've been fully clothed in the power of the of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. So you would think that reference was Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon them, you know. So that gives gives them the final revelation to understand what was going on. He explained all the scriptures. He said that scripture had to be fulfilled all the way from the time of Moses, so he must have been recounting what was being told of him, and that he must suffer and die and rise. So reminding them almost like a new like a re-education almost, pulling it all together before finally the Holy Spirit comes. And then they are set out to bear witness.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

I was reading something about someone's approach to Pentecost and the bewilderment that happens at Pentecost and all that stuff. And I think there's it doesn't say it here, but I think there's absolute bewilderment happening in this text too, because they're they're grieving because they're losing him all over again, and there's this kind of this lostness to it. Um but someone made the comment of you don't know a story until after it's over. Like when you're living the story, you don't know it's a story yet. And I think some of that is happening here too. Like they they've been living the story, and now it's coming to a kind of a conclusion, a kind of a series end, I guess you could say, before the next series begins or um season finale. And now looking back, it's like, uh now they see now they for the past three years they see the story that was unfolding in their midst for the last several years, all coming to a clarifying moment in this time of post-resurrection connection, post-resurrection reality, post-resurrection movement.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

And that would make sense because this is being written after the fact. So they're looking back on it and saying, all right, ah, this is what happened, and this is why it happened, and this is why they finally were able to go forth.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

So I want to go back to the concept of place here for a second, and it says beginning from Jerusalem. So this is all happening in the place where people from all over would flock to when we get to Pentecost in a few days' time. People are coming from all over to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of Booths, and Jerusalem's usually the destination, but ascension kind of turns it on its head, and Jerusalem becomes the point of origin. And so this is kind of a kickoff to the new chapter, which is also kind of connected to the 40 days that happen. So Jesus rose from the dead, right? And then 40 days, according to the Acts story at least, 40 days, and then he ascends. And that length of 40 days is frequently used throughout scripture to denote kind of like an ending of one era and a beginning of another era. And so we've got the ending of Jesus' earthly ministry and the beginning of the apostles' earthly ministry. And you've got this kind of change of guard happening here. And so Jerusalem becomes that pivot point where it draws everyone in, and now it's sending everyone out.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Well, in numerology, the 40 is used a lot. I mean, there's the 40 years wandering in the desert, there's the 40 days of Lent, there's the 40 days after Easter. So the the tie-in. I mean, it's almost like the balancing act of time.

SPEAKER_03 8:25

Wasn't the flood something 40 days?

SPEAKER_01 8:28

The great flood? The rain. Yep. Rain for 40 days, 40 nights.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Now, of course, Luke kind of messes all this up because in Luke's version it sounds like Jesus ascends on the eve of Easter, but or the eve after Easter. But because it's like, and he was walking to Emmaus, and they're like, Yeah, he's here. And he's like, Here, have some fish, let's eat dinner. And then he keeps talking, and then he ascends.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Like so Luke doesn't, but that's the element of time is not important.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

I was gonna say, yeah, Luke's just kind of facts here, da-da-da, going one, jumping from one event to the next.

SPEAKER_03 9:02

So I guess I kind of like my final question as I was reading through the the rest of this now, sorry for third time. Um, verse 51 as he blessed them, he left them and was taken up to heaven. They worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem, overwhelmed with joy. Why joy? They just again, I I understand the miraculousness of that of that sight and watching somebody be physically taken up to heaven, pre-airplane, or tractor beam, or transporter. Transporter. But like my like there's a part of me that that wants to ask, why like why joy? Why wouldn't they have been somewhat sad? Or fearful. Yeah, or yeah, right, fearful, or amazed. I can see amazement here, but joy, like that that that kind of implies that that they were expecting it, and they're like, oh yay, mission accomplished. You know, now it's our turn to go do the things that we were called to do.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

That's an interesting word to have in there because um like when you read the Acts version, there is a sense of grief, confusion, bewilderment, bewilderment. Yeah, I mean that word gets used in the Pentecost story, but even still, this idea of like waiting for an unknown length of time, because they don't know it's gonna be 10 days, waiting for an unknown length of time for just something that tells them it's time to do something. Um there's I feel like in Acts there's a little bit more of that lostness. Um yeah, the joy is joy is interesting.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Yeah, because having been around people that I know are passing, you know, that are close to me, I mean that would not be my first reaction and say I'm filled with joy. Unless, I mean, I have to say to myself, I know that they're going to be with God in eternity. So that gives me joy, but it still leaves me with sadness that I will not have their presence near me.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

But I think that's an important reminder that joy does not mean there is no sadness. Um, joy and sadness can coexist within us.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Well, it it's probably one of those things where you say you can't have one without the other. You talked about you can't have Easter without uh the crucifixion. Um you really can't experience joy without having had sadness.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Mm-hmm. Yeah. The joy that was announced at the birth, excuse me, the joy that was announced at the births of John and Jesus and anticipated in the ministry of Jesus is now finally being fulfilled.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

In the apostles' reaction.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

Yeah. Because they um before this, they were on a beach eating fish with Jesus. And when they first saw Jesus, they were terrified and thought they saw a ghost. Right. And so there's kind of this shift in the larger text that we don't get in just this reading that shifts them from terror to joy, um, experience connection to the divine, moves them from terror to joy, and brings them full circle back to the joy of the beginning of Jesus. And that and that actually connects it further because um it says they go to the temple worshiping continuously. That's what is said of Anna when Anna first sees Jesus, is that she worships in the temple continuously. And so I think it is a neat little just bookend full circle commentary of what Jesus has been up to this whole time.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

I feel like it's kind of like still open there. We haven't closed the loop on this.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

No.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

This text, in some way, is designed to be open-ended because Jesus doesn't actually send them to go do anything. Jesus says, go and wait. And if you think about the anticipation before like a race or something like that, when you do like on your marks, get set. Yeah. And then there's like this anticipation of the go, but the go hasn't come yet. And that's where the disciples are right now, is they're they're in the starting gate and they're just waiting for that bell to go off. And so they're poised, but they don't know what to do with that yet. And so I think there's something to be said for letting things be a little uh open-ended, even in the conversations, in the reflections, and ultimately in the sermon, because sometimes in the life of a Christian, we do have to wait to hear and to feel the Holy Spirit moving us into the next thing. Um and I think that I mean that's something we could talk about too, is just in our own lives, how hard it is sometimes to wait before we we have that kind of call, the compellingness, the inspiration to what comes next. So maybe that's a way we can transition to kind of bring this down to our own experiences to wrap things together.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Yeah, because I'm I'm not the kind of person that can be patient like that. I'm not yeah, you should know by now, yes. I'm gonna get it done now. Let's do it now. What's not what's next, you know? And to take the time to let it settle, to let it, you know, bubble inside, it's it's hard. It's really, really hard. Some people, it's not, but for me it is.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Oh, I'm I'm right there with you. I remember when I was, I mean, this is now a while back, further back than I want to admit, but um when I was trying to figure out out of college what I was gonna do, and because I knew my original plan of vet school was out. I knew that, but I had no idea what was next. And just that sense of just unknown of what's coming, but knowing something's coming, but it's it was hard to kind of wait to see what would unfold and not to have the 10-year plan at my beck and call instead I barely had the next month plan. Yeah, and then with my whole candidacy process, and I was rushing the system at first, like I jumped into the candidacy process, and like, how fast can we get this done, guys? And and then they they actually went with me because I was coming in at it at an odd time frame, and so they were like, sure, let's get you rolling through this. And then I actually at one point was like, you know what? I need to wait. It's not time yet. Um, and that was a weird thing for me to do, but at the same point, that waiting period, I mean, A, I got to do some incredible ministry in Connecticut in the meantime, and I got to learn and grow and do all these things that I needed to do in hindsight, and then when it was time to keep going, I had the right opportunity kind of fall in my lap when I needed it. And so there is, I think, power in waiting sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

I know in my own life, like COVID was the big reset for most people, and in my worship life, that was a that was a reset. And I remember once things kind of settled down and people were going out and being comfortable in in groups and things like that, um, trying to find a place to worship was a process. And fortunately in my life at that point, I was ready to take my time with it, you know, and I think that that was the Holy Spirit helping to guide. Because that was that's not normally me. It's like, okay, let's find a place, let's go. All right, I'm going now. But it it took time, it took time, and it worked out.

SPEAKER_03 17:16

So yeah, people are not, I think generally speaking, people are not very patient animals. Um we, right, as civilization, right? Um and I feel like that's probably the point of waiting in the first place. Like God almost laughing at us. Be patient, wait. It's you know, almost like raising children, right? Like you can't have a cookie right now, you have to wait. You know, that that kind of stuff. Yep. Yeah, I'm I my personal um kind of reflections on this is is there there's like big weights and little weights. Like there are times where I'm waiting, praying, making decisions, you know, that are like they could be like life impacting, right? Not just like monumental, but like they could, you know, do I take this job or that job type stuff? So big enough, but not you know, like overly complex. And sometimes like the weight winds up being a very soft answer, you know, like where the reply is like, yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what God wanted me to do. And then there are like bold, you know, like smack you in the face, this is what I want you to do, go do that. Like it was all it would be almost like if Jesus himself came down and grabbed you, grabbed me and said, Okay, Keith, now I'm talking to you personally here, this is what I want you to do. Yeah, and then everything in between. So it's like a it's like a spectrum of where do, you know, where do and I'm sure most of us have that that same experience, right? Where there's like these you know kind of big moments in life where we're waiting for some impactful um uh sign, and maybe we do get it, maybe we don't get it, but at the end of the day, we still wait, you know, we're we're we're we're being methodical in our in our in our prayer and our worship and and trusting and and guidance. And maybe that's all we need to do and and and and act as such, right? It's just trust God. And if we'll we have talked about this in the past, if we're following the path, sometimes we just need a nudge, not not an entire redirection, right? Yeah, just a yeah, you're going down the right way, just keep doing what you're doing, all good. But yes, we're very much a put one step in front of the other type civilization.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

And I think those of us that have maybe had more years than others, um we've we've got we've we've we've got the um the idea that hindsight is 2020, and you can look back on those moments in your life where if you had done something a little bit more um in in a faster way, in the outcome may have not been the best. And you look back now and you say, you know what, I'm glad this didn't happen because now this other thing happened that made it much better. And as we get older, we start to say to ourselves, okay, maybe there's something else going on here. That doesn't mean that I still don't say, hey, let's get going. But maybe it's just from hindsight you go, this has happened a few times, maybe we should just take a breath, take a pause, you know. And I have to constantly have these situations happen to remind me that that's what we need to do.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

So I'm hearing like Jesus call us stiff-necked right now. Yes, right? Yes, stiff-necked people. Okay, all good.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

So I'm thinking back to the apostles here. Um, because now I would feel confident in calling them apostles because this is this is their sending. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

Well, I like the reference that you made earlier about uh Jerusalem, and it referenced that in the in the reading. It used to be that was the destination. You know, that's where the Jews were coming. That's where Jesus came to to culminate his ministry. But now this is the starting point. This is now the beginning where everything is going out. And Jerusalem becomes that that flash point, that focal point of all three of the greatest religions on on the earth: Judaism, Christianity, and Muslim. So it's it's that center point.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

And also that's where they wait, and then that's also where they encounter um the Holy Spirit very specifically with with Pentecost. And so I'm thinking if we wanted to try to draw a parallel in an interesting Parallel might be Sunday worship. Like we all come to this destination, we all gather together in Sunday worship. And sometimes all we do in Sunday worship is wait. We wait to experience the divine. And then we experience the divine in word and sacrament, we experience the divine in relationship and love and all these other things, but we come together expecting to experience the holy, but sometimes that expectation is preceded by waiting and that kind of anticipation waiting period. And then this becomes the pivot point. And having been filled by the Holy Spirit, nourished by Word and Sacrament, we are sent out into the rest of the world to continue to live as church outside these walls.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

And that's the admonition you give us all at the end of the service. Go and preach the good news.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

Thanks, be God.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Amen. Hallelujah.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

With that, let us say a word of prayer. Almighty God, your blessed Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, ascended far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. Mercifully give us faith to trust that as he promised, he abides with us on earth and to the end of time. He lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Thank you so much for joining us on this conversation. I hope it was as interesting and illuminating to you as it was for us as we were having it. As always, we would love to hear from you. If you have any questions or comments or ways that you've heard this text that you want to learn more about, reach out and tell us because we would love nothing more than to continue this conversation beyond the microphones, beyond this one recording. And also feel free to share this podcast with others. The more people in this conversation, the better our faith conversations can be, and the more we are joined by that great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us on our baptismal journeys.