ascension

 After the Ascension we await the coming of the Spirit, the fulfillment of his promise. “I will not leave you orphaned.” He is gone and the Other has not come. Not yet. We wait in ambiguity - not with our customary pride in dwelling in ambiguity - in anxiety, in wondering, and waiting. Confident as we are in his promises, where is this promised Advocate and when shall our Comforter come? The disciples’ dilemma is much like our own, or much like that of anybody waiting in the in-between time between dream, promise, and fulfillment. They are, however, doubly bereft. ‘They have taken away my Lord and I do not know where to find him.’ Then he returns - joyfully, improbably, impossibly. A miracle. And it is said that for forty days he teaches them, in a new way, all that they did not realize that they knew. For it is the resurrected Jesus following the historical Christ who reveals what this is all about. Perhaps just by his presence, by the grasp that death has lost its sting. At least for a moment, at least where they’re concerned - for now. Later the persecution will come. Later they will die, naturally, or under torture, or whatever fate follows a follower of the resurrected one. They come to know all this. And still they follow him. There is nowhere else to go. Peter called it, long since. ‘Where could we go? You, Lord, hold the secret of eternal life.’ All else is not that. 

Jesus has ascended, but he has not left us bereft of comfort or of the power of the Spirit.

And so in obedience to that risen Lord, and in the hope of the resurrection and the promise of the Spirit, we still seek to follow the Lord, and his commandments, to love - to love God, to love one another, to love all of creation. It may mean witness, it may mean action, it certainly implies work… but not only work, but dwelling in the peace of the Spirit. We know that our redeemer lives, and on the last day, we will be raised: the promise will be fulfilled.

So in our lives we balance work and rest, prayer and work, peace and action. Yes we can. For in the Spirit, the Spirit promised to the first disciples and bestowed on the Church, we experience the power of God, in ourselves and in our world.

Job 19:25,26b-27a : For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: ...in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another...

As you have sent me

As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  (John 17:18)

Carey Nieuwhof has written (on his blog) about the challenges facing churches as they ‘reopen’ towards the end of the current pandemic. The challenges usually we break down into questions such as: What have you maintained? What do you want to keep that you have gained? What do you want to discard (after expressing due gratitude)? What do you want to recover?

Nieuwhof, an Evangelical, lists four marks of congregations he expects to thrive in coming years:

In my view, churches that effectively reach unchurched people in the future will likely be those that:

• Fully embrace hybrid ministry—digital and in-person forms of ministry.

• Focus on moving people forward, not getting them ‘back’.

• Embrace the people they’re trying to reach rather than judge them.

• Be Gospel-driven rather than ideologically driven or partisan.

Of course this doesn’t apply just to ‘reaching the unchurched’ and as Stewart McDonald has pointed out we need to focus on the mission not on ourselves. Remembering Barry Beisner’s first sermon as bishop I recall his three points (and yes we have the T shirts):

1. Stay together.

2. Focus on the mission.

3. Keep moving forward in the name of Christ.

In his priestly prayer, in the 17th chapter of John, our Lord prays for his followers, that they may all be one, that they may love one another, that the Father keep them safe, but also that they be sent into the world as the Father sent the Son. 

That’s a tall order. Think about it. To spend your life proclaiming and embodying the arrival of the reign of God. To accept that witness may include martyrdom. 

“When all about you…” Rudyard Kipling’s speech went. A trifle, in comparison, to being sent by the Father as Jesus himself was sent.

But we are not alone. There is the promise, nascent at the time of the Ascension, that we are one, not only with each other, the Father and the Son, but with the Comforter, the Empowerer, the Enlivening Spirit. Not emperor, empowerer: one who empowers: encourages, supports, gives authority, gives freedom to do something. Not just talk.

Remember when the disciples chose Matthias? One of two candidates brought forward, who could witness, from the baptism of John to the present moment, all that had happened, all that had been going on, with Jesus. One who not only saw it but saw what it meant and committed to follow the Way of Love, the Way of Christ. 

We as people of God each have a way to follow. Alone and together. We too are chosen simply because who we are is who God made us to be and called us to become.

He by the power that is at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine. (Ephesians 3:20)

Where do we start? Or, how do we go on from here?

Embrace what is new, embrace who is new, move forward together, tell the good news, and live it out.

***

Jesus, in his resurrection appearance to the disciples just before his ascension, had said, '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.’

What that means, to be his witnesses, in all its implications, becomes the business of the church.

Good thing the Spirit shows up. It's time to get on with it.

As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  (John 17:18)

JRL+

Christ the King Episcopal Church, Tucson.

Sunday after the Ascension

• Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

• Psalm 93

• 1 John 5:9-13

• John 17:6-19

https://careynieuwhof.com/the-coming-church-split-its-not-what-you-think

"If you can keep your head when all about you..." (If—, by Rudyard Kipling. https://poets.org/poem/if)

Ascension

While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.

Uncertainty, doubt, fear, and even anger: this is where he left them, wasn’t it? He had been taken from them, against their will but apparently according to his, and crucified. He was dead and buried. And then he rose again. He came back. Only this time to – leave again.

But that is not their reaction. They rejoice with him, they are exceedingly glad, and they await the fulfillment of his promise patiently blessing God. They wait.

What he gave them: teaching – all the Scriptures regarding the Messiah, from the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings – must be fulfilled. In him? In you!

You must go forth and proclaim – you are my emissaries: and this is what you must proclaim: repent and forgive.

The imperial envoys would have a message too: triumph and hegemony, the prince of peace in this world has conquered this world, and now there is peace and quiet. And we can do business in a friendly environment like that. That is good news, gospel, as the world sees it.

Jesus sends his messengers with a different message, a different set of proclamations than any Caesar ever gave: he gives a message that will not gain you the whole world but it will give you your souls.

Repent – turn – convert; and forgive – as you are forgiven.

Then you will be free. Then you will be made whole. Then you will be entering the kingdom that even now is coming in power.

And this power is the power of the Word, of the promise.

“Let it be with me according to your Word.” Way back at the beginning of the story, the good news as Luke tells it, that is what Mary said: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

According to your Word. Not simply will – as Father Andrew pointed out to me this Easter season – not will, as we might interpret it; but Word, as we know it. As we know him.

And how do we know him? We know him in the breaking of the bread and in the prayers, in the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, and in every act of service to the unknown stranger and the ones in need among us:

I was hungry and you gave me food,

I was thirsty and you gave me drink,

I was a stranger and you made me welcome,

I was naked and you clothed me,

I was sick and you cared for me,

I was in prison and you came to see me. (Mt 25.35-36)

I was in despair and you came and brought me hope.

Hope.

Hope. That is what they are holding onto. Not riches, fame, or glory, not a particular way of doing things, or of being together. Things are not going to be the way they were. They are going to be different and they are going to be better. Beyond belief.

They have faith beyond faith, formed in doubt. They have gone through a period of struggling as so many of us do. As we all do.

Faith grows in strength as it is transformed through the process of doubt and rebirth.

Baptism is a miniature of the process: we die to the old way, we are immersed in a period of not-knowing, not-being, and we emerge, we begin to emerge, into new life.

Transitions are like that. They begin with an ending, and then pass through a neutral zone (a muddle), before they reach a new beginning. It’s sort of like crossing the street in New Orleans. You leave the curb and cross the lanes of traffic going one way, until you reach what they call the ‘neutral ground’, the in-between place where the streetcars run, or there are trees; it’s just a gap between one way of going and another. And then you cross to the other side. But you don’t get to the other side until you leave the first curb, pass through the scary in-between of the naked neutral place, which you’d just as soon skip, and then you can make your way onto new territory.

An end, a muddle, and a beginning. Simple. Difficult.

Jesus does not leave them alone for long, on the neutral ground between his departure and the new arrival. He blesses them and withdraws from their sight not before he assures them of the promise of the Lord: wait here, wait in the city, and God will clothe you with power.

Now why would he do that? Why would Jesus reassure them, sure, but even better, why would God clothe them with power? So they’ll feel safe again, all better now?

Better than that – God gives the ‘power from on high’ for a higher purpose that self: he gives it so that they can fulfill his final commission, and the promise of God.

Remember what he gave them: teaching and a blessing.

All scriptures must be fulfilled, he taught them, regarding the Son of Man. He must suffer, die, and rise again on the third day. And then – something must happen: PROCLAIM THE GOOD NEWS. That’s your job!

That is Jesus’ final commission to his disciples. All the nations must hear the word: Repent and forgive. Turn and be forgiven. And be released yourself – to live.

Live into the new age now beginning: when God reigns.

We remember his death and proclaim his resurrection, and we prepare the way for his coming in glory.

Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus. Come; be known to us in the breaking of the bread. Be known to us in the breath of your Spirit upon us. Be known to us in one another in love and be known to us in service to the stranger. Amen.

Ascension, Acts 1:1-11, Psalm 47, Psalm 93, Ephesians 1:15-23, Luke 24:44-53, Ac 1.1-11, Ps 47, Ps 93, Eph 1.15-23, Lk 24.44-53, Joel 2.28-32, Joel 2:28-32, loss and gain, hope, Mt 25.35-36, Matthew 25:35-36, Elysian Fields, neutral ground, transitions, JRL+

there is no other stream

Come Lord Jesus live in our hearts forever.

God reigns over all
Christ reigns over all
Christ redeems us
Christ reigns in us
We are one in Christ
As Christ is one with God

Come Lord Jesus, live in our hearts – forever.

The psalm proclaims the greatness of God and invites us to join in acclamation. The prophet Zechariah, looking forward to the day of the Lord, said it another way:

“And the Lord shall be king over all the earth; in that day there shall be one Lord with one name.” (Zech 14.9, TNK)

God reigns over all. God alone is the Most High. There is no other name to worship in but the name of God. And we learn that God has given Jesus the name that is above every other name. Christ reigns over all. It is through Christ that God is known to us and in Christ that we become one with God. The apostle Paul, perhaps quoting a very old hymn that he already knew by heart, said:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself and took the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2.5-11, NRSV)

Imagine now the scenes Acts portrays. Paul and Silas are preaching in the marketplace, with some success, but this girl keeps following them. She cannot help herself; she is possessed with an oracle. And over and over again it divulges their secret: The Most High God, the God acclaimed in the psalm, the God revealed and embodied in Jesus Christ, God the Most High, has sent them with the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. The way to oneness with God is through Christ.

And yet she does this because she is compelled. This annoys Paul and he casts out the demon. And so, ironically, she is freed from this by the very men she fingered, the very God she acclaims. And it gets them in trouble. The men who were exploiting her, just some businessmen trying to make a living, saw her as nothing but a means of livelihood. And so they made trouble for Paul and Silas.

In prison they kept at it. Paul and Silas bound in jail all night long, praying and singing hymns of praise to God. They cannot keep from singing praise to God. And who shall deliver them but Jesus Christ?

Now picture the despair of their jailer, as they are suddenly freed. There is an earthquake – it is like California, there, perhaps even more earthquake-prone – and his whole world comes crashing around him. From power over them, charged with their captivity, he finds himself suddenly trapped himself. If they are gone, he will pay with his life. And he prepares to do just that right there and then. But they stop him.

His life has already been redeemed. These servants – these slaves – of the Most High God know that their own Lord has humbled himself, taking the form of a slave, a captive, that humankind, that they, should be saved, freed. But what must I do to be saved? Believe. The jailer asks the simple question, and gets the answer that frees him forever.

All you have to do to be saved,
to be forgiven, to gain new life,
is to put your faith in Christ.


The door is open,
the bonds are broken,
the prison walls are shattered;

step through the door,
walk into freedom,
and you are free.



The jailer, on the point of despair, of losing everything – his livelihood, his life – finds new life by putting everything in the hands, in the service, of Christ. Now for him Christ, not Caesar, is Lord.

He has seen the proof that God reigns over all,
that the name of Jesus
is above the name of Rome,
that Christ reigns and not only
way up there somewhere but right down here in the prison cell.
He has redeemed and freed not only the captives but the jailer.

This is the deliverer, the same Jesus, who gave some practical advice, the canny words of a peasant, to people in the Middle East living under foreign occupation by Rome. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

The rule seems new and yet is very old. It is part of the foundation of the world. And through Christ who is the one foundation we can be built into the new Jerusalem, the new creation. We are no longer prisoners of the flesh, the old human kingdom, but we are free in Christ.

The Revelation invites us into new life. The invitation is extended in rich imagery, inviting us to take part in the kingdom. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. If you are thirsty, you may drink. This new life is available freely to all, to anyone who dares to approach the Son of the Creator. If you are thirsty, you may drink.

You may remember a children’s book by C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. A girl wanders through an enchanted forest. She hears the sound of running water. Thirsty, she approaches, and comes to the edge of a stream, and – hears a voice: If you are thirsty, you may drink.

It is the voice, to make a long story short, of the Lion of Judah. The Alpha, the Omega, the One who IS.

Is he safe? No, but he is good.

Could she find another stream? There is no other stream.

It is through him, through Christ, that we get to the living water – and we are all welcome. We all drink from the one stream. And through Christ we are made one with God.

Jesus prayed that we might be one
as he and the Father are one,
that he might live in us
as God dwelt in him,
that the world might know, through our love,
that God loves us as God loves Jesus.

That we are one, not through our loving God, but through Christ’s love for us. The essential unity is not over how we love God or know God.

It is not about our spirituality or our ecclesiology, or our own righteousness. It is about God knowing us, God loving us.

There is nothing we can do about it.
Already, before the foundation of the world,
God knows us, God loves us.

This love which cost everything
Which breaks the bonds and
Opens the doors and shakes the foundations
Of our old human prison,
Which sets the captives free,
This love opens wide the gates of paradise.
Living water bursts from the Rock.

Blesses are those who wash their robes
– the faithful witnesses
– who accepted the forgiveness of sins
– who are redeemed by Christ,
so that they will have the right to the tree of life,
and may enter the city by the gates.

The gates are open.
The Spirit says come.
Let everyone who hears say Come.
Let everyone who thirsts, come—
Come to the living water. Drink.
And let Christ come in and fill your heart.
Let his reign begin now, in you.
Come Lord Jesus, live in our hearts, forever.



We are one in Christ as
Christ is one with God
May we be one as God is one
That the world may know the Love of God.



O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. [Collect for mission, page 100, Book of Common Prayer]

St John's Episcopal Church, Lakeport, California
May 23, 2004 9.30am Holy Eucharist
7th Sunday of Easter, Year C
Acts 16.16-34, Revelation 22.12-14, 16-17, 20, Psalm 47, John 17.20-26