Scripture text: Acts 1:1-11
“What a long strange trip it’s been.
“Here we are, on the mountain of Ascension. Jesus is rising up to the clouds. This brings to a close these eight weeks of chaos and confusion, a veritable roller coaster ride of emotions. It began with Palm Sunday and the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, with the crowds singing praises and waving palm branches, heralding their new king into the city. It moved from there to the tension of Maundy Thursday and creeping dread of the inevitable backlash, words of warning of betrayal from one of our own, yet in the midst of that a call for unity and service to one another.
“Then, the hammer falls. Judas betrays us. Jesus is arrested, put on trial, sentenced to death. He is nailed to a cross and left to hang there until he expires. Fear the likes of which we had never experienced scattered us to the four winds. We gathered again and hid, but as the days passed rumors began. First as murmurs, as the deluded ravings of the most sorrowful among us: He’s alive. He is risen. Nonsense. Ridiculous. Nothing more than the fever dream of a tormented mind.
“And then, he was there. Jesus stood among us. It was true. Our most desperate hopes had come to pass. He was alive. He had risen. It was true. But it was not as it once was. He popped in and out. Appearing to some on the road, to others at the seashore, to us in the upper room a second time. But he gave instruction to meet him on this mountain, where he’s spoken his final farewells and departed to heaven.
“Now what?”
If we could interview one of the disciples on the day of Ascension, the tale they might tell would probably sound much like what I’ve just shared. This constant tossing and turning between joy and sorrow, clarity and confusion, death and life. Now six weeks since Jesus rose again from the dead, the disciples find themselves alone again. Jesus is gone, departed to heaven to be with the Father and the disciples are left with the task of figuring out what to do with themselves now.
But Jesus told them. The answer was right in front of them. The various Gospel accounts that we have are often diverse in narrative and interpretation and that’s intentional, but when they all agree about something, it’s usually a sign to sit up and take notice. And Jesus instructions to his disciples for how they are to act after his departure are crystal clear in all of them. “As the Father has sent me, so now I send you.” “You are to be my witnesses.” “Go into all the world and tell.” “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”
The Gospels don’t all include the Ascension story itself, but ALL have this same instruction from Jesus. Go forth and tell of Christ and his good news.
This shouldn’t have been any surprise to anyone. God is nothing if not consistent. His whole plan, from all the way back in Genesis, was a plan that required partnership. Sure, God could have done the whole thing on his own, but who would have known? No, he called Abraham and made a partnership with him and with his descendants. You will be my witnesses, he essentially told them. You will tell the world about me and my ways. You will show them what I am about.
And now, in the light of the new covenant made by Jesus, we find the same dynamic at work. God has called the disciples to be his partners in this. You will be my witnesses. You will the world about me and my ways. You will show them what I am about.
It’s a tall order in either period of history. But God again is consistent. To the patriarchs and prophets, to the kings and the judges of old, God says time and again, “I will be with you.” And here, with these disciples. “I am with you always.” Or to use Luke’s language in his two versions of the story, “You will clothed with power from on high by the Holy Spirit, just as I promised.”
The legacy of what those disciples did with those words is obvious. The Church spans every continent of this globe and even beyond (One of my favorite astronomical stories is how the Apollo 11 astronauts shared the sacrament of communion while orbiting the moon on their historic journey.) Could those Eleven on that mountaintop even imagined any of that?
But that’s what happens when God grants you power and you run with it. The world changes. Lives change. People change. Evil is thwarted. The hungry are fed. The sick are cared for. And the good news of Christ’s Gospel is heard in word and in deed.
The internet was all abuzz this week when a new report was released showing the American church is in a rapid decline. People claiming active membership in Christian churches dropped 8% in the past seven years.
Oh, no, the sky is falling. Or at least that’s what some alarmists among the punditry want to claim. I’m not worried, and why not? Because we are the inheritors of those first disciples and the promises they received. We have been clothed with power from on high. Now imagine, if we took that seriously, what we could accomplish?
Our partnership with God has not ended. Christ came to this earth to live, die, and then rise again to save this whole world. And how are they going to know if we won’t tell them? How are they going to get it if we don’t show them? The biggest problem in the church today is not what goes on out there; it’s that too often we get stuck in here instead of being out there. We’ve been given power, folks, from on high. The only thing keeping us from changing this world is ourselves. It’s our fear. Well, God’s promise remains. “I am with you always.” How is that not enough? Amen.
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