Ascension Sunday
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
(This Sermon was preached from the Balcony)
It has taken me a long time to be fully comfortable celebrating Ascension Sunday. For some of you that may seem like heresy and for others you might just be asking: “What is Ascension Sunday” Or “Why does it matter?” If all goes well, by the time we are finished we will at least attempt to engage these concerns and questions. With that hope, let us start at the beginning.
Today is Ascension Sunday. If you look at the church calendar closely, or if you were at this week’s Presbytery meeting, you will be quick to point out that Ascension Day was actually on Thursday. But since we do not have many Thursday evening services we move the celebration to today. Today’s scriptures we make it abundantly clear that this celebration is a commemoration of the Ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God. In the stain glassed window behind me is a beautiful depiction of this event.
I am standing in the balcony this morning to make sure we spend some time engaged with this beautiful window. The Ascension window is not an attempt by the artist to do an exact rendition of Jesus’ ascension into heaven. If you look closely there are other folks who were not actually present on that day. What were the reasons for this? I cannot speak to the motivations of the artist. However, I do believe that the artist intended to go way beyond a simple retelling the story in order to make a larger theological assertion.
The theological underpinnings of this widow go well beyond reasserting the central tenets of the orthodoxy found in the Apostles Creed. After all, Moses was not present at the ascension but there he is in the upper left corner. So why all the extra people in the picture, what is happening? It has to do with what are known as the enthronement psalms. Part of the theology steeped within this celebration is not only the assertion of the location of Jesus, but that Jesus is also divine. This is why; the patriarchs and matriarchs are included in this picture all worshiping Jesus at the center. On this day we proclaim: “Jesus reigns over all!” Jesus takes his place at the throne and becomes King Jesus.
It is on this point of which I have had some trouble. Not with Jesus as king or divine, but with the ascension itself. On this day, we celebrate Jesus leaving us on our own. Now I know there is the promise of the Holy Spirit, but we should not be so ready to skip over the days in between, the days when we are left on our own. Life has a way of creating followers who are functional agnostics who are at risk of giving lip service to faith. I say this because too often, if we are really honest with one another, we live as if we have been left on our own. As such, we ought to name that so we can come to grips with what living our lives in the absence of Jesus can mean.
Acting in this way, living our lives as if Jesus is some remote figure in history or in heaven, is not something for which I would chastise anyone. The reason for this actually brings us back to this ascension window. But not just this window in fact, my issue is with most images of the ascension. The problem I have is not so much with the doctrine but with the artistic renditions. In most of these windows, the figure of Jesus has little or no expression. When I look toward the face of Jesus all I see is someone who is not particularly interested in me or anything else which is happening. In truth, I find that the Jesus who was revealed to us in scripture and the Jesus ascending into heaven here do not seem to be the same person. The Jesus of scripture cared for the widow and the poor, welcomed tax collectors and sinners and offered compassion in ways the religious community did not. The Jesus I see in most ascension art seems too removed to notice what happens in daily life. So, if I get a choice between the detached Jesus and the Jesus who cared so deeply for us, I am going to go with scripture.
What I mean by this is that today is a day when we need to give ourselves permission to relish in the best of what is meant about the accession. The same Jesus who welcomed outcasts and sinners and offered compassion IS the same Jesus who ascended into heaven. And this doctrine matters, this day matters because it says that the love, justice, welcome for all people, and compassion found in Jesus is at the heart of the God of the universe. Now I know, there has been some distrust in some circles over this day because if feels like we are trying to escape the troubles of the world. But trust me, I do not believe a faithful celebration of this is day is not escapism. Just so long as we do not spend all our days looking up into the heaven’s waiting for Jesus to return. But knowing our community, I know that this is not something for which we are at risk.
Instead, we need to be encouraged to give ourselves permission to look up to the heaven and trust that Jesus is still on the throne. In the midst of our daily struggles; to make ends meet, or to bring some portion of misery to an end, or to humanize soul crushing systems in our city, or to struggle against the despair all throughout our community, we need to be reminded to look up once in a while. By doing this it will help to keep us from finding ourselves in the depths of despair. When all our work may seem in vain, look up! Looking up, at least once a year, reminds us that the ultimate work for justice and righteousness does not depend upon our action alone. Jesus is not remote and distant and uncaring about the suffering of the world and neither are we. This is good news. We are not alone, Jesus is still on the throne, and on this one day we are not only allowed to, but really need to spend some time looking up. We have not been left alone so once in a while, look up and remember who has the last word. By allowing ourselves the comfort of ‘looking up,’ it will only help us ‘keep on, keep’n on” in the mist of the struggle to be faithful. So when despair is knocking at your door: Look Up! When hope seems lost: Look Up! When you don’t know which way to turn or when your work seems in vain: Look Up and remember! Amen? Amen.
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