ASCEND!

This blog post is based on this reading from Luke, not the above picture (from a Scandinavian website)

I have a hard to explaining the Ascension to other people. Our rationally based culture makes it hard for me to just say, "Come on it's in the BIBLE!" To see just how poorly the Ascension is viewed in contemporary culture, just look at the popular TV series The Office. In a great episode entitled "Secret Santa," Michael Scott, says to his employees, “His last name is Christ, He has the power of flight,” alluding to Jesus’s last day on earth. If we attempt to be rational Christians we have a hard time holding at the same time a belief in scientific laws, like the Law of Gravity, and a belief in Jesus’ miracles, like flying away from his disciples.

Yet, to read a sacred text, like the Bible, with only a literal lens limits the spiritual impact that any story can have upon us. This is not to say suspend all questions, but rather to suggest that the story of the Ascension is more than a precursor to the Superman comic strip. Our gospel text from today possesses a powerful piece of our understanding of God and our relationship with God, and yet we are left with questions. What happens after Jesus is raised from the dead? He cannot die again, so does he just sit around until the end of the age? Can he fly? Where did he go? I do not have sufficient answers to these questions, yet I feel in the wake of the Ascension that I am floating in the Truth. He who has been raised from the dead will never die again, he who has been raised from the dead continues to bless us, and he who has been raised from the dead has returned to the Father. Yet it is even more encompassing than this. Let me tell you another version of the Ascension from our sisters and brothers in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

In the countryside of Bethany, a boy was walking his dog, Spot. Well, the dog’s full name was Spoticus, a slight jab at the Roman occupiers of his day, but the boy just called him Spot in public. As the boy and his dog walked along the countryside the boy saw in the distance a small crowd gathered. They were raising a bit of a raucous, so the boy went to investigate it further. He approached with caution, and soon discovered it was Jesus and his followers.

The boy had heard of Jesus from some people in his town. Martha, Mary, and the once dead Lazarus told stories about this powerful, healing, teaching prophet. Recently, they even said he was more than a prophet. The boy overheard his parents arguing about whether Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah. “He died and returned from the dead,” his mother said in a hushed voice, but his father cut her off as the boy entered the room. So more curious than usual the boy walked closer to hear Jesus speaking to his followers, but he could not understand what the teacher was saying.

This crowd grew closer together as Jesus raised his arms up into the air. Jesus then began blessing them with tears washing down his face. As he was blessing them he withdrew from them and he was being carried up into heaven. Yet, at that moment something strange happened. One man looked around at the others in the crowd, then he wrapped his arms around Jesus’ ankles. Fellow disciples began shouting, “Peter, what are you doing?”

Peter looked up at Jesus, then he said, “Jesus where you go, I must go also.” Jesus, almost surprised by this action, gave Peter a look, as if to say, “Please let go,” but Peter did not get the message. Then, Jesus looked up to Heaven, saying, “Father, what shall I do?” A voice from on high spoke, “ASCEND!”

At that moment, two men began jostling for position. The similar shape of their faces made it seem to the boy that the two were brothers. As they were pushing each other, one grabbed onto Peter’s ankles, the other shouted, “John, I am supposed to go first, not you.” John replied, “James, I am the greatest.” James and John jockeyed for position, then others hopped onto the chain. Before too long it was a long link of disciples. Martha, Mary, and a limping Lazarus connected to this heaven bound train. Jesus kept asking the Father what he was to do, and the Father each time replied with the same word, “Ascend!”

All the while Spot and his boy were walking closer to this action. Spot was barking and the boy did his best to keep his jaw from dropping. After the crowd thinned out a little, the boy asked a woman if she was going to join this line. The woman, who was actually Mary Magdalene, calmly replied, “I think so, what about you?” Well, I have my dog.

Just then a man thought about jumping up to join the heaven bound procession, but then he looked doubtful that he could make the jump to reach Andrew’s ankles. “Thomas, you better hurry,” Mary spoke.

The boy tied up his dog to a nearby tree, hugged him goodbye, and he began to run and jump after Mary who was now leaving the earth behind her. Mary asked, “What about your dog?” The boy quickly questioned, “Can I bring him?” Jesus looked down, then up toward heaven, and the voice again shouted from on high, “Ascend!”

As Mary was pulling him off the ground the boy ran back toward the tree and with no time to untie the dog he grabbed Spot with one hand and held onto Mary’s foot with the other. The train began to pull out of the station with Jesus as the engine. His toes no longer touching earth, the boy left the ground, Spot was pulled up with him, the leash held the dog tightly to the tree, and for a moment it seemed like this holy chain would just dangle in the air. Then, all at once the ground shook and the earth quaked and this Jesus-led string of saints pulled the entirety of Creation from its hinges. Everything from the tree down (the roots, the dirt, the entire earth and all that was in it) stayed connected to that dog and that dog was held fast by that boy and the boy stayed attached to those disciples and those disciples stuck to Jesus and Jesus remained connected to God the Father, so that all of Creation was pulled into Heaven with the command from on high, “Ascend!”

Ascension is not a story about Jesus flying. It is not a story about magic or superpowers. This is the day that we celebrate that Jesus who overcame the power of death, will never die again, and that as he left Jesus was blessing his disciples. Jesus’ blessing never stopped in the story from Luke, and his blessings have never stopped since then. We are still being blessed by the Son who came down to live with us, to die for us, to raise us from the dead and to raise us with all Creation into Heaven. Ascension is a day when we remember that through Christ earth and Heaven are one. Now let us, like those disciples return to our lives with joy, let us bless God continually in our church, and let us wait patiently for the gift of God’s Spirit! In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

John 3:1-17: Nicodemus Couldn't Sleep

Sermon Audio click here!

Nicodemus couldn’t sleep again. The all too familiar feeling of anxiety ravaged through his stomach, like menacing butterflies the size of pterodactyls. His wife, Miriam, lay beside him in their king-size bed. She could sense his worry, and it made her worry too. As she drifted off into an uneasy sleep, Nicodemus starred at the ceiling. The mortgage, the bills, the children’s education all added up. These problems alone though did not keep this religious leader from resting easy; no something else was the matter. By morning he had all the covers wrapped around him like some sort of cocoon of worry; yet for Nicodemus there was no metamorphosis, no change, and no growth. The only butterfly was in his gut.

Nicodemus arose before the sun, and standing in the pre-dawn glow he could see the dark circles around his eyes growing ever more visible in the mirror. Seeing Miriam resting peacefully in the reflection Nicodemus remembered the promises he made to her on their wedding night: trips to the Mediterranean, family vacations, and putting in his time early so they could enjoy their later years together. These hopes vanished as his focus returned to his rapidly aging face. Looking into his own eyes he recognized an emptiness.

Following every word of the Law, working harder than every other Pharisee, arriving earlier and leaving later, but still Nicodemus felt hollow. Like a wineskin with no wine within or an inn with no visitors, Nicodemus’ soul felt bare and vacant. Kissing Miriam and his children goodbye as the sun was rushing to crest the horizon, Nicodemus hurried to the Temple to lead the morning prayers. If he felt any peace embracing his two boys it disappeared as he left his home. His thoughts turned to the upcoming Passover festivities and the meeting of the Sanhedrin, the religious council, this morning.

The council dispatched with old business quickly, then an elder member of the council brought up an explosive, new topic. His calculating words cut through the stale air of the conference room, like a snake darting through withered grass, “What are we to do about this upstart teacher from Galilee? He is gaining followers, you know, disciples even! My sources tell me that he has even performed some mighty signs, turning water into wine at a wedding.”

Another voice emerged, “Where is he now?” The elder Pharisee replied, “Capernaum with his family.” Nicodemus, intrigued by the miraculous deeds and exhausted from his insomnia, forgot himself and excitedly piped up, “Do you think he will come to the Passover?” Before he could even finish his sentence, Nicodemus knew that the emotions worn on his decorated sleeve had given away his giddiness. In his desperation, Nicodemus secretly hoped he’d meet this itinerant miracle worker. The elder Pharisee looked down at Nicodemus and snarled. Another distinguished leader with long fringes and broad phylacteries interrogated, “Nicodemus, why does it matter if this man shows up? Why do you care?” A pragmatic voice cut off the questioning to get back to business, “This week, we need extra security at the Temple to prepare for this man… What is his name again?” The elder Pharisee replied disgustedly, “Jesus.”

Although Passover begins at sundown, Nicodemus left long before sunrise on the first day of the festivity. As he made his way to the Temple, he allowed himself a hopeful thought, “Maybe, just maybe, God will show me a sign today,” and in this brief moment the tension within him dissipated until he neared the Temple.

Suddenly, right as he entered the gates he heard shouting, then the crack of a whip, he ran to see what was happening. A rough looking man, was driving out the merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. As the vendors scattered in all directions, the unkempt man flipped over their tables and spoke, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” Nicodemus wondered if this was the man, and a verse from Scripture arose, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Other Pharisees just arriving began to question this man’s motives, but all Nicodemus wanted to know was “When can I meet him?”

Several Pharisees, seething at Jesus’ irreligious behavior and his disrespect for their Tradition, watched him carefully for a misstep. Nicodemus looked on with eager curiosity, hoping for another sign. Seeing Jesus heal a man blind since birth, Nicodemus made up his mind he would risk his status within the Sanhedrin so that he could meet with this Jesus.

The night the Passover was finishing, Nicodemus told his wife he was going to seek out this mighty healer, in hopes of a sign that might fill the emptiness within him. Miriam urged her husband to find healing. Then Nicodemus pulled up his cloak to hide his identity and hurried through the streets to the outskirts of Jerusalem.

Scouring the Sanhedrin’s intelligence network Nicodemus had discovered where Jesus was staying, and after waking a few neighbors in search of his exact location, Nicodemus met two of his disciples. Simon-Peter and Andrew, asleep in the outer room, groggily went to fetch their teacher. Jesus emerged silently from his sleeping quarters, lit a candle, poured some wine for his guest and asked if his guest was hungry.

Speechless, Nicodemus could not initially reply to the hospitality. Never, not once, in all the years of serving in the Temple had Nicodemus felt such a rush of spiritual energy. Jesus’ eyes beamed in the candlelight and Nicodemus could tell that when he looked at him Jesus was looking deep within his soul.

Anxiously, Nicodemus tried to cue up the questions that he had prepared, but he blabbered, “Teacher, uh… we know that you are a… uh teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these… eh, signs that you do apart from the presence of… um God.”
Before he could continue, Jesus swiftly replied, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Confused and wearied by his many sleepless nights, Nicodemus’ legal and literal mind churned out a logical question, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”

Jesus wiped some sleep from his eyes, and attempted to broaden Nicodemus’ spiritual horizons, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Perplexed even more by this Nicodemus’ head was swimming in a vast ocean of questions, he clumsily reached for the life boat, “How can these things be?”

With a reassuring smile, Jesus replied, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet the Pharisees do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

Nicodemus still reeling from how one can be born of the Spirit, could barely keep up with Jesus now, it felt as though his mind was sprinting just to keep up with Jesus’ pace. The Pharisee wondered, “Am I just here to understand the signs? Who is this? How is one born again? Is this the Son of Man?” But in the midst of the swirling sea of inquiries, Nicodemus realized that something strange was happening. His heart felt alive and his spirit felt awake for the first time in weeks, months, maybe even years. Cutting through the questions, the literalism, and the legalism Jesus spoke words that forever rang in Nicodemus’ soul:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Nicodemus emptied his cup of wine, his soul full for the first time in years, and as he left Jesus, the sun was rising.