Bible Text: Luke 24:44-53 and Acts 1: 6-14 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes
On April 12, 1961, during the height of the cold war and space race the Soviet Union declared that the first orbit of Earth had been successfully completed by Yuri Gagarin, making him the first human-being to journey into outer space. He was made a hero of the Soviet Union and a symbol of their great accomplishments. On April 14, 1961, two days after Yuri’s return to Earth Nikita Khrushchev delivered a speech declaring this a victory for the Soviets. Nikita was not only the leader of this communist country but a supporter of the state’s anti-religion campaign. In his speech Khrushchev said that, “Gagarin flew into space, but didn’t see any God there.” Yet, it turns out that Gagarin, this hero of the Soviet Union, was also secretly a member of the Russian Orthodox Church and never made such a statement. I wonder if Khrushchev thought that Gagarin would find God while orbiting earth? Was there a part of him that was relieved or a part of him that was concerned? What did they expect to find? I have to admit two things, first, I debated referencing this story because I’m going to be away for the next two weeks and won’t be around to unpack it for anyone who is troubled by it, and second, I blame the ascension passages from the Gospel of Luke and Acts for such a naive, foolish and simple understanding of who God is and where God resides. Did they really think that they would encounter God while orbiting earth? But then again that is a consequence of believing that God is up, in heaven. If God is up, than yes, it would make sense that someone going up into space, if they went high enough, would encounter God. Many interpreters, many strong people of faith, many of us, may have this same image, but it seems to me that when we talk about the ascension of Jesus we get stuck on this one image of Jesus being carried UP into heaven and we miss the entire point of the story.
Now, I know that near the end of our reading, and near the end of this wonderful Gospel by Luke for his friend Theophilus, that it says that Jesus was carried UP into heaven but I think that our language and translations have contributed to us believing that God is UP in heaven and that if we continue to go up than we will eventually see God. It is this simplistic idea that made Khrushchev declare that because Gagarin went up and didn’t see God, that this was proof that God does not exist. But this is not at all what this story is telling us. In doing my research for this sermon I came across a beautifully written paper by Dr. Mark Travik, who is both the chair of religion at Augsburg College in Minneapolis and an ordained minister in the Lutheran church. It was so well done and spoke so deeply to my concerns about this text that much of this sermon comes from or is inspired by his paper.
Dr. Travik begins by stating that we must move the focus from this image of Jesus floating up and away in the clouds, to what the verses are really telling us about the relationship between Jesus and God. I would add that we need to pay attention to what that relationship then means to and for us. This is not a story about where heaven is, or how to get to heaven or even that heaven is up, above us. In fact, it isn’t really about heaven being a place; rather it is an expression for where God resides. Yes, it brings us comfort to imagine angels on clouds, or our loved ones, “looking down at us”. I can’t help but think of the former ad campaign for a brand of cream cheese in which an angel sat on a cloud and declared the cheese “heavenly”. But nowhere in this passage does it really describe such a scene, and yet it is ingrained in our understanding of heaven. But these images and ideas contribute to the issues facing the church. Instead of focusing on this idea that Jesus is up, up and away, rather we need to hear his words of comfort, hope, and peace and the amazing reality that this ascension actually alters the way we think about God in our lives, here on earth.
Our passage begins with Jesus giving the disciples a mission. First he shares his final lessons, sermons and interpretations. Unfortunately we are not privy to the details of this conversation, but it is an equipping of the disciples. It is possible that Luke gives us a hint of the discussions with the passage from Acts in which the question is asked, “is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” If you think that’s a strange question to ask at this time, for the record, I agree. If I had one question to ask Jesus after he told me he was going to physically join God in heaven, that would not be the question I would ask. But we have to remember that they are coming out of the Hebrew tradition in which they expected the Messiah to violently restore the kingdom of Israel, and so far that hasn’t happened. But other than this question and answer we don’t really know what Jesus said to the disciples. Yet it was enough information that they were then able to be witnesses, to be people who professed what they have seen, heard and experienced. Whatever Jesus told them, it was enough for them to carry out their mission. Jesus then says that this is not all that they will receive to help them in their discipleship. If they stay a little while longer, then God will equip them with a power beyond their imagining. This of course alludes to the events at Pentecost, the anniversary of which we will celebrate next week. If Pentecost is the birth of the church, then the ascension is the inception. The seed was planted through this equipping of the disciples so that they may grow together as a church, as witnesses.
At the end of Jesus’ ascension it says that these witnesses worshipped with joy. Now, because so many of us have come to church and worshipped God, or the trinity in this way for so long, we forget that it was a very new way of worship for the early church. What Luke’s Gospel says is that, “they worshipped him (meaning Jesus), and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.” What is shocking about this sentence, and would have been very shocking, even blasphemous to the early readers is that these devout Jews are worshipping Jesus- when the Hebrew Bible clearly says you are not to worship anyone or anything other than God. The ascension creates a complete shift within the early believers in that, with Jesus now residing with God, then it is impossible to separate the two. The shift will continue as we approach Pentecost with the introduction of the Holy Spirit. But what this brief little story about the ascension teaches us is that “it is no longer possible to talk about God without talking about Jesus. When we think of God we must also always include a crucified, risen, ascended and living Christ.” We worship the three in one, one in three.
Now, this may not seem particularly surprising or moving but here is the incredible thing about all this. Prior to Christ, God was often portrayed as an entity detached from human experience. We still get stuck in this idea that God is a bearded guy, sitting up in heaven, looking down, and just being relatively disappointed with the whole state of affairs. But what the ascension of Jesus should do is alter our picture of God. Jesus reveals “a God who is vulnerable and even approachable. When we turn to God in times of distress or temptation we are not addressing a deity aloof and unfamiliar with our struggles. God knows our trials intimately well and not only comforts us by identifying with our pain, but also assures us that affliction will not have the final word because it is the risen and ascended Christ who intercedes for us, and nothing can separate us from his love.”
Through Scripture there are stories and examples of a God who is perfect, who is omnipotent, all-powerful, omniscient, all-knowing, omnipresent, ubiquitous, majestic, sovereign, and never-changing. God is these incredible things, which is what makes God, God. But the God being worshipped by the disciples at the end of our passage is also a God who knows and has experienced loneliness, betrayal, rejection and even death. That is what the story of the ascension teaches me.
Now, there is nothing wrong with the images of Jesus rising up on a cloud; after all Luke’s version of the ascension as found in Acts says that he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. But this version also includes two angels who tell the disciples to quit looking up and start getting to work. Sometimes the church is so busy looking up at the empty space left behind by Jesus that we forget that there are people who need to experience Jesus through us. We witness to the great love given to us and therefore give it to others. There is another image that strikes me about the ascension, one that is more fitting to me than Jesus on a cloud. It says that Jesus lifted up his hands and blessed them. The same hands that were lifted up and pierced by nails. But instead of retribution Jesus gives them blessing- gives them a message that includes repentance and forgiveness. A message that includes a commissioning to be witnesses. These witnesses themselves being ones who were complicit in his execution. Now regardless of what is up there in space, that is an image that would compel me to worship. Amen