A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord, Observed, The Seventh Sunday of Easter, June 2, 2019.
Going or Coming?
Acts 1:1-11
(Other Readings Appointed: Ephesians 1:15-23; Luke 24:44-53)
We all know of those moments within the hectic pace of our daily life and living when it just feels that we are just “running in circles”. And with all of our keeping such a frantic pace where we often wonder where we are, where we’re going, and maybe even at times even needing to remind ourselves who we even are, we sometimes just throw up our hands in near bewilderment, having to ask—“Am I coming or going?”
On the 40th day of Easter—or in our case, the 43rd—the Church celebrates the joyous Feast of Our Lord’s Ascension into heaven. It is indeed a joyous moment as we recall that with His work of salvation complete, Jesus now returns to heaven and to the right hand of God the Father, where He now “lives and reigns to all eternity.” Yet, it is sometimes seen as a “bittersweet” moment as well. Even as we rejoice that Jesus ascends to heaven so that He might reign there forever as our Lord and King, we also are faced with the reality which must have faced the disciples as they watched Him pass through the clouds that finally “hid Him from their sight.” And that reality was that Jesus was gone. No longer would they hear his voice. No longer would they break bread with Him. No longer would they be able to see or to touch Him. No, He is not here, but just somewhere, “up there.”
Perhaps it was in the mind of the disciples that this was a “going away day” for Jesus, as they saw Him being parted from them. And then came the angels who said: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way you saw Him go into heaven.” Yes, Jesus had indeed gone away from them as He passed into the heavens. And yet, the disciples were in essence being told, “Stop looking up, trying to get ‘one last look at Jesus’. Yes, He’s gone away from you, but He is coming back. Be looking for that.”
And it has been for that coming we have been watching and waiting ever since that day. Remembering the angels’ word that “this Jesus…will come in the same way you saw Him go into heaven”, the followers of Jesus, down through what is nearing two millennia, have been “looking up”, hoping to see the signs of Christ’s return. We continue to live in hope for the Lord’s coming again, but never yet quite seeing that Day arrive, and perhaps left to wonder, “Will He ever come again?”
To such thoughts and questions, we must give and believe that the answer is, “Yes, He will come again.” And we know this to be so because He has given us His Word and promise that this will be so. But in the meanwhile, what are we to make of this promise? What does it mean that we will see the Lord and His return? We know He has gone to heaven, but when will we see Him coming back?
There are different ways to look at and understand Jesus’ Ascension, and they all teach us something true about our Lord and bring us comfort and hope. One way is that Jesus has returned to heaven—declaring His victory over sin and death and devil; beginning His reign as King and Victor over all things; returning to share again in the eternal life and unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so by faith, we come to see in Jesus’ Ascension the vision of Him and of the whole of the Godhead as they really are, waiting then for that Day when we will be called to heaven’s life to see that vision with our own eyes, having our hope and faith forever fulfilled.
It is this hope which is connected to another way of seeing Jesus’ Ascension, which is that as Jesus ascends into heaven, He is pointing us to our destination—to the Father’s house where we have been promised to live in forever. He goes there to prepare a place for us so that, according to His own word, we will be where He is with Him. This is the hope of every believing Christian soul, that by faith in what the Lord Jesus has done for us and our salvation, life forever with God is our goal and our destination; and we will receive the call to that life on the Day of the Lord’s Return, whether that return is His coming to us to take us to be with Himself when we die or the moment when the whole world will see Him as the One sent by God the Father to be the world’s Judge on the Last Day.
Both of these ways of looking at the meaning of Jesus’ Ascension are true and grounded in Christ’s own Word and promises to us. And what they have in common with each other is that they have us looking in the same direction as the Apostles were on that Ascension Day—Looking up. But, is there another way we should be looking? Is there somewhere other than “up” that we can go to see and to find where our Lord Jesus is to be found?
And there is another place for us to look, and it isn’t too far away. Week by week, we confess that Jesus, “ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father.” Yes, by our way of thinking and perceiving, this moves our eyes upwards. But, it should also take our eyes to look around us as well. Since our God is everywhere, then His right hand is also everywhere, and thus our Ascended Lord Jesus is also everywhere, including being right here, present in our midst as He comes as He has promised—here to be with us always, here to speak His living and true Word of life to us, here to claim us as His own as we share in His death and resurrection through the waters of Baptism, and here to feed and nourish us with His very self as He gives us His Body and Blood to eat and drink.
When we come to realize and know this, heaven is not some faraway place where Jesus has left us to go to and to return from when the Day of the Lord is announced. Heaven actually becomes a place that is a part of our here and now. It is the place where God and His Christ reign and rule, establishing their authority in the hearts, minds, and lives of the faithful, believing children of His creating and redeeming. It is the place where God builds His kingdom, one precious soul at a time, revealing even here and now that new and restored creation which will one day come to its full and total completion on the Day of the Lord. Heaven may not yet be “a place on earth”, but it is coming, and even now we can see glimpses of it as the Lord works in and through us, showing us how His Name is being hallowed, how His kingdom is coming, and how His will is being done and accomplished, “in earth as it is in heaven.”
Yes, as we see Jesus ascend into heaven He has gone from us, but He has not gone far, for He is still here, still coming to us. And as strange as it might seem, Jesus has gone away, not to be separated from us, but so that He might be closer to us; for His presence is always here and ever near to us, the Father’s dearly loved children and the brothers and sisters of the One who is our Brother-Savior. As we see Him today go into heaven, let us also be sure that we also look to see Him coming to us, not only in the future but also right here and now, knowing that as He comes to us, He makes Himself and His risen life present and real to us so that we may ever and always live and rejoice in Him as we continue to say: Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen!
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