If ever
there was a remnant of God’s faithful people, I’m guessing this is it. It is terrible unfortunate and a sign of the
poor catechesis in the Church that Ascension Day is so ignored today. To continue a discussion we had last Thursday
at Wrestling with Faith, the Ascension is of such importance that its
acceptance is one of those beliefs which defines us as Christians. Every time we gather for the Eucharist, we
remind ourselves that He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand
of the Father. From there He will come
again to judge the living and the dead.
Rejecting the Ascension in the early Church made one an anathema,
outside, the Church. Luke reports that
the early disciples saw with their own eyes this event take place. It has tremendous theological and pastoral
meaning to us, yet few liturgical folks bother to attend the service that
commemorates the event, to say nothing of those churches where the Ascension
gets nary a mention. So, why are we
commemorating it and what is its significance to us in modern Nashville?
The need
for the service arose out of a couple sermons several months ago. Truthfully, I was not focused on adding
another service to our calendar, but some lines I had stated caused some
interesting pastoral conversations. One
week I mentioned the comfort we should have knowing that our Lord Christ makes
constant intercession for us, and some Adventers got to arguing with me about
whether He does, in fact, do that.
Another week, maybe Trinity Sunday last year, I spoke briefly about the
Holy Spirit incorporating us into that intimate relationship we call the
Trinity through the work and person of Jesus Christ and the grace of the
Father. At the time, neither were my
focus, but both flow as a result of our understanding about Christ’s
Ascension. Since the Ascension is an
essential of the faith, we should be more familiar with it and some of the
consequences of those essentials. Add
the overall struggle in some quarters of this parish with the creeds, and it
simply makes sense that we need to focus a bit on the essentials more at
Advent. How better to do that than
through worship?
First, as a
couple commentators and colleagues pointed out over the last week or so, we are
wrong to understand Ascending in a rising above sense. You and I live in a culture that has gone to
the moon, sent probes out of our solar system, and has a couple television
channels devoted exclusively to meteorological events. When we think of Ascension, we probably think
of Jesus rising and fading from view. I
see the nods. That is not necessarily
what the Apostles and disciples who witnessed the event described.
Part of our
problem is that we know clouds are up there, right? Some of us who watch too much of the Weather
Channel can probably name all the different clouds in the sky. What the Apostles were describing, though,
was less a meteorological event and more a theological event. The cloud that conceals Jesus from their site
is our clue.
When Israel
is led from Egypt in the Exodus, what shields them by day and illumines their
path by night? That’s right! A cloud.
When Moses and the elders are gathered in the Tabernacle during the
wandering in the wilderness, what signifies to the camp that God is speaking
with Moses or the elders? Too
tricky? That’s right! A cloud.
Ok, here’s one for serious students of the Scriptures. What does the Chronicler say happens in 2
Chronicles 5 at the dedication of the Temple, when the priests are trumpeting
and the Levites are well dressed, and the people are thanking God? The Temple is filled with a cloud. In fact, the Chronicler records that the cloud
was so thick that no one could minister to the Lord. All right, let’s try one more easy one: what
signifies to the prophet that God is going to allow His people to be defeated
and carried into exile? What leaves the
Temple? Did you know it or just guess? That’s right, the cloud.
When we
read Luke’s description of what happened, it is the glory of God, the Hebrew
word is shekinah, that we should be seeing in our minds. Describing God is a challenge for mortals,
right? How does one describe the glory
of God that is unfathomable and present and thick and all those other adjectives? How do we describe something that is simply
beyond our comprehension? Earlier folks
used the image of a cloud. It makes
sense. It cannot be fully comprehended;
part of it is never really seen. What
the Apostles saw with their own eyes was the Lord returning to the glory of
God. Was it a real lifting up in
height? Was it a dimensional gate? Our language, were we to witness it, would
struggle, too, to describe it. But, we
would all be trying to express that our Lord’s Incarnation and Resurrection
has, for a time at least, ended; and that He has returned to the glory of the
Father who sent Him. So, instead of
thinking of this as the day where Jesus rose up into the sky among the clouds,
we should really understand that this is the day where our Lord was exalted and
returned to the Father who sent Him, who loved Him before the foundation of the
world.
While we
can wrestle with what our disciples saw and try and translate it into our own
language that thinks it has an answer for everything, those wrestlings have
nothing to do with the why. Why is the
exultation of Jesus important? Why did
our early forebears insist on this event being accepted by others who claimed to
be Christian? Why is it important for us
to remember it today in 21st century Nashville? It seems to me there are at least three
reasons why we remember this day, why it is important to those of us who claim
to be followers of the Christ Jesus.
First, it
is the completion of the Incarnation and the beginning of the time after
Pentecost. Jesus Himself told the disciples
that He must return to the Father and that if they loved Him they would rejoice
at His returning, but that He would not leave them comfortless. Jesus’ exaltation enables the coming of the
Holy Spirit. While on earth in fully
human and fully divine form, all that we attribute to God was particularly
focused on and around the presence of the Incarnation. Now, Jesus’ exultation allows all of God’s
power, redemptive grace, wisdom, and the like to be incarnated with a little ‘I”
in the members of the Body of Christ.
You and I and every single person who really is Christian are promised
empowerment to accomplish the things that God has given us to do. We act in Nashville; others act elsewhere in
this country; others act in every country around the world. All of us are called to act, called to work,
called to minister to others that God might be glorified in our lives so that
others turn and are saved!
Does that mean God was limited in human
form? Yes and no. We call it a condescension because Jesus left
the exaltation of the Father to descend to our existence, to suffer as we
suffer, to redeem our sins and the sins of everyone who would claim Him
Lord. No doubt God’s grace was active
and alive and vibrant in the world during Jesus’ earthly ministry, but God is
still God. God chose to limit Himself in
human form and to exercise this earthly ministry, to become the Living Word,
for the purpose of drawing the world to Himself. And during that ministry, Jesus exercised
amazing power, miraculous power, and we gather here tonight in fulfilment of
His purposes. Think on that.
Now,
though, we are His Body. You and I would
say we are mystically joined with Christ and He with us. We exercise ministry in His name that He
might be glorified. And when we sin, we
repent and try again. When others sin
against and repent, we forgive and let them try again. I see faces looking a bit strange. Y’all are wrestling with the liturgy, aren’t
you? We don’t think them empty words,
exactly, but we do not spend nearly enough time contemplating what they
say. Yes, we are empowered by the holy Spirit
to do that work God has given us to do.
Some of us get easy work, right?
Not really. Even the easy work
requires the presence of the Holy Spirit to get it right. The problems of hunger or poverty or any
social injustice are beyond our ability to solve. No matter how many people we feed, how many
impoverished we help, how many folks suffering from injustice we assist, there
will always be more. If we understood the
scopes of the problems which He calls us to act against in His name, how many
of us would ever take that first step?
But, Jesus is there, at the right hand of the Father, interceding with
the Father to give us exactly what we need to glorify Him.
This,
naturally, leads to my second importance.
Now that Jesus has returned to the glory of God, now that He has been
exalted, He is able to make intercessions on behalf of each one of us. Better still, because He is God, He asks the
Father to give us the things we best or most need. What do I mean? Look, I try to be a faithful shepherd and
steward. Few Adventers argue that with
me, at least publicly. God has entrusted
me for a time to lead you to Him. I do
not serve here because it’s a cushy job; I do not serve here because I get some
special feather in my crown in the next life that says He served Us at Advent; I do not get any special privileges that I
have discovered because I serve here.
But God has entrusted me to do the best I can to point you, to lead you,
to cajole you to Him. That is my
singular focus.
But even
though it is my focus, even though I think that is the attitude that God demands
of those we ordain, I still make mistakes.
I still sin. Sins are easier for
us to understand and deal with. I
repent; the offended forgive. But what
of the mistakes? I have prayed for
miraculous healings for those suffering from cancer. How many people have been cured of
cancer? Not nearly as many for whom I
have prayed. I have prayed for miraculous
provision for folks among us suffering particular privation. How many folks among us, myself included,
have won the lottery? Most frustrating
has been my prayers over those dying. I
know God hates death. I know He snorts
at it in anger. Yet, I have not had too
many experiences where the dead or dying got up.
Those
failures on my parts become lessons for us all.
Those of you who have lived those experiences and those anointed prayers
and still experienced healing can testify to the truth that I and you did not
always pray for what you needed. We may
have wanted cancer to go away when what you really needed was the perseverance to
bear that cross faithfully, that others might see your cross-bearing and turn
to God. You and I may have wanted God to
give you or me that winning lottery ticket, but what you really needed for
effective witness was the childlike trust that God would give you your daily
bread. That simple day-to-day, childlike
trust was far more meaningful to those who watched you live than any single
super-sized blessing. And, unsurprisingly,
how we deal with death is often the most effective witness we will ever give to
others. Maybe, instead of praying
against it, we should be praying that we do not fail in our own Gethsemane
moments?
The third
and last lesson about which I want to speak is our purposes for gathering as a
community. We call it worship. We Episcopalians have a liturgical way of
going about things. We have certain
prayers; we have a particular order; we have specific people who exercise
particular gifts leading us in this event we call worship. Other denominations have different ways of
going about this event we call the worship of God. Why do we do it? Why do we put so much energy and effort and
study and consideration into worship? Is
getting worship right our focus?
Perhaps. Is it we are trying to
capture the way the Apostles were taught by Jesus? No doubt in some quarters.
At its
best, though, worship speaks to the exaltation of our Lord. How so, you ask? Earlier, when I was speaking of the cloud and
the Jesus being taken back into it, I mentioned that we have different languages
to be used in trying to describe the event that took place. One of those metaphors I used was
dimension. You and I are able to perceive
four dimensions in our lives (length, width, height, and time), but people far
smarter than me claim to be able to prove the existence of other dimensions in
various ways, but usually mathematically.
They are real, but we cannot perceive them. In some ways, that is the ancient view of
heaven. I know many of us grew up
thinking heaven was up there and hell was down there, with earth being
somewhere in the middle of the two, right?
Many of us were taught that, when we die, we hope to go up there, get
our wings and harps, and play wonderful music for all eternity? Good, you all are laughing, but you have
heard that idea expressed repeatedly. Is
that what Scripture teaches us?
The last
couple weeks we have been reintroduced to Revelation? What is being described there? A new heaven and a new earth. Jerusalem descending and God dwelling in this
new creating among His people. If we
think of ascending as enfolding into God’s glory and descending as the
unveiling of God’s glory, does it sound at all like we get wings and
harps? No, it seems to be something
else. Now, I don’t waste too much time
on it because I know for a fact that God will make my idea seem silly. The best that I can dream of simply pales in
comparison to what God has planned for us.
So I will just wait to be surprised and awed and not overthink it or rehearse
my harp music. I will work my hardest to
get as many people there as possible, but I am not going to stress for a second
about the reality that biblical authors tried to convey with Wedding Feasts and
Ascension and modern scientists and mathematicians convey with dimensional
theories all those other images about which we read. While the particulars are hard both to
express and to fathom, Scripture is clear there is another reality that you and
I sometimes can perceive. Paul warns us
about Spiritual warfare. Jesus teaches
us about Whom to fear and what should be important to us and that all this is
seeming reality is, in truth, transient.
Even our liturgy during funerals reminds us that in death life is not
ended but changed—that’s what gives ultimate rise to our alleluia’s at the
grave, right?
Given all
that, what is one of the purposes of worship?
Yes, thanking God is always a great place to start, but let’s think
sacramentally for a moment. We are,
after all, Episcopalians. Why are the
Sacraments important to us? It really
should not be that tough. Y’all are here
when most of our brothers and sisters are blowing this feast off. Why? I
hope, and it is a hope right now, maybe not a reality, but I hope that one of
the reasons why you are here to celebrate the Sacrament with me this evening is
to be reminded that in the Sacraments of the Church, the boundary which
separates this world from the real, heavenly world of God, is at its thinnest
point. I hope you come to worship at
Advent expecting to meet Jesus here, to see God here, to feel God’s presence in
your life here!
We are good
little Anglicans here, right? We only
accept two Sacraments. Some of our
Anglican forebears call them Dominical in deference to the fact that Jesus
Himself commanded them. We are to
baptize in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and
we are to celebrate the Eucharist. What
happens at those two events? Members are
confirmed in God’s kingdom or grace.
Right, baptism is a kind of initiation, and the Eucharist is a reminder
of the transformation that began in baptism.
We make a promise to God in the former, and He, in turns, makes
unbreakable promises to us, knowing we will break ours. But even the condition for restoration after
our broken promises to Him are spelled out in that Sacrament. We repent when we sin, and we will continue
in the Apostles’ teaching. The Apostles’
teaching is, of course, our service. We
gather for hearing God’s Word. We hope
to get good and engaging teaching. Even
failing that, though, we know we will meet Jesus in the Sacrament. The meal, that pledge to use the language of
the early Church, reminds us that we are being nourished, being strengthened,
being equipped to do the work He has given us to do. Then what?
We leave. We head out into our
various mission fields fed, equipped, restored, reminded, and ready to do His
work in our lives.
Even in
those other five Rites of the Church, to use Anglican understanding, or
Sacraments, to use the language of our Roman and Orthodox brothers and sisters,
are understood to remove that veil that hides the reality to which we are
called. Is death and not an ending but
rather a change? Does not marriage
shadowily reflect the relationship we call the Trinity? Does Reconciliation not remind us of the
forgiving and redeeming grace of God?
And so on? Why do you think we
have fought so hard about their nature?
Why do you think we continue to fight about them? Out sacraments, our worship of God, thins
that veil or cloud or dimension or whatever we want to call it, and gives us an
opportunity better to see, or to hear, or to understand Him working in our
lives. It why we attach the words
mystically to such understandings. It’s
true. It happens. It’s repeatedly happens. But it defies logic. It defies what we call science. It defies especially what we know of
ourselves, that we are His unworthy servants.
There are more
implications regarding the importance of this feast we celebrate today. I chose three that seemed to me to be what
God wanted me to speak tonight. I
apologize for a lecture than a real sermon.
In some ways, I feel I have been engaging in more teaching than normal
these last couple weeks. Yet, if I did
my job well this evening, if I did my job faithfully, I trust that we each were
reminded of why we gather this day to celebrate this event that was so important
to those early disciples and apostles.
More importantly, I trust that, in us considering just a few
implications of this event, we have all learned why this event should be
important to us today. Yes, that God
raised Jesus from the dead is an important declaration of His power to redeem
us and others and even the world, but His exaltation makes it possible that you
and I, miserable sinners that we are, can be equipped properly to accomplish
His will in our lives! And that, my brothers
and sisters, is worth an evening’s and a morning’s and continual worship and
Thanksgiving!
In Christ’s Peace,
Brian†
No comments:
Post a Comment