Year B Ascension 2018 Do You Believe

Year B, Ascension, 10 May 2018

Ascension Day

Shiloh Baptist hosts St. James the Less Episcopal

“Do You Believe?”

Collect: Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Acts 1:1-11
In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. "This," he said, "is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

Ephesians 1:15-23
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Luke 24:44-53
Jesus said to his disciples, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you-- that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."
Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

What do we really believe?

I mean REALLY BELIEVE?

Now in a little while, I will with many of you be reciting the Nicene Creed. And that is what we say we believe on most Sundays. It is not that I question your faith, but what we are talking about today is something we gloss over, or tag on, and do not give it so much as an afterthought.

We are 40 days after Easter. We are 10 days before Pentecost. And the capstone of Luke and the beginning of the Book of Acts, or the Acts of the Apostles, is the same. Just like in some blockbuster Hollywood sequel, the end of the first movie becomes the opening scene of the second. St. Luke wrote both. And that is exactly what we have happening here. One flows into the other directly, almost without a pause.

We see Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, gathering his followers on the Mount of Olives. Luke’s version has it in Bethany which is just beyond what we call the Mount of Olives, but same area. He sends them forth with a job to do. This is no ending, but it is a glorious beginning. It is the beginning of the age we find ourselves in right now, the Age of the Church, the Age of the Evangelism of all peoples.

Now we focus so much on Christmas and Easter, and spend most of the year looking at what Jesus did. All good. All right. Nothing wrong in any of that. The big problem is that we barely give a modicum of attention to where Jesus is right now.

I remember the first time this hit me. I was sitting in Church. It was at St. Andrew’s Episcopal on Oregon Hill in Richmond. Beautiful Church, and over the altar is an amazing stained glass window of Jesus ascending.

There is a story about that window. The woman who was the benefactor of the Church ordered the stained glass from England, and when it arrived, they carefully took it out of the crate, she took one look at it and sent it back, saying that that was not what she ordered and that she was not so naive as to fall for their tricks because she was American and a woman.

You see, Jesus’ is wearing a red sash in the window she ordered and before the advances of modern chemistry the only way to get a true red in stained glass was to burn an element, a rare element, the most costly of elements, gold. Pure gold was needed and then it was destroyed to make red stained glass. As soon as she looked at the image of the Savior she knew they had tried to swindle her. In the Church she was making it was going to be nothing but the best to the glory of God, and in her mind’s eye, the Ascending Lord was going in style, red sash included. Real red. Real gold-made red on her Lord. That was the length she was willing to go to for this Church, because this Church was not for the wealthy and mighty but for the poor, working class families, mostly Irish immigrants, brought over to work the hard life in Tredegar Iron Works along the banks of the James River just a few blocks away.

In this Church there was no subscription fees, that is what you did to fund the Church back then. They did not take up an offering like we do. Your family “bought” a pew for the year. So it used to be that there really were “somebody’s pew.” They had paid for it. But in her Church, there was a sign up in the narthex (foyer) that said proudly, “All Seats Free.” It still hangs there today. I do not find it a surprise that the focal point of Grace Ahrent’s Church would be the Ascension. Because the Resurrected Lord saves us, but the Ascended Lord directs us.

And I pondered that sitting in the pew one Sunday as we looked at the Ascension. Staring up at that Jesus in his true-red sash. If we say, in the Nicene Creed, “he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” If we say that, and do not live like we mean it, what is Jesus doing up there? I mean really.

If Jesus is where we say he is, then what do we have to fear? What do we have to worry about? He is seated next to God the Father, interceding and intercessing on our behalf. Think about it.

If God is in God’s heaven, and Jesus is up there pulling for us, then what is impossible. The Gospels repeatedly tell us, “With God, all things are possible.” And if all things are possible, and we have someone on the inside working on our behalf, really what is keeping us from making the world a bit more like heaven each and every day? We pray that, too, “On earth as it is in heaven.” Do you believe that? If you do, we have no more excuses!

Listen to St. Paul in tonight’s reading:

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you,

Speaking to the Church in Ephesus, and I believe to us as well tonight, he wants us to know what road we have been called to follow. God does not us bumbling along, he wants us well-conditioned and ready for the journey he is calling us to make. St. Paul continues:

what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.

The riches of his inheritance and the immeasurable greatness of his power according to the working of his great power. These are not things dangling for us out there in the future. These are the realities of our NOW. These are the things we are called to be living out and expressing in our lives in the right here and right now.

Think of all the problems we have in our society right now, how it is not like Christ. We have hungry, homeless, and hopeless. We have drug addicts, sex addicts, and alcoholics. We Republicans and Democrats. We have blacks and whites, instead of all God’s Children. The world has done its best to divide us, and when we are divided we are not Christ’s dream for how things can be, should be. We should be living in the riches of our inheritance, not in the poverty of our sinful distractions. We are to model the immeasurable greatness of his power, not in the weakness of our sicknesses.

And why? That is what St. Paul gets to next:

God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Christ is sitting next to God, wanting us to step up and claim who we are in him. When we see the ills of this world, my God is bigger than that, whatever that is. My God is stronger than that, whatever that is. My Jesus is the head of this thing we come together to celebrate tonight, his Church, and we are our own worst enemy. Pastor Williams and I are not on different teams. In the Episcopal Church, our areas for our ministries are called Parishes. And Ashland is not just my parish, it is Pastor Williams’ parish, and Pastor Josh’s from First Baptist parish, and Pastor Kerra’s from Ashland Presbyterian parish, and so on and on. We all come together tonight, claiming Christ as our head, and together we are tasked with bringing the good news and the light of Christ into this community, claiming it for Christ by making all things more like heaven in all we say and all we do here in Ashland, and Hanover County, and Greater Richmond. Thanks be to God!

If we truly believe in the Ascension, and the power not just of a Resurrected Christ, but just as much in an Ascended Lord, we MUST, we simply MUST be making the world more like heaven each and every day. Do you believe that? Deep down, if that does not shake you at the core, I am not sure you are paying attention to this story we tell.

I just got back from a trip of a lifetime, in hopes of being able to take young people with me to do it again next summer. We were in Ghana, working together with partners from Liverpool and Kumasi, Ghana, looking to do a three-way youth pilgrimage working toward racial reconciliation, healing, and mutual ministry growth between the three dioceses of our Church. When I think of a problem so big, the problem of the sin of slavery from which this country has yet to recover fully, and the British who bankrolled, and traded, and transported slaves, and the Ghanaians and other Africans who sold brothers and sisters into this evil trade, it makes me want to throw up my hands, or cover my face in shame, or ignore it completely. But it cannot end there!

In Christ, all things are possible! Do you believe it, brothers and sisters? IN CHRIST, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. We as Christ’s Church cannot quit, or hide, or ignore. In the power of the Risen Christ, we are called to perform miracles, and it will take a miracle to overcome centuries of sin. In the Authority of the Ascended Lord, we are called to be miracle workers. If God is for us, and Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, who or what, EVEN OUR SINS, cannot stand against us. And [GOD] has put all things under [Christ’s] feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. And in this I find my hope. Even here, in this situation, Christ is in control, and a new day is possible.

When Pastor Williams invited us to come and be with you tonight, it was an answer to my prayers. I had heard about how we as our two congregations used to come together, and God has enabled it again. I felt bad that I was going thousands of miles away to work on racial reconciliation when we had brothers and sisters in Christ two blocks away. God has brought us together, and let us let nothing keep us from celebrating our unity in Christ. I thank God for you, I thank God for Pastor Williams, I thank God for what he is doing in and amongst us, and I cannot wait to welcome you into our space very soon. And all God’s people said, AMEN!

Do you believe in God the sitting at the right hand of God the Father? If so, let us show it, brothers and sisters in how we love one another. Amen.