Ascension
Sunday
As we read this Gospel reading
today we celebrate ascension Sunday. So
what is ascension Sunday? Where did it
start and what does it mean. Well as
with everything else it means different things to different people.
According to timedate.com;
Ascension Day is one of the earliest Christian festivals dating back to
the year 68. According to the New Testament in the Bible, Jesus Christ met
several times with his disciples during the 40 days after his resurrection to
instruct them on how to carry out his teachings. It is believed that on the
40th day he took them to the Mount of Olives, where they watched as he ascended
to heaven.
Ascension Day marks the end of the Easter season and occurs ten days
before Pentecost. Depending upon the phases of the Moon in a particular year,
Ascension Day is celebrated on a Thursday. However, some churches, particularly
in the United States, celebrate it on the following Sunday.
Many Eastern Orthodox churches calculate the date of Pascha (Easter)
according to the Julian calendar, rather than the Gregorian calendar used by
many western churches, so their Ascension Day usually occurs after the western
observance.
Symbols
Ascension Day celebrations include processions symbolizing Christ’s
entry into heaven and, in some countries, chasing a “devil” through the streets
and dunking it in a pond or burning it in effigy – symbolic of the Messiah’s
triumph over the devil when he opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
In England, eggs laid on Ascension Day are said to never go bad and
will guarantee good luck for a household if placed in the roof. In Devon, it
was an ancient belief that the clouds always formed into the familiar Christian
image of a lamb on Ascension Day. If the weather is sunny on Ascension Day, the
summer will be long and hot. If it rains on the day, crops will do badly and
livestock will suffer from disease. According to Welsh superstition, it is
unlucky to do any work on Ascension Day.
In Portugal, Ascension Day is associated with wishes for peace and
prosperity. Traditionally, in rural communities, people make bouquets from
olive branches and sheaves of wheat with poppies and daisies. The olive and
wheat are symbolic of abundant harvest; the poppy stands for peace and the
daisy for money. Wheat is kept in the house throughout the coming year as a
symbol of prosperity.[1]
For many of us we have an image of Christ arising through the clouds
where he is crowned the king of heaven.
Martha Spong shares a story of the problem with this image we have of
Christ on ascension Sunday. This is from
the Abingdon press creative preaching annual;
“Who is that?” she asked, looking up at the stained-glass window. My eleven-year-old daughter and I were
standing in the sanctuary of a church I had just come to serve. Over the altar hung a white-robed Jesus with
his feet on top of the Earth, an orb and scepter in his hands, and a crown on
his head.
“It’s Jesus,” I
answered.
“Really?”
“Yes.” I thought a
moment. “It’s Jesus after he ascends
into heaven.”
“So he’s a king?” She continued to struggle with the
image. “But in the windows in our other
church he was holding a lamb in his arms and sitting with the children all
around him.” She knew Jesus in
particular ways. Her Jesus prayed in the
wilderness for forty days, got some fishermen to be his disciples by telling
them to try putting the net on the other side of the boat, told stories runaway
sons and lost coins, and made sure the children got to talk to him even though
the disciples tried to keep them away.
The disciples knew the same
Jesus. He drove unclean spirits out of
the suffering. He fed thousands of
people with only five loaves and two fish.
He straightened the back of a woman bent over for eighteen years. He had flesh on his bones and a back strong
enough to carry his own cross to the hill where soldiers crucified him.
They knew the Jesus who
lived and breathed and touched them in gestures of healing and love.
“I miss the Jesus from our
other church,” declared my daughter. So
did the disciples. They couldn’t see yet
what later generations would make of him, clothing him in stained glass
regalia. They could only watch him go…[2]
In today’s Gospel there is nothing of exotic rituals. There is no talk about what is the plan. We know the Disciples stayed in Jerusalem and
worshipped in the temple. We are told
the disciples minds were opened so that they understood all that was said of
Jesus in the scriptures, it was all made clear.
This understanding is kind of important. Remember time and time again Jesus is trying
to explain things to show truth to the disciples but they don’t get it. Not all of it anyway. They may get glimpses or pieces or say
something that is true but yet do not completely understand its meaning. So
Jesus opens their minds. This is beyond
simple comprehension. Jesus opens their
minds so that they can see fully and clearly in a way that none of us can. In a way that scholars and theologians are
still trying to discern, learn and figure out all that Christ’s teachings imply
and how they can be applied today in our daily lives.
But I can’t help but wonder about this confusing in between time. We learned of Jesus death and resurrection
three days later. There was no time for
a true grieving process. Jesus appeared
and says look I am dead but not really for I am glorified and resurrected. I am sorry but for us mere humans this would
seem, at least to me, to be a very confusing time.
“Many unclear good byes in everyday family life also fall outside of
traditional categories of loss but nonetheless cause distress.”[3]
So can you imagine what the disciples must have gone through first believing
Jesus died, a few even witnessed his horrific death. Then hearing the body is gone. Then seeing the Lord.
Jesus actually appears about ten times in different accounts over a 40
day period. I can only imagine this left
more questions than answers and knowing how we grieve as humans this must have
left many happy and yet sad and wanting to mourn yet not sure they should. Perhaps they should mourn and yet rejoice at
the same time.
I am sure we can all relate to this confusion of emotions. Maybe a good friend moved for a better job or
for love. We are happy for their lives
being better but sad and mourn the loss of them being nearby. Or perhaps we can
recall someone we knew who was truly suffering from illness. We are glad they are feeling no more pain or
suffering yet we still mourn their loss even though in our hearts we know they
are whole again in heaven.
So this is the confusing ambiguous state we find the disciples in when
they are happy to be in Christ’s presence for this final time. Now Jesus Could have just said good-bye and
left them for good leaving them to their own devices and manners of
coping. But he decided to give them this
great gift. A Gift of complete
comprehension.
This new comprehension must have been overwhelming. So everything in all the Old Testament that
points to Jesus, the messiah, to God can now be understood in its entirety by
these disciples. That is everything from
genesis through the Maccabees. That’s is
all the funky laws and the deeply coded psalms.
That must have been amazing and overwhelming and exciting all at once.
Suddenly they had no need to grieve or fear. They now have more than faith, they have
complete and total comprehension. All
that was leading up to Jesus’ Birth and ministry, all that he had been teaching
and everything that had been taught about him, they understood it all. They knew what this conquering of death
meant. They knew! This is a gift not often given for this is
beyond faith. They no longer had any need to grieve Jesus’ death or death at
all.
They knew all that had happened and understood why it had to happen in such
a way. They knew what Jewish scholars
and sects had been arguing over for years.
They understood each and every reference to Christ and how it was meant
to be applied. Then they were told they
must proclaim forgiveness in Jesus’ name starting with Jerusalem and then
everywhere else. Then they were told
that they must stay in Jerusalem until … until you have been furnished with
heavenly power….Until you have been clothed with power from on high… wait …what???
Jesus final recorded words in Luke are really no surprise. We have often seen Jesus give the orders that
require a blind trust. Go to the village
you will find a colt tell the owner the master has need of it …okay I’ll go
get it and hope I am not arrested and or
clobbered…..Take the pitcher of water and pour it for the master of the
feast…go wash your eyes in the river…stand up and walk. Jesus stories are full of bold statements and his followers and the
people he encounters do what he says. He
had that charisma.
So after you been following this guy around for three years, you have
seen all that he has done, you have been
a part of this fantastic life for three years and he tells you hang around the
city you do it. You go to the temple
praising God for all that you have seen and all that you now understand and
know. The world you had known three years
ago is gone there is no going back to the way things were. You hang around the city waiting for what’s
next. They may have had no issue with
this as what was to come next they may have already understood due to this
divine comprehension.
But what is next? What is going
to happen now? Well I can tell you what
isn’t happening there is no vision of a white robed king hovering over the
earth judging us all. The disciples
weren’t taught that. There is no vision
of toppling over Rome…Jesus himself squashed that vision. This is a time of in between. This is a time of change, and
opportunity. You see while the disciples
waited for what was next they continued to do what they knew. Isn’t that the best thing to do in the midst
of transition? The best advice in the
midst of radical change is not to do anything but to wait, pray, weigh things
out carefully.
Again today’s reading is what we call “the great commission” and it is
found in all the Synoptic Gospels. It is the emphatic call from Jesus to the
church that would be created by apostles that the gospel is to be preached
among all nations for the salvation of all who will receive it. This is the
call that later becomes communities of love and support. The model of the early church where, yes they
shared the Christ story, but more importantly, they practiced the Christ story.
The apostles had this gift of complete and full knowledge during this
in between time they did what they needed to do. They attended temple. They prayed and cared for each other and the
community around them that had been touched by Christ. They probably reminisced
and shared what they now understood amongst themselves and perhaps a few
others. They had time to process all of
this for a time until the day they were all gathered again in that room and
things would change once more.
See I may be repeating myself but to have suddenly been gifted with all
this understanding of the scriptures. It
is a staggering thought, it had to be a rush like neo in the matrix when they
plug a computer into his brain and he suddenly knows Kung Fu. His eyes are closed as all this information
is dumped into his brain he opens his eyes lets out a very heavy sigh and
states I know Kung Fu. Morpheus says
show me and well that doesn’t quite go as Neo expected.
Again a reason for the time between the commissioning and the gift of
the spirit. To know something is one
thing and actually apply it is another.
The apostles had all this knowledge but they needed time to figure out
how it may all apply. How they were to
use it, where they were to go.
here is a brief summary.
– Andrew – missionary to modern
day Georgia/Bulgaria (area adjacent to the Black Sea near Turkey);
martyred/crucified in town of Achaia (Greece)
He was a fisherman from Galilee;
was Peter’s brother; brought Peter to Jesus; preached to the Scythians and
Thracians; was crucified and buried at Patrae (Greece).
3 – Bartholomew – missionary to
India; martyred/crucified upside down in Armenia (Georgia)
Eusebius, in his Church History,
confirms the ministry of Bartholomew in India.
4 – James, Son of Alphaeus –
local missionary in Jerusalem; martyred/stoned in Jerusalem and was buried
there beside the temple.
5 – James, Son of Zebedee – local
missionary in Judea; martyred/beheaded in Judea
6 – John, brother of James and son
of Zebedee – banished to Patmos; died of old age
John was one of the few disciples
that did not die a cruel death, but of old age.
7 – Matthew/Levi – missionary to
Parthia (Iran); died of old age
8 – Simon/Peter – missionary to
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Betania, Italy, Asia; martyred/crucified upside
down in Rome
9 – Philip – missionary to
Phrygia (Turkey); martyred/crucified upside down in Hierapolis (Turkey)
10 – Simon the Zealot – bishop of
Jerusalem after James; died of old age
11 – Thaddaeus/Judas son of James
– missionary to Edessa and to the surrounding Mesopotamian region (Iraq, Syria,
Turkey, Iran); died of old age
He may have taken the name
Thaddaeus (“warm-hearted”) because of the infamy that came to be attached to
the name Judas;
12 – Thomas: Also called Didymus;
possibly a fisherman; often remembered as “Doubting Thomas”; preached to the
Parthians (Iran), Medes (Iran), Persians (Iran), Hyrcanians (Iran), Bactrians
(Afghanistan), and Margians; was killed and buried in Calamene, a city of
India.
13 – Matthias – local missionary
in Jerusalem; died of old age
After Jesus’ ascension the 11
Apostles met in the upper room where they were staying and cast lots to decide
between two disciples, Matthias and Joseph called Barsabus, who was surnamed
Justus.
Matthias replaced Judas Iscariot
to bring the Apostles number back to 12; was one of the 72 and preached in
Jerusalem; died and was buried there.
14 – Paul – missionary to
Illyricum (Croatia), Italy, Spain; martyred/beheaded in Rome
Paul became an apostle a year
after the ascension of Christ and beginning at Jerusalem, he advanced as far as
Illyricum (Croatia), Italy and Spain, preaching the Gospel for 35-years. In the
time of Nero he was beheaded and buried at Rome.
12 disciples + Matthias
(replacement to Judas) + Paul = 14 disciples
Out of 14, 1 was lost forever, 9
were martyrs. 4 were local missionaries in Jerusalem/Judea. The rest were
foreign missionaries who left their local surroundings–9 of them out of the 14
were foreign missionaries and church planters.[4]
Often we fear change or in the midst of it make rash decisions. Though
the fate of the disciples is hard they made their choices with clear heads and
full hearts because they took the time to live in the present of the between
time. May we have the grace to do the
same as we grow and live into who we are called to be as a church and as
individuals. amen.
[1] Time and date
AS, Acension, accessed April 25, 2016,
http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/common/ascension-day.
[2] Jenee Woodard, The
Abingdon Creative Preaching Annual 2016 (nashville: abingdon press, 2015),
97.
[3] Pauline Boss, Ambiguous
Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard
University Press, 1999), Digital eBook.
[4] Ray Choi, What
happened to the 12 disciples after the resurrection and ascension?, June 1,
2012, accessed May 7, 2016, http://raychoi.org/2012/06/01/what-happened-to-the-12-disciples-after-the-resurrection-and-ascension/.
