Ascension of our Lord

Sunday after Ascension Day -- June 4, 2000

Colossians 3:1-4, 17 Dean Keith Joyce

In the way we cannot have crucifixion without resurrection, we cannot have resurrection without ascension. And without ascension we cannot have Pentecost, the sending of the Holy Spirit.

Where Jesus ascended to is indeed special, but not in the way we always think -- "Heaven is not a space overhead to which we lift our eyes; it is the background of our existence, the all-encompassing lordship of God within which we stand." (H. Thielike) Martin Luther has said of the Ascension of our Lord that it "didn''t happen the way you climb up a ladder in your house. It means he is above all creation and in all creation and outside of all creation." (as quoted by H. Thielike)

On earth Jesus was limited to closeness with a few; now he is powerfully close to all who draw close to him in faith. His voice could then only be detected by the few; now his word encompasses the whole globe. Then only a few could plea for his continued physical presence whether it was the men on the road to Emmaus or those looking for him for his healing miracles or the Nicodemuses wanting a secret word with him at night; now millions of hands can be lifted to him in real conversation whether that be in Arctic Bay, in San Francisco, in Lesotho or in Thailand, or in every corner of the earth

Then he was limited to a few locations; now his presence is known through prison walls, in the deepest of jungles and the highest of mountains; it penetrates through all ideologies, through all cultural barriers, into muddled minds and even into hard hearts, the most difficult of places even for his holy presence to enter.

The Ascension of our Lord celebrates the true lordship of Christ in my life and in the world. But often events in my life and certainly events in the life of the world baffle me and disturb me. I don''t have easy answers to the why? of the things that happen, whether it be the heart ache of a young jilted lover, or of the death of a child, or the caving in of mines, or of the incredible capacity of human beings to inflict horrendous pain and suffering upon other human beings, or of the person who takes his own life, or the seeming disregard of the plunging ahead for more corporate profits when the road behind is littered with broken lives and great loss of dignity in many a heart because profits are more important than people, or where peace dare not be spoken of because it is more profitable to quietly maintain the machinery for war.

Yet somehow the Lord is the Lord of all in an active way. He is not one where he sits in comfort at the Father''s right hand, his own hands folded in pious prayer. His actions, his ways are higher than mine -- mine are riveted to the present, and to my small ego because things have not gone my way, the way which, of course, is the right way!

God''s ways are higher than ours, his thoughts are greater and wiser. From the view of eternity, from the perspective of the active kingship of God, the whole of history and of the present and of the future -- which is our limited way to deal with time -- are in service of higher goals and purposes than those determined by our very finite wisdom and understanding.

I cannot deny that this often perplexes me and even upsets me, especially when it is highly personal -- when it is my suffering or my perceived loss or my disappointment. Yet the hands that are working out this scenario are wounded hands, the heart that cares for the whole universe is a wounded heart, and the head of this One has carried a crown full of thorns, his feet also bearing the marks of the world''s pain, evil and suffering.

Since Jesus entered this world and seemingly let it hold sway over him, we know it did not beat him nor destroy him though it appeared otherwise for a brief moment in time. We therefore can trust him in the outworking of our lives, and of the world, even in the face of wickedness and evil, even when we don''t have the answers to the raging cries of our hearts "why?" for the pain of our lives and of those whom we love and of others we know.

Under his lordship and authority what we see in our lives and in the world is not the last word; the darkness will not overcome the light; hatred will not overcome love. So today, for two reasons anyway, we bless the Lord Jesus Christ for his Ascension.

One, for his Lordship over all that is in the heaven and in the earth, which is not confined in space and time [i.e. he is not just lord over some place called "heaven" isolated from the reality of the universe as we know it, a universe in its vastness so much smaller than the greatness of our God]

And, two, that he therefore sends his Holy Spirit to enable us to know the closeness of his presence, through thick and thin, through pain and joy, and thereby draw us ever more closely into that mysterious working out of his loving lordship in our lives and of the world. He is with us no matter what we go through, and no matter how dark it may seem he does not relinquish his Lordship in the life of the Christian and of the world.