Ascension of the Lord, C ~ "Waiting for the Lord" ~ Rev. Richard Eslinger, PhD

These forty days, the precious days between Easter and Ascension, were

utterly unique. A singularity! Here was Jesus, crucified and risen from the dead, but for this brief season remaining among the apostles, teaching them and revealing more insights into God’s righteous kingdom. These followers of the

Lord must have wanted this rich time to go on forever! It may be like with some

of us: there was a time of youthful vision and nearness to Jesus. How could this

ever change? But our risen Lord adds this teaching about God’s promises, too: we

are to wait for God to do a new thing when the Spirit comes.

Of course, one of the last things we want to hear on this festival day is that

we are called to wait! In fact, we live in a world that has little patience with such a

thing and finds waiting to be an affliction. Instead, we are rehearsed most every

day on the best way to live. Do not wait, but adopt the newest things the world has to offer. The new is the best and any delay in acquiring it is, well, to fail at being “relevant,” to defer what is now rightfully yours. One writer put it this way:

In our current American culture, “waiting” is generally held as something to

be avoided. Fast food, next day deliveries, nonstop flights, Google searches

that take milliseconds, on-demand movies, text messaging, create a culture

of impatience. Not that these are all bad, but Acts reminds us that the God

of all time acts on God’s own time, and sometimes we just need to wait, sit,

and be. 1

We would add to this list in these days the ways in which Artificial Intelligence

can barrage us with data faster than we can usually digest it! But we do, indeed,

live in a world that puts down tradition and anxiously awaits the next new thing.

So when Jesus tells the apostles first to wait, wait for the Spirit to be given, we

hear his words and find them a bit unsettling. We have been shaped by the world

we live in to really dislike having to wait!

But Jesus also adds, speaking to the apostles, that they will be given work to

be about, as the Spirit is given to the church. We will observe the glorious festival

of Pentecost next Sunday, but here, the promise is that we no longer need to await our vocation from the Lord. “You will be my witnesses,” Jesus proclaims.

Where ever “here” is for us right now, and finally, to the ends of the earth, we are

witnesses of these saving and healing acts of God in raising Jesus Christ from the

dead. The word we translate “witness” is, of course, the word “martyr” which we

immediately associate with those who have died for their faith. Being a martyr,

though, has a more expansive meaning. It refers to all of us who are baptized into

Christ. We are witnesses in two ways. On one hand, we have witnessed

something. With the apostles and martyrs and the whole church, we witness Jesus Christ--his birth of Mary, his baptism by John, his ministry of healing, teaching, and prophetic judgement of sin and evil, and his death, resurrection, and now, today, his glorious Ascension.

On the other hand, we witness to these events as we join with all the faithful in telling the world the Good News. And our witness takes countless forms. Jesus cared for the sick and the dying and healed many. We bear witness at (name a Catholic hospital nearby) as the sick are healed and tended with compassion. We witness to the sanctity of life and care for the unborn (name a way in which this witness is expressed in the dioceses). We witness by feeding the hungry (name a local ministry) and provide for the homeless (again, a concrete example). We witness in our daily lives as we extend welcome to others to join with us in this journey of faith. We witness to God’s justice whenever prejudice and hate rise up to deny anyone’s sacred worth in God’s eyes.

Day in and day out, here in our parish or even to the ends of the world, we are witnesses of and to all of the riches of God’s reign in Christ Jesus. This is who we are.

Now comes the surprise. Just as those apostles are getting used to having

the risen Jesus with them, he is lifted up. He is no longer among them in the same way. Rather, “a cloud took him from their sight.” Once more, God’s people bump into a cloud, another one that masks Divinity, that brings mystery, and once more brings a profound change. Moses encountered such a cloud on Sinai and God’s face was hid from him. The disciples tried to hold onto Jesus’ meeting with Moses and Elijah there on the Mount of Transfiguration, but another cloud overshadowed them. When it went away, only Jesus remained there by himself.

But here, at the Ascension, even Jesus is taken up! “A cloud took him away from their sight.” So it gets even clearer. The angel announces on Easter morning, “He is not here, but has risen.” Now, we gain an even more profound truth. Jesus is Lord, over us and our community, over this any every culture, and even Lord over all creation.

Now the church sings “Crown him with many crowns, the Lamb upon his throne.” We sing that he is

“the Lord of Life,”

“Lord of love,”

“Lord of peace,”

“Lord of years.” 2

Jesus has been lifted up from the status of any local deity, of any guru spouting

self-help wisdom, from any other claimant to the Throne. He is Lord and we

crown him with many crowns! Instead of a day of loss and even embarrassment,

we celebrate that Jesus is exalted as the Lord of life. He is Lord and God of all

peoples and all nations, and all creation. He alone is worthy of all praise.

Suddenly, two men in white appear to the apostles. They ask them, and

perhaps some of us, “Why are you looking at the sky?” Put simply, they ask why

we would remain fixated on the mystery of Christ’s Ascension, immobilized by his

being lifted up in glory. But the question has another side as well. The two men

are anticipating Pentecost, when the church does receive the Holy Spirit and is

empowered to proclaim the Gospel to all nations. So we do wait, in faith and with

patience, for God’s final act which will make all things right. But we also have

been baptized into Christ’s church and are sent to the ends of the earth to bear

witness now what God is doing in our midst. And we are especially sent to this

end of the earth called (name parish).

Amen.

1 Frank L. Crouch, Working Preacher, May 21, 2020, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-

common-lectionary/ascension-of-our-lord/commentary-on-acts-11-11-5.

2 “Crown Him with Many Crowns,” Gather: Comprehensive, GIA, 2004, 489.