Ascension Day Year B

Eye Candy: “Ascension” (1965) by Albert Tucker; “The Ascension” (1578) by Tintoretto; “The Ascension” (1025-1050) from the Otonian culture

Ear Worm: “Ascendit Deus” by Jacob Gallus; “A hymn of glory let us sing”, a Celtic sound; “Hail the day that sees him rise”, congregation hymn

Brain Food: "Just where did Jesus go?" by Diane Bergant; "You can't keep a good man down" by James B. Lemler; 

Living God, / Loving God,
You are the source / of all that is,
and all that is / is holy
when it seeks itself in You, / You are the bond
that united us all / and erases all division.
May we be one / as You are one in us
and we in You. / Amen.

Parables: “Gladiator” (2000), emotions bring out best and worst; “Powder” (1995), a mystic with strange powers; “Mary Poppins” (1964), simple, heart-warming story

For families: Study guide, group activity, snacks, kid video

For children: activity; bulletin games; craft;

For middlers: activity; bulletin games; craft

For youth: For the past few weeks, the gospel lessons have pointed us to a compelling, unspoken command from Jesus: Open your minds. As Good Shepherd, Jesus dies for us. (What?) Jesus is resurrected from the dead. (No way!) If you abide in Jesus (and he in you), whatever you wish for you will gain. (mmmm?) Love everybody, even your enemies. (say again!) Each of these seems contradictory to what our eyes see and what "logic" may indicate. But Jesus asks us to open our minds to the truth of his love for us, his care for us, his death for us, and everlasting life for us. How can you open your minds? Believe me, you have to work at it! Feel free to comment.

Ascension? Really? Being taken up in to the clouds? How serious do we need to take this? How serious was it? How important is it? What is the point?

Well, at least one of us has no problem believing Jesus was taken up in to the clouds in front of some of his followers. We have never seen any one do that, however we have also not ever stood in the physical presence of the God-Man/Man-God. We like to make room for the possibility that he could do what he felt appropriate at the time.

The fact of Jesus being physically whisked away in to the clouds (as fantastic as it may sound to us today) doesn't seem to be the primary point of the scene. As we read the story as presented in the gospel of Luke and in the book of Acts (which many suspect were written by the same author) we see Jesus gathering his followers for one last bit of instruction before he goes. This is something of a parallel to the "Great Commission" found at the end of the gospel of Matthew. In both Luke and in Acts he instructs those listening that they will be His witnesses to all nations.

In Luke he instructs them to proclaim repentance and forgiveness in his name to all nations and in Acts he simply tells them they will be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. And then he rises up in to the air and disappears.

What an exclamation point! That is such an impressive way to show the importance of a teaching. Most folks are doing well if they can pound the table a bit or get folks to clap after an important point. For Jesus, he emphasizes his words by Completely Leaving.

But it seems like those words would stick, doesn't it? It seems like after hearing that instruction and seeing Jesus disparate, Peter must have turned to James and said, "Well, I guess we should get on with telling others about Jesus . . . right now."

Paul wasn't there, but he was certainly privy to the witness of the folks that were there that day. And evidence of how seriously he took that teaching is present in the letters he wrote and the work he did to spread the Good News throughout the world.

This seems like an important message for us to pay attention to. It seems like it is set apart and put at the end to make sure we do not miss it. It seems we should each take some time and think of how the last words of Jesus connect to us today.  

You will be my witnesses to all the ends of the earth. What does it mean to witness? What is the hope to which the early church was called and what is to be done with that hope? What does it mean to proclaim repentance and forgiveness to all the nations? Where do we start?

God of amazing miracle and unknowable strength,
Unbind me from the limits of my vocabulary
and culture
and tradition
to witness to your power and your ability and your grace
to the ends of the earth.
Give me grace and love and mercy
to do it as you would have it done.
Amen.