Sermon for Sunday after the Ascension Day
Jesus' Footprints Forever
By The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer -
Today we are celebrating the Sunday after the Ascension, the day on which, 40 days after Easter, Jesus ascended into heaven. The actual date this year was May 10, but we are noting it this weekend here at Mt. Olive.
Both today’s first lesson from Acts and Gospel lesson from Luke tell the story of Jesus’ ascension into heaven.
The Luke text, which was probably written first, tells the ascension story with few details: Jesus blesses his disciples, withdraws from them and is “carried up into heaven.” That’s all the information Luke offers.
The Acts text shares more details: Jesus is “lifted up” and “a cloud” takes Jesus “from their sight.” And, while the disciples are still all standing there looking up, two men in white robes appear to state the obvious, Jesus “has been taken up into heaven.”
Ascension Day is a mostly forgotten Christian holiday. In many European countries it is still a national holiday, but I believe that very few people in the countries in which Ascension Day is a public holiday know the reason they have off from school or work that day!
On Ascension Day, Jesus leaves this earth and ascends into heaven to be with God the Father. Jesus was lifted up and a cloud took him out of the disciples' sight. And, after Jesus had disappeared, the disciples kept gazing up toward heaven, until suddenly two men in white robes appeared and asked them, "You, Galileans, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?"
We have heard similar words before. Forty days after Easter Sunday, the Ascension story mirrors many of the themes of that first Easter. We remember another time when two men appeared, two men in dazzling clothes who stood beside the women who had come to the tomb on Easter morning. Those men, too, had asked a question. "Why do you look for the living among the dead?" It must have seemed an absurd question to the sorrowful women for they had not come to the tomb looking for the living, just as the words of the two men at Ascension, “Why are you still looking up,” must have seemed to the disciples.
On that first Easter Sunday, Jesus was not where people expected he would be. He was not in the tomb, but risen and gone to Galilee. Then, later, Jesus was no longer on earth, but risen beyond the clouds, beyond human sight. So it can seem that to be with Jesus means to be somewhere other than where we are now. And, even if we do not believe that heaven is up there, we still find ourselves looking up beyond the pull of gravity.
Suddenly, two men in white robes turn to us with their question. "Why do you stand looking up? This Jesus, who has been taken up into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."
You can just imagine the women at the tomb or the disciples at the Ascension. Their reaction would have been similar to ours: "If Jesus is coming again from heaven, why shouldn't we keep looking up? Why should we look to earth where things have turned bad and we are forever tempted to do wrong?"
Jesus responded to this question that first Easter and Ascension as he would today. After the resurrection, Jesus spent time with his disciples in Jerusalem. For forty days he spoke with them about the kingdom of God. Then they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" Jesus answered, "It is not for you to know the times or the periods that God has set by divine 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," which surely includes where you are right now.
Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit is a promise for this earth, this place, this time. Jesus will be forever messed up with this earthly life in the power of the Spirit.
Or, to put it another way, Jesus may no longer be here physically, but Jesus’ footprints remain.
I like the image of Jesus' ascension that is posted with this sermon. In this picture Jesus is rising up as the disciples watch him disappear into the clouds. If you look closely at the picture, not in the clouds, but on the ground, you can see footprints on the earth. The artist has carefully etched Jesus' footprints down on the level where the disciples are standing with their mouths open.
Perhaps the artist was simply imagining a homey detail that is not in the text. Or, perhaps, the artist is pressing us with the old question, "Why do you stand looking up into heaven? Look at these footprints here on the earth."
When you think about it, Jesus' muddy footprints are all over the pages of the gospels.
• Jesus' footprints are in the wilderness. Each time Jesus was tempted to claim earthly power and glory, he responded: One does not live by bread alone. Worship the Lord your God and serve only God.
• Jesus’s footprints are with the poor and outcast. He often walked on the wrong side of the street with the wrong people. Today it is easy to picture Jesus walking with refugees who have fled violence in Honduras, those camping out along our border with Mexico.
• Jesus even walked up to a sycamore tree and looked up at Zachaeus, the tax collector, perched in the branches. "Come down, Zachaeus," Jesus said, "let's walk over to your house for dinner."
• Jesus walked, then rode, into Jerusalem.
• Dragging his cross, Jesus stumbled toward Golgotha, loving us to the very end.
Jesus’ footprints are all over the Gospels.
The Holy Spirit moved Jesus in certain directions, not others. Jesus had said it would be so in his first sermon when he read from the scroll of Isaiah. "The Spirit has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of God's jubilee." When Jesus finished that reading, he said, "Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." In other words, Jesus is saying that this is my road map. This is how I will walk on the earth. These are my footprints. Come, follow me.
The Spirit that anointed Jesus now anoints you and me. That is what Jesus tried to tell his disciples before he left them. "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses." On this earth where I left my footprints.
That brings us back to the question from the men in white robes, "Why do you stand looking up into heaven?" Sometimes it's still easier to look for a more pure world up there or out there, especially if we think of the church as the body of Christ. We see so many blemishes, so many things wrong. Perhaps you have heard people say, "Show me a church where the pastor isn’t self-serving, where people aren't hypocritical, where love is genuine, and then I'll become a member." Well, we will wait a long time, for such a church takes up no space on this earth.
I have had the privilege of visiting Ascension Lutheran Church on the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem several times. It is thought to be the actual site of Jesus’ ascension. Perched on top of the Mount of Olives with a commanding view of the Old City of Jerusalem, the Church of the Ascension is beautiful and peaceful, the grounds quiet and lovely.
But, what is more to the point of Jesus’ ascension is what is next door to the Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives – the Augusta Victoria Hospital. I would suggest that today Jesus’ “footprints” would not only be found in the Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives, but are also found in the halls and patient rooms and operating centers of the Augusta Victoria Hospital next door, a place where for more than 65 years Palestinians have found refuge and health care. You and I, we support the Augusta Victoria Hospital through our synod & ELCA benevolence giving. Through this hospital you and I are not standing around, looking up into heaven for Jesus, but are touching people’s lives every day with Jesus’ continued love for us all.
You and I make footprints in and through our ordinary, imperfect communities of faith, communities. Jesus now works through us – it is our “footprints,” our actions, Jesus counts on. There is no one else here physically but us, not in this time and space. We can stand looking up into heaven or we can believe the promise of Jesus: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses." It is our call to trust that Christ's promise is down and in and around us.
My fourth anniversary as your pastor was April 1, Easter Sunday this year. Now more than four years ago, on my first Sunday as your pastor, I shared my view that you and I, we are all in this together, this ministry of Jesus Christ in today’s world.
We do this in some very dramatic ways, such as the ministry of the Augusta Victoria Hospital or our Students 4 Student Shelter here at Mt. Olive. But, mostly, we do the ministry of Jesus in much simpler ways, every day kindnesses and day to day ministries and activities that allow us to witness to Jesus as our risen Lord and Savior.
And, Jesus continually promises us that we are not alone in this work. We are not alone. The Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus, surprises us at every turn, protecting, guiding and leading us into ways new and old to love our fellow human beings. The footprints of Jesus’ love are all around us. We are not to stand looking up, but to move out into our community with the love of God in Jesus Christ.
Amen.
(With thanks to the Rev. Dr. Barbara Lundblad)
The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer
Senior Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
Sunday, May 12-13, 2018
