Why are you looking up?

Sermon for May 13, 2018 – Ascension Day Lessons

Acts 1:1-11

Psalm 47

Ephesians 1:15-23

Luke 24:44-53

Jesus said to his disciples, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you-- that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

Today we are celebrating the feast of the Ascension rather than the seventh Sunday of Easter.  The Feast of the Ascension always falls on a Thursday – 40 days after Easter Day as the scriptures tell us.  We are a little literalistic in the setting of the feast day – in my humble opinion.  I say that because it means that many people do not celebrate this important feast.  A feast that is important enough to be part of the consecration prayer in form A that says “recalling his death, resurrection, and ascension, we offer you these gifts.”  An important feast that many do not celebrate unless you happen to belong to a parish that celebrates daily Eucharist  – which is rare outside of cathedrals – or if you read the daily office – a good thing to do!  So today we have decided to celebrate the feast of the Ascension.

Today is also a day I would love to rearrange the reading of the lessons.  The reading form the Acts of the Apostles should come after the Gospel Reading.  The Acts of the Apostles – the second book – could also just as easily have been called the Gospel of Luke – book 2, or perhaps in our age of movies we could call it the Gospel according to Luke – the sequel! 

Our Gospel reading comes at the very end of the Gospel of Luke.  Jesus, after his, his resurrection has been appearing to the disciples – in various settings.  Just before this reading he has traveled the road to Emmaus explaining the scriptures to two of the disciples and opening their eyes in the breaking of the bread.  He has appeared to the disciples who, at times are afraid thinking him a ghost.  Jesus keeps showing up post resurrection to try and open the eyes and the hearts of his followers.  And now he appears to them in the flesh one last time.  Jesus again opens the scriptures to them and declares that, because the scriptures have been fulfilled they are called to go out and declare repentance to all of the world – not just to the Jews, not just to the inhabitants of Israel – but to all the world.  Both Jew’s and Gentiles.  Not people just like them.  But to all the world.  To all of God’s beloved children. 

Jesus then tells the disciples that they will receive the spiritual gift that he has promised and while blessing them one final time he is ascended into heaven.  He is taken away while they are watching him.  This scripture has wonderful imagery and has spawned some wonderful – and sometimes quite whimsical art.  There is a window at St. Paul’s of Jesus ascending into heaven standing on a cloud.  One of my favorite images is carved into a boss at York Minster in England.  A boss is a key stone that holds the ribs of a vaulted stone ceiling together.  This particular boss has heads of the disciples in a circle looking up at the bottom of a pair of feet – the feet of Jesus ascending into heaven. 

Jesus has empowered his followers to bring the kingdom of God to fruition.  Jesus has fulfilled the law and the prophets – and left us with two simple commandments in their place.  That we are to Love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.  And that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.  So simple and yet so hard at times. 

After this revelation the disciples we hear spent much time in the temple blessing God.  They do not start a new church.  No they go to the thin place where they experience God – the temple.  And this is where the Acts of the Apostles picks up the story.  With Luke telling Theophilus a summary of the first book – the one we call the Gospel of Luke.  And foreshadowing the feast we will celebrate next week – the coming of the Holy Spirit to really get the disciples out of the locked room and working to forgive all nations.  Luke then restates the end of the Gospel with the ascension.  But he adds that in the final encounter the disciples asked a final question.  “Was this the time?”  Was this the time that God’s avenging army was going to come and bring the kingdom of God to fruition.  Was this the time God would throw off the Roman Empire? Even after everything Jesus had taught them.  Even after the crucifixion and resurrection they still wanted God to change the world for them.  They still don’t get that God wants nothing more than for us to work to bring that kingdom to fruition.  That he is not going to send an avenging army to do the work.  And Jesus also tells them that the final kingdom will come in God’s time.  Not our time. 

Jesus once again promises that the gift of the Holy Spirit will come once he is gone.  A radical gift.  That God will give us the presence of the Holy Spirit to empower us to bring about God’s Kingdom.  While it is tempting to go more into the Holy Spirit I will save that for next week when we remember God’s great gift to us.  The gift of the continuous presence of God in our lives.

But for now we celebrate that when Jesus was done with his earthly ministry he returned to the Godhead.  And we can be thankful that our God became incarnate and walked among us.  We can be thankful that God came not with an avenging army to cleanse the earth.  But God came as a vulnerable baby.  God came and walked with us.  God came and experienced humanity with us.  God came and experienced all of our human emotions.  God experienced love, joy, peace, sorrow, pain and even death.  God as fully human and fully divine experience the best and the worst that we humans have to offer. 

God as Jesus certainly experienced the worst of humanity.  The part of humanity that sees the other as the outcast.  The part of humanity that enslaves others.  The part of humanity that destroys creation rather than builds it up.  God certainly experienced enough of the dark side of our humanity in his death that an avenging army of angels might have been called for!

But God also experienced the best of humanity. God in Jesus experienced the love of his mother as a baby.  He experienced the love of good friends.  He experienced the joy of sharing meals together.  He experienced the best we have to offer when we accept the other as beloved.  Beloved of us and beloved of God.  And it is that best that Jesus offers as the fruition of the Kingdom of God.  It is this part of our humanity that keeps God from sending an avenging army.  It is that part that Jesus tells us to keep doing. 

We are to keep offering unasked for forgiveness to those who hurt us.  We are to keep welcoming those that we see as “the other” in our midst as beloved of children of God and as worthy of our Love just as God loves them.  We are to love, and when necessary offer forgiveness to, the refugee, the immigrants, the sick, the prisoner, the hungry all as beloved of children of God.  When we are able to do this we see God’s kingdom come to fruition here.  Now.  When we feed the hungry on this campus through River City food bank we see God’s reign on earth.  When we see the immigrant being taught at the charter high school on this campus so that they can flourish in this country we see God’s kingdom on earth.  When we worship God in this place Sunday after Sunday we see God’s Kingdom breaking into our hearts.

I find it sad that these days the messages I hear from some of our leaders are opposite to the message of Jesus.  When we malign the foreigner, the sick, the LGBTQ, the asylum seeker, women, or any of God’s beloved creation we will, if we listen, hear God’s sorrow.  Our commission from God is to call out the sin of exclusion, the sin of misogyny, the sin of various phobias as the sins that they are.  And then we are to offer God’s bountiful forgiveness to those who turn around. 

This commandment to Love God and Love each other is not easy.  It is hard.  But there is good news here too.  The Good News is we are not doing this alone.  We have a companion who helps us.  A companion who we will celebrate next week on Pentecost! 

Amen

God is Calling your Name!

Easter Sunday 2016 – Year C-RCL

Note:  This sermon was preached in both English and Spanish.

Acts 10:34-43

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

1 Corinthians 15:19-26

John 20:1-18

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, `I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Today we heard one of my favorite passages from the Gospel of John.  There is a lot going on here.  First Mary – upon finding the empty tomb runs back to get the disciples – all of those men locked in a room for fear that they might be the next ones to find themselves on a cross.  All of those locked in despair that the one they thought would truly overthrow empire and bring the reign of God into their lives was dead.

So upon hearing that the tomb was empty – and forgetting that Christ told them that the Love that was hung on the cross would not die went to see for themselves.  They ran and found the tomb as Mary has said.  Empty. The linen death shroud left behind.  And then all but Mary return to their homes. 

Mary stays.  Why?  Why does she not go back to her locked room?  Perhaps she stays because she is so overcome with grief that she cannot move.  Perhaps she cannot imagine leaving the last place she saw the body of her savior and friend.  The reason doesn’t matter – she stays.  In her grief she stays and wonders.  Wonders what it all means.  Perhaps she is wondering how it could have gotten to the point where Christ was crucified. 

We too are often in that place with Mary.  When we experience loss or despair we may end up hanging out in the garden and wonder.  Our grief may be so deep that we have nothing.  Not even enough energy to make it back to safety. 

Perhaps with all of the news of man’s inhumanity to man you are in that place now.  The terror attacks around the world.  The bombing in Brussels and bombings in other places.   The lack of housing for people here in Sacramento.  Perhaps you have lost a loved one or a job – or someone you know has.  Where do we go?  The despair can be so real that is can paralyze. 

Every night this week we have been hosting people from winter sanctuary in our sanctuary.  And is has, at times, been messy.  We have had to scramble to make the church ready for services – especially on Good Friday.  And I am sure we sometimes wonder if we are doing the right thing.  Letting people sleep in the church.

On Thursday - while I was doing the last minute things before the dinner – being the good acolyte and lighting the candles I ran across a young gentleman just standing in the back of the church.

  When I stopped to talk to him he said to me “You know. For some reason that I cannot explain I cried the first time I came into this space.”  I mentioned that I found various places to be thin places – where the earth we inhabit and the place of God are close together. And for me that often happens in churches where prayer has soaked into the walls for many years.   He nodded and with tear-filled eyes continued there in prayer until he joined us in our agape meal.

That young man finds himself in a place of grief.  Where the presence of God is enough to bring him to tears.  And he doesn’t know why.  Just that it happens.  That is where we find Mary – in a grief so deep she cannot see.

And Mary – blind in her grief – sees a man – sees Jesus but does not recognize him.  Her grief is so strong that she is still looking for a dead body – not a living man.  So she asks where the body is so she can prepare it for a proper burial.  She too has forgotten the promise Jesus made to them while he was still teaching them – that he would die and that he would – on the third day – be raised from the dead.

She can’t imagine anything else.  Grief has closed out every possibility.  And Jesus does something so tender.  He calls her by name.  Mary.  Not like your mother calling you to come into dinner – for the third time – the time when you know she means it – complete with first and middle names – but tenderly.  The calling of the name that in infused with love and comfort.  Mary.

And at the moment Jesus called her name Mary’s eyes are open – the grief falls from her eyes like scales – or at least enough of the grief that she suddenly sees Jesus. 

I can just see her go from tears of grief to tears of joy.  I can see the smile slowly form.  And Jesus tells her to go tell the others that he has kept his promise and has risen from the dead.

And Mary – her grief turned to Joy runs to the locked room.  She runs to them and as the first Christian preacher declares “I have seen the Lord.” 

That is the promise of Easter.  That in our deepest despair.  Even at our death God is calling our names.  Each and every one.  God is calling.  Softly.  Lovingly.  Rik.  Anne.  CeeCee. Manuel.  Lisa.  Miguel. Christine.  Ruth.  God is calling your name.  All of our names.  Not with a voice that says you have done something wrong but with that love filled, comfort filled voice.

The Love that has hung of the Cross cannot be killed.  It continually calls our names.  Lovingly.  That Love calls us to open our hearts and to show that love to the loveless.  It is that love that calls us to open our doors to those who have no place.  It calls us to go say “I have seen the Lord”.  

Indeed I have seen the Lord.  I have seen the Lord of Love in the faces of those who rejoice in a safe place to sleep.  I have seen the Lord in the hands that lovingly clean the church.  I have seen the lord in the many ways that the people of God act to show God’s Love to all of his creation.

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!