What did Jesus' Ascension Accomplish?

 Acts 1:1-11 

 Luke 24:44-53

When April and I moved out to Ambridge Pennsylvania so that I could attend Trinity School for Ministry it was very difficult. We were leaving behind our home, family, friends, and jobs. We didn’t really know anyone where we were going. The people, the seminary, and the region were all new and strange to us. Eventually, however, it began to feel like home. Our first child, Helen, was born while we were living there and we made many dear friendships with people from the seminary and the parish where we served. We may have come as strangers, but three years later, after graduation, it felt like we were leaving home all over again. It was especially difficult, because we knew that we might never see many of those friends again.

Goodbyes are hard.  It is never easy to leave behind those whom we have come to love and admire. We have all had this experience at one time or another, which is why the story of Jesus’ farewell to his disciples inspires such pathos.

Imagine how difficult saying goodbye to Jesus must have been for his disciples. They had been through the devastating experience of his arrest, trial, and crucifixion. They mourned his death and they were overcome by amazement and joy when he returned to them raised from the dead. When Mary saw the resurrected Christ she clung to him. She didn’t want to let him out of her sight. Even on that occasion Jesus told her, “Do not cling to me. I have not yet ascended to my Father.” He knew that his work was not yet done, and that he would once again need to say goodbye to his friends.

Sure enough after a period of 40 days in which he appeared, taught, and fellowshipped with his disciples, it once again came time for him to depart. He wanted to comfort his disciples in their grief.

Although saying goodbye is never easy, the sorrow of it can be tempered by the knowledge of what is to come. When my fellow seminarians and I said farewell to one another it was bittersweet. There was sweetness because we knew that we were all moving on to do what God called us to do, and what we had been preparing many years to do.

Jesus’ departure too had a grand purpose. We must not diminish its importance. Tonight I want to highlight three great outcomes that were accomplished through Jesus’ Ascension.

First, in ascending into heaven, Jesus presented his completed sacrifice before the Father. The atonement for sin is not finished until it is presented before God in the Tabernacle. The author of Hebrews describes Jesus as our high priest, the one who offers the perfect, once-for-all, sacrifice in the Holy of Holies. He writes,

“Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence.”

What does this mean? First, it means that Jesus is our priest and mediator. Just as Moses climbed the mountain to intercede for the people before God, Jesus ascends into heaven to make intercession for us with his Father.  Second it means that Heaven is the true tabernacle of God. Moses made a copy of the heavenly tabernacle he was shown on the mountain top according to God’s instructions. The high priest would enter that tabernacle in a cloud of incense to present God with sacrifice. What the author of Hebrews is saying is that in passing through the clouds of Heaven, Jesus Christ entered the true heavenly sanctuary and there presented the one, perfect, all sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.

When the priest came into the sanctuary, he would wear twelve jewels on his vestments representing the twelve tribes of Israel. He was symbolically bringing the people with him into God’s presence. In a similar way, Jesus brings us all into the presence of God with him. He is our representative and the human nature he presents to the Father is perfect and righteous. Jesus stands in heaven as the pledge of the righteousness and justification he has purchased on our behalf.

The second accomplishment was that Jesus ascended into heaven in order to begin his reign as Lord and King of the universe. He told his disciples, “All authority in Heaven and on Earth is given to me” and he ascended into heaven to claim that authority and sit down at the right hand of God. Jesus is not only interceding on our behalf as a priest, he is also reigning as a king.

Jesus’ ascension is like a warrior king returning to his throne after he has won a great victory in a far off land. He is welcomed with shouts of celebration. Having conquered his enemies, his reign can begin. Saint Paul says, “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” He extends that rule through the ministry of the church who is commissioned to announce his lordship to all nations.

Finally, Jesus’ ascension prepares the way for the Holy Comforter, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. He told them, 

“But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7).

It is interesting to note the origins of our popular expression “goodbye.”  It originated as an old English term, “Godbwye,” which is a contraction of the phrase, “God be with ye.” Spanish contains a similar farewell, “vaya con dios,” which means, “go with God,” or “a Dios,” (Adiós) “to God.” Isn’t that interesting? In saying goodbye to someone we are actually asking God to bless them with his presence.

Jesus had to say goodbye to his disciples, but he did not leave them alone. Nor does he leave us alone. He gives us the gift of God’s presence through the Holy Spirit. Jesus makes us present to God through his glorified humanity, and the Holy Spirit makes God present to us in return. We are in Christ and he is in us through the power of the Spirit.

As we have demonstrated, Jesus had to depart this world, but his Ascension brought innumerable blessings to us. Therefore it is fitting this day not to mourn Jesus’ absence, but to give thanks for what his presence before God, his reigning on the throne, and his giving of the spirit means for us and for our salvation.

A Tale of Two Cities

Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5

It has been said that the story of the Bible begins in a garden but it ends in a city. What is a garden? It is a small patch of ground where there is order and harmony in the larger wildness of the world. In the beginning God brought forth beauty and coherence from chaos; he made a garden, he took the man and woman and placed them there and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.”

A garden is a place set aside to produce life and encourage healthy and intelligent growth. It is a place where small sprouts can be tended and nurtured, cultivated so that they can become large sprouts. The educator Friedrich Fröbel is famous for developing the concept of Kindergarten or a “child garden” where children can learn and develop in a natural way through play, singing, dancing, and interaction with other children. It is a place of gentle transition from the home to schooling and eventually to the responsibilities of adulthood.

God placed us in a garden, but he never intended for us to stay there any more than we intend our children to stay in kindergarten forever. In the final chapters of the final book of the bible we get a glimpse of what God intends as the ultimate destiny of human beings, the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, a harmonious society of perfect justice.

So is the history of the world just one uninterrupted and unimpeded march towards that glorious future?  No, not quite, although sometimes we act as if it is. One of the most powerful and largely unconscious beliefs to shape the modern world, especially since the time referred to as the Enlightenment, is the Myth of Progress, or the idea that through science and human reason the clouds of ignorance are being dispersed and the world moving forward towards an ever brighter future. We talk about “being on the right side of history.” When we encounter some particularly egregious ignorance we say, “I can’t believe that in the 21^st Century we still have to deal with this nonsense!” The unspoken assumption is that the mere passing of time should resolve all problems and that each generation should be more moral and enlightened than the next. Parents and grandparents, what do you think of this idea?

You also run into the other idea of course. The more cynical act as if the world just gets worse with each passing generation. The belief in a perfect lost Golden Age is also a very powerful idea. In causal conversation the Golden Age is usually whenever the speaker was young and in their prime, when children respected their elders, and people believed in hard work.

The power of both perspectives is that there is at least partial truth in each of them. Who could deny that progress in science and civil rights does happen? Likewise it will always be necessary to recover forgotten wisdom from past generations.

The Bible challenges our cherished belief in the Myth of progress, but it most certainly isn’t pessimistic. The Bible teaches us to be optimistic about the ultimate future and not to despair but to have hope. That hope, however, rests not in human ingenuity or inevitable moral progress, but in God who is reconciling all things to himself in Christ.

In his monumental work, “The City of God,” Saint Augustine depicts the history of the world as a struggle between two cities, the City of God and the City of Man, or as they are described in Revelation, Jerusalem and Babylon.

Both names refer to actual cities in the ancient world. Jerusalem was the capital city of God’s people, the city of Zion, and the home of God’s Temple, his dwelling place on Earth. Babylon was her ancient enemy; the pagan nation that sacked God’s Temple and carried his people away into captivity.

In the Book of Revelation both of these cities function as symbols for the City of God and the City of Man. Babylon represents the world in rebellion against God and his just rule, the reign of sin, and the persecution of God’s people. The New Jerusalem represents the Kingdom of Heaven, the kingdom where Christ is King, the one that Jesus told Pilate was not of this world.

The struggle between these two cities started in the Garden. Human beings got expelled from Kindergarten and they have been on the wrong track ever since. According to Genesis the first city was built east of Eden in the Land of Nod by Cain, who was also the first murderer. How did the son of Adam and Eve round up enough people to start a city you ask? Just as with Revelation, it is best not to take these early stories in Genesis too literally!

The sons of Cain grow in cultural sophistication but also in wickedness. The quintessential example of the city of man in Genesis is the city of Babel with its infamous tower. The people say, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (Gen.11:4).

 Their goal is to demonstrate their own ingenuity and independence from God, “to make a name for themselves.” God topples their tower of hubris and scatters them over the earth, confusing their speech.

In a similar way, Revelation foretells God’s judgment on the City of Man, the fall of Babylon, and the ultimate victory of the City of God, the New Jerusalem. In the City, as in the Garden, human beings enjoy direct and unmediated fellowship with God. There is no need for a Temple because God’s glory fills all things. The inhabitants of that city dwell in God and he dwells in them. They have no need of the sun because Christ himself, the lamb, is their light. The water of life, the spirit of God himself, flows freely through its streets as a river. The tree of life, access to which human beings lost when they rebelled in Eden, grows freely along its banks.

When human beings were cast out of the Garden, its gates were closed and an angel with a fiery sword guarded the way, but the gates of this city are always open! All are welcome there although we are told nothing unclean can enter but only those written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Here is the remarkable part, the nations—presumably the same nations that were seduced and corrupted by Babylon—stream into The New Jerusalem. They willingly bring their gifts and treasure to honor her. They come to the New Jerusalem not only to honor her, but to be healed. The leaves of the Tree of Life are for the Healing of the Nations.  There is not a permanent opposition between the City of God and the City of Man, rather the City of God exists for the healing and redemption of the City of Man.

When God’s people were in exile in Babylon, God instructed them through the Prophet Jeremiah, “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” The Church is meant to be a colony of the City of God in the midst of the City of Man. We are in the world, but not of the world. Our citizenship is in heaven and yet we seek the welfare of the various places in which we live because in their welfare we will find our own.

The local Church should be like a little miniature type of the New Jerusalem placed within our communities. It is the place where the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world is seated on the throne, where he is our light and life, where the doors are never shut, and where all people can receive healing and redemption.

"Extra Grace Required"

John 13:31-35

In his best selling devotional book, The Purpose Driven Life, Pastor Rick Warren writes, “In every church and in every small group, there is at least one ‘difficult’ person, usually more than one. These people may have special emotional needs, deep insecurities, irritating mannerisms, or poor social skills. You might call them ‘EGR’ people—“Extra Grace Required.” We all know these kinds of people right? If you are looking around and you can’t figure out who that person is in this group, it might be you!

Is our parish the kind of place where Extra Grace Required people can find the love and acceptance they are denied in other settings, or are we just another cliquish club or organization?  More pointedly, are people more or less likely to find friendship here than they are at the local tavern? Is our church more or less accepting than twelve-step groups like Alcoholics Anonymous?

Nearly every church describes themselves as “friendly” and “welcoming,” but it is much rarer to find churches that actually are. Usually these descriptions are provided by those who have already been welcomed in the inner circle. Would the mother with the toddler having a temper tantrum say the same?

In today’s gospel Jesus says, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Are we the kind of community that loves one another as Christ has loved us?

Whenever this passage, or passages like this, come up, people love to point out that “loving” someone is not the same as “liking” someone. There is something to be said for this. Certainly loving someone does not mean that I find them charming, that I always agree with their opinions, or I always approve of their behavior. True enough. This morning, however, I want to push back on this common statement. How exactly do we love someone without liking them? Does it just mean that we tolerate them or that we don’t wish them harm?

Too often I feel like we follow Jesus’ commandment to love in a purely nominal sense. As long as we are technically in conformity to the commandment, as long as we haven’t actively abused anyone, we say “good enough.” But is that how Jesus loves us? Think about it for a minute. Would you be satisfied if I told you that Jesus loves you but he doesn’t like you? What if I told you that Jesus finds you annoying and that although he wouldn’t want to see you in hell, he doesn’t especially want to spend much time with you either? Is that the kind of radical, passionate, soul-satisfying love that can change a hardened sinner into a saint? Is that the kind of love that when shared with one another makes the world stand up and notice? No! We don’t get off the hook that easy. Jesus’ love for us is much more than that, and the love he calls us to have for each other requires much more grace than that.

Now that we haven gotten that out of the way, what can we say about what Jesus is actually commanding us to do?

If we genuinely love someone, we will have affection for them. They will be dear to us. We will cherish being with them. In his letter to the Romans, Paul teaches, “Love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor.” These are emotion-laden words that run directly contrary to the stoic idea of love without affection. It is the kind of love that binds a family together. It is not something that happens overnight. It takes time. It is the fruit of a long-term commitment to growing together in the love of Christ. It is what happens when we move from just trying to externally conform to Jesus’ commandment to love to really allowing his love to penetrate our hearts, to soften them, and to transform us from the inside out so that we overflow with grace for others. When we are gracious like Christ is gracious, we are not counting people’s sins against them, we are not constantly annoyed at their shortcomings. We are not venting our frustration with them behind their backs with others. Instead we are honoring them. We magnify the good in them and patiently overlook their flaws because, as the scriptures say, “love covers a multitude of sins.”

Love like this is grounded in hope and faith. Saint Paul writes, “From now on we regard no one according to the flesh, or from a worldly point of view.” What does this mean? It means that we look beyond the surface, beyond appearance, beyond this present moment and strive instead to see one another from an eternal perspective, as God sees them. It means we are committed to that person that God intends for them to be, to that person he is making them into, the person they will be in glory. By faith we see their true-self, who they really are in Christ, unclouded by their sinful nature, the very image of God radiant with his likeness.

As C.S. Lewis writes, “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses” and that even the dullest and most uninteresting of your brothers and sisters in Christ will one day become a being that if seen now, you would be strongly tempted to worship. If we regard our brothers and sisters in that way, how can we fail to love them or show them honor? 

Now the objection may come, what about ISIS? What about Hitler? Jesus tells us to love our enemies, but we couldn’t possibly have “brotherly affection” for them and we most certainly should not show them honor! This is correct. There is a distinction between the love that we have for our fellow saints and the love Jesus asks us to have for our enemies.

The love for our fellow saints, as we have been saying, is grounded in who they are in Christ. They are children of the same father and thus our brothers and sisters. We see them as God sees them, lovely and delightful, “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” The love that we have for our enemies, those who persecute us, however, is not grounded so much in who they are as in who we are. Because of who we are in Christ, we are to be consumed with the same passion that he has for the salvation of all the world. If we have the kind of love for one another that we have been talking about, we will be a community that will long to draw all the world to itself, to make even our enemies into brothers and sisters. We will mourn to see people created for such glory twisted and distorted into such a nightmare. We hope and pray for their salvation and transformation.

Brothers and Sisters, I am as painfully aware as you are of the gap between the person Christ has called me to be, and how I actually behave in the present. Nevertheless, the worst thing we could do is to regard Jesus’ command to love one another as a beautiful but impractical ideal. The worst thing we could do is to live as if the Kingdom of God were not at hand, as if Christ were still in the tomb, and the Holy Spirit never descended. As G.K. Chesterton has said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”  Dear Lord, teach us to do the things you have commanded. 

His Master's Voice

John 10:22-30

In 1898 English artist Francis Barraud painted a portrait of his brother’s dog, Nipper, that would go on to become one of the most recognized advertising logos of its time. The quizzical dog is shown peering into the horn of a phonograph machine. The image was eventually purchased by the Gramophone Company of London and the rights acquired by the American company, RCA. The icon was accompanied by the equally famous slogan “His Master’s Voice is Calling.”

Locals to this region of New York, will no doubt be familiar with the gigantic four ton likeness of Nipper erected on top of the Arnoff Moving company in Albany. It has been described as the largest man-made dog in the world!

The RCA logo certainly isn’t the only example of a dog being used in advertising. Dogs may be second only to babies in the affection and emotional response they produce in the hearts of people. People really love dogs. Have you noticed this? The affection isn’t one sided either. It is mutual. Dogs love people too! They have rightly been named as Man’s best friend. The relationship is older than history.

Scientists believe they have discovered the secret of the enduring affection between dogs and people. The reason in concisely summarized by the RCA Nipper logo, dog’s hear and recognize the human voice. Their brains are so wired that they are able to not only distinguish one human voice from another but also to recognize the subtle emotional clues in human speech. “Dogs use very similar brain mechanisms to process social and emotional information as humans do,” says one researcher, “This probably helps the dogs tune in to the feelings of their owners, and also probably helps humans tune in to the feelings of their dog.”

Scientist speak of this in terms of convergent evolution. Both of our species have independently developed similar survival skills that make us uniquely suited for one another. You might say that God created us for companionship with each other. There is something in dogs that corresponds to and compliments something in us.

At least part of what it means to be made in the Image of God means having a similar kinship with him. There is a capacity in us, part of our nature, which corresponds to something in God. Out of all the creatures in the earth, God created human beings in such a way that we can hear him and know him, that we can respond to his voice, and follow it. He made us able to have friendship with him.

I suspect most of us have more occasions to interact with dogs than with sheep, but sheep also have a similar capacity for voice recognition. Sheep have similar neural networks to humans which allow them not only to recognize other sheep but people as well!  To be sure, it is much simpler and less emotionally complex than what is found in dogs, but sheep can be trained to hear and respond to the voice of their shepherd. Anyone who spends any time with sheep will know this which is why Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.”

Like sheep with their shepherd, recognizing our Master’s voice comes with familiarity. We must be trained through acquaintance with his commands to distinguish his voice from the many other voices clamoring for our attention.  Jesus makes his remark about his sheep recognizing his voice in response to the people’s questioning of him. They say, “Tell us plainly are you the messiah?” Jesus in effect is saying, “if you were really acquainted with following God’s Word you would recognize me immediately just as sheep know their shepherd’s voice.”

When Odysseus returns home in Homer’s epic, the Odyssey, he comes undercover, disguised as a beggar, in order to surprise attack the greedy suitors who had taken over his house. He has been away for many years, and his disguise is so effective that no one recognizes his true identity. The only one to perceive the truth is his faithful dog Argos who lifts his tired old head and wags his tail at the approach of his master.

Similarly it is the very Word of God himself who appears to his people in the guise of their human nature in Jesus, but only the faithful are able to perceive who he really is. His voice is imprinted on their hearts and nothing can disguise his true identity from them.

How is it that we can develop the kind of familiarity with the voice of our Lord that we will recognize him when he is speaking to us in the circumstances of our lives? How can we learn to distinguish his voice and his guidance from the false teachers and imposters?

If we are sincerely asking these questions we are already on the right track! Because the first step to hearing and knowing God’s voice is to actually want to hear from him. When we open our hearts and listen for him, God will indeed speak to us. In fact God is more willing to speak to us than we are to listen! Although our hearts and minds are so often filled with distractions and competing affections that it can be difficult to make out the still small voice above the din. But Jesus promises, “Seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened.”

Hearing from God is however much more than just a subjective enterprise. We aren’t left merely to discern our own intuitions and impressions, because God has given us an authoritative record of his revelation in Holy Scripture. We should always test our private leadings with God’s word in the Bible, and we should always test our own interpretation of the Bible with the witness of the church down through the ages and the guidance of other Christians, because our own hearts and mind are so often deceptive.

Also, simple biblical literacy is not enough to recognize the voice of the Lord. It is not enough to merely read the bible as literature, or as ancient history, or even a theological treatise. All of those things are worth while, but on their own they won’t help us to know God. Knowing God through the scriptures means approaching them as more than just a dead letter, but as a living word. We need to come to them with the intention of being personally encountered by Christ through them.

Finally, we have to actually obey what it is he commands us. The more we seek to put into practice the words of God, the more of a living reality it will become in our lives. When we have the intention of hearing and obeying him, when we are accustomed to seeking his will, of filling our minds with his word, and imprinting his words on our heart, we will become personally familiar with his voice as our companion and teacher.

If we have this kind of relationship with Christ we will recognize when he speaks to us through the circumstances of our life. We will be able to discern whether it is actually him who is calling us to that new ministry or vocation. We will even be able to hear what he might be teaching us through that particular trial, sickness, or other affliction. No matter where or how he speaks we will be ready to obey and say, “My master’s voice is calling!”