Acts 1: 1-11 Rev. Marianne Niesen May 16, 2010
So, did you get to the pre-Ascension sale at Macy’s this week? I’ll bet you’re looking forward to all those after-Ascension specials they always run this time of year, aren’t you? Yeah, me too! Of course, even as I say this, you all know I am talking a bit of nonsense here. No one – outside the church – would know what you are talking about if you asked about an ‘Ascension’ sale. Unlike the feasts of Christmas and Easter, the celebration of the Ascension is what one might call an ‘insider’ feast. And not even all of us on the inside really know what it is all about. Ascension . . . how exactly is that different from resurrection? With the resurrection, Jesus rose from the dead. With the Ascension, Jesus rose into heaven. But in both cases, he was still dead though also still alive and present in new and mysterious ways. Ascension. Resurrection. What’s the big deal with two events? The rest of the world is on to other things now. Even most attentive Christians are moving toward Pentecost . . . and the wearing of the red and the coming of the spirit - which we celebrate next Sunday. It all begs the question that I want to beg today . . . what’s with the Ascension? And why in heaven’s name do we need to spend time with it when no one else in the world cares?
For me, anyway, the importance of the Ascension becomes clear with the realization that this is an insider feast. The message of the Ascension is for believers – always has been. Accounts of the Ascension are found in Matthew, Luke and Acts and in all three versions, only the followers of Jesus got to see him disappear into the clouds or heard angel voices. Only the already convinced were included in the event. Only the people who had suffered the loss of their friend, who had seen the crucifixion, who had experienced his presence after the resurrection were allowed to be there for this ascending thing. And, quite frankly, through the years, it has been the insiders who have continued to remember and celebrate Ascension. Others don’t bother with it much.
Consider that in the middle ages, the Crusaders even claimed to have found the footprints of Jesus on the mountain where he stood last. Honestly, that discovery is a bit of a stretch since the crusaders arrived some thousand years after Jesus had stood there. Still, it speaks to the importance they placed on the event – and to their status as insiders. The Ascension mattered to them – so much so that they were giving their lives to securing the land on which Jesus had lived and died. Though their methods were horrible and the results tragic, the ordinary crusader felt he was doing something holy and laudable. They built a footprint shrine of some kind over the footprints in the sand. Muslims - who also consider themselves insiders to the story of Jesus - believed them and made the Christian shrine into a mosque – which is still there – the mosque shrine to the feet of Jesus. Artists depict the Ascension in various ways but one of the most creative is a stained glass window I heard about in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The window shows only Jesus’ feet at the top with the disciples gathering underneath looking surprised. I am told the window has a comical tone to it. Sounds like it. But, what captures my imagination in both these examples is the presence of feet. Makes sense, of course, if you think about it. After all, according to the scripture, the last view the disciples had of Jesus was of his feet. The symbol of Christmas is a crib – or an angel or a star. The symbol for Easter is a cross with a while cloth draped around it. The symbol for Pentecost is a bird and tongues of fire. And the symbol of the Ascension is – yes, feet.
However, what I’d suggest is that while the feet of Jesus disappearing in the sky is one symbol, the real power of the Ascension for insiders of every age, is found in the question of the angels . . . why are you watching the feet of Jesus? Get up on your own two feet and take off . . . there is work to do!! Lots of work! Get to it! In the end, that’s the title of the sermon . . . From Staring to Starting. The ‘t’ makes a big difference! The meaning of the Ascension is found not so much in what it says about Jesus and his disappearing feet but in what it tells us – the insiders - about what to do with our feet today. The work of Jesus has yet to be finished. It continues still and we insiders need to get busy!
Last fall, we had the opportunity to hear one of the foremost New Testament scholars of our time right here at St. Paul’s. (A commercial here - through our Lecture series, we bring cutting edge speakers to town. For just the cost of a ticket we get to hear some of the best thinking of our time right here! No need to travel. No need to get a hotel room, eat meals out, buy an airline ticket. The speaker comes here – and the opportunity is phenomenal! Be sure to put the last weekend of September on your calendar this year.) Anyway, last fall, our lecturer was Dr. Amy Jill Levine – a New Testament Scholar who also happens to be a practicing Jew. Someone in our audience the first night asked her the question that was likely on many minds. Why don’t Jews follow Jesus? I remember her smiling and responding . . . We don’t follow Jesus because we don’t believe he is the Messiah. However she then broadened the question. “What you might really want to know is why Jews do not believe Jesus was the Messiah. After all, he said some wonderful things, taught good things, and challenged people to follow the prophets. He was clearly in line with his Jewish faith. He was inspiring and spirit filled.” Then she paused and said something that has haunted me ever since. “The reason we do not believe he was the Messiah is, quite simply, that we believe the Messiah will usher in the Messianic age. It will be an age when the poor are fed, the homeless have a home, the rich share their wealth. With the coming of the Messiah there will be justice – a biblical economic justice where all will have enough - and peace will come on earth. How can Jesus have been the Messiah when that clearly has not happened? Not even among Christians?”
Her comment was not an indictment of Jesus. He did his part. Her comment was - and is - a challenge for all of us who call ourselves Christian. Christians through the years have spent far too much time pointing at the feet of Jesus in the sky and asking people to believe in those disappearing feet rather than getting on their own two feet and getting on with things, doing what Jesus did. We tend to be like those disciples who stood there looking up, pointing to the sky, ignoring the message of the angels who said don’t look up there . . . there’s work to do out here. Don’t stare . . . start!
And I am convinced that what the angel had in mind was not some fancy far off thing. They were challenged, as are we, to start changing the world now. The sick are still sick. The hungry are still hungry. The homeless are still homeless and the disciples of Jesus are meant to do something about it. Today we are highlighting the work of our Church and Society committee. In a sense, they might be called our ‘Ascension Committee.’ Our ‘feet folks.’ This is the group that tirelessly reminds us to do precisely what the angels demanded . . . in little and big ways, we are challenged to be about the business of changing the world, of bringing about the ‘messianic age’ right here, right now.
One practical and simple way to do that is with the postcard in our bulletin today. Take it home with you (do not recycle this!) Then, as it says, in the next days and weeks, read the newspaper or newsletters or watch TV or check web sites and gather the names of people whose good deeds, whose service to the poor, inspires you. Write those names on the postcard and keep it accessible to you - like on a refrigerator door on a bathroom mirror. Let it remind you to remember these folks in prayer often.
Another one of the exciting things we are taking leadership on as a church community is the process called ‘Family Promise.’ This is a nationwide program the challenges church people to stop staring at the problem of homelessness and start doing something about it - one family at a time.
Show DVD.
In 2009, there were 151 Family Promise Affiliates. Two of those are the programs in both Billings and Bozeman. Our United Methodist churches are actively involved in both places. 10,822 guests in 3,450 families were served. Of those served, 59% were children and 44% of the children were under 5 years of age. The average length of stay is 62 days - or two months. The way the program works is that the local affiliate board (Liz Moore, Marcia Armstrong and I are all serving on the board at this time) hires a director, purchases beds and a van for transporting those beds and the families and finds a Day Center - a kind of home base for families during the day. Families are screened before they are admitted into the program. Each host church houses and feeds up to 11 people for a week, beginning on Sunday evening. During the day, the children attend school while parents go to work if they have a job or work at getting a job. The director assists with that and also helps them look for permanent housing. Churches are responsible to provide meals and a temporary, safe home for the families during the week they spend at that church. Marcia Armstrong is our Family Promise Coordinator and she will be facilitating the process for us here at St. Paul’s. Family Promise of Greater Helena plans to receive our first families in January, 2011. But, there is much that must happen for us to get ready. As the weeks unfold, we will need to raise money and gather lots of volunteers to make Family Promise work. And we need prayers for the success of the program - and that more churches in our area will dare to risk being involved. We need 12 churches and we have 5 so far . . . St. Paul’s, Evangelical Covenant, St. Peter’s, First Christian, First Baptist.
We celebrate the Ascension today by taking the message of the angels to heart . . . as followers of Christ, we must move from staring to starting, from talking to doing, from blaming to claiming our part in the work of transforming the world. That last glimpse of the feet of Jesus was meant to inspire action among those first followers, the insiders of yesterday. And the same challenge continues today. We are the insiders who need to get on with things for . . . if not us, who? If not here, where? If not now, when? Let the Messianic age begin!
