North Shore Congregational Church May 4, 2008

The Rev. Karl D. Schimpf Ascension Sunday

Old Testament Lesson: Psalm 47

New Testament Lesson: Acts 1:6-11

If I said these words to you: "Look, up in the sky. It’s a bird! It’s a plane!" You would finish the line saying, "No, it’s Superman!" If I said these words: "To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall! Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!" Who would I be talking about? You would say… "Santa Claus."

One Father’s Day, my sons and I went up to the West Bend airport where they had an air show going on. The highlight of the show was a visit from an F-14 jet fighter that came across the field at ground level, and in the center of the airstrip turned into the sky going straight up until it disappeared, when both sound and sight were swallowed up in awe. It was amazing! I thought of this text as we kept looking for that jet to make one more cross of the field only to realize that the pilot wasn’t coming back.

Our text today concerns a story that only Luke tells in the second volume of his two-volume set, which we know as Luke/Acts. He has already mentioned it in his gospel. It is a story which some commentators suggest is absolutely necessary to bring completion to the chronicle of Jesus. There had to be a final moment when Jesus went back to the glory which was his. It had been forty days since the resurrection which is the biblical way of saying a long time. Clearly those days of post-Easter appearances of Jesus were special, the sort of thing that doesn’t go on forever. There had to be a definite end to such extraordinary manifestations, not just increased infrequency, until it became assumed that there would be no more. Therefore, Jesus gathered with his disciples in Jerusalem to terminate his Resurrection appearances and to prepare them to become, in the full sense of the word, his body the Church. I know that it is an absurd analogy, but what I want to suggest is that the Ascension recorded in Luke was a sort of ending statement like that associated with the Superman and Santa Claus stories that would have been very meaningful to the early church and still has meaning for us today.

There is a pilgrim site on the Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem which is called the Chapel of the Ascension dating from the second half of the 4^th century. In the 12^th century, it became known as the Ascension Mosque. It is a place where Christians of different rites celebrate their liturgies with respect to the feast of the Ascension, which is the liturgical holiday we celebrate today. It is said that the footprints of Jesus are still visible in the rock inside a small chapel there. I have been there. I have looked at the marks on the surface of the stone, and I must confess that a greater degree of pietism is required than I possess in order to be inspired by that place. It is not a location that draws me closer to Christ, and I have chosen not to include it as part of my pilgrim visits to the Holy Land. I think this is the first sermon I have ever preached on the Ascension of Jesus, and I don’t mean to imply that there are no lessons we can learn for this story. This is an event important to Christian faith for as the Apostles’ Creed says, "He ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty." I understand that we don’t believe in the three story universe which was the cosmology of the New Testament period where heaven was up and hell was down and earth was in between. We live today with a very different world view.

Nevertheless, the Ascension of Jesus affirms that the crucified and risen Jesus lives in the mystery and presence of God. The early Apostles were trying to say some very radical things to their world through this event. Think about it. It was their way of saying that Jesus is Lord of the universe, not Caesar. They were saying that the reign and authority of God is more real and more captivating than the power and pretensions of politics. They were saying that the Pax Christi, the Peace of Christ, is the destiny of creation; not the Pax Romana nor any other peace derived from the powers and principalities of this world. They were saying that the power of agape-love will overcome the power of death and that the grace of God in Christ Jesus trumps the despair and fear that threatened to engulf their world. They said these things because they believed them to be true and then sought to live them out in their daily lives in the between time of the departure of Jesus and the coming of the promised Holy Spirit while waiting for Jesus to return.

I am pretty sure that the footprints in the stone on that hill outside Jerusalem are not the footprints of Jesus. But I am equally certain that we who live in the between time of his leaving and his coming again are called to make footprints in the stone as faithful followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. For me, that’s what is important about reminding ourselves of the Ascension of Jesus: we are called to make footprints in the stone to the glory of God in the days in which we live. Those who experienced the Ascension would be told on the day of Pentecost that their assignment was to witness to Jesus in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. They were to make footprints in the stone for Jesus and we are called to do the same in our time.

We do that I think, by focusing on what is happening now, not on what is going to happen later; to live now in the way God intended us. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, "Let us, then, be up and doing, with a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait."

Following the Ascension, Scripture tells us that the disciples returned to Jerusalem. They stayed together and joined with the others and they prayed. In so doing, they prepared themselves for the tasks that would be theirs following their experience of the Holy Spirit.

Our footprints in the stone are determined by what we do in the in between time while we are waiting for something else to happen. Between jobs is an opportunity to go back to school. Between relationships might be a good time for some counseling. Between responsibilities that we are given provides us with a chance to actually rest and relax. And for those of us who are seeking to do God’s will, prayer is of central importance because prayer prepares us for the gift of the Spirit. In this age when we are so seduced by gimmicks and quick solutions - 99 ways to start a business or practical answers to marital problems - the real solution lies in having the Spirit of God work through us. Then we are equipped to make footprints in the stone as we move from being simply disciples of Jesus to Apostles of Jesus.

With that thought in mind, I am tending to think that the Chapel of the Ascension is not a bad place to take pilgrims in the Holy Land. The next time I am there, I am going to read this portion of scripture highlighting the words of the men in white: "Why do you stand looking up into heaven?" It is then that I will call attention to the task of making footprints here on earth as we live one day at a time. We need to keep the tracks fresh so that others will be able to follow. May the Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus, surprise us, revive us, and shape us into the Body of Christ. Amen!