En el nombre de Dios, nuestra vida, nuestra protección, y nuestra paz… In the name of God, our life, our protection, and our peace. Amen.
The confluence of the Feast of the Ascension and Wear Orange Sunday may seem odd at first. It did to me - until I listened for the Spirit and realized that the need for Wear Orange Sunday is a consequence of the spiritual issue raised in the Feast of the Ascension. I’ll explain…
We often approach this story of the ascension like a movie. In this movie, we see the disciples hanging out with post-resurrection Jesus on the beach (which is from John, btw, not Luke). Jesus is demonstrating that he is real by eating with them. Everyone knows that ghosts can’t eat fish.
As they dine, Jesus reminds them that John the Baptist told them that Jesus would baptize them with the Spirit and fire, and Jesus says this would happen for them in just a few days. Then he commissions them as witnesses of all these things, instructing them to stay together until the Holy Spirit of God acts again, empowering them.
Then he blesses them and is carried up by a cloud into heaven. Two men in white (presumably angels) appear and ask the disciples why they are staring up toward heaven. They tell the disciples that Jesus, who “has been separated from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."
Ever since, we’ve been waiting for Jesus to float back down from heaven on a cloud and fix (or end) the world once and for all.
End of movie. Sound about right?
The thing is, the Scripture tells a very different story - a story that is harder to tell, so we simplified it, combining bits of Scripture with explanations that made sense. Then we began to believe that this simplified version was the real story.
The real story in Scripture is about how Almighty God, who is Trinity in Unity, guided the disciples in their journey of faith; a journey that led them from fear to great joy; from the darkness of their limited human understanding to enlightened hearts.
It’s the same journey we’re on now, so this matters. Let’s retell this story with a little more context from Luke, without simplifying it.
Jesus has died, and the last everyone knew, he was in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. Then the women come and announce that the tomb is empty, but the disciples didn’t believe the women, calling their proclamation an idle tale.
Then two of the disciples head out on the road to Emmaus, where they encounter the risen Christ. They don’t know it’s him until he breaks bread with them. Afterwards, they remembered how their hearts were on fire as he opened their minds to understand Scripture.
Next, these two find the eleven and as they’re telling them of their experience with the risen Christ, Jesus appears to them all and invites them to touch him, “for a ghost does not have flesh and bones.” The disciples were at once disbelieving and still wondering, so meeting them where they are, Jesus says to them, "Have you anything… to eat?" This is where today’s gospel picks up the story.
Jesus reminds the disciples of his earlier teaching that everything in the law of Moses must be fulfilled. Jesus opens their minds to understand how he is the fulfillment, and commissions them to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sin in his name, starting in Jerusalem and going out to the whole world.
He tells them to stay together during this liminal time, until they are “clothed with power from on high.” I love the definition from the Greek of the word “power” as it is used here. It is “the ability to effect all the purposes of rectitude and wisdom.” How’s that?!
This promised power that God will place within us, around and over us, will be evident to others - like clothing that identifies the work of its wearer. This power will be the ability to bring about God’s intent through righteousness (that is, right relationship with God and others); with experience, knowledge, and judgment that proceeds from our unitive relationship with God, a relationship of common purpose and action.
Then Jesus blesses them and is carried up into heaven, but he did not float out of their sight. The original Greek says that while he was blessing them, he was offered up, the way a sacrifice is lifted up and placed on an altar, bearing their sins by imputation.
And they worshipped him - a startling statement, because only God is worshipped. This means that the new understanding given to them by God is that Jesus isn’t just a really great rabbi and teacher. He’s a divine reality, God Incarnate, who brings salvation by the forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to God. This new understanding filled them with so much joy, they couldn’t stop praising God together in their community of faith.
This is the end of the gospel version, but Luke tells the story again in the first chapter of Acts to the non-specified “Theophilus,” which means “friend of God,” filling in some details. For example, in the Acts story, Luke says Jesus reminded them of his teaching that they would be baptized with fire, which would happen just a few days from then. Fire, of course, is Bible-talk for the presence of God, and this points to Pentecost.
The disciples ask Jesus, When are you going to fix this and restore the kingdom of Israel? Knowing that they still are unable to perceive the bigger picture that salvation is for the whole world for all time, and not just for them in this moment in their history, Jesus responds by telling them they can’t know the seasons of the movement of the plan of God. That is beyond human ability.
But they will be given power when the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity, comes upon them, literally breathes on them, empowering them to be Jesus’ witnesses, proclaiming repentance and the forgiveness of sin in his name, starting in Jerusalem and going out to the whole world.
As Jesus said this, he was lifted up and this time, a cloud took him from their sight. A cloud symbolizes divine action that is beyond human understanding. Luke is saying that the disciples’ current understanding of Jesus, was taken from them by divine action, and a new, deeper, broader understanding was about to be given them.
So, the Scriptural story of the Ascension is about the disciples on whom God acted, bringing them to a deeper, divinely inspired understanding of Jesus, our Scripture, and their common purpose with God. We are now, as they were then, endued with this same power by the Holy Spirit.
But when we are in the unitive relationship with God in Christ established by Jesus at his Ascension, our minds are opened and our hearts are enlightened, so we know we have a common purpose with God. We know that we are not alone and are protected by God.
We hear Jesus’ continual reminder: “Do not be afraid. Do not let your hearts be troubled.” We live as part of the unitive community of God, a community of all nations and peoples, so we don’t need to protect ourselves at the expense of another member of the community of God.
Every single experience we have on this earth enables us to continue to invite God to open our minds and enlighten our hearts even more, further empowering us to trust and participate in the bigger picture of God’s loving plan of reconciliation for the whole world. We can, therefore, stop worrying about ourselves, our survival, and our present moment in history.
Instead, we can get on with our work: witnessing the love of Christ by our words and our lives; living in a community that is expanded to include all whom God has made, just as God made them; praising God continually together, and knowing by faith, not by human understanding, that God’s judgment is forgiveness and reconciliation through Jesus Christ.
When we share that good news in the world, we make space for others to accept God’s forgiveness, healing, change the course of their lives, and live as one with us in the unitive community of God. Amen.
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