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Sermon Archive

May 4, 2008

Ascension Sunday

Supreme Importance

Luke 24:44-53

The Reverend Richard E. Allen, Jr.

If you are ever in the Boston area, you might want to lengthen your stay and take a side trip to the little town of Quincy.  Quincy was the home of John and Abigail Adams, famous for their enduring devotion to each other, for their correspondence that continues to open a window to our country’s formative moments, and for being the first occupants of the White House while John served as our second president.  Their home still stands, and in it you can see the room where John Adams died, on July 4, 1826, exactly fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Their home was later the home of their son, the sixth president of our country, ambassador to Russia, member of the House of Representatives from his district – after his presidency, and the champion of the slaves from the Amistad in their landmark and victorious case before the Supreme Court.  Quite a family, this Adams family; and quite a place, their home.

But while you are there, be sure to stop by the church were the family worshipped, and beneath which many of them are buried, including both former presidents.  To be more accurate, only their mortal remains are buried there, as affirmed by the marble plaque embedded in the wall of that beautiful church.  Before noting John Quincy Adams’ accomplishments as a statesman, it affirms something of his faith and ours.  The monument proclaims, “Here lies all that could die of John Quincy Adams.” As this memorial affirmation implies, much of John Quincy Adams and his legacy remains.  In some part, at the least, the character of our country was shaped by his character and by the characters of others before and since.

Just so, Luke’s story of Christ’s ascension reminds us that we followers of Jesus, given life by our creator and sustained by the Holy Spirit, likewise descend from greatness.  And we are to remember and give witness to the greatness of God.  This living, loving God has called us to be nothing less than God’s very own.

Protestants, especially Methodists, have not made much of it historically.  A few years ago, a budding Methodist writer, having received a Doctor of Ministry in worship from Candler School of Theology at Emory University, began his piece in a national journal by noting, “Ascension Day falls on Thursday this year….” The piece generated an outpouring of smug corrections from the more liturgically minded, each of them a variation on a common correction.  The corrections varied, but unfolded generally thus:  “Ascension Day ALWAYS falls on a Thursday,” they laughed, “because it’s is always celebrated fifty days after Easter.  Duh.  Why is a Methodist writing about the ascension, anyway?”  In truth, though I read the article, I had not noticed. I, too, was raised Methodist, and I’m a child of my own meager liturgical history.

Still, despite my own commitment to broaden our spiritual horizons, we didn’t think we could convince many of you to make this past Thursday a time to put worship on your calendars, we decided to celebrate the ascension today. But then I had to wrestle with the meaning of the ascension.  I began to wonder, at least for myself, “What is this all about, anyway?  It’s a quaint story, with Jesus rising mysteriously from the hillside overlooking Jerusalem.  But what is it about?  What is Luke trying to tell us?”

At one level, I suppose, the story of Christ’s ascension is an explanation of what happened to Jesus, and why there is no memorial in Israel somewhere, with words to the effect, “Here lies all that could die of Jesus.”  “Where is Jesus now?” some may wonder.  His body having been raised on Easter, his resurrected body raised again to glory on the day of his ascension, this one is not with us.  He is now “at home” on a heavenly throne. No need to look for his bones.  Not here.

At another level, the celebration of the ascension is an explanation of one of the great mysteries of our Christian history.  The very presence of the church assumes that the disciples told their story of faith.  Yet they cowered so at the cross.  What changed the disciples, exactly?  What marked their transformation from the deserters who ran from the soldiers and their Lord on the night before his crucifixion to becoming witnesses of the resurrection and the power of Christ? It was their experience of the resurrection, of course. Yes.  It was that, at least in part.  But the story of the ascension completes the resurrection narrative:  once raised to new life, Christ is ultimately raised to supremacy.  He is restored to his rightful place of authority.  The disciples will see him again at the last judgment, as will we.  For now, the disciples have a new lease on life, new hope, and new power.

Here is the central point, I think.  This ascension story reminds us, in effect, that all is well.  Or, as the old proverb says:  “God is in God’s heaven, and all is right with the world.”  There is a spiritual peace born in this affirmation.  I was reminded of it in an email I received this past week.  After noting some of the difficulties being faced in her life, she then said wrote her own affirmation of hope in God’s order.  “I remind myself every day who I belong to and that God is still on the throne.  Then I know that all will be okay.”

Maybe the first disciples were transformed because their experience of the risen Jesus and their experience of his ascension both reminded them of the basic truth of faith:  “God is still on the throne.”  And perhaps as they came back into Jerusalem after having watched Christ return to glory, they said to themselves something like, “Well, we know now that all will be okay.”  Whether they said the words or not, we don’t know.  But they began to live with confidence, a confidence that gave birth to the church.  Because of their confidence then, we are here today.

And so the story comes back to us.  And like the first disciples, we have to make a decision.  The great 20^th Century Jewish mystic and theologian Abraham Heschel, who was, until his death our neighbor on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, wrote the same truth somewhat more theologically.  His is a pithy proverb, typical of his style:  “God is of no importance unless [God] is of supreme importance.”  (I Asked for Wonder:  A Spiritual Anthology, edited by Samuel H. Dresner, page 1.)

We may find this ascension story quaint, or we may find it empowering.  But its truth is challenging. For those disciples in Bethany, they knew that God, the very God they had known in Jesus, was now at the center of their lives.  As they waited for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, this much they knew.  God truly had their attention and their allegiance.  They could give their lives without reservation.

What about us? Each of us has stood at some time to watch as someone, or something, has ascended to the throne of our highest worship, our “supreme importance.”  Who sits on the throne of our hearts as we face our difficult days?  How we answer that question is what the ascension is about.  More important, our answer tells us also what our very lives are about.

Will you stand with me now, as we affirm that for us here in this room at least, God, and God alone, of supreme importance?

Amen.

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