"The Handoff"

Acts 1:6-14

Rev. Everett L. Miller

William Willimon, who is a Methodist bishop and the former Dean of the Chapel at Duke Divinity School, tells a funny story that he heard from an Episcopalian friend of his, which he calls Pastor Ed. Pastor Ed tells a story of when he was in seminary. One year on Ascension Day, the dean, the professors and all the students were in the chapel celebrating the Ascension. There was a boys choir singing Deus Ascendit, which means literally “God went up” in Latin, as the procession left the chapel, led by clouds of incense. Unbeknownst to all of the worshippers, one of the more mischievous seminary students had acquired one of those cheap hollow plastic statues of Jesus and put some sort of rocket device in it. As the procession came out of the chapel he lit the fuse and hid in the bushes. The statue shot up out of the shrubs with smoke and sparks, almost hitting some of the people as it ascended up into the air. It finally landed on top of the roof of the dorms and went out. When the dean asked him what in the world he was thinking when he did it he said sarcastically that he simply wanted to dramatize his belief in the reality of the ascension. The ascension was, in some sense, a joke to him. And even though what he did is kind of funny, it shows that the image of the ascension is not one that is always taken seriously.

Within the Presbyterian Church and most other Protestant churches, the Ascension of Jesus Christ, meaning when Jesus ascended to heaven, which we read of today in verses 9-11, is somewhat ignored both in Church doctrine and in the church year. For instance, how many of you knew that this past Thursday was Ascension Day, which is celebrated in the Catholic, Orthodox, and Episcopalian churches as a holy day? I’ve never celebrated it in my life and I had to check my calendar just to verify the date of it. But the ascension is something in which we say we believe every week when in the Apostles’ Creed we say that Jesus “ascended into heaven.” So really, what does the ascension mean to us? Does it inform our faith in Jesus Christ or does it just come across as some strange story of a Mary Poppins Jesus popping open a black umbrella and floating up into the sky?

In our passage today, Luke tells us that “[Jesus] was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” This may seem a little strange to our modern minds, but when we understand Luke’s use of biblical imagery then we begin to comprehend just how important the ascension is for our faith in Jesus. The truth of the matter is that if we get stuck on the fact that Luke tells us that Jesus went up into the sky and how that doesn’t match up with our modern knowledge that heaven isn’t up in the sky because we’ve seen pictures of the earth from outer space, we are missing the point. What Luke is telling us here is that Jesus went to be with God the Father in that realm we call heaven and for a very specific reason. After all, in the Apostles’ Creed we don’t just say “he ascended into heaven” but we add to that “and is seated on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” A divine transition was occuring.

He was taken in a cloud, which again may seem kind of strange to us, but just about any time a cloud is mentioned in the Bible we know that it represents God’s presence. There was a cloud that guided the children of Israel in the wilderness. There was a cloud that enveloped Mt. Sinai when Moses received the Ten Commandments. The prophet Daniel had a vision of the coming Son of Man who would ride upon the clouds. At Jesus’ transfiguration Jesus, Peter, John, and James were also enveloped in a cloud. God was present in a very real way on that day because the ascension is a moment of great significance marking the transition from Jesus’ earthly ministry to when Jesus went to rule as the great priest-king of the universe, ruling, judging, and praying for all of creation.

John Calvin wrote, “(Jesus) truly inaugurated his Kingdom only at his ascension into heaven.” Calvin goes on to say, “he withdrew his bodily presence from our sight not to cease to be present with believers still on their earthly pilgrimage, but to rule heaven and earth with a more immediate power.” Although we probably don’t think about the ascension all that much compared to the crucifixion and the resurrection, Jesus’ ascension to heaven is essential for our salvation. If it had not happened he would not be in a position to claim us as his own. When the world seems like it is crumbling around us, it is good to know that ultimately Jesus Christ is in charge and if it wasn’t for the ascension he wouldn’t be in charge.

But this is all easy for us to say, looking back on that day from 2,000 years later. Surely the day of Jesus’ ascension was bitter-sweet for the disciples. They weren’t surprised that it happened; they knew it was coming. After all, remember what we heard Jesus say last week: “the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” A little bit after that he tells the disciples, “If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.” But when it does actually happen we don’t really hear of the celebrating or rejoicing. They just kind of stand there, looking up into the sky. I imagine that even though they knew that day was coming that they hoped it never would. It’s like the day when your child graduates and moves out. Even though you’ve known it was coming for eighteen years it still hits you like a ton of bricks. Like a parent standing in the road watching their grown child drive off into the distance, the apostles are staring up into the sky thinking, “Now what?”

As they stand there dumbfounded, two men in white appear to them. This is presumably the two men in white from the empty tomb in Luke’s Gospel. They say, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” These two men seem to be asking them, “There’s work to be done. Why are you just staring up into the sky?”

I have never been able to verify the truth of the story I’m about to tell you, but it makes the point so with that disclaimer I’ll tell it to you anyway. A classmate of mine in seminary told me about the huge, magnificent Mormon temple in Salt Lake City. On top of the towering spires of the temple are beautiful gold angels that reflect the sunlight. People would come from all over the world to see the temple and its golden angels. They would stand below staring up into the sky, backing up more and more trying to get a better angle so that they could see all the way to the top. Many times people would back up so much without paying attention that they would back up right into the busy street and get hit by cars. It happened so often that the Mormon Church ended up buying the street from the city and closing it off so that people could look up at the temple without getting hit by cars.

Again, I don’t know if that is true, but you can see how it makes the point. The disciples in our passage are in danger of becoming like the people who are staring into the sky, not paying attention to anything that is going on around them, like the people who keep backing up and backing up, oblivious to the cars speeding toward them. They have to tell themselves, “Quit staring up at heaven. Look around at what is going on here. Remember what Jesus said just before he ascended. “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

So while Jesus has ascended so that as the Westminster Confession claims, he can “receive gifts for [humanity], raise up our affections [there], and to prepare a place for us,” he hasn’t left the disciples without a sense of purpose or without direction. He’s told them that the Holy Spirit is coming who will give them the strength and courage for their mission and he’s told them what that mission is. It is no less than to take the gospel to the entire world starting right where they are. He will no longer be with them. From now on he is going to be working through them. The ascension is, in a matter of speaking, the great handoff from Jesus to the Church.

A book I read this week put it this way: “It’s like the son who has been working in his father’s business and one day the father comes to the store and says, “Son, I’m not going to be coming in as much any more; you can handle things here.” It was a day the son knew was coming, but could he handle it? Could he keep up the things that his father had begun?” So right here in the first chapter of Acts we know that this book is going to be different from the gospels that are placed before it. Jesus isn’t going to be showing up in the flesh anymore. This book isn’t going to be all about what Jesus did when he walked this earth. Instead, this book is going to be about what Jesus did through the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church to spread God’s love and acceptance to the world. The great handoff had occurred.

Standing as descendents of the faith of the apostles, we too have been handed the very mission of Jesus. Encouraged and empowered by our belief that Jesus really did ascend into heaven and that he does sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, as well as our experience with the Holy Spirit, we take on this mission starting right where we are. Although I hope that as many of us who can and who feel led to will get to go to places like New Orleans or the Czech Republic or South America to do mission work, the truth of the matter is that it is right here in Newkirk where we are begin to live out Christ’s mission everyday. The handoff has occured. What will we do with it?