There’s Nowhere to Go But UP!
May is a month filled to the brim with holidays and celebrations! In fact, one parody group now calls it Maycember! I have a feeling you know why. Mother’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, Memorial Day, Armed Forces Day, National Nurses Day. There are graduations, weddings, baby showers, and parties. I do realize that this morning is properly June 2nd. However, there is one terribly important (usually in) May holiday, that I could not let pass us by. Forty days after Easter, which this year fell on Thursday, May 30th, is Ascension Day, which we commemorate on the Sunday closest. The day when the church celebrates Jesus ascension to heaven and awaiting the power of the Holy Spirit to descend at Pentecost. Next week, we anticipate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost with the confirmation of seven young people. We give thanks to God!
Last December, Disney released the much-anticipated sequel to the beloved Mary Poppins movie fifty-five years, since the original film was released. Do you remember singing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Step in Time, and Chim Chim Cheere? If you have not yet seen it, Mary Poppins Returns has the little boy we all loved; Michael Banks all grown up! Michael, a recent widower, lives with three children, in his childhood home. Unfortunately, he more of an artist than an accountant and is about to lose the home. At just the right moment, the east wind brings Mary Poppins to help the family restore what is most important. I wanted to share with you a clip from nearer to end as the family has learned to aspire.
(CLIP)(1)
Nowhere to go, but up! Singing in ecstatic vision! As only Disney can capture. What a moving image this whole scene portrays. As Michael, his family, and the whole community are at the park celebrating. They are lifted by both the balloons and their imaginations in the film. I commend the movie to you for lots of family fun, musical enjoyment, and for all of you who might enjoy flexing your theological imagination around rising in power. In both Mary Poppin films, Mary Poppins comes to teach the family how to care about and love one about one another. She leaves by ascending, when the family is beginning to uncover their own understanding. They are aspiring to a life lived together after grief. As we keep our eyes on Jesus, we too aspire to live like Jesus! Let your theological imagination run wild!
“He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the father.” Our creeds teach us to say. Ascension theologically is less about was Jesus as Christ lifted up beyond moon and stars, Mars and Juniper. Jesus rose in power. Jesus’s power is visible to us and known to us in symbols like the clouds. So then clouds as a symbol of the presence of the God. Think of pillar of cloud and fire that stay with the children of Israel in the desert or the cloud and smoke that filled the Temple when God became present in a new way). Jesus has gone into God’s dimension, and he will return more fully in the future. God’s kingdom is both here and now as well as then and there.
Our story today began in Luke and continues in Acts. Luke-Acts is one book with one author, who is recording the life of Jesus and the work of the early church.
The author even takes the time to paint an image for us of the disciples looking at the sky with their mouths open wide as Jesus ascends! The Mount of Olive is attributed to be the traditional site of Jesus’ Ascension. It is about 2500 ft. above sea level at its highest peak. Prior to be lifted up into the clouds, Jesus led his followers up the mountain. They are as close to Jesus as anyone has been.
But Jesus surprised them! Jesus surprises at every turn. His teachings surprised them. You want us to give up everything we have and follow you? The disciples were surprised when Jesus talked about his own death. How could the kingdom come? They were sure that his crucifixion was the end. It had all gone horribly wrong! Jesus surprises at every turn.
The women chose to accept that if Jesus had died, then their role was to anoint his body. They went to do their job and found there was no body there to anoint. Jesus was risen from the grave. HE IS ALIVE! Jesus surprises at every turn.
The women went to share the good news of Jesus’ resurrection with joy and amazement with the disciples. Their encounter with Jesus was life changing. But the disciples needed to experience for themselves. Jesus surprises at every turn. Jesus showed up for them.
In those forty days, they could not remember and understand the scriptures that had been taught to them. Jesus walked among them, opened their minds, expounded upon, and opened the scriptures. Jesus surprises at every turn.
One morning as they got up and walked to a mountainside for teaching, Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would be coming. Jesus ascended into the air. Jesus surprises at every turn.
The disciples were then on their own! Just like us, Jesus trusts them to discern and be fully able to lean on Jesus, and care for the world well! We are trusted, not necessarily, because of who we are, but because of who God is.
To aspire is direct one’s hopes. On this Ascension Sunday, we are reminded that we aspired to live like Jesus. We direct our hopes to Jesus. As we come to the communion table, as we receive our feasibility study, as we walk with those who are graduating, as we pray for those who are ill, as we celebrate with newlyweds, we direct our hopes to Jesus. Nowhere to go but UP!
Like those first disciples, we bless God through praise. We keep our eyes on Jesus aspiring with hope as we wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. And then we get to God’s work.
This is the Gospel of Lord Jesus. Thanks be to God. Amen.
(1) (1) Mary Poppins Returns
New Testament Lesson: Acts 1:1-11
In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “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.”
Gospel Lesson: Luke 24:44-53
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, June 2 ~ Saturday, June 8
Sunday: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8. Consider that you are called to be a witness, who is called to tell the stories of how God is moving in your life and in the lives of others. Consider how you can share those stories in your home, your work, with your family, your friends, and those friends you have yet to meet.
Monday: “While Jesus was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.” Acts 1:10. God never leaves us or forsakes us. Where can you praise God, because God is providing resources where you need them?
Tuesday: “They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards 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.’” Acts 1:11. God calls us to contemplative moments, and some are called to lives of contemplation. Pray for discernment how to live love in action.
Wednesday: “Then Jesus said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures” Luke 24:44-45. Jesus expounded the scriptures, so that even after three years the disciples would know more. Consider your own scriptural study. Where can you learn more?
Thursday: “You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so, stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24:48-49. As our confirmands prepare for confirmation on Sunday, pray for these seven young people who will publicly profess their faith.
Friday: “Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy;” Luke 24:50-52. Consider how Jesus left the disciples with a blessing. Offering people blessings changes our interactions. Try blessing people today.
Saturday: “and they were continually in the temple blessing God.” Luke 24:53. Blessing God blesses people! Where today can you share God’s blessings with other people?