Reflections...

Meditations, Reflections, Bible Studies, and Sermons from Kowloon Union Church  

“Standing on the Promises”

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 28 May 2017,  Ascension Sunday, by the Rev. Dr. Judy Chan. The scripture readings that day were Acts 1:1-11, Ephesians 1:11-23.


Good morning. Last Thursday, May 25th was a special day in the life of the church. Not KUC in particular, but the Church universal. Last Thursday was Ascension Day. It celebrates Jesus’ ascension into heaven 40 days after his Resurrection. Ascension Day is a major feast day in many churches, falling between Easter and Pentecost in the Christian calendar. Some churches like the Catholics and Anglicans celebrate it on the Thursday, which is a public holiday in some countries. Others celebrate it three days later on the 7th Sunday of Easter, today.

I didn’t think I had ever celebrated the Ascension at Kowloon Union Church. Then Pastor Maggie reminded me that we had back in 2008 when Rev. Kwok Nai-wang was here, and she herself has preached on the Ascension. So I stand corrected. For all I know, some of you may preached on Ascension Sunday when I wasn’t around. But one thing I do know is I have never preached on the Ascension of Jesus in this pulpit or any pulpit. So I decided this morning to focus on the Scripture reading from Acts, Chapter 1 as a challenge to myself and a chance to learn something new.

One of the new things I learned right off is that churches like to do something special in worship for the Ascension. For example, every year in a Lutheran Church in the U.S., they fill up hundreds of white balloons with helium. They stuff them into big white bedsheets that have been sewn together. Eventually, the sheets began to fill out and get puffy like a giant cloud. Then they pin the clouds shut and release them to float above the sanctuary during the service. The pastor said it was a glorious sight to behold, but there were a couple of problems. One, the congregation kept looking up most of the time and ended up straining their necks. The other problem was they were so distracted by what was floating above them, they didn’t pay attention to the sermon. So this morning, I decided we’re not going for the cloud effect at KUC because one, I care about your health, and two, I want you to pay attention to the sermon!

I remember visiting the Holy Land back in the 1980s. Whenever pilgrims go there, one of the places that you’re always taken is the Chapel of the Ascension on the Mt. of Olives. This shrine is built over the very place they believe Jesus ascended to heaven. When you go inside the Chapel, there’s a slab of stone on the floor that’s said to contain one of his actual footprints – the right foot. Now, I know this is a sacred shrine, but I couldn’t help thinking at the time that it all felt like a tourist trap. How do we know that’s Jesus’ last footprint? And even if it is, what difference does it make? He’s not here anymore.

He’s not here anymore.

Thirty years later, I realize maybe that’s the point of visiting the Chapel of the Ascension, to remember where Jesus left this earth and to reflect on how and why it had to happen.

So let me share some thoughts this morning to help us make sense of an event in salvation history that the church affirms in the ancient Creeds and we can affirm in our modern hearts. For the story of the Ascension is also a story full of God’s wonderful promises – promises for earth and promise for heaven. And just like the first disciples on the Mt. of Olives, we are standing, standing, standing on the promises of God. 

Let’s start with earth. What’s the setting of the Ascension? According to Acts 1, it had been 40 days since the Resurrection. We often think of Jesus’ earthly ministry ending on Good Friday or Easter, but Acts tells us that the risen Christ spent 40 more days on earth with his disciples. He made multiple appearances in order to assure them he was alive and well, and to give them final instructions. Then it was time to say good-bye. And how did he take leave from them? Not by land. Not by sea. But by air. Acts 1:9 tells us Jesus was lifted up by a cloud and disappeared from their sight. He was taken directly up to heaven in a manner reminiscent of Enoch and Elijah in the Old Testament.

As 21st century Christians, we’re naturally a bit curious how that early space travel worked. Was it like the video game I heard about called Jump Jesus Jump? The risen Christ hops from cloud to cloud on his way to heaven. Well, no, because that game ends when Jesus misses a cloud and falls back down to earth. Then he has to start all over again. The real Ascension definitely was a one-way journey! And actually, we aren’t meant to know the details. That’s why there was a cloud – it was a sign of divine presence, and a way of hiding what we’re not allowed to see. All we need to know is that Jesus went to glory having completed his mission on earth.

You have to wonder, though, if those disciples on the ground were prepared for all this. Jesus had told them earlier that he must return to his Heavenly Father. But what’s the hurry? Remember they were traumatized after his death on the Cross. They believed all hope was gone. Now here he was back from the grave, just as he had foretold. Why must he go so soon? How could his work be finished when the Jews were still living under foreign occupation? Remember the last question they asked: “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”

Jesus surprised them with his answer: “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.” In other words, that’s not your concern, that’s God’s business. Then Jesus surprised them again, this time with a promise: “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.” In other words, get ready. It’s your turn now.

Can you see why Jesus needed to go away? As long as he was bodily present with his disciples, they would depend on him to lead the way. As long as his footprints were in Palestine, his disciples would never take their feet beyond the bounds of their own homeland and religion. In reality, the Ascension is not the end of Jesus’ mission but the start of the Church’s mission. In short, Jesus had to leave so the Church could begin. Or in the immortal words of St. Augustine: “Without God [we] can’t, but without [us] God won’t.”

So that’s one reason Jesus had to leave but that’s not all. Remember the Ascension’s not just about Jesus “going away”. It’s also about Jesus “going up”. Which brings us another promise. As Jesus was being lifted up on the cloud, two men in white robes appear beside the disciples. We assume they are angels, perhaps the very ones who spoke to the women at the empty tomb. And what do they say? “Gentlemen, what are you staring at? Jesus has gone to heaven, but we promise he’s coming back just the way you saw him leave.” He’s gone to heaven but we promise he’s coming back to get you.

Rosalind Brown of Durham Cathedral says, “Resurrection and ascension belong together. If there were no ascension, we would know that God raised Jesus from the dead but have no firm hope for ourselves…. The ascension completes the incarnation the Second Person of the Trinity who took on human flesh and was born among us has taken humanity into heaven, opening the door for us to enter heaven too.”[1]

Think about that. The risen Christ returned to heaven carrying a piece of our humanity with him. Isn’t that amazing? Sitting at the right hand of God is a Savior with nail scarred hands, a Master who washed dirty feet, a King who once wore a crown of thorns. He knows the world we live in inside and out – a world still hell-bent on living by the sword and dying by the sword, a world that exploits our pain and fears and mocks our sorrow and tears, a world daring anyone to come singing a song of love, faith, hope and peace. But that’s exactly what Jesus did. And because he did and lived to tell the tale, we have his promise that wherever we go, he has gone before us. And wherever he goes, he will come back and take us with him.

Let me tell a story to make that point crystal clear. It’s been around for a while, but it’s worth telling again. It reminds me of the parable of the Good Samaritan, so I call it the parable of the Good Friend.

A man had fallen into a deep pit and injured himself. Once he comes to his senses, he realizes there’s no way to get out by himself. It’s too deep to climb out, there are no ropes or ladders. But he can see the sky and hear noises above. “Help!” he yells when hears footsteps passing by. It’s a minister. The minister comes over to the hole, looks down, writes out a prayer, drops it in and leaves.

The man is distraught. “What am I going to do now?” Then he hears more footsteps. It’s a doctor. “Hey, get me out this hole!” the man calls. The doctor walks over and looks in the pit. Then she writes out a prescription and an exercise plan, drops it in the hole, and keeps on walking.

By this point, the man is beside himself. Finally, he hears one more person walking near. “Hello! I’m down here! Please help me!” It turns out to be his friend. “Oh, praise the Lord,” the man says. The friend stops, looks down the hole, and then jumps into the pit himself.

The man is furious. “What’s the matter with you?” he screams. “Now we’re both in this hole!”

“Yes,” said the friend. “But I’ve been here before. I know the way out.”

Wherever we go, he has gone before us. Wherever he goes, he will come back and take us with him. Praise the Lord.

I’d like to end this sermon where we started – at the Chapel of the Ascension in the Holy Land. As we said, this is the place that commemorates the last spot on earth that Jesus stood. But I had never realized it also marks the place where the faithful believe that Jesus will land when he comes again. Though the angels didn’t mention an exact location for the Second Coming, it does make sense. If someone has gone missing, wouldn’t you go back to the last place he was seen to look for him? But Jesus of course wasn’t really missing in action. He was just on home assignment. And his disciples weren’t supposed to stay on the Mt. of Olives waiting for him anyway.

But you couldn’t blame them if they had wanted to. After all, once Jesus was taken out of their sight, the picture didn’t look that great, on the surface. The great Episcopal preacher Barbara Brown Taylor says, there they were: “11 abandoned disciples with nothing to show for all their following. But in the days and years to come it would become very apparent what had happened to them. With nothing but a promise and a prayer, those 11 people consented to become the church, and nothing was ever the same again, beginning with them. The followers became leaders, the listeners became preachers, the converts became missionaries, the healed became healers. The disciples became apostles, witnesses of the risen Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit, and nothing was ever the same again.”[2]

So today, clouds or no clouds, let’s join our hearts with Christians around the world to celebrate the Feast of the Ascension, including with those who do so on the Mount of Olives to this very day. One Franciscan brother who lives in the Holy Land wrote in his blog at the conclusion of their services: “Many pilgrims climbed to the Chapel of the Ascension throughout the afternoon, night and early morning hours, finding there, along with a spirit of prayer, true joy. A wonderful way to enter into the waiting for Pentecost.” A wonderful way indeed. AMEN.




[1] Rosalind Brown, Sermon: Ascension Day, May 9, 2013. https://www.durhamcathedral.co.uk/worshipandmusic/sermon-archive/ascension-day
[2] Barbara Brown Taylor, “The Day We Were Left Behind,” Christianity Today, May 18, 1998. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1998/may18/8t6046.html

# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, May 28, 2017



<< Home

Archives

May 2004|July 2004|September 2004|November 2004|December 2004|April 2005|July 2005|August 2005|September 2005|October 2006|November 2006|December 2006|January 2007|February 2007|March 2007|April 2007|May 2007|July 2007|August 2007|September 2007|October 2007|November 2007|December 2007|January 2008|February 2008|March 2008|April 2008|May 2008|June 2008|July 2008|August 2008|September 2008|October 2008|November 2008|December 2008|January 2009|February 2009|March 2009|April 2009|May 2009|June 2009|July 2009|August 2009|September 2009|October 2009|November 2009|December 2009|January 2010|February 2010|March 2010|April 2010|May 2010|June 2010|July 2010|September 2010|October 2010|November 2010|December 2010|January 2011|February 2011|April 2011|May 2011|June 2011|July 2011|October 2011|November 2011|December 2011|January 2012|February 2012|March 2012|August 2012|September 2012|November 2012|December 2012|January 2013|February 2013|March 2013|April 2013|May 2013|June 2013|September 2013|October 2013|November 2013|December 2013|February 2014|March 2014|April 2014|May 2014|June 2014|July 2014|August 2014|September 2014|October 2014|November 2014|December 2014|January 2015|February 2015|March 2015|April 2015|July 2015|August 2015|October 2015|November 2015|December 2015|January 2016|February 2016|March 2016|April 2016|May 2016|June 2016|July 2016|August 2016|September 2016|October 2016|November 2016|December 2016|January 2017|February 2017|March 2017|April 2017|May 2017|June 2017|July 2017|August 2017|September 2017|October 2017|November 2017|December 2017|January 2018|February 2018|March 2018|April 2018|June 2018|July 2018|August 2018|September 2018|October 2018|November 2018|December 2018|January 2019|February 2019|March 2019|May 2019|June 2019|July 2019|August 2019|September 2019|October 2019|November 2019|December 2019|January 2020|February 2020|March 2020|April 2020|May 2020|June 2020|July 2020|August 2020|September 2020|October 2020|November 2020|December 2020|January 2021|February 2021|March 2021|April 2021|May 2021|June 2021|July 2021|August 2021|September 2021|October 2021|November 2021|December 2021|January 2022|February 2022|March 2022|April 2022|May 2022|June 2022|July 2022|August 2022|September 2022|October 2022|November 2022|December 2022|January 2023|February 2023|March 2023|April 2023|May 2023|June 2023|July 2023|August 2023|September 2023|October 2023|November 2023|December 2023|January 2024|February 2024|March 2024|
Archived sermons by the Barksdales

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?