| Главная » Файлы » Проповеди |
31.05.2009_Ascension Sunday
| 01.06.2009, 10:40 | |
| Rev. Tatiana Cantarella Psalm 47; Ephesians 1:15–23; Luke 24:44–53; Acts 1:1–11 “WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN” Ascension Sunday, May 31, 2009 We all know a story about a wonderful Mary Poppins – a nanny of rather troublesome Michael and Jane Banks. Mary came to them, descending from the sky on her big black umbrella. She was not a regular nanny, and although she did teach them good manners, she also opened to the kids much more about life and relationships. She brought an incredible healing joy to this rather dysfunctional family, but the time comes when Mary must go, leaving her charges, Jane and Michael, behind. The wind catches her huge, black umbrella, lifting her into the air, and her dear friend, the chimney sweep/angel Bert, watches her sail up and away. He winks at her and says, "Good-bye Mary Poppins! Don't stay gone too long…” And although it is the end of the movie, we are left with a feeling that the story is not over yet and something amazing is still awaiting everyone ahead. It is just such a feeling that characterizes the Ascension event of which Luke tells us today at the end of his Gospel and in the first lines of the book of Acts. It is a feeling that one has when saying good-bye, on the one hand, but with a feeling of expectation that this absence will not be long. The Ascension is a story, which is filled with the sense that much is still unfinished and lies yet ahead, yet we often view the Ascension more as the end of the story and ministry of Jesus. Throughout the three years of his earthly ministry Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God and taught His disciples. He went through the events of the Passion Week, suffered, and died. Then He rose from the dead, conquering death, and turned the disciples’ despair into renewed hope. He appeared to His disciples and showed them proofs of His resurrection and continued to tell them about the Kingdom of God. For forty days Jesus appeared to them, explaining time and again all the events and everything that was spoken about Him in the Scriptures, and opened their minds to understand all He has accomplished in His death and resurrection. That definitely bolstered their faltering hopes; displacing despair with hope. Jesus gathered them, telling them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father - for something greater than what they experienced thus far. The disciples are impatient for what is to come, anxious to get what they’ve been waiting for the Lord to do, to see the fulfillment of all their hopes and expectations and they ask joyfully, “are you now going to restore the Kingdom to Israel?” Even now, after all the resurrection events the disciples cannot understand what the Lord is doing in Jesus Christ. All they can imagine is their immediate relief from all their troubles and worries, the overthrow of those godless pagan rulers, and the establishment of God’s rule in Israel, in which His disciples will have a special place. They are partially right, given Paul’s words in his letter to the Ephesians, which we read today: Jesus “seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name” and all things will be subject to Him.” But what the disciples still could not understand was the significance of Jesus’ Ascension to His throne - to the right hand of God - and what He would accomplish in this Ascension. Jesus corrects their misunderstanding again, saying, “you look for a wrong thing, your thoughts are too limited, it is not only about the restoration of the kingdom of Israel, for much more is to happen. My Kingdom will not only supersede the boundaries of Israel but will include the neighboring Samaria and all people to the ends of the earth! And it will happen through you for you will be My ambassadors spreading my Kingdom all over the world!” Having said that Jesus was taken from them and ascended into heaven, disappearing in the clouds, while they stood amazed, trying to understand the meaning of what just happened. And together with them, we also participate in the Ascension of Jesus, also not understanding fully what it means for us and often wishing in our hearts for Jesus to be near us again, so He can teach us, speak to us and comfort us as He did with His disciples. So, what did happen in the Ascension and what does it mean? Nikolaj Lisovskij (a theologian), speaking about resurrection and ascension, said, “Resurrection completes the cycle of God’s coming to the earth and the words ‘Christ is Risen’ designate the victory of God’s Son over mortal deterioration and death. Ascension showed the people that all this was done for their sake and now the Son of man is ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God”. Essentially, Christ who ascended into heaven in human flesh, as if in our name, has also lifted us into heaven in Christ. “In Ascension our humanity - our flesh” - “was taken up” (Acts 1:11) “by the beloved Son of God into the very heart of God”. It is great news for us Christians and for the world for it means that we are loved, valued and held by God even deeper than we have imagined. It was not only the Son of God who has ascended, but in Him the whole of humanity was taken up to God, embraced by His redemptive purposes to transform our fragile human nature in Christ. Tertullian said “The Ascension is a guarantee that we will all find resurrection eventually in Christ.” It is the evidence that humans are destined for heavenly dwellings rather than for the darkness of the grave. In the resurrection, all of human life is brought closer to God, rooted deeper in Him, and transformed into His likeness. In the Ascension of Christ we begin to see humanity, which in all its depth and breadth is drawn near to the heart of God. This awesome promise should fill us with hope, but it is only part of the meaning of the Ascension. The events of the Ascension include not only “going up into the clouds of heaven” where we go to be with the Lord. We all know that, here in the material world, there is a law of nature that declares, “What goes up must come down.” Recently I saw one of my favorite soviet cartoons, called “the Great {dis-}Covery” where a piton, a monkey and an elephant are discussing the law of gravity. When the piton demonstrated it to the monkey by throwing a big nut which came down right on the monkey’s head she was not a happy camper. The piton said: “this nut fell on you because of the natural law”. “There is no such law as to hit anyone on the head”. “Yes, there is and it says tat when you throw something up, it will come right down on you”. The elephant: “I am sorry but this seems to be a very unjust law”. Monkey: “We don’t need this law? Where did it come from? Who asked for it?” Then a wise parrot explains that “the law was dis-covered” and they suggest to “cover it back”. Needless to say their efforts result in this nut falling on the piton’s head again. ☺ Many of us may have experimented with this law as children, tossing something into the air, thinking that if we throw it hard enough, it won’t come back. How greatly we were disappointed when, as we gazed skyward, it did come back – right between our eyes! What goes up must come down, and something similar is at play in the Ascension of Christ. His Ascension into heaven is only part of God’s plan, for according to the promise, when He goes away, the Holy Spirit will come down, and they are to wait for this moment, for it will change everything. He went away to be even closer to us. He was taken away from among us in order that he might come dwell within us. The Ascension heralded the end of Jesus Christ’s earthly life, but also the beginning of a new era, in which the relationship between Christ and the Church isn’t limited any longer by time and space. By the Holy Spirit, Christ is with all peoples in all times and places. Our humanity, which was taken up into heaven, is returned to us in glory. “While in Christ’s Ascension the world as we know it is constantly ending, in Christ’s Ascension also the world as God knows it is constantly coming”. God’s redemption is continuously coming down and filling the earth. In essence, in the events of the Ascension, Jesus goes away and we also abandon our earthly identity in favor of citizenship in heaven (as Paul said), but leaving, we return as the living, serving church. Through the living church, the whole world is returning to fullness of life in Christ and is awaiting the return of Jesus, who “will come in like manner, as we saw Him go up into heaven” (Acts 1:11). The Ascension is far from the end of the story of what Jesus came to accomplish, and the ‘going up’ is only a part of the story. This is why Luke says that the gospel tells how Jesus “began to do and to teach” (Acts 1:1). His earthly life and ministry, death and resurrection, and even ascension were merely the beginning of God’s plan of salvation for mankind. The Ascension heralded the fact that God continues to work for salvation of mankind through the His church, whose life is hidden with Christ in God. Often the problem with the church is that we get so distracted by that, which God has done for us personally, that we forget about what He’s doing through us in the world, which as yet knows him not. We savor the fact that in the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ God made us citizens of His Heavenly Kingdom, but don’t dwell on the fact that God gave us His Spirit, so that we might invite others, who are still under the curse of everlasting death, into His Kingdom. C.S. Lewis wrote that very often Christians, whom Christ has helped to overcome a sin or two by intervening in their lives, begin to think that they are sufficiently “good.” God has done what we asked of Him and now we’d like to be left in peace. The question isn’t, however, as Lewis says, whom we wish to become, but whom God wishes to make of us. Lewis challenges us to imagine ourselves as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first we understand what He is trying to do in us. He’s fixing the leaky roof, repairing a malfunctioning pipe, etc. We knew those things needed repair and we’re not surprised by His efforts. Then, however, He starts reworking things that we don’t understand. The explanation is in the fact that He’s building an entirely new house from the one we thought of; adding a new wing here, an additional level there, putting in towers, turning the gardens. We thought He’d make of us a decent little house, but He’s building a palace in which He Himself intends to live. This is how we often understand the death and resurrection of Christ – as something that is good for us personally. God fixes us up, straightens out our lives, accepts us into His Kingdom, and then, we expect to peacefully live out our lives here on earth. This was precisely what the disciples expected. They had learned a lot from Christ. He cleansed them with His blood and promised them the power of the Holy Spirit and they thought that all that He had done for them was it and now when He will establish their little world – their nation, they will live out their days in it until He comes back to take them to be with Him forever. But the Ascension of Christ didn’t simply adjust their lives and give them a guarantee that they’ll be in His Kingdom. His Ascension pulled them into a radical salvation and transformation of the world, in which God will change everything; not simply fixing those who believe in Him, but making them part of his “construction crew”, which is endowed with the power of the Holy Spirit to herald the news of God’s new creation – a new world – in which He Himself will dwell. The problem with the church is that so often it is so taken up by its problems that it loses the vision of the purpose given in the Ascension of Christ. We’re so busy with the routine business of church, resolution of our disagreements, conflict solving, cleaning up our own lives, that we completely forget that the church was formed and called to be a witness to that which God has done and is doing for the world. The book of Acts is a story about how the first church took the words of Jesus "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" and how it lived them out. But, the 28th chapter of Acts is not the completion of the acts of God through His church for the salvation of the world. In all centuries since, chapters are added to the story of Acts by Christians of all times and peoples, who’ve grasped the fact that the words “you’ll be witnesses to Me” were not addressed only to the first disciples, but to all readers, past and future, who at the end of the story of the earthly ministry of Christ have found themselves drawn into it; have become participants in the story that follows His Ascension. They – that is ‘we’ – are witnesses, who can’t simply put down the book as if it were a good novel and go back to our daily lives, but we’re called to spread the news about Christ, call others to repentance, proclaim divine forgiveness. We’re given power in the Holy Spirit as promised by the Father, as were the first disciples, to carry out God’s plan through His Church. This business is still ongoing. The mission isn’t complete. God will continue to work in the world until Christ returns. The story continues. God’s salvation is still a work in progress through His Church. Disciples of Christ are called to live in faithfulness and obedience, remembering that the miracle of God’s love and presence so radically revealed in the cross and the empty tomb is still at work, bearing the promise of further surprises and joys. We are called to witness, little realizing how the Holy Spirit lurks to transform all that we do and say into magnificent occasions for the outpouring of God’s love into the world. In His Ascension, Christ made real to us all that He had done for mankind while here on earth. He took us up with Him into the heart of God, who loved the world so much, that He gave his only begotten son that, all who believe in Him, should not perish, but have eternal life; to give us a heart like the Father’s heart; a heart that loves the world and longs to see its salvation. As He ascended, the Lord promised that the power of the Holy Spirit would descend on the Church, and thereby the Church would go back into the world with burning hearts, like the Heavenly Father’s heart, so that we wouldn’t be able to sit idle with arms crossed; so that we, like the apostles, could not but speak the things which we have seen and heard (Acts 4:20). | |
| Просмотров: 453 | Загрузок: 66 | Рейтинг: 0.0/0 | |
| Всего комментариев: 0 | |