“Ascension of the Cosmic Christ”

Text: Acts 1:1-11

a sermon by the Rev. Kevin Scott Fleming

Sunday, May 16, 2021

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH - EVANSVILLE, INDIANA

The season of Easter comes to an end today as we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord. In the recent past, the Ascension of the Lord was hardly ever noticed. Falling usually, as it does, in the middle of a week, the possibility of gathering a congregation for another special service, relegated the story of the Ascension to a mere mention in sermons preached after the fact. But the Ascension is important for a few reasons. First, it solves a problem. Sooner or later, like at a high school reunion, the question would be asked, “Whatever happened to Jesus?” Did he die after the resurrection? Did he simply fade away into the background as the movement he started took hold and gained speed? The Ascension solves that problem, as we say in the words of the Apostles’ Creed: “He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” The Ascension is the culmination of the Resurrection. As God raised Jesus from the tomb, so God raised Jesus up from the earth. As Jesus was restored to life, in the Resurrection, so, in the Ascension, Jesus is exalted and glorified above all others. The Ascension is also the culmination of the incarnation. As the Word became flesh, and the flesh was killed and raised, now the flesh is taken up from the earth. Am I suggesting that Jesus still has a body? Yes, I am. In the Letter to the Philippians, we read:

© 2021 Kevin Scott Fleming But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. (Ephesians 3:20-21) Around 400 C.E., Augustine wrote these words on the ascended resurrection body of Jesus and our limitations to question it: But by a spiritual body is meant one which has been made subject to spirit in such wise that it is adapted to a heavenly habitation, all frailty and every earthly blemish having been changed and converted into heavenly purity and stability…(A Treatise on Faith and the Creed, chapter 6) In the 20th century, Karl Barth taught us that Christ maintains his humanity …to all eternity…It is a clothing which He does not put off. It is His temple which He does not leave. It is the form which He does not lose.” (Church Dogmatics, volume four, pages 100-101) Yes, Jesus still has a body, but it is a transformed and glorified body. And we will have bodies, too – glorified and transformed to be like Jesus Christ. The Ascension is also critical for the like of the church. Without the Ascension of the Lord, the Day of Pentecost cannot come. In the lesson for the morning, we heard: 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) In John’s gospel, Jesus tells us: Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. (John 16:7-11)

So, the Ascension of the Lord is an important day in the life of the Church and the disciples that comprise it. Such critical moments are all too often better expressed in poetry than in prose. When words are masterfully employed, we are lifted beyond literal meaning into a world of visions and revelation. Such are the words of Liz Delafield of the Iona Community’s Wild Goose Publications. I have given you the prose. Now let Liz give you the poetry. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

The eternal Cosmic Christ. The Word. The wisdom of God.

Matter was made first as the Word was spoken, as the stars and planets were given birth. The Word was with God, and through the Word all things came into being.

In every star, every leaf, every cloud, every molecule, is the Word, the Christ, the Holy wisdom from the very beginning. In all time, in all places, in all life was the Word, and in one time, in one place, in one life, a carpenter named Jesus. In feet that felt the dust of our earth between his toes, in a voice that could silence storms, in hands that touched the diseased. Word, wisdom, light.

But powers not from the Word, wisdom, and light; but from coercion, force, and greed, could not stand to see the Word of God shown in the self-giving but powerful love of a human life, and they killed him.

But love is greater than hate, and death could not silence the Word.

He ascends beyond the one form of matter, into all matter. Do not try to look beyond the clouds to see where he has gone, because, look, he returns to you, the Cosmic Christ, in clouds, stars, planets, trees, gamma rays and oxygen molecules, beyond the body of a man, into the body of all who make their being with God.

And he is with us always, in the expanding, evolving wonder of our cosmos. His breath is in the air that surrounds us, his sweat and tears in every river, every sea, every raindrop. His voice is in all who cry out in need, his body in every piece of bread shared with the hungry.

Once again, power not from the Word, wisdom and light, but from coercion, force, and greed, set out to destroy the Word. In a quest for wealth, polluting the air and the seas, silencing the voice of the needy, refusing to share bread.

The eternal Cosmic Christ, the Word, the wisdom of God, cries out again for new life, for resurrection. The Word refuses to be silenced, rising to new life, wherever flowers bloom through cracks in a wasteland, wherever hope can be found in despair. Once again love is greater than hate. Where his disciples cry out for justice – and if his disciples keep silent, the stones of the earth will shout aloud. Death cannot silence the Word.

Look around, and listen. Don’t look for him beyond the clouds. He will return.

Prose and poetry. Dogmatics and vision. The Ascension of the Cosmic Christ. For now and evermore. Amen.