Looking for Jesus (In All the Wrong Places)
“Looking for Jesus (in All the Wrong Places)”
By Rev. Jennifer Christenson
For Christus Lutheran Church, Greenville, Wis.
May 12, 2013
The Ascension of Our Lord
Acts 1:1-11 and Luke 24:44-53
“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”
Oh, those pesky men in dazzling white robes, always asking meddling questions. The guys in the white robes did it on the morning of Jesus’ resurrection when the women came to the tomb, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, he is risen…” And now in today’s reading from Acts they ask the disciples why they’re standing there gaping at the sky. “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”
In both cases, on Easter morning and on the day of Jesus’ ascension into heaven, the answer would have been quite similar: “Well, we’re looking there because that’s the place we last saw Jesus!” On Easter, it was in the tomb where the women had seen his body laid a few days earlier. For the disciples in today’s reading it was up in the sky…that is until that … cloud got in the way.
And, in both cases, the women at the tomb, and the men staring into the heavens, it turns out they were looking for Jesus in all the wrong places.
It might be helpful at this point to have a little recap. We’re now in the seventh week of the season of Easter, and a lot has happened at least as far as the gospel story goes. On Easter morning, of course, there was the joyful confusion of the disciples, both the men and the women, as the news of Jesus’ resurrection broke and spread. On Easter evening, the risen, no longer dead Jesus revealed himself to a guy named Clopas and another disciple somewhere along the way to Emmaus. Then, he finally showed up and revealed himself to the gathered disciples and ate some fish sticks to prove that he was really there and not a ghost or spirit.
And then, for forty days, according to the gospel-writer Luke, for forty Jesus showed up here, there and everywhere, teaching the disciples more about the kingdom of God, getting them ready for the time he’d no longer be present to them in the same way.
Which brings us to today’s readings from both the gospel of Luke and the one from Acts– Jesus’ strange and wondrous Ascension into heaven.
Before he leaves, Jesus gives his disciples one final instruction – and a really important one at that. He tells them, reminds them, declares to them: you are witnesses to these things. You are witnesses. And, even though the kingdom of God isn’t going to arrive in the way you’d hoped – that is, as a complete and total overthrow of the Roman empire – this kingdom, God’s kingdom, through YOUR witness is going to spread like wildfire to places that you don’t even know exist yet.
You are witnesses to these things, and witness to them you will once you have been clothed with the power on high (aka, the Holy Spirit).
And then, lickety-split, with one final blessing, Jesus floats up into the air and disappears into the clouds.
And here, truth be told, here is where it gets a little awkward for us modern-day believers. It seems so fantastical, so mythological, so weird. For one, it’s hard, particularly with the recent release of Iron Man 3 not to picture Jesus kind of shooting off into space, crying out “To infinity, and beyond!”
But, maybe it’s less awkward and strange than it seems. What does the text say: “As they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” A cloud took him out of their sight. Admittedly, that can seem like a way of saying that they simply lost sight of him the way you lose sight of a golf ball on a cloudy day.
But the cloud, perhaps, was there on purpose. In the Old Testament especially – the very scriptures that Jesus would have opened their minds to as the gospel of Luke reminds us – in the Old Testament a cloud often signified the presence of God. God often spoke to Moses out of a cloud, and the people of Israel were led by a pillar of cloud and fire in their wilderness wanderings.
So when Jesus got whisked away, and met a cloud, and was suddenly no longer visible to his disciples…perhaps that was Jesus returning to the Father – as was promised and predicted by him just like his death and resurrection were. That the disciples could no longer see Jesus was perhaps part of the mystery of that cosmic reunion. The important thing was that he returned to the Father, where, also as promised, he would send the Holy Spirit to clothe his disciples of all times and all ages,not just the guys there that day, clothe themand us with the power to do the things he’s called them and us to do.
So the disciples stand there staring at the sky, perhaps sadly, perhaps even realizing what that cloud meant, or perhaps waiting for the cloud to dissipate so they could catch one more precious glimpse of the ascending Christ. And that brings us to that polite interruption from the men in white, “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.”
Why are you staring up at the sky like a bunch of goofballs? Jesus will come back, just like he promised. And, to date, Jesus’ track record on promise-keeping has been pretty much perfect, so, no worries! And no need to stare off into space waiting for a sign.
He’ll come back and your staring at the sky won’t make it happen any sooner or later…so instead of looking for Jesus where he’s not wanting to be found, why not do what he instructed you to do instead?
Why not do what he instructed you to do? He told you, you are witnesses of these things. You are witnesses to the good news of God’s love revealed in Christ Jesus – and there is a great big world out there just waiting, dying to hear that good news. Dying to hear the good news of God’s decision for us in and through Christ’s life, death and resurrection. Dying to hear the good news of God’s decision to NOT allow sin, evil, or even death to separate us from his love. Dying to hear the good news of God’s love and mercy by way of a hot meal, or a cold cup of water, or a listening ear, or even something as seemingly insignificant as a friendly smile. There’s a world out there dying to hear the good news that God is crazy about this world, and us, even as broken and silly and messed up as we can be.
Why stand there staring up at the sky? There’s this great big world in need out there…Jesus will come back, promise, in his good time. In the meantime, he’s tasked all of us with the privilege and responsibility of witnessing to the things he said and did in his time here on earth: from his birth, to his baptism by John in the river Jordan, to his teaching, his stories and parables, his healing, his miracles, his death, his resurrection, and yes, his strange and mysterious and hard to wrap our minds around ascension into heaven.
He’s tasked us with the joy of inviting others to come and worship and hear this good news in Word and song and fellowship. He’s tasked us with the challenge of hearing this good news even for ourselves – that we, you are forgiven, you are loved, you are cherished by this great big mysterious ever-present God.
Men of Galilee, and people of God gathered here this day, we need not stare off into the heavens to find Jesus – although, I daresay he’s there just as much as he is anywhere. We can find Jesus in the faces of the hurting and oppressed, in a mother’s loving embrace, in the bread and wine of communion, in our worship, and in so many other places. There’s a great big world out there – and as Christ’s witnesses, called, claimed, forgiven, saved, loved and blessed, we’ve got a lot of precious work to do in his name. Thanks be to God and let’s get to it. Amen
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