Ascension: Cycle A 22-23
Ascension
Acts 1:1-11 | Ephesians 1:17-23 | Matthew 28:16-20
Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we, who believe that your only begotten Son, our Redeemer, ascended this day to the heavens, may in spirit dwell already in heavenly realms. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, amen.
I’ve been a priest for 56 years, just had an anniversary, and I think about what I’ve been doing those years and what’s the most important thing that I’ve accomplished. And I’m looking at it all and saying the one thing that I have been doing that has been consistent is ⎯ certainly administering sacraments to people as a Catholic priest has been an incredible joy, but the real work is not in doing that. That’s something that God does through me so obviously indirectly. But the work of dealing with scripture, struggling with it, listening to it over and over and over again, that’s where the work has been, and that’s where I think I have spent my time as well as I could possibly spend it, because nothing seems more important to me that you understand this story, because it’s your story. We’re to live it out. And we get to a very important part of the story. The Old Testament and New Testament is often considered two books and two different stories, but they’re actually one story. The testament, the inheritance that we receive from God is his story. It begins with God creating some human beings, two beings. Whether they were created that moment or they evolved over time makes no difference. The evolution of the human species is something that’s really attracted me, and it makes sense that that’s most likely what God had done through the plan that he had from the very beginning, that God planned to create this world. He did it sort of naturally, and as it continues to evolve and grow and each one of us evolve and grow, the direction is always in one direction. It’s always toward truth ⎯ truth.
If the fullness of the story is in Jesus and Jesus is depicted by John the evangelist so beautifully when he says Jesus comes into the world and he is, for the first time, the full explanation of what is real. He is truth, and the truth is something that, when we hear it, it ministers to us. It awakens us to see what is true and what is real, and it is filled ⎯ that truth is filled with hope, but we know that there’s an oppositional power, so to speak. There’s something that works against the truth. It’s interesting that the first sin committed in the great story of Old and New Testament, the first sin is the sin of disobedience on the part of the angels that wouldn’t respond to God’s plan, but then when it came to the first sin of humans, again, it wasn’t so much disobedience. It was believing in a lie. The most cunning of animals was there and said, “Oh, no, no, no. What God told you is not true. What is true is that you want to be like gods. You want to be in charge. You want to know what’s real.” Interesting. The real struggle is between truth and lies. We see that all around us today in the world, and people are always saying, “I don't know where the truth is.” And there are people who get caught up in the most amazing lies and conspiracies of what’s going on, and always when you’re dealing with people in a lie, then almost always it seems it has a negative ring to it, a negative feel: the world is awful, we’re all going to hell in a handbasket, nothing’s working, there is no hope.
So what is the truth that God wants you to believe in? Well, on one level, it’s believing that Jesus is who he says he is, that God created the world, and he came into it, and he saved us, and then he returned to the Father. Well, to believe that is important. I would agree. But it’s so interesting to me, what we listen to in the gospel, which is not about the ascension but about the resurrection of Jesus, and the ascension in all the scriptures ⎯ well, in the scriptures, other than in Luke, it’s ⎯ well, in all ⎯ the four evangelists, they talk about the resurrection happening the same day that Jesus ascended into heaven. It’s only the continuation of Luke’s gospel where he continues and describes something it’s so crucial to believe in, that Jesus didn’t rise right away and return to the Father. No, he stayed for a long time. Forty days is 40 elements of length. It’s a mystical time, 40 years in the desert, 40 days of Jesus in the desert. The wanderings and the temptation were all under 40 days, but interesting that, in this image, you see that God comes back and wants to make something clear. And this is what I believe he is trying to say because of the line that’s there in the gospel that says, when they watched this event happening, Jesus leaving, they were concerned, and they doubted. What did they doubt? Did they doubt that he was who he said he was? Could the disciples possibly doubt that Jesus was the man who could do things beyond any other man, that he was able to heal and he was able to raise people from the dead? He was a miracle worker, and they also believed that this power over death was amazing, because he could bring a friend back, and he himself didn’t die when he was crucified. He came back. All of that makes total sense. I don’t see how they could doubt that. So what were they doubting? They were doubting what truth is, a path of life, a way of life. They didn’t believe, and it’s still hard to believe, what it is that God is inviting us into when he gives you and me a body and a will and a heart and said, “I want you to spend some time living in this world as it is and do something for me.” And what does he want? He wants us to manifest a truth to everyone, and the truth is really beautiful. It’s something that I could describe like this: God has come into the world to oppose the power of evil. Evil is a lie, and what’s the lie? We’re on our own. The world is negative. It has all kinds of problems. When things aren’t going right, that’s a sign that they’re only going to get worse, and as they get worse, it means it’s all going to end up in darkness and destruction. And there is fear, and there is revenge and anger against those who are perpetrating lies. What he gives us is something that absolutely dissolves that. It’s the awareness that we aren’t simply here to remember what Jesus did back then, but we are to receive something that he is now giving you and me that is often untapped, unknown, unrecognized, hidden. You have God, the same God in Jesus, inside of you, in your heart. Paul says, “Open your hearts, eyes so that you can receive a wisdom that leads to a revelation of everything that you’re engaged in in this world.” The revelation is you are the same truth incarnate that Jesus was and still is in you, and as you live out this life, believing in that power within you, you are like a priest. You are a minister. You are an apostle. You’re a disciple, and you are not teaching something about something. You are being something for them. You are a resonance of life and hope and truth. Truth is we’re here for one reason only, to minister to each other. The lie is no, no, you’re here in this world to take care of your needs and your wants and your desires, and when those are on the lower level of our consciousness, you know what happens? They never work. It never satisfies. You want money? You never have enough. You want pleasure? You never have enough. You want power? You never have enough. That’s a sign that every lie is incapable of fulfilling us, yet the truth is so there, right in front of us that the thing that really works for us is being engaged in this amazing, powerful source within us that invites people out of that lie into the truth that they are cared for and loved.
We live in a country that is so Christian in its roots, its constitution. What’s the first thing the constitution says basically? The government has a purpose. It’s to serve the people. In Christianity, the presence of God, what’s its purpose? To serve humanity. Most of us grew up, at least I did, before the Council, before I understood about the priesthood or the faithful, that we all share this mysterious, wonderful presence of God inside of us, and it works through us, and we can feel it. And yet it happens, more often than not, without us even realizing it, but we believe it. Somehow that ⎯ I don't know. Somehow I didn’t ⎯ it was like I was supposed to serve the church. I was supposed to do things for God. I was serving him to get him to love me. What a lie, and yet it seemed to ⎯ it pervaded my upbringing as a Catholic. We were an elite group of people that are specially preserved from evil by God, and our religion was the only religion, and we had a kind of mystical, secret society, and our liturgy was mystical and of another language, and we always witnessed something that we were supposed to participate in by making first ourselves pure and then without any sin. And then we could maybe hope that this God that came into us wouldn’t condemn us but would maybe love us. And now we gather around an alter filled with an awareness of God inside of us, and together with a priest, though he has a role that’s higher than ours, we are making Christ present. And then we walk out of that church, and we have him resonating out of us. Do we have to use words and explain to people what we believe? No, we just have to live and say and teach the truth.
Do you know how healthy the world would be if everybody just told the truth? Do you know what it would be like in a relationship? You do know what it’s like in a relationship when somebody you realize is lying to you, what happens to the flow between you. It’s severed. You can’t trust them. What an interesting focus for us in this age we live in to simply cry out, “I want the truth. Please give me the truth, and whatever truth I believe in, let me always live it out as a truth that is motivating my intentions and my actions without me having to do super-selfless things or go around and set up protests against things that are wrong.” Yes, many people are called to that, but that’s ⎯ the real issue is can I carry a living presence of God, that was in Jesus doing his work, and I believe that’s in me, and that if I believe in it and it reveals to me the power that it is, I am filled with the one thing that lies seem to destroy quicker than anything else. And that’s hope. “I don’t believe that things are going to work anymore. It’s all so dark and dirty and self-centered, and I want to destroy everything out there that isn’t what it should be.” Nothing is further from the truth. To destroy evil is to become evil. To have compassion for evil, to feel sorry for the victims of evil that do horrible, horrible things is the truth. We’re all susceptible to evil, and when one is, we look at them not as the source of evil but as a victim. That’s the only way you can love someone who’s done evil. So we have this great hope. We have this trust, and that’s what the Holy Spirit is sent into us for.
So this moment in the scriptures is when God really changed the world. No longer does God live in the temple. No longer does he just live in one person that walked this earth. No, he lives in you and in me and in our hearts. And if we believe, as I long for you and me to believe, that it’s stronger than every lie out there, then the confidence we have will overcome the contagious way in which those who talk about the end coming in a negative way, saying the world is so corrupt it’s going to be destroyed. They have a sense. They have a truth that makes sense to them. Otherwise they have to deal with this mysterious thing called God in me doing the work slowly and things getting much worse before they get better. So what a gift we should celebrate today than this returning to the Father in some mysterious way was the thing that closed the full testaments. God is in you. God is the truth. Share it with the world that is longing, longing for hope. Amen.
Father, your gift, your gift of truth is not an idea, not something we can put into a sentence but a person. Bless us with an awareness of this gift that dwells within our hearts and allow us to use it in the way you intend to bring light into darkness, hope into despair, health into that which is sick. And we ask this is Jesus’ name, amen.