Acts 1:1-11
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift God has promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Then they gathered around and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Luke 24:44-53
Jesus said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still here on earth: Everything that is written in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he begna to teach them again, so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what God has promised; but stay in the city until you have received that power.” When he had led them to Bethany, he raised his hands and blessed them, and even while he was blessing, he was taken up into heaven.
John 17: 11 “My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me honour. Now I am leaving the world; they are staying here. I am coming to you. God, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be one, just as we are one.
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There is a tradition in painting which shows the followers of Jesus gathered on a hilltop, necks craned backwards, peering up at a cloud where a pair of feet are just disappearing. It is enough to make us smile, of course - except that it is a quite legitimate attempt on the part of early artists to convey something which cannot be explained - and maybe doesn’t need to be. Maybe what happened is less important than what comes after.
Well, what do we do with today? It’s one of those really weird times in the church - a between-time, between Easter and Pentecost - it often gets neglected, for one reason because it falls on a Thursday in the church calendar - because of the note in Acts that Jesus appeared to his disciples for 40 days after the resurrection. You’ve probably already noticed that 40 days is a figure which pops up often in the Bible - and it’s just ten days before the celebration of Pentecost, which marks 50 days after the Passover. I think it also gets neglected because frankly we really don’t know how to preach it. In terms of biblical writing, it’s a cosmic event - in this case, almost truly cosmic. Jesus was talking to his followers, and right in the middle, Luke says he went up through a cloud and out of sight. I think Luke probably had an insight that it was more important for the followers to look ahead to “what next”, than to look up, or look back.
The question is what one earth does it mean? For them, at that time - for us now? What’s the benefit of Jesus’ departure, leaving the disciples alone? I am sure the disciples were probably more confused than before. Jesus died - they saw it happen. Then, there they were talking with him again, and then he was gone again - and all he said was, someone else will come to be with you. I can see them all, standing there totally dumfounded, looking at each other and going “Yeah right!”
Luke is the only Gospel which tells this story. None of the others do. Now, one would think if it was that important, they would have noted it. Right at the beginning of the book, Luke says he is reporting what he has been told by others - so someone told him this story. Luke doesn’t exactly paint the followers in a great light. He carries the story on in Acts 1. Luke was reporting only what he had been told - and he was told that Jesus left on a cloud, riding up to heaven. And he was told that the followers just stood there, gawking and squinting to catch the last glimpse, the question which makes everyone squirm: "Why do you just stand here looking up at an empty sky?"
Rev. Thomas Hall says “ascension is an interruption. A break in the action. It’s the half-time break in a football game, the intermission between the Brahms and Beethoven symphonies, the period between December 25th and January 1st, the summer interlude between 8th and 9th grade, the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.” Essentially, Ascension is absence - painful, wrenching absence when we stand about wondering what next, gawking into an empty space.
But perhaps there is much more going on in this text. Luke may have wanted to answer the unvoiced question of the early Christians: Where is Jesus? Good question. Where is he? So Luke takes a stab at filling in the blank with this short account of Jesus’ departure. Unfortunately this has become a textbook answer to anyone since the early days who even wonders about where Jesus went.
Well, Luke wasn’t the only one either. An unknown writer in BCE 90 also wrote about this awkward time. Scholars call it "The Didache," but I like the original longer title: The Lord’s Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations. The idea behind this early work was to suggest what Jesus taught the disciples during the 40 days between Easter and just prior to Ascension Day. Inquiring minds wanted to know what in the world Jesus could have taught his disciples during that hiatus.
Ascension Sunday is a time to think about the movement from presence and absence. That’s a frightening shift. When someone is present to us our space is filled, we not alone. We have conversations and sharing and communion. But whenever someone leaves us in a final way, there is a crisis.
Well, we fear absence - because it often means silence, a void - and we aren’t sure what will fill the void.....and I think that’s why John has Jesus saying “unify them, make them one.”
Jesus, the one who had walked with them, eaten with them, slept in the same room, crawled out cranky some mornings - patiently and sometimes not so patiently taught them about life - is really and truly gone - and just like us when faced with absence - we ask "What are we supposed to do now?”
Something deep down in us resists the move from presence to absence. When someone is present to us, our space is filled, we are not alone. There is conversation and communion. When someone leaves us, there is crisis. Absence means silence--lonely, gaping silence. Jesus said, in so many words - “This is goodbye.”
But wait a minute - where does the word “goodbye” comes from? It literally comes from the phrase “God be with you.” - and as time passed, it got squashed down into “goodbye”....
There’s an old Beatles song, “Goodbye, Hello” - in which the chorus goes “I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello.”
Jesus left saying that there was a Spirit which would remain. Not a Spirit which would come, which had never been before. Remember, Jesus was a Jew - God and the Spirit were part of that belief. He reassured them that the Spirit never really left. Also, because God says “hello again” with the Spirit, it means that we can say goodbye. We can say goodbye to our attempts to live as if we never die, we can say goodbye to those we love, we can say goodbye to clinging to the past, to structures, to old ways of thinking and doing, and even to our comfort zones.
But there’s another piece to this story. Remember John has Jesus saying at the end “Make them one.” Well, there it is. They say goodbye, but then the next piece is that they have to go out - we have to go out - and start saying hello. Hello to a different life, hello to different places, hello to different people - and to say that hello in the confidence that there is a spirit which lives within us, around us - which gives us the strength to live, through the absences as well as the presences. May it be so.
Sources:
1. Bishop William Willimon, “Good-Bye,” Pulpit Digest (May/June 1991), page 19
2. “Goodbye, Hello”, by The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton May 24, 2009
3. “You Say Hello, I Say Goodbye”, a sermon by Rev. Frank Schaefer and Rev. Thomas Hall
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