Acts 1:6-14
The Rev. David Hall
Some years ago, Phyllis and I watched every episode of God Friended Me on CBS. It was the story of God and Facebook and a young man named Miles Finer who doesn’t believe even though – in the story – his father is the Episcopal Bishop of New York City.
Then one day God sends Miles a Friend Request on Facebook. Miles and his friends go on a quest to discover who God on Facebook really is. It is fascinating! We even subscribed to CBS All Access just so we could watch the few episodes that we missed. Then suddenly it was over – after just 2 seasons. How can you cancel a show about God and Episcopalians?
But they did and the ending was awful with some half-baked story about Miles finding God on top of a mountain in the Himalayas. CBS left me with all kinds of unanswered questions about who was behind the God account and did Miles’ sister, Ali, recover from cancer? Do Miles and Cara ever get married? How could it just end – all of sudden. Now I will never know what really happened.
This week on Thursday was the Feast of the Ascension. If you didn’t realize it – don’t worry – most of the rest of the world didn’t either. Forty days after Easter and 10 days before Pentecost there is this story we read this morning from the Book of Acts about Jesus’s last Resurrection appearance to the disciples. He tells them that THEY will NOW continue his ministry – and then he is gone. ASCENDED!
Acts chapter 1 verse 9 says that Jesus was LIFTED up toward Heaven and disappeared into the clouds. There was no time for questions or answers and I would bet that more than one of the disciples was left thinking, What just happened? Is it over?
But of course, we know that’s not the end of the story. The Holy Spirit comes just 10 days later at Pentecost, the Gospel is spread to the ends of the earth and Christianity grows and grows.
Sure, the disciples and the many other folks who followed Jesus would have liked it IF he had stayed. After all the Resurrection had just happened. There was still lots of work to be done and what good was the Messiah up in Heaven. Almost immediately first century Christians began talking about when Christ would come again.
And now over 2000 years later we are still asking the same questions. Every Sunday, we proclaim our faith and say We BELIEVE that Jesus ascended to the right hand of God AND He will come again. So what’s Jesus doing now in heaven and when will he come again?
I remember as a young person in Church wondering what the heavenly throne room looks like with God in the middle and Jesus on his right. Who is on God’s left? I can also remember wondering what Jesus would look like at the 2nd Coming. There are the images we see in art and the movies. I don’t think any of those are right. There are the pictures in the children’s bibles. But they aren’t quite right either. I’ve often wondered if we would even recognize Jesus if we saw him today. I don’t know.
One of my favorite Camp McDowell songs is called “Have you Seen Jesus my Lord”. It was written by a fellow named John Fischer and in the chorus we sing “He’s here in plain view.” I started singing it years ago at summer camp. It always makes me wonder if Jesus has already come again. Imagine if we saw Jesus every day – just like the disciples – and never knew it – never recognized the Messiah.
The Gospel of John says that in the beginning was the Word and we say that Jesus is the Word, so that means Jesus has been with us since the beginning. So the Lord has always been and will always be which includes today. He’s Here in Plain View says the song. Maybe Jesus is the woman who smiles and remembers my name every time I drop off my dry cleaning. Maybe Jesus is the police officer Phyllis and I wave to on our morning walk or the homeless man we pass. He’s always reading his Bible and looks up to say Good Morning. Then there is Nancy who sends me text messages with pictures of flowers and everything else beautiful she sees.
Jesus may be anybody I see during my day. Anybody may be another Christian loving their neighbor who just happens to be me and we both are waiting for the Messiah who will come again in Glory. It would be easy to think that Jesus is somewhere else because he Ascended to someplace else called Heaven. But the scriptures remind us that every time we love our neighbors, pray for those who are in need of God’s special care, and share God’s love with another person who needs to know that we care – well then Jesus has come again and is working in you and me.
It’s not over. It’s not done. It’s just getting started and Christ will come again. When we love God and love our neighbors then just maybe the Christ who descended to the dead and then rose again and ascended to the Father is now right here and working in you and in me. It just never ends. And it shouldn’t. And thank heavens CBS has nothing to do with it.
Amen