Seventh Sunday of Easter
Last Thursday marked the fortieth day after Easter, Ascension day; the day in the life of the
Church that we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus to heaven. It’s a major feast and major event in the life of Jesus Christ although we don't do much with the feast and celebration. In some countries Ascension day is a public holiday. It’s important to the Christian story and adds another major development in Jesus' mission here on earth, which began with Jesus leaving God the father and heaven to become human, what we call the incarnation. It’s actually a rather scandalous event for any religion. The very idea that God would become a human. It seems so counterintuitive for a god to become a human. How can a god become human and remain a god. What's the point of being a god if you're also human; it’s confusing at the least. Jesus' mission doesn't get any less complicated as it progresses, because then after God's here on earth being both human and divine, and Jesus' ministry is launched and he's teaching and healing and performing other miracles, then he apparently has to die. It becomes such a classic tragedy story. Every year as we approach Easter it’s as if I'm hoping that this time the story won't have the tragic crucifixion ending, but it does. And then of course there’s the resurrection when we celebrate Jesus' triumph over death. For forty days after Easter we re-tell the biblical stories where Jesus makes several post-resurrection appearances assuring his disciples that he had died but now he’s back in his new and improved resurrection body. And then just as it seems that things are back on track, Jesus takes his disciples on a field trip out of Jerusalem to
the Mount of Olives, and there Jesus is lifted up into the clouds before their very eyes and
returns to God the Father in heaven. It’s a wonder that the disciples didn't suffer from
abandonment issues. For all I know maybe they did.
They're all just standing there in amazement with their mouths gaping open as Jesus
ascends into heaven and these two white robed guys appear in the clouds and say, “what are you looking at?” “He'll be back, Jesus will come back.” And in the meantime they know that they have a mission, marching orders to continue what Jesus started in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth. And from there this Jesus movement began, under their leadership, those eleven disciples.
Now it’s important to understand that Jesus left his disciples, but they were not really
abandoned; They remember that Jesus had instructed them to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came. Once again God Almighty would enter their lives, but this time instead of coming as a human, as Jesus Christ, God in the person of the Holy Spirit would come.
It’s also important to understand this cycle of events in Jesus life because to some
degree we re-live those events over and over. We re-experience God's incarnation as Jesus Christ. As Episcopal Christians, we have a very strong sense of the incarnation. More than any of our protestant brothers and sisters, Anglicans recognize that God values humans and the earthly existence to the point of becoming a human and dwelling among us. It enables us to see earthly things not just with tolerance, but with appreciation. Rather than viewing humanity with a sense of depravity we understand that God in Jesus Christ isn't just divine but also humanity at its best. Humanity at its best is what God enables us to become.
And you don't have to live life long before you realize that we all go through our own
individual experiences of crucifixion, death, and resurrection at various points of our lives.
Crosses in life and then resurrection as well. And just as the disciples were left with a purpose and mission to carry out, we are left with that same mission to carry good news to the ends of the earth. We live and re-live that part of the cycle when we gather together around that mission as the Church, the Body of Christ.
If the cycle breaks down anywhere in terms of the Church, I think it tends to fall short in
respect to the Holy Spirit. As the Church we get the incarnation, we certainly know about death and resurrection, but standing there after Jesus ascends to heaven from the Mount of Olives, we tend to miss that part of the cycle where God the Holy Spirit comes to empower us to carry on the mission.
God sent the Holy Spirit to those disciples as a gift and it enabled them to continue
Jesus' mission and they performed much greater works. Well that same Holy Spirit is offered to us today for the same purpose and there is no way for us to carry out All Saints’ part of the Church's mission without it.
I believe that God is calling All Saints’ Church to do much more than survive, much more
than just be financially secure, much more than just the appearance of being a successful
church. God’s calling you to be the Body of Christ in this community and to do that fully will
require that the Holy Spirit is moving in all of your lives as together you discern what this great adventure with God will look like.
As the leadership of All Saints’ continues to discern what God is calling you to be and do
during this time of transition , I ask your prayers that God's Holy Spirit will comfort us but also challenge us to be the people God wants us to be. AMEN.
The Rev. Dr. Dennis Campbell
