This is a homily preached on Ascension Sunday (22 May 2004). In Cambodia, the Ascension is celebrated on the following weekend rather than on Ascension Thursday.
Introduction-Regina's project bag
Regina as director of the Beoung Tum Pun health project always carries a blue bag
Felt a separation anxiety turning it over to Doy as she left for home leave
It was part of her identity
Apostles didn't experience that
Luke's gospel:
Jesus was taken up to heaven
They did him homage
They returned to Jerusalem with great joy
Almost like a fairy tale ending
They all lived happily ever after
But Luke was not writing a fairy tale or fiction or even a biography or history
Was writing theology, making some spiritual points with this ending to his gospel
The first point was that God's plan was unfolding in history
The apostles were filled with joy because they were reassured by what they had seen and heard
They had been witnesses for three years to the words and actions of Jesus, the power of God acting in their world
They had just witnessed the death of their savior, but then saw him resurrected and now taken up to glory
They felt not abandoned but prepared
Luke subtly makes the point of the accomplishment of God's plan by recapping the major themes of his gospel and bringing them to a conclusion or new starting point
Fulfillment: he began the gospel calling it "a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us."
Now he concludes with Jesus indicating that his suffering, death, resurrection have fulfilled God's plan.
Repentance: Luke had John the Baptist "proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins"
Now Jesus sends his disciples to preach "repentance for the forgiveness of sins."
Jesus' mission: will continue in an orderly fashion
It will begin in Jerusalem and extend to all nations
God's promises to Israel have been fulfilled and will now be carried to all people
Blessing: Jesus had begun his great Sermon on the Mount with words of blessing: "Blessed are you who are poor…."
Now he blesses the disciples to send them on their mission.
Joy: a major theme in Luke.
Now the apostles rejoice.
Jesus has finished his earthly work
Now becomes our intermediary in a new and entirely spiritual way
All these themes testify to God's actions completed in Jesus
Now the disciples are sent to witness to this good news.
They continue the activity of the risen Christ
The second point of Luke's gospel is this idea of witness
He presents it in a somewhat unexpected way, indicating that it has two aspects
The first aspect is our traditional understanding of witness
The apostles were to go out to all the world, filled with power on high
Their mission would extend through the ages in the persons of all the baptized who would follow them
They would do the traditional preaching and teaching
Recount Jesus' words and actions
Tell of the events of Christ's death and resurrection
The there is also a second type of witness, homage and praise
May be somewhat surprising, not what we usually think about witness
The apostles were continually in the temple praising God, according to the gospel
This was part of their mission, part of their witness
This is what the Holy Spirit called them to
Notice the role of the Spirit here
Three times in Acts, once in the gospel the HS is mentioned
Spirit calls them to fullness of life in Christ
Being with God as well as always "doing"
We might miss that emphasis in our own lives.
I know I do.
It's easy to stress the doing over the praying and believing
Doing makes us feel good
Gets us recognition from others
Meets project goals and pleases funders
And maybe if we're honest, it's easier to do
The doing is good, of course, and necessary
But we also need to have belief
The apostles rejoiced and were happy because of their faith
They believed what God has done and that carried over into reassurance about the reliability of God's plans and predictions for the future.
They weren't oblivious to the real world
Jesus had just been crucified 40 days before
They knew the challenges ahead of them
But seeing what God had done was reason for reassurance, peace, even joy
There may be a message in that for us
It's easy to emphasize the doing over the believing but we need both
Probably a lot of us are pretty good doers
Maybe we hope that will compensate for the times we're not quite sure what we believe, the times we can't commit fully to what we think God is asking us to believe
But we need the belief, too
We need to create and allow time for belief to happen
The apostles were told in Acts not to move until they received the Holy Spirit
How much opportunity and invitation do we give the Holy Spirit to come to us?
Do we allow time for prayer and reflection in our lives?
Luke is saying that is an important part of our Christian witness
Taking time to pray each day, to be alone with God, is as important to our Christian witness (even if no one sees us praying), as actually doing Christian acts.
It is a challenge to keep a balance in our lives between the demands of everyday activities and our desire to give God homage and praise.
When things get hectic, the first temptation is to skip the prayer, maybe because that seems to have the least immediate results for us
Our work deadlines and schedules don't change, but we're often rather flexible about our prayer schedule
But Luke is telling us our belief is important, too
Our prayer and reflection is definitely not time wasted
And we don't have to worry about using prayer as a way of avoiding work
If we pray and believe well, we will find that we are also compelled to do well
Today we celebrate the Lord's appearance among us in a new and wonderful way after the Ascension
He is far beyond the power of the human eye
But he is well within the grasp of the believing heart
