Image: Armenian Gospel manuscript, ca. 1609.
June 1, 2025: Ascension Sunday (Confirmation)
Acts 1:1-11; Luke 24:44-53
Spring of 2007. I was finishing up my first field education unit at Montgomery Place, an independent, assisted, and nursing home on the shore of Lake Michigan. It was around Ascension Day. I was going through a tough time then and I made an offhand remark to my supervisor, “Well, Ascension Day is almost here, where Jesus blasts off, never to be heard from again!” My supervisor knew a lot about my life situation and my sense of humor. He chuckled and shook his head, “There’s that cynicism again!”
It's hard not to be cynical sometimes about the world or about faith. We might be scared. We might be anxious. We might suffer from unending worry about tomorrow, despite Jesus’s instructions not to! The words of the scoffers in the Second Letter of Peter may resonate with us, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!” In carrying all this, we might feel like nothing we do matters. The word for that is disempowerment.
But the ascension of Jesus Christ is the way God empowers the church for the work of the gospel.
It is curious that even post-resurrection, the disciples are still operating from their old messianic expectations. Their last question they ask before he ascends is, “Lord, is this the time you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” That is, they expect the kingdom of God to be identified with a particular geography: the lands of Israel and Judea. They expect Jesus to take secular power and rule top-down. To do everything himself. And it’s not an unreasonable thing to expect. The prophets speak of a restored king in David’s line who will set things right. As the prophet Jeremiah writes, “The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land” (23:5). At first glance, this certainly sounds like worldly power.
But Jesus doesn’t rule that way. As much as they (and we) want to make Jesus a worldly king, that’s exactly not what he is. Jesus is a very different kind of king. He doesn’t hoard his power. He doesn’t merely share it with a select few. Jesus equips and empowers the whole church on earth (including you, Ryan!) to carry out the work of the gospel, which is nothing less than proclaiming and living God’s love in Christ in a hostile world.
So, how does that happen? Well, Luke tells us twice—once in Acts and once in the gospel that bears his name—that Jesus ascends to his Father. I should pause here and say that I doubt Luke is being literal about this. Rather, he describes the indescribable using imagery and metaphor. The fact he tells this story twice—once occurring Easter night and the second occurring forty days later—should clue us in. Jesus really does return to his Father. But trying to describe it in a flat-footed, literal way gets us nowhere because it hangs us up on the timeline. Luke also tells us that Jesus appears to his disciples over a period of forty days, which is never a literal number in the Bible. Rather, it’s code for “a fair length of time, but not forever.” But back to the point. When Jesus ascends to his Father, he is not abandoning his church. He is not abandoning the world. Rather, Jesus is more present with his beloved church and world more than ever. Before his death and resurrection, Jesus was subject to the same things mortal bodies are. He can only be in one place at a time. He can get hurt or sick. He must eat and drink. (There is a story in Luke where the risen Christ eats a piece of fish, but that is for the sake of his disciples.) He contends with the same limitations and liabilities of the human condition. But after he is raised, Jesus can be anywhere at any time. Jesus can be present wherever people call on his name. Jesus is present at a million altars, present in, with, and under the bread and the wine. Jesus is present in a million pulpits, wherever he is preached. Jesus is present in a million places where the hungry are fed. Where forgiveness is shown. Where disaster relief is sent. Where love is shown. Jesus isn’t restricted to just a few people and places anymore. Jesus empowers his whole church through the Holy Spirit.
And today, we recognize that empowerment in you, Ryan. I say “recognize” because you were empowered for God’s work from the moment of your baptism. The Spirit descended on you, forming saving faith within you. Even in tough times, which you mentioned in your faith statement, the Spirit has stayed with you, empowering you to make different choices. But you know (and we know) that our choices don’t save us. God alone—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—saves us from our sin, from death, and from the forces of chaos and evil. And because we are saved, God has empowered you, Ryan, just as God has empowered us all, for the work of the gospel. This gospel is about a different way of life. Where the world says, “Get even,” the gospel says, “Show mercy.” Where the world says, “Hoard,” the gospel says, “Give.” When the world says, “Be frightened,” the gospel says, “Peace,” Where the world says, “Work till you drop,” the gospel says, “Take time for rest.” And where the world says, “Hate,” the gospel always, always says, “Love.” This is empowerment. Not, of course, according to the standards of our culture or any culture for that matter. But according to the standards of Jesus Christ. What a privilege it is to work alongside our risen Lord, our heavenly Father, and their Spirit to bring shalom to the world.
God help us remember that we have been empowered, even when we’re tired, or anxious, frightened, angry, or even disgusted with the state of things. Because we are called to something more than our world could ever give us—we’re called to receive God’s shalom, both now and in the world to come. Thanks be to God. Amen.
© 2025, David M. Fleener. Permission granted to copy and adapt original material herein for non-commercial purposes with appropriate credit given.