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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
American astronaut David Scott was the seventh person to walk on the moon. In 19-71, Scott commanded Apollo 15, and, while on the moon, Scott reportedly said, in a live broadcast on radio and television, “I can look straight up and see the earth”. The millions of Americans on earth who heard Scott could look straight up and see the moon. From the moon above, one generally looks up to see the earth, and, from the earth below, one generally looks up to see the moon. (Brent Porterfield, www.eSermons.com.) Of course, one does not have to leave the planet to experience such “directional-disorientation”, for while we on this side of the earth are from our perspective looking up, people looking up on the opposite side of the earth are from our perspective looking down. There may be some “directional-disorientation” in regards to today’s First Reading, too. We heard how, with His disciples looking on, Jesus was lifted up and a cloud took Him out of the disciples’ sight. We may think that Jesus continued being lifted up, but Holy Scripture does not specifically say so (confer Pieper, II:325). Likewise, our Lutheran Confessions are said to not understand the Ascension of Our Lord as “space travel” (Scaer, CLD VI:102). While the disciples were gazing into heaven as Jesus went, two men stood by them in white robes and asked them why they were looking into heaven. And, tonight, considering primarily the First Reading, we direct our thoughts to the theme, “Gazing into Heaven”.
The Divinely-inspired St. Luke does not tell us in the First Reading what the disciples were thinking while they gazed into heaven and so prompted the angels’ question and subsequent statement that Jesus, Who was taken up from them into Heaven, would come in the same way as they saw Him go into Heaven. Were the disciples expecting Jesus to reappear more or less immediately, while they were standing there? Did the disciples realize that Jesus’s appearances, which they had experienced over the preceding forty days, had come to an end? Were the disciples grieving “losing” Jesus? Did the disciples understand that Jesus was still with them, only in a different way? We simply do not know what the disciples were thinking while they gazed into heaven, nor does the angels’ subsequent statement about Jesus’s coming a final time in the same way really give us much insight into the disciples’ thoughts.
What are our thoughts about the Ascension of Our Lord? Despite Jesus’s promise to the contrary that we heard in the Gospel Reading this past Sunday, do we wrongly think that Jesus left His disciples and us in His Church as orphans (John 14:18)? On the basis of a mistranslation and misinterpretation of a verse later in the Book of Acts, do we wrongly think that Jesus in some sense is “confined” in heaven (see Acts 3:21 NIV)? The disciples had some direction from the Lord about what they were supposed to do next; do we wonder what we are supposed to be doing while waiting for Jesus’s return? Given the nearly twothousand years that have passed since Jesus’s ascension, do we wrongly complain about what we might think is a delay in His coming the final time? Do we let that passage of time make us wrongly think that Jesus will not come with glory to judge both the living and the dead? Because of a wrongful moral indifference, do we not care whether Jesus returns in judgment? Or, because of a wrongful lack of faith, do we live in terror of Jesus’s return in judgment? We sin in those and countless other ways, for we are sinful by nature, and so we deserve temporal and eternal punishment. But, God in His love, mercy, and grace calls and thereby enables us to repent of our sins and sinful nature and so be forgiven and spared such punishment for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary (Small Catechism II:4), came the first time, humbly. As St. Paul described for the Philippians and for us, though Jesus was in the form of God, He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but He emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:6-7). In what we call Jesus’s “state of humiliation”, in which He as man did not always or fully use His Divine powers, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried—all for us and all people, for our salvation. Then, in what we call Jesus’s “state of exaltation”, in which He as man does fully and always use His Divine powers, Jesus descended into hell, the third day rose from the dead, ascended into Heaven, sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, and will come to judge the living and the dead—again, all for us and all people, for our salvation.
The exalted Jesus was not absent from His disciples and is not absent from us in His Church, but the exalted Jesus was present with His disciples and is present with us in His Church, only in different humble ways. In the humble reading and preaching of Jesus’s Word, He is present to save those whom He thereby enables to repent. In the humble application of water with Jesus’s Word in Holy Baptism, He is present to rescue people from death and the devil and so bring people into His Church. In the humble touch of a pastor with Jesus’s Word in Holy Absolution, He is present to forgive the sins that we know and feel in our hearts, the sins that particularly trouble us, the sins that we privately confess to our pastor for the sake of Holy Absolution. And, in the humble bread and wine with Jesus’s Word in the Sacrament of the Altar, He is present with His Body given for us and with His Blood shed for us and so also with forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In all of these ways, Jesus is not absent from but is present with us always, as tonight’s Verse reminded us (Romans 6:9; Matthew 28:20), to the end of the age.
The exalted Lord ascended not only to the place of the Father in general but also to the right hand of the Father in particular. There, as we heard in the Epistle Reading (Ephesians 1:15-23), the Father seated Jesus, as it were, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and put all things under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to (or, perhaps better “for” the benefit of) the Church. There, at the right hand of the Father, that figurative expression for that power and dominon, as our Prophet, the exalted Lord sends pastors to preach the Gospel and hand-out the Sacraments to us; as our Priest, the exalted Lord intercedes with the Father for us; and, as our King, the exalted Lord rules and protects His Church and governs over all the world for the benefit of His Church. We try to keep His Commandments in keeping with our vocations, and we live in His forgiveness of sins when we fail, as we will fail. And still, in Christ, we have peace and joy even now as the world rages against us. None of our current worldly situations will continue forever. No matter how much more time passes, Jesus will come in the same way His disciples saw Him go into Heaven, in a cloud, with power and great glory (Luke 21:27, with reference to Daniel 7:13). Then, we who repent, will be fully delivered from our worldly situations, and then, in resurrected and glorified bodies, we will be in God’s nearer presence forever.
Until then, like Jesus’s disciples, we do not need to stand “Gazing into Heaven”—whether up, down, or sideways. We do not suffer from “directional-disorientation”! As we heard in tonight’s Gospel Reading (Luke 24:44-53), Jesus was blessing His disciples when He parted from them and was carried up into Heaven, and Jesus continues to bless us now. Now, we gaze not into the sky to see Heaven, but, with the eyes of faith, we gaze especially here to His Altar, where our Lord is present with us, and so where we join with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven in His eternal praise.
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +