"God Beamed Him Up" given 5/28/2017

 The Lay Leader of the Broadway United Methodist church in Rockford when I was I was pastor there was a wonderful man named Dick Sautel. And every time in Bible study, or Sunday School class, or when anything related to the Ascension was mentioned, Dick had a wonderful story to tell.

It seems that some years previous, that church's High School UMYF went on a mission trip to Mexico with Dick along as one of the chaperones. In Mexico, as it happens, the Feast of the Ascension is a holiday that is widely loved and celebrated, much as Easter is here. One difference though, is that the people go out into the streets and have parades and parties to honor the day. It's apparently quite a carnival atmosphere.

Well, Dick and the MYF and the other chaperones had no idea that this was the case. They had no idea that it was even Ascension Day at all. Imagine their bewilderment when they drove into a one-horse town for gas and found a simultaneous traffic jam and block party going on in the middle of a Thursday afternoon.

Firecrackers were going off, bands were playing, people were dancing in the streets, banners were flying and floats were floating. What was going on, they wondered? Since no one in the group spoke anything better than broken Spanish they had a hard time getting the idea until one celebrating individual put it pretty plainly.

"Ascension! Ascension! Jesus Christos! Zzziiiiiiip!"

As you may have guessed from this morning's sermon title, I'm a Science Fiction fan. A love for Speculative Fiction was in fact, one of the first things that Donna and I discovered we had in common, some forty-six or seven years ago when we first met. Neither one of us gets to read for relaxation as much as we like any more. And though Donna has been seduced by regency novels and mysteries in recent years, and the girls finally grew out of Harlequin romances, but still indulge in gothics and horror and historical novels now and then, but we all read at least some SF..

And we all especially love Star Trek. Donna used to sit in a rocking chair and watch the exploits of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock and "Bones" McCoy in re-runs back on Chicago’s channel Nine when she was nursing our new born Jenny. We've seen all the movies and re-boots numerous of times. Jenny even took me to a Star Trek convention as a Father's Day present a few years ago.

Thanks to the science-fiction like miracle of videotape, we've managed to catch the Next Generation exploits of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and Dr. Crusher, and Mr. Data, and Worf the Klingon..In Deep Space Nine,we developed a serious appreciation for Captain Sisko, Major Kira, Quark the Ferengi, Constable Odo and Chief O'Brien-- finally a non-com got to be a regular! One the regrets of my life is that I missed the episode in which Worf married Dax—and I don’t think it’s ever going to be in re-runs.

Hence this morning's sermon title. "God beamed Him up!" Sounds great doesn't it? And at first glance it does seem to fit. After all, there was Jesus standing there talking to the Disciples, when suddenly, unexpectedly, in a totally inexplicable manner.... Zzziiip!! He wasn't there anymore. Suddenly, Jesus went to be with God. And if Luke makes seem more like anti-gravity than a transport beam, what the heck. It's close enough. Right?

Weeellll...? Having finally gotten to use that great title--I'm afraid I'm going to have to shoot myself down. I really can't buy into the image of God ordering some overweight angel with a goofy haircut and a hokey Scottish accent to teleport Jesus up to heaven.

Despite some terrific values, like not meddling in other cultures, and saving whales, and exploring strange new worlds, and former enemies becoming allies, and equal opportunity for men, women and Vulcans--I'm afraid that Heaven just doesn't look like Starfleet in my mind. And despite my love of the speculative when it comes to recreational reading, I can't be so speculative to accept the seventies, psuedo-religious/scientific heresies personified by "Chariots of the Gods" and “Ancient Aliens”.

No, God does not drive a flying saucer. Our God is Creator of the Universe, but is

not an alien spaceman. Our God is the One who cares for the falling of the sparrows and numbers the hairs on our heads- -a job that gets easier every year for some of us. And Heaven is not located in some distant galactic spiral nebula, or inside a black hole.

Heaven is both a plane of existence, and a spiritual state of mutual in- dwelling with God--but it ain't a place. If that sounds vague or unclear it's because, as Paul says, “we see through a glass darkly” which is to say, our knowledge is only partial. Human words cannot adequately serve to describe the nature of the Eternal. We simply do not know. We have not experienced enough. We cannot really begin to describe the Divine reality. We don’t have the understanding—much less the vocabulary—words literally fail us.

And when words fail, human beings inevitably fall back on symbols-- familiar symbols that we are comfortable with, symbols we've learned and loved and identified with all of our lives. That's what is going on in the story of Jesus' Ascension.

Luke was striving in his Gospel, and in the Book of Acts to describe and explain some very real but essentially indescribable happenings. The facts were those faced by the earliest followers of Jesus. Simply put, He was gone. Ziiip! Gone, returned to God. He had disappeared in an unprecedented and unbelievable manner.. Now they all knew, just as you and I know that someday every one of us will disappear from the face of this earth. That's a given for all of us. Nobody gets out alive.

But this was different. Jesus’ life had something about Him that other human lives didn't have. People recognized that different-ness about Him from the very start. Maybe they couldn't always describe it--but it must have been apparent to any unbiased observer. Something unique in the world was going on in the life of this ex-construction worker.

He had been their friend, teacher, Messiah. The disciples had seen Him perform mighty acts of deliverance. They had witnessed miraculous healings. They had heard profound and moving teachings. They had affirmed Him Anointed One--Christ, Son of the Living God. Then, they had seen Him betrayed, arrested, tried, convicted and executed. Finally, they had seen Him die a real death on a cross. And yet, after He had died, Jesus reappeared to His friends and followers. They experienced the amazing fact of His Risen Presence among them. Then, He was gone once again.

What that reappearance looked like, felt like, could never be adequately described. But neither could it be ignored. And after Jesus’ second and final disappearance, so to speak, His influence was stronger than ever. His life, His mission, continues to make itself felt on this earth even to this very day through the fellowship of those men and women who had been and were to become His followers.

What conclusions were they to draw from this unprecedented new reality? They were, after all, bound to draw some conclusions. They were bound to seek some explanation for this unprecedented experience. They were, after all, human beings, with minds through which God could speak to them in the language of events. We celebrate their conclusion today.

Jesus was the Son of God. Jesus had somehow returned to God and was now with God and a part of God. The manner in which His church described and symbolized this was by saying that Jesus had ascended to Heaven and now sat at the right hand of God Almighty. They believed that Jesus would return at the end of time to judge all humanity. In the meantime, Jesus' presence was now available to them in a totally new way—through his own Holy Spirit.

The creating, saving power of God was expressed in a manner that was unique in history. God had done something profoundly new. This same Jesus, who they had personally loved and known, was now with God. And some how, He was in relationship—part of God. And yet He was also able to be with them--at any time, in groups, in any location, and in more than one place and time at once to be in relationship with them!

What an incredible leap from fact to faith! A humble Jewish peasant on the very throne of Heaven. A Cosmic Christ to whom all the Caesars would one day bow! A personal Savior who offered love and grace sufficient to any need. That was their conclusion. That was their affirmation. That was their experience. Thus was born a significant doctrine of the faith, and a holy day, and a profound revelation about the nature of God.

There couldn't be any two ways about it. Jesus they affirmed, was not buried in the ground. Jesus is not stored away in some history book, or dictionary of ethical philosophy. Jesus is not simply a shadowy figure in human memory, or worst yet, lost in oblivion. Jesus, they affirmed, is alive! And dwells and reigns with and in and alongside Almighty God, and the Holy Spirit

Jesus is here, alongside us, when His people call. There are no more human limits upon Him. He is in Heaven, and He is in our hearts. Neither space, nor time, nor any other power in the universe can contain Him, or His love for humanity.

And this is the reality that Luke wants to point out for us. That is the conclusion, the doctrine, the faith that Luke wants to illumine for me, and for you, and for Theophilus his reader, the lover of God.

And so, in order to point to that reality, Luke reaches back into the religious history of the Hebrew people and grabs hold of a symbol they were familiar with, a symbol they could identify with, a symbol they loved. Luke tells us that Jesus was taken up to be with God. Just as Elijah was taken up in a Chariot of fire, just as Moses was taken up while wandering in the desert, just as Enoch was taken and knew not death.

If he'd been writing today, Luke might well used the metaphor that God beamed Jesus up. That's a contemporary symbol many of us love and are familiar with. But it doesn't explain the reality of what happened anymore than saying that Jesus was taken up in a cloud does.

The point for us, at least, isn't so much how Jesus got there, but that Jesus is there—now—in Heaven, with God, part of God, but also within us, among us for us—here, now..

Harold Chandler Robinson makes that point in poetry, which after all, may very well be the best possible vehicle for expressing ultimate realities and concerns. You can read it in your Hymnal, # 456.

And have the bright immensities

Received our Risen Lord,

Where light-years frame the Pleides

and point Orion's sword?

Do flaming suns his footsteps trace

Through corridors sublime,

The Lord of interstellar space

And Conqueror of Time?

The heaven that hides him from our sight

Knows neither near nor far

An altar candle sheds its light

as surely as a star

And where his loving people meet

To share the gift divine,

There stands he with unhurrying feet;

There heavenly splendors shine.

I'm afraid that the Doctrine of the Ascension just doesn't inspire that kind of imagination and awe in the Church today. Though it is a fundamental affirmation of the faith, though it has come down to us from the early church, I don't think a lot of us have really grasped the significance.

It seems, I guess, either too fantastic to believe in, or too academic to matter. And just because they have more fun than we do on Ascension Day, I'm not sure that our Mexican brothers and sisters have gotten the point any better than we do. It's more personal than Jesus went "Zzziiip" up to God in heaven.

In the Doctrine of the Ascension, Luke and the earliest church are telling us something that touches us all directly and deeply. They are pointing to the fact that Jesus lives in God, as well as in our hearts. They are affirming that Jesus comes to us in the scriptures, and sacrament as well in our lives.

They are reminding us that Jesus' loving presence has power to touch us-- wherever and whenever we are in need today. Just as it touched the hearts and the lives of His earthly followers. I don't know about you, but that all feels pretty relevant to me in my life in the world today.

Maybe our Mexican brothers and sisters do indeed get the point. Maybe one of these years we uptight North American Protestants ought to consider shooting off a firecracker or two on Ascension Day, too. It seems to me like it's a day worth celebrating.

Let us pray,

Great God, Mighty God. By your power is Jesus raised to be Savior of and Ruler of the nations. We thank and praise you that He leads us into faith. We praise you for His love which embraces the world and works compassion in us. Glory to you for the gift of His life and for His Resurrection and Ascension. In the name of Christ our Savior. Amen.