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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters in Christ, and thanksgivers for the gospel reading. As that hymn said, Oh, to feel the Son’s embrace. Can’t even imagine what it will be like to feel God touching me and my skin with His skin. Warm flesh pressed against warm flesh. Remarkable indeed.
But of all the ways that God could have left his church on earth, this has got to be one of the most poor, business-minded judgments in the world: that he would leave the church after getting things rolling in the hands of the likes of Peter and James and John and Andrew and Philip and so forth, who have wandered away, who have been fearfully locked in the upper room so many times when he came to them. But he does, because he has promised to clothe them with power from on high in the Holy Spirit.
And every single time you gather here, does his Holy Spirit clothe you with power? Not the kind of power that can be seen visibly, but by the kind of power that creates faith in a heart like yours and mine. The kind of power that squashes doubts and despair and raises up faith and belief and trust in something that cannot be seen nor proven. That is an amazing power that we have only begun to know.
A bride asked her husband, “Husband, tell me about the time when you first met me and we went out on our first date, and what you thought, and what you felt.” So he tells her the story, and they reminisce over what God has done in their lives, what God has brought them together. The whole intention behind the question is so that love would be declared by the husband to the wife, and the wife would be comforted again by the words of love from her husband.
It’s no different than when you ask your mom and dad, “Mom, Dad, tell me the story of when I was little. What did you think when I said those things? And how could you have loved me when I did those things? And why did you, and did you feel pride in me when I did this?” The whole purpose of asking that question is to hear again about the love of the parent toward the child. Those are powerful words. And they have words that bring meaning to you.
Now that’s on an emotional level. Every single time you gather here, you get to hear what your Jesus thinks of you. And what he has told you has been no different. Every single time, it’s the same story. Did that wife forget the story, and that’s why she asked her husband? Heavens no. You’re not going to forget the story either, but that it applies to you when you don’t feel so lovable, that’s powerful. That it applies to you when you think of yourself in a way different than what he thinks of you, that’s powerful.
In the lower right-hand corner of the three windows is the picture of Jesus’ ascension. His hands are outstretched. The last time they saw his hands outstretched like that were his last words on the cross when he said, “It is finished, it is complete, it is fulfilled.” At the beginning of the gospel reading, Jesus said very clearly, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
And then he reminded them of how he must suffer, how he must die, how he must rise again. He’s doing to them the very thing that the bride asks of her husband and that the child asks of her parent: “Tell me again. I need to hear it again.” Because I struggle with it on my best days, and I really wrestle with it on my worst. Tell me that it must be fulfilled.
And he reminds them with those outstretched hands, which still have the scars in them, and blesses them as he ascends into heaven, reminding them, “Everything must be fulfilled. It all will be brought to completion. It all will come to pass.” You’re living proof of it. Your faith and your life is living proof that this scripture came to pass in your life. It is fulfilled in you, in spite of you.
That is powerful. Every time we come here, it’s fulfilled again in you, in your children and in your grandchildren, in your husband and in your wife, in your mother and father and in you. It’s fulfilled in you again. You hear it again. And you marvel at how. All you can do is say, by their reason or senses, what God was proclaiming to them in these words. Jesus was saying, “I have to open your minds by my Spirit to believe these words apply to you on your best days and on your worst days. These words are to you of my love.”
That’s Jesus ruling his church with grace. Jesus does not whip you on the back. He does not kick you in the rear. He picks you up. He picks you up with all that you have, clinging to you, and cleanses you again. And then tells you why. He cleanses you again through that Spirit working here, where He opens your mind of faith to believe.
That’s a powerful thing. So He really didn’t leave His church bereft of things that are not going to keep the church alive. No. Because his church and his kingdom, as was said in the epistle reading, will always be. Always. It must be fulfilled. Let not those words pass you by; cling to them. They are fulfilled in you. They were fulfilled in your loved ones who have died and are now in Christ’s presence. They will be fulfilled in your babies and your grandbabies.
For God’s love is so powerfully proclaimed in His Word and meal. Having opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, He reminds them again of the mission of them, what their job is, and it’s not even a job. A job sounds like something that’s presented to you, and you sit back and contemplate and go, “Okay, I’ll do it.” This is not a job like that. This is your life. Your life is here, hearing repentance and forgiveness of sins being proclaimed to you.
There has been nothing that I’ve said that is something brand new that you’ve never thought of. It’s just God’s Word at work. And isn’t it amazing what God’s Word has done in you? In spite of you and in spite of me, He has invited you to hear these words. And that’s all He’s given you to do: invite. Invite people to hear the words. Invite them into this community of faith.
When he blessed them and rose into heaven, he set them apart as a worshiping community. And the first thing they did upon his ascension, the text said, was that they worshiped him. You wake up and you go to sleep with a prayer on your lips. You’re worshiping your Lord. You gather here to receive his gifts. You’re worshiping the Lord.
Amen. Because repentance and forgiveness of sins are the message that the church has been about all the time, all over the world. What you see with your eyes is Satan’s deception to you and to me, to think that some expected result is supposed to manifest itself through this. Well, aren’t you the result? Are you not the one whose life has been powerfully changed by these words that God has powerfully planted in you, regardless of how you were raised by your mother or father, or regardless of how you raised your children, or regardless of the environment in which you lived, or the money you had or did not have?
God had accomplished this through his word. He does that in all people’s lives. What we struggle with is we don’t always get to see this magnificent result, and it is a surprise. That surprise will be revealed as he says when he comes back again in glory, in the same way he ascended, arms out raised and blessing his holy church, you.
And like the goats in that, or like the sheep in that parable, we’re wondering why, oh Lord, why? That’s powerful. We’re here gathered to bring people in and initiate them by baptism, by teaching them, and then baptizing them. That’s fulfilling what God has said in his word. Having been initiated through baptism, we teach them more and more, and we bring them in, the initiated then, into the meal. That fulfills what God’s word has said.
It must be fulfilled. You are a part of that. Your proclamation by action and by words to those around you is a part of that fulfillment. We will finally see the great catch in heaven. But until then, we wait and we faithfully gather, and repentance and forgiveness of sins are being preached as we continue on as the body of Christ gathered here.
You know people just like I know people. We’ve invited them, and they’ve said yes, and they’ve come, and they’ve stopped coming. They’ve never come. Keep inviting them. That’s what God has given you, them in your life. They don’t know that they want to be told about how they’re loved by their father. But they hear it here. They don’t know that they want to know what God thought of them at this point in life and this point in life and at this point in life. But they hear it here, don’t they? Just like you do.
Keep inviting them. The first commission that God gave was to the 12. The second commission was to the 72 when he sent them out two by two. This is his third commission. And he sends out the church of all time, of all ages, in all places to do the same. And you have. But we continue to do so. Because this is what all people need to hear. And it’s powerful.
You know that. You’ve tasted and seen that the Lord is good. You’ve tasted and seen that the Lord is good. You’ve received from him his forgiveness. You’ve grown in that grace. He has set you apart from this world, but he gently leads you back into the world every day to bring people back in here, that they would hear again how God loves them, how God died for them, how Christ Jesus and all the scriptures testify to that great sacrifice that we get to eat and drink here.
The ascension is God’s powerful tool to tell his church, “I am with you in as intimate a way as I was with the apostles when I walked on this earth, just in a different way.” And you know that. That’s why you’re here. This is how God reaches other people through that same message. And we celebrate this every time we gather together.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
