He Opened Their Minds

By The Rev’d Dawn M. Frankfurt

 

Glory to the Holy and Undivided Trinity; God who is Three in One and One in Three; Who is beyond us, among us, within us; Who was, and is, and is to come, world without end.  Amen.

 

There are seven feast days – days of special observance – which we keep in the Episcopal Church.  If I ask you to list the seven most important days in the church year, I’m sure you could name most of them.  There are three outside the season of Easter.  I am sure you can list them: All Saints’ Day, which is on November 1st; Christmas Day, always on December 25th; and Epiphany on the 6th of January every year.  That leaves four principal feasts in Easter season.  One: Easter Day.  Two: The Day of Pentecost (with is next Sunday).  And three: Trinity Sunday (the Sunday after Pentecost).  The fourth special observance in the Easter Season is Ascension Day.  Ascension Day happens forty days after Easter and it is always on a Thursday.  We marked the occasion on Thursday with a service here in the chapel. 

 

Of all the principal feasts in the church year, I think it is safe to say that Ascension gets the least ‘play’.  We are keeping the feast today and remembering the Ascension.  After all, the Prayer Book sets this out as one of the seven most important days of the year.  That’s reason enough to stop and ask what we’re talking about when we refer to the Ascension.  There are many stories in the Bible about Christ’s appearances after his resurrection.  Today, in the gospel lesson from Luke, we hear about Jesus talking to his disciples about the Scriptures – continuing to help them understand all that had been told to them.  At the end of this scene, Jesus blesses his disciples and is carried up into heaven.

 

The disciples witnessed Jesus during his bodily resurrection from the dead.  When he returned to them after his crucifixion and burial in the tomb, they still recognized him.  He still bore the wounds and scars of crucifixion.  Yet he was no longer dead.  He was alive and he stood before them.  He spoke to them and continued to teach them.  He walked with them; he shared meals with them.  He also walked through walls and appeared and disappeared before their eyes. 

 

This is part and parcel of the mystery of Christ.  Somehow the baby Jesus was born to Mary – both fully human and fully God.  Somehow the divinity of Jesus dwelt among humanity – a human sinless for the length of his life.  Somehow the God in Jesus submitted to the pain and humiliation of crucifixion – he suffered as any man upon the cross – with the added burden of the sins of the world on his shoulders.  Like all crucified men, Jesus died.  Unlike most crucified men, Jesus was allowed the privilege of a proper burial instead of being cast upon a heap of other bodies and trash outside the city.  Somehow the human body of Jesus came to life again.  He left the tomb where he had been laid.  He breathed.  He walked.  He talked.  He ate.  He was reunited with his friends.  And then somehow, right before their eyes, just as he was teaching and blessing them, he was carried up into the clouds. 

 

That’s the mystery – the great paschal mystery which we can’t fully understand, logically explain or rationally describe.  Yet our faith tells us that the great paschal mystery has given us freedom from sin and victory over death.  The Ascension is the closing chapter of the paschal mystery.

 

You may say, “But wait – we have the incarnation in the birth of Jesus.  We have the forgiveness of sins and victory over death in the crucifixion and the resurrection.  Why do we need Ascension?  Why do we observe it?”  We have to remember that one very important thing about Jesus and his coming was that it was all foretold in the Hebrew Scriptures.  Jesus directly fulfills numerous Old Testament prophecies.  You no doubt know many of the major ones.  The Hebrew Scriptures said that he must: belong to the house of David, be born in Bethlehem; enter Jerusalem on a donkey; enter the temple with authority; be hated without cause; be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver; be forsaken by his disciples; spat upon, beaten, mocked, and given vinegar to drink; and have lots cast for his clothing.  His bones will not be broken.  He will be buried with the rich.  He will be resurrected, he will ascend into heaven and he will be seated at the right hand of God. 

 

Today we remember the fulfillment of the prophecy which said that the Son of God would ascend to heaven.  It is important to think about prophecy fulfillment in the Scriptures because their fulfillment is used to prove that what God’s Word says is true and trustworthy.  What the Word of God says, the Word of God does.  Absolutely no exceptions.  God can be trusted.  We are to rely upon the Word of God.

 

Even though this principal feast is the final chapter in the paschal mystery, there still isn’t a lot of “buzz” about it.  It just isn’t common to walk up to people at a cocktail party and join in their conversation about the Ascension.  You don’t walk through a crowded restaurant and over-hear talk at various tables about Christ being taken up into the clouds right in front of the disciples.  In fact, I bet it is hard for you to remember the last time YOU talked about Christ rising to heaven.

 

You may not realize it, but you talk about the Ascension every time you come to church.  Today, pay close attention when we say the Nicene Creed following the sermon.  Does this sound familiar:  “On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”?  Given what we know about the Ascension, do you know what it MEANS?  What does the Ascension MEAN to us?  Why does it matter?  What does it tell us? 

 

Remember when you were learning to ride a bike?  First you had training wheels.  As you got better at riding the bike and gained more and more confidence, you became ready for one of your parents to take the training wheels off of your bike.  But most of us didn’t hop onto our bikes immediately after that and start flying around the neighborhood on a simple duo of wheels.  I remember learning.  My Dad would run along the side of my bike as I was learning.  He would hold on to the back of my bicycle seat to keep me steady.  He would say things like, “Pedal a little faster.”  And he’d encourage me, “You’re doing great!  Keep going.”  Eventually he would let go of the seat and I would pedal on for ten or twenty more feet before I realized that he’d let go.  As soon as I would look back and see him standing there, I would crash.  Each time, he got me right up on the bike and held me steady again.  We did this over and over until I started to get the hang of it.  Before you know it, I was getting home after school and my Dad wouldn’t be home from work yet.  That didn’t slow me down.  I would kick the bike's kick-stand out of the way and ride off down the street – able to do it completely on my own.

 

Maybe that sheds a little light on the Ascension.  Jesus was doing his last bit of encouraging in the presence of the disciples.  He was giving the great commission.  Matthew tells us that when the disciples saw Jesus after his resurrection, he said to them: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20a).  What Christians believe about Christ is found in the Scriptures and summed up in the creeds.

 

In other words, this was the last time Jesus held the back of the disciples’ figurative bicycle seats.  After the Ascension, it was a new time.  It was time for the disciples to carry on Christ’s ministry without his presence with them.  He had opened their minds to the meaning of Scripture.  They’d learned what they were going to learn.  It was time for them to get out there and get to work.  In that light, think of all of the mini-ascensions we have in life.  We go from having a driver’s permit to legally driving a car alone.  One day we’re a fiancé, and the next day we’re somebody’s spouse.  Think of how many professions have periods of apprenticeship or internship.  Teachers, policemen, priests, doctors, and lawyers – they all serve as interns before they begin to take individual responsibility. 

 

This parish is in the midst of some mini-ascensions of its own.  Think of this.  You had a beloved rector for twenty years.  On October first of last year he ceased to be here with you and you began to discover new independence as you continued to be the Body of Christ.  Think of the people who have touched your life.  Those who taught you, loved you, ministered to you.  From one disciple to another the good news of God in Christ is shared.  Eventually you step out on your own.  Step out to do.  Step out to teach.  Step out in faith.  Start fresh.  A new leaf.  A clean slate. 

 

As you reflect on what life at Trinity Church is like now, what are you learning?  What are you finding out about being a member of the Body of Christ?  What new things are ahead for you?  With your new rector, where can you next step in faith?  It is a new time.  It is a time of promise.  That’s what the Ascension means.  Ascension is the first step into new life … It is time to do it on your own.

 

AMEN!