Sermon: Ascension (transferred) - 2019

29 May 2019

Text: Mark 16:14-20 (2 Kings 2:5-15, Acts 1:1-11)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

It is not our job to fix the world.  Don’t get me wrong – we have work to do.  There are things that God calls each one of us to do in the kingdom, to serve the church, to serve the world, and to serve Him.  And if we look at how messed up the world is, we might get discouraged.  But if we keep our eyes on the small tasks that the Lord assigns to us, day in and day out, we can find joy – joy in being a part of something that transcends our own lifetime.  

As great as the prophet Elijah was, it was not his job to fix the world.  It was Elijah’s job to preach the Word of God, calling sinners to repentance, and teaching them of the mercy of God when they repented.  Elijah preached Christ without even fully realizing it.  Elijah suffered and at times felt like a failure.  But it was not Elijah’s job to fix the world, but rather to proclaim and serve the One whose job it is to fix the world.

For there came a time when Elijah was taken from the earth, not in death, but rather in some kind of wormhole in the space-time continuum: “behold chariots of fire and horses of fire separated” Elijah from his student Elisha.  “And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”  Prophecies in the New Testament suggest that Elijah’s work will be completed on earth when our Lord returns.  And Elisha was left literally bearing Elijah’s mantle: “My father, my father!” he cried.   “The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!”  And he saw him no more.”

Elisha took up the mantle of Elijah, and he too preached the Word of God.  But it was not Elisha’s job to fix the world either.

This ascension of Elijah into the heavens prefigures our Lord’s ascension.  Our Lord has returned to the Father with the intention of coming again at the end of time.  It’s not our job to fix the world, but it is His job to do so.  And so He does, and He will.

Our Lord prepared those who were to wear His mantle as apostles (whom He had chosen) by explaining what was to come following His ascension.  For like Elisha, they were to see their master taken into heaven.  The apostles wanted to know what was going to happen next, as St. Luke reports: “‘Lord, will You restore the kingdom to Israel?  He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.  And you will be My witnesses.” 

Our Lord tells them that they will be witnesses of the resurrection, giving testimony beginning with their own city, their own region and beyond, “and to the end of the earth.”

St. Mark also records the Lord giving the apostles their marching orders: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.  Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

And even as the prophets Elijah and Elisha would carry out their ministry accompanied by miraculous signs, so too would the apostles: “In My name,” says our Lord, “they will cast out demons, they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

It was not the job of the apostles to fix the world.  Rather it was their job to proclaim the gospel, to be witnesses of Christ, to teach and preach and baptize and absolve – to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, and to evangelize the world come what may – even demons, language barriers, deadly animals, even the poison of enemies, and sickness.  Their vocation is to be witnesses of the One who has come into the world to fix it: to die for the sins of each one of its inhabitants; to destroy sin, death, and the devil; and to recreate the universe anew.

The apostles bear the mantle of their Lord, whom they preach.  And they are not carrying out their ministry alone.  For even though they saw the Lord ascend from them, not unlike Elisha who cried out “My father, my father!” our Lord has taught them to pray to God the Father, to rely on His providence, to proclaim the gospel, and to do so filled with the Holy Spirit through whom our Lord has “given commands” to them.  For Jesus continues to work through the apostles, as St. Mark says, “And they went out and preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.”

Dear friends, the apostolic ministry continues through us.  We preachers of the Word, and hearers of the Word, in our own day and age bear the mantle of the apostles.  We continue their work in proclaiming “the gospel to the whole creation.”  We continue this ministry in spite of demons and cultural barriers, natural and man-made hardships, through sickness and mortality.  Age upon age, the church’s ministry goes on, bolstered by the Holy Spirit, centered on the Word and Sacraments of the Son, and to the glory of the Father.  

It is not our job to fix the world, but we certainly have work to do.  There are things that God calls each one of us to do in the kingdom, to serve the church, to serve the world, and to serve Him.  We each have a vocation, a calling, whether we are preachers of the Word or hearers of the Word.  We have the vocation to receive the sacraments, and to be the Lord’s witnesses, whether in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, or the ends of the earth.  

With the passing of each day, each week, each year, and each generation, the time of the Lord’s return draws closer.  And so we, like the “Men of Galilee” have work to do.  There is no time for us to stand gawking into the sky.  For “this Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.”

It is not our job to fix the world.  But we have the joy to confess and proclaim the One who has come to fix the world – even Jesus Christ our Lord – now and even unto eternity.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.