Text: Acts 1:1-11 (2 Kings 2:5-15, Mark 16:14-20)
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Jesus
has a lot of surprises.
After
teaching the disciples for three years about His kingdom, after performing
miracles and changing the world, He submits to death on a cross. And then, He surprises them by rising from the
dead. He surprises them by appearing to
them for 40 days, continuing His ministry of teaching them. And then, on that Thursday six weeks
and four days after that first Easter, Jesus surprises the disciples again: by
ascending into Heaven, at the right hand of the Father, disappearing into the
sky.
But
He also surprised them by a promise before He ascended on high, in a similar
manner as did the prophet Elijah, blessing the disciples, like Elijah did to
Elisha: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you
will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends
of the earth.”
Great
surprises indeed! The world has never
been the same since!
For
the apostles – that is, the ones whom Jesus sent in His name, ordained under
His authority, called by the Holy Spirit – preached
the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake, and did so as our Lord
said, in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the very ends of the earth –
even as preachers are today sent far and near with this self-same good news of the
cross, of redemption, and of the reality, dear friends, that your sins are
forgiven, and that you have been baptized into Christ, and that you are called
by the law to repent, and that you are graced with the Gospel unto the certain promise
of the “resurrection of the body and the life everlasting”!
These
eleven apostles were transformed from cowering sheep into bold shepherds –
because of the Spirit that animated them, and by the Gospel that motivated
them. They were empowered by the same
Lord Jesus Christ who continued to appear to them under the forms of bread and
wine, even as He continues to come to us bodily today in this same Holy Supper,
dear friends.
Indeed,
Jesus is full of surprises!
On
that Thursday, our Lord went up out of their sight, but He did not abandon
them. No indeed! He continued to teach them through the Word. He continued to forgive them through
Absolution. He continued to comfort them
in their Baptism. He continued to
forgive and fortify them in the Eucharist. Our Lord had promised them, and us: “I am with
you always, to the end of the age.”
And
so He is!
But
being ascended, the disciples – and that title includes us, dear brothers and
sisters – could not simply sit idle and depend on our Lord to put His hand to
the plow. By ascending to the Father,
the Lord has delegated the management of the kingdom to us, to the church. He has given the pastors of the church the
authority to forgive sins, to preach the Gospel, and to administer the
sacraments. And like a baby bird getting
nudged out of the nest, the once-cowering disciples were to take up their
crosses, spread their wings, and become courageous martyrs, witnesses of our Lord,
indeed, in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.
Our
Lord had told them: “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.”
But
He doesn’t just tell the church to do these things alone. He doesn’t leave them powerless. For He says: “And these signs will accompany
those who believe: in My name 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.”
Dear
brothers and sisters, though we in the church appear weak – subject to tyrants and
mullahs and dictators and bullies and Supreme Court justices – in Christ, we
are strong. In the Spirit, we are
bold. In the Word and Sacraments, we are
redeemed and live forever. We exorcise
demons, we preach in languages that didn’t even exist when our Lord ascended, we
continue to strive against the evil serpent that beguiled Eve and intimidated
Adam, we handle the deadliest poison this world and its prince have to offer, and
yet we live. We preach a Gospel that
forgives sins and gives immortality to the mortal. And through it all, our Lord is still working:
working through His church, working through His ministers, working through His
Word, working through His sacraments.
Yes
indeed, Jesus never ceases to amaze and surprise!
And
yet, it seems at times like we have been abandoned. We cannot place our fingers in the hole of the
nails as did St. Thomas. We can’t
recline next to Him at table like St. John. We cannot hear Him call out our name like St. Mary.
Nor do we see Him bodily ascend as did
the Men of Galilee.
But
He does not abandon us, dear friends. He
is here with us, in body and in Word. He
is here with us even in His lifeblood, which was poured out for us, and which
is given to us, to restore our life and bolster our faith. In fact, dear friends, it is we who abandon
Him in our constant sinning: when we find something to do other than to receive
Him in the Sacrament at the Divine Service; when we spent time with the
television or radio instead of studying His Word; when we pursue a life of
entertainment in place of a life of prayer. We must repent, dear friends! Our Lord is calling us to a better way, and
He doesn’t leave us or forsake us! He
will be here, in space and time, where we dwell, here for us in Word and
Sacrament, until He returns in glory.
For
Jesus is not yet done with the surprises!
The
angel testified: “Man of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into
heaven, will come in the same way you saw Him go into heaven.”
Jesus
will surprise us with His coming again “with glory to judge both the living and
the dead, whose kingdom has no end.”
Hear,
O brothers and sisters! Hear the Word of
the Lord, the Good News that Jesus has atoned for your sins! Hear the good news that you have been baptized
into His name! Hear His call to repent,
and His declaration of absolution! Our
blessed Lord continues to give Himself to you, in His body and blood and in His
Word, unto forgiveness, life, and salvation, even as we await His coming again
in glory.
Jesus
continues to surprise His beloved people, with peace and forgiveness and joy
and renewal and life – 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.
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