Homily for Ascension Day - 2020

"Ascended for Our Healing"
Luke 24:44-53

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How good, Lord, to be here! How good to see you here too!

What a sacred season this has been! The last time most of us were together here was the middle of Lent. We were still building up to the dramatic climax of Holy Week. Then along came Coronavirus and COVID-19. Our governing and medical authorities advised us to stay home, stay apart, not gather, wash hands and so forth. Out of love for our vulnerable neighbors, and with godly submission to our governing authorities, we willingly did so. Then the authorities chose to force the issue by declaring states of emergency and ordering us to be locked down. Thankfully, we could still proclaim God’s Word by other media. But still, it wasn’t as it should be.

So as a gathered congregation we missed the rising tensions between Jesus and the religious authorities of His day. We missed His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We missed receiving His Body and Blood on the night when He was betrayed. We missed His bloody battle on the cross and His cosmic victory over death and devil. We missed holding vigil and joyfully ringing in His glorious resurrection. And we’ve missed gathering together these past weeks to revel in His resurrection.

It’s almost like sitting down to watch a favorite movie—for the 100th time. You know the story and you love the story. You’re enjoying the story. Then the drowsiness creeps in and you doze off just before the climactic, most important part. As you snooze, the story moves along. Then suddenly you wake up. The music is triumphant. Peace is restored. All is well once again. Yes, you missed the best, climactic part of the story, but you know the story well enough and the denouement—the final resolution—still brings great joy.

This is where we are now—the denouement, the final resolution. “See, the Lord ascends in triumph; / Conqu’ring King in royal state, / Riding on the clouds, His chariot, / To His heav’nly palace gate” (LSB 491:1).

Our Lord’s ascension really does put everything else in perspective. Before He was lifted up and hidden by the cloud, Jesus put all things in perspective for His eleven disciples. Everything written about Him in Moses’ Law, in the Prophets and in the Psalms—in all of the Old Testament Scriptures—must be fulfilled. Everything we read and hear from Genesis through Malachi points us to Jesus. The creation shows us God’s eternal will and plan—perfect life with Him. We humans fell into sin, brought death into the world, and spoiled God’s creation. But God promised to set things right. He chose a people through Abraham. He rescued His people from slavery and led them into the Promised Land. He even elevated a king named David to point us to our true, eternal King. The prophets proclaimed repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The psalms sang of Christ and His works of salvation. Through it all, our God was working to return His human creatures to His perfect Eden.

And He still is. Moses’ Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, and especially the New Testament still point us to Christ Jesus, our true King. “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.”  As St. Paul proclaimed, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace”  (Eph. 1:7). This is what makes Jesus our King of kings, our Lord of lords, and our highest authority above all authorities. After all, now that Jesus has ascended, He is far above all rule and authority and dominion. All things are put under His feet and He rules all things for the good of His Church.

This puts all things in perspective. Even pandemics. Even lock downs. Even the fears and uncertainties of our time. When Jesus ascended, He gave His apostles and His Church a singular mission: “that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.” How has your ascended Lord led you in repentance for the forgiveness of sins these past few weeks?

What or whom have you feared, loved or trusted above God Himself? That tiny microscopic virus with the crowned spikes has been causing a lot of fear. Even the omnipresent pictures on TV and the Internet look frightful. Pictures and news stories of those infected and badly suffering are most unsettling. Now simple handshakes, coughs and sneezes set off the fear response. We’re practically in fight-or-flight mode whenever we encounter another human being outside our own home. We have been trusting the authorities to keep us safe and the media to keep us well-informed, despite the ever-changing and often-conflicting information. We fallen human beings have been trusting ourselves to overcome both the pandemic and the now shattered economy.

As I’ve said before, times like this are God’s way of tapping us on the shoulder, getting our attention, turning us toward Him and saying, “Hey, I’m still here. I’m still in charge. And I still want you to fear, love and trust Me above all things.” For this, we can actually appreciate this pandemic and all its fallout. Some speak of their new found appreciation for family time during the lock down. Some speak of cooking meals rather than dining out. Others find other blessings. These can be good things. The greater “blessing” of a time like this, though, is being drawn back to our true King and Lord. God always seeks to dislodge us from our misplaced fear, love and trust. If only we got as worked up about our infection of sin as we have about COVID-19! At least most people recover from COVID-19—one source says about 85% recover, other sources say up to 98%. But none of us can recover from our disease of sin and being separated from God.

Our ascended Savior is our loving Lord who says, “There is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal” (Dt. 32:39). And heal He does. He, the Son of God, took on our frail human nature. Though He Himself had no sin, He was made sin “so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Our Lord’s death on a Friday and resurrection on the third day is the only perfect healing medicine for all time. “With His wounds we are healed” (Is. 53:5). It’s the only medicine for what truly infects each and every human being of every time and place.

So when Jesus ascended to the Father’s right hand, He showed that all is fulfilled and completed, all is well between us and God, even in this broken world. With our Lord ascended in triumph and crowned in glory, we need not fear, love or trust anyone or anything else for our ultimate health and well-being. One commentator explained the significance of this day this way: “Christ’s ascension confers divine honors upon us” (Parsch, III:164). Neither pandemic nor social, cultural disruption can change that.

In a very short time we will break our Eucharistic fast. As we rejoice in being together once again, let’s rejoice even more in what brings us together—our ascended Lord who now comes to us in His very Body and Blood. It’s much more than a community meal. It’s the genuine “medicine of immortality.” And pay close attention to the Proper Preface—the prayer—leading up to our Lord’s sacred Meal. What was the purpose of our Lord’s life, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension? What is the fruit and benefit of His Holy Supper? “That He might make us partakers of His divine life.”

When you, by His grace and His working, partake of His divine life, you have forgiveness for your fears. You have life in this world of death. You have rescue and healing from the sin that infects.

What a great day to do what the disciples did. As Jesus “parted from them and was carried up into heaven,” they worshiped Him with great joy. And they were continually in the temple blessing God. What a great day to return to this place of worship and joy. Blessed by our ascended Lord, we bless Him in return. Amen.

Homily for the Ascension of Our Lord

"Rejoicing on Ascension Day"
2 Kings 2:5-15; Acts 1:1-11; Luke 24:44-53

(With thanks to Dr. Joel Biermann, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO, who unwittingly provided a great outline for a homily here.)

Today we see no decorated evergreens, no poinsettias. We give no gifts; we send no greeting cards. We see no lilies or colored eggs or chocolate bunnies. I’m pretty sure no one here has any kind of feast planned for the hours following this service—no hams or lambs or turkeys roasting in the oven, no tables set with the fine china and crystal, and no guests coming over. And if I were to shout the acclamation, “Christ has ascended!” what would be the proper response to shout back?

Then there’s this little fact: today is a Thursday—an odd day for gathering in God’s house…except when Christmas falls on a Thursday. It’s not just that the world ignores this festival; much of the Church has also lost interest. It’s as if Ascension Day doesn’t matter much.

Ah, but it does matter. It matters just as much as Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter. In fact, let’s push the envelope and say it matters even more. I mean, how many of us would actually walk out on a favorite, compelling two-hour movie only an hour and a half into it? We’d miss the thrilling climax that resolves the conflict, the big finish that sets everything right. Yes, Ascension Day does matter. So, let’s rejoice on this Ascension Day. Let’s ponder seven reasons to rejoice on Ascension Day.

First, Jesus ascended so that the Holy Spirit could descend. As Jesus said, “If I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you” (John 16:7). No Jesus going up in a cloud, then no Holy Spirit coming down to comfort and guide the Church. And no Holy Spirit, then no faith, no salvation, no comfort, no peace, no strengthening and sustaining. But Jesus has ascended. And so the Holy Spirit has come. And the Spirit brings to our remembrance all that Jesus has said and done for us. The Spirit bears witness to us about Jesus. He takes what belongs to Jesus and declares it to us.

Second, Jesus now reigns over everything. He is our sovereign King of the universe. Now, we Lutherans get a little skittish talking of Jesus’ sovereignty—because, after all, it can and does get used as a replacement for His grace and mercy—but He does indeed reign over everything. God the Father “put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:22). We were dead in our trespasses, but God has made us alive in Jesus, His Son. He has forgiven us all our trespasses. He has cancelled the record of our debts against God, nailing it to the cross. And now God has “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in [Jesus]” (Col. 2:15). So, as someone once said, there is not one square inch of all the world over which Jesus does not say, “Mine!” That includes you and your life and me and my life. To say it another way: we and all the world belong to Him. And His grace and mercy make Him our benevolent sovereign.

A third reason to rejoice on Ascension Day: The Ascension was God’s plan from the very beginning. Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection were all foretold in the Old Testament. So was His ascension. Elijah being taken up in the whirlwind is our “preview trailer” for Jesus. Our Lord “was lifted up, and a cloud hid Him from their sight” (Acts 1:9). Jesus’ ascension is the capstone to His earthly ministry and all of His saving work for us. Jesus now sits at the Father’s right hand with His enemies of sin, death, and devil under His feet as His footstool (cf. Ps. 110:1). And there’s more. In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve to live in perfect harmony, perfect communion, perfect fellowship with Himself. God and man, divine and human—they were supposed to live together in the closest, most intimate way. Of course, Adam and Eve fell into sin and ruined all that, not only for themselves, but also for us. And we’ve been perfecting the art of the ruin ever since. But along came Jesus to live, suffer, die and rise for us and thus reunite us with our God. By grace you and I have been saved. And God “raised us up with [Jesus] and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). Yes, God has had a plan for you from the beginning, and that’s it: making you and your fellow Christians partakers of His divine life…even now…lasting forever.

Fourth, Jesus ascended bodily. Life with God is not just a spiritual matter—it includes and involves the body. Jesus is true God and true Man, completely God and completely human, all at the same time, all in one Person. Now a true human body is the object of all honor and worship. So Jesus’ bodily ascension gives new meaning to our human nature and our human bodies. In Him, they are very good. They will be restored and resurrected. They will go into eternity. And all the material stuff of God’s creation is good too.

Reason #5 for rejoicing in Jesus’ Ascension: The commission announced by Jesus is now in full force. When someone dies, the terms of their will go into full force. Jesus has died, Jesus has risen, and Jesus has ascended to God’s right hand—not a place, but the position of authority, which is everywhere. Think “right-hand man.” So Jesus’ last will and testament is in full force. It includes things like “Take, eat, this is My body” and “Take, drink, this is my blood.” And when we do what Jesus commissions us to do, we are blessed. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Cor. 11:26). Jesus’ will also commissions us to do other things. “It is written…that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:47). Jesus’ commission also says, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). And, of course, you remember the one about making disciples of all nations by baptizing and teaching (cf. Matt. 28:19-20). Yes, you and I—all of us—have the high privilege of bearing witness and proclaiming the reality of Jesus to the world, right where we live and move and have our being, to the people whom God puts in the path of our day to day lives.

Reason #6: The ascension of Jesus is a preview of His promised return. Jesus went up through endless ranks of angels physically and visibly. Remember what the two angels told the disciples: “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:10). And how’s that? Physically and visibly. It will not be a spiritual or metaphorical return. Jesus loves us too much to have us rest our faith and our eternal life on metaphors. No, our ascended Lord will come again with His physical body. We will see Him. Everyone will see Him. No one will miss it. For us who cling to Him by faith, ever glad for His rescue from sin and death, it will be a joyous reunion. For those who don’t give Jesus the time of day by faith in the heart, well, it won’t be a good day…or eternity…for them. But Jesus will come back in the body, physically and visibly.

Finally, reason #7 to rejoice in Jesus’ ascension: Jesus is Lord. It was the confession of early Christians in the face of a Roman government hostile to the Gospel. It’s the confession us Christians today in the face of all that vexes us—everything from incurable diseases to lost jobs to government officials suing us for living out the Christian faith. Not only did Jesus come back from the dead; now  He reigns on high. He is Lord of all creation. He is Lord of your life. And, as Luther said, “The little word Lord means simply the same as redeemer. It means the One who has brought us from Satan to God, from death to life, from sin to righteousness, and who preserves us in the same” (LC, II:31). Now if Jesus has done all that for you and me, who are we to fret that the world is going to “heck in a hand basket”? Who are we to wring our hands when things do not go our way? Who are we to doubt God’s goodness? Who are we to stay silent about Jesus and all that He’s done for us? Yes, we may be sinners, but our ascended Lord has conquered the sin. He has overcome the world. He has defeated death itself. And now He guides and governs all things for our good.

So we rejoice on this understated, under-celebrated festivity. Christ has ascended! He has ascended indeed!  The King ascends to heaven. Alleluia. O come, let us worship Him. “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10-11). Amen.

Homily for the Ascension of Our Lord

"Ascension Blessing"
Luke 24:44-53

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For this first half of the Church Year—the festival half—we have followed the life of Jesus. We have followed Him from His silent conception in the womb of His virgin Mother to the red, wrinkled infant lying on straw in a feeding trough. We have followed Him from the young toddler receiving the worship of the Wise Men to the 12-year old lad learning and teaching in the Temple. We have followed Him from John the Baptizer proclaiming Him as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29) to the water pouring over Him, the Spirit descending upon Him, and the Father declaring, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt. 3:17). Jesus then went into the desert to be tempted by the devil as He firmly held onto God’s saving purpose. Then we journeyed with Him through the fulfillment of that purpose—Lent, Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter.

Good Friday and Easter are certainly the high-point of the story, but they are not the end of the story. So we’ve followed Jesus forty more days. Now we see Him lifting up His hands to give a blessing and then being carried up to heaven.

Let’s be clear on one thing about Jesus’ Ascension. It does NOT mean that He has gone away. Before He ascended, Jesus did promise that He would be with us always and to the end of the age (Mt. 28:20). He did say, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5; Josh. 1:5). What, then, does Jesus’ Ascension mean? It means that Jesus no longer shows Himself visibly to our physical eyes. And that’s a good thing. Imagine if He would still show Himself to our sense of sight, as He did before His resurrection. We would have to wonder where He might be this evening. Would He be here in St. Louis, or half-way around the world in, say, Istanbul? We would have to admit that if He’s there, then He’s not here. But since Jesus has ascended, His people half-way around the world, and here in this room, and in various other places, know that He is with them. He promised it, and He always keeps His promises.

How can Jesus do that—be present where we cannot see Him and in many places at once? Only Jesus knows how He can do that, and it’s silly for us to try and figure it out. The bright cloud that “took Him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9) tells us that. This was no ordinary cloud. This was the bright cloud that led Israel on their journey through the wilderness and into the Promised Land. This was the cloud that stood above the two angels on the ark of the covenant. This was the bright cloud that appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration. This bright cloud was the guarantee of God’s presence for His people, to lead them and bless them. So this bright cloud marks Jesus’ re-entry to the realm of God. We cannot see that realm; we cannot measure it; we cannot witness what happens there. But it is just as real as anything we can see, measure, or witness.

Jesus did not take a space shuttle ride or travel at warp speed to the other side of the galaxy. He rose up a little way above the earth and “a cloud took Him out of their sight.” Jesus Himself is not gone; just the physical sight of Him is withdrawn. Now Jesus is present and does things in the whole range of God’s way of being present and doing things—and He’s still a man, a man fulfilled and glorified. It’s what we confess when we say that He “sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” That right hand is not a specific place. It’s the whole power and authority of God that Jesus, true God and also true Man, gets to exercise—for us and for our blessing.

That is the true joy of Jesus’ Ascension. After He led His disciples “out as far as Bethany,” He lifted “up His hands and blessed them.” He was still blessing them as He was “carried up to heaven” and being taken out of their sight. Luke does not tell us what words Jesus spoke in that blessing, and we really don’t need to know. Instead, let’s look at His hands. In those hands raised in blessing we can read the meaning and blessing of Jesus.

These are the hands that pushed at Mary’s breast in our human littleness and frailty. These are the hands that could learn to hold a pen and write the words of Scripture that Jesus knew so well by age 12. These are the hands that worked with hammer and saw, thus sharing in our work and blessing our labor. These are the hands that touched the eyes of the blind and the tongue of the mute to open our eyes of faith and loose our tongues to sing His praise. These are the hands that held the pale cold hand of a little girl and gave her back to her grieving mommy and daddy—giving us the hope of the resurrection of the body and being reunited with those we love who have departed in the faith. We can read just how often Jesus stretched out His hands and touched and grasped with that personal, one-to-one touch of love and healing. He was there, giving His blessing and His healing, for each one that needed Him, using His hands to take hold of each one. And never forget that moving scene when, after a long and busy day, Jesus continued His work of healing and blessing well into the night: “When the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him, and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them” (Lk. 4:40).

These are the hands that gathered the little children into His arms to hug them and bless them. These are the hands that grabbed Peter when he looked away from Jesus and began to sink. These are the hands that broke the bread which had been blessed and gave them His body to eat. These are the hands that Thomas held and overcame his doubt.

But here is the biggest thing of all. These hands of Jesus--extended in blessing as He is taken up and hidden from physical sight--these are the hands that show the print of the nails. These are the hands still scarred from the jagged wounds of the cross. These are the hands that speak the greatest blessing, the super-sized blessing, the blessing for each of us now and into all eternity, and how it was won for us on the cross. Wouldn’t it be great to see a painting in which the artist depicts the scars in Jesus’ hands in the shape of a cross?

That’s the real blessing of Jesus’ Ascension. Jesus took on Himself all our wrongs, all our sins, and He bore the punishment for them. We deserved to be forsaken by God, but Jesus was forsaken in our place. Instead of being forsaken, now we are forgiven. Because of what Jesus did there on that cross, we are made alive again as God’s children. We are healed from the plague of sin and death. Because Jesus’ hands were stretched out on the cross and pierced with spikes, now, today, they are stretched out in blessing on His disciples, on you and me. Jesus ascends and blesses with the marks of the cross in His hands. No cross, no blessing. That’s why the sign of the blessing is made in the shape of the cross. That’s what Jesus’ Ascension means: life and blessing won and given.

No, the Ascension does not mean that Jesus is gone. Quite the opposite. He is with us now even more powerfully than when He walked the earth visible to people around Him. We live in the presence of our ascended, ever-present Lord and Savior. Because He is with us, His Christians cannot be destroyed. He has overcome the world, and His victory is ours as well. And so He leads us, so He gives us strength, so He gives us courage, and finally He will bring us to that bright cloud of heaven. And so we go on from the Ascension just as the disciples did: “with great joy.” Amen.

Homily for the Ascension of Our Lord

"Where's Jesus?" That was the title and theme of last evening's Festal Divine Service on the Ascension of Our Lord. Contrary to appearances when He is taken up into heaven, our risen Lord Jesus is not absent. He's merely hidden from sight - hidden from the sight of His disciples by the cloud and certainly even now hidden from our physical sight. However, our Lord of glory, our Savior from sin, our Victor over death is still with us. Remember, "Immanuel" from Christmas? Remember Matthew 28:20, spoken by our resurrected Lord?

So, "Where's Jesus?" Right where He has promised to be: with His Church in His Gospel proclaimed and His Sacraments delivered. Click here to download the audio file and listen to the homily.

Ascension Day on KFUO

Yesterday morning I again had the privilege of being "Guest Host" with Paul Clayton on KFUO's "Morning Essentials" program. In this audio clip Paul and I interviewed Pr. William Weedon on the Ascension of Our Lord. Thanks much, Pr. Weedon!