Footprints?

So now what’re we gonna do?  He’s gone….into the clouds somewhere.  The Teacher was always telling us How & Why; do we just hang out until further notice?  The implications of Jesus’ Ascension are all too important to pass off on a small Thursday crowd, so I’ve chosen to think about such mystery more than the “regular” readings for the Seventh (and Last) Sunday of Easter.  Preaching and teaching this could be a head-game of antiquity–or it could address current perplexities of expected ethic and behavior while the Lord is “invisible”.

Just for today, we’ll turn things around a bit and look at the Gospel first.  Read from the very ending of Luke’s story of Jesus, 24:44-53, it speaks of the ultimate instructions of Jesus to this followers gathered in Jerusalem:  “repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem….so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”  Then, at Bethany, “while he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.”  Popular legend says that you can still see his footprints on the rock upon which he stood!

So it follows that Luke begins his second volume, the Acts of the Apostles, by recounting this experience.  And, something new, two “men in white robes” asked, “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”  Was this a re-phrasing of the question in the garden on Easter morning, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”  Jesus rarely remains where we last saw him!  Barbara K. Lundblad remarks that “in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ footprints are all over the pages of the text.”  (FEEDING on the WORD, B 2:507)  We may help folks to see where the Lord’s footprints can be seen in our present time.

Which brings us to the passage from Ephesians, 1:15-23:  readers are encouraged to receive “a spirit of wisdom and revelation” as they grow to perfection.  This is done by God when he Raised Christ from the dead “and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places…”  Can our hearers report “uplifting” experiences, even in the face of bewildering circumstances?  Do we celebrate those often-ecstatic moment when we’re lifted above the daily scrabbles in the dust?  Is this the “resurrection of the body” in our creed?

Ascension Sunday gives opportunity to savor the mystery, perhaps to join God in a bit of playfulness.  It’s an occasion to look beyond the expectable, to gaze into heaven.  The Ascension of Christ calls the Believers to seek out and cherish the Lord’s footprints, for they are many.  Here may reside the realization of the astronaut’s statement, “One small step for man, a giant leap for mankind”.

God Bless Us, Every One                    Horace Brown King

My thoughts about scripture passages assigned to the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com