There are events and festivals, experiences or impressions that don\u2019t allow rational exploration. Perhaps you can think of some. A time when you couldn\u2019t explain what happened or a moment that defines you even if you have no words for it! I don\u2019t think of myself as a mystic, a person who courts the unexplainable or tinkers with the irrational However, most of us admit that an attempt to rationalize everything leads to more questions and less solutions. Today\u2019s lesson brings us face to face with a reality that only pictures and images approach. It\u2019s fair, therefore, to admit this lesson will bring some challenges and a sense of wonder.<\/p>\n
BREAKING THE GRID<\/strong><\/p>\n Attempting to come to grips with the full meaning of the Ascension story is not easy. If we\u2019re to use words, we don\u2019t have much to go on. Verse 51 of Luke\u2019s last chapter simply says \u201cwhile he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up to heaven.\u201d \u201cHe left them.\u201d Those are the hard words for the disciples\u2014and for any of us who are left behind when someone we love leaves us, whether for a time, or for good. Tim LeHaye wrote sixteen novels, later made into films and video games, about what happens to people who have been \u201cleft behind\u201d. Despite the rootage in dispensational theology, the stories became wildly popular because being left behind can be a scary situation. The producers of the \u201cHome Alone\u201d film series give us a \u201cKevin\u201d who can help us. Be careful and clever enough to deal with all the crazy things than can happen when you\u2019re on your own! At least that\u2019s how one does it in a film!<\/p>\n The disciples in our story were bewildered about their abandonment and had to think back to the things Jesus had taught them in order to make sense out of their new situation. It\u2019s interesting for us to reflect on what they said and did. It\u2019s also interesting as we try to make sense of their challenge to see what artists have done with this story\u2014artists being people who try to use imagery to convey truth when words fail them.<\/p>\n I\u2019m thinking of three artistic expressions that artists have used to make sense of the Ascension story, specifically of the impact of the moment when our text says, \u201cHe left them, and was taken up into heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n The first image that comes to mind is not only one that I\u2019ve had with me since childhood, but one that well-known artists down through the centuries have used. If you google \u201cAscension Art\u201d, you will find many of these images. They come as close as possible to a realistic portrayal of the words \u201cleft\u201d and \u201ctaken up\u201d. Giotto, Veronese, Rembrandt, Rubens and Dali all tried to express their thoughts and feelings about Jesus\u2019 ascension, his leaving the disciples and being taken up into heaven. The impression on the disciples\u2019 faces is one of fear or awe. The description of Jesus\u2019 disappearance allows for extended or outstretched hands and arms that serve to capture the supernatural lift that apparently draws him upward.<\/p>\n For the most part this realistic attempt to deal with the ascension\u2019s meaning began to disappear as modern views of cosmology changed. Heaven was no longer \u201cup\u201d, but more likely \u201cout\u201d and even an \u201cout\u201d pursuing an infinity that defies traditional meanings. Furthermore, contemporary artists seem less concerned with where Jesus went than they are concerned with what the disciples are to do in Jesus\u2019 absence. Newer artists attempt to explore mystical and supernatural expressions of the ascension with expressionist plumes of fire and impressionist spectrums of color. Some of it is spectacular, particularly in an attempt to say: \u201cWhat was going here was beyond our understanding. We know that a division took place between Jesus and the disciples, between what had been and what would now take place.\u201d The contemporary artists seem more concerned with what will happen to the bewildered disciples, to those who know they are home alone.<\/p>\n The second example I\u2019d like to share employs a new approach that I think can help us make sense of the final day in the so-called festival half of the church year, the day when Jesus left his disciples, yet gave them power to understand the Scriptures and to preach repentance and forgiveness in his name to all nations. It is not a day to look back; rather it is one to look forward.<\/p>\n The second example is from a newer window in the chancel of St. Martin in the Fields at Trafalgar Square in London. In the bombing of 1940, a stained glass window in the chancel wall was destroyed. It was a Victorian, multi-colored, realistic, biblical image that allowed one to \u201csee\u201d with the mind\u2019s eye \u201cexactly\u201d how the original setting may have looked. When the bomb fell and the window was destroyed, 7000 people were packed in the cellar and many met their dead end. The new window would have to say something about new-beginnings, about the post-WWII world into which Jesus was sending his followers. Twenty-five artists submitted proposals and the one chosen was done by an Iranian woman, Shirazeh Houshiary.<\/p>\n The window is now clear glass with leaded divisions indicating the shape of the cross, symbolizing Jesus, and a burst, a rounded space at the crossbeam encouraging the viewer to look through, if not beyond, the window! It is a \u201cGod shaped hole,\u201d some have said, a challenge to one who asks about the meaning of the ascension in a secular world. The new window introduces light, wonder, contemplation, encouragement. The new window does not give the details of a realistic, Victorian setting, but rather it helps to grasp a new insight. Jesus, who left us, is encouraging us not to get lost in the details of past experiences. He wants to show us that he has broken the grid, the framework that locks in the rigidities of past misunderstandings, foibles and failures. We are invited to enter with him into a new and open wide world in which love and service will allow us to embrace brothers and sisters everywhere. We are not left behind so much as we are thrust forward into a new world in which \u201crepentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations.\u201d (Lk. 24:47)<\/p>\n The third artistic rendering of the ascension I\u2019d like to share was once placed on a calendar published by Lutheran Brotherhood, a fraternal life insurance company of some years ago, now merged with Aid Association for Lutherans and having the new name, Thrivent. The stunning painting for one month of the year was done by a high school student whose name is no longer remembered by Thrivent. I would like to believe that he (I remember it was a young man) went on to become a great artist because this work had enormous impact on me. The image shows only the ascending feet of Jesus. As they rise, the grid that separates the future from the past or, say, heaven from earth in earlier language, is shattered. Colorful confetti falls everywhere below to prove that the result of the ascension is pure exuberance. It is an artist\u2019s way of saying that although Jesus \u201cleft them,\u201d the future is still ours, death is permanently overcome, confidence is our destiny and nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:38).<\/p>\n For those who have pain, after a trauma or a feeling of abandonment, this text is very important. Jesus had come to \u201cmake all things new.\u201d (Rev. 21:5) He had shattered the grid that locked our worldview into patterns that may have once seemed pretty to us, but ultimately led to dead ends. His crucifixion spoke powerfully to us who were comfortable with the way things had always been. We who were satisfied with anger and arrogance, hatred and violence, are told by the cross: \u201cLet it end here!\u201d It doesn\u2019t have to be this way\u2014ever again. We are freed to move into a new lifestyle marked by love and hope. Jesus reminds us that we have witnessed a life of generosity and service\u2014and with his Gospel example empowering us, we can break through the grid that holds us back and enter the new possibility that his Father has promised.<\/p>\n Just as Jesus assured his disciples as he left them that everything had been fulfilled, everything written in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms (Lk. 24:44), so this Feast of the Ascension, celebrated since the time of the apostles, assures us that there is no need for the earthly Jesus to remain among us. He promises to be with us in spirit to the end of the age (Mt. 28:20). As witnesses to the faith that empowers us to believe in what is eternally new, this day doesn\u2019t speak about endings. It proclaims the assurance that the future is ours because in Jesus our God is not a God of the past but of the future.<\/p>\n As the author of Hebrews reminds us: \u201cTherefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,\u00a0fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. (12: 1-2)<\/p>\n The Ascension of our Lord is the last day of the Church Year, coming 40 days after Easter, and celebrated because it brings to an end the remembrance of the deeds of Jesus. For many, it is a day almost forgotten, coming as it does on a Thursday. Let it be a day, however, that leaves us with a sense of awe and wonder, a day to focus on the opportunities for love and service we may not yet have considered. As Fortunatus already sang of this day in the 600s, \u201cEnlighten our minds, great Redeemer, order our ways in your peace.\u201d Help us with you, our faithful Pioneer, to break through the human grids that restrain us and enter now the season in which your words regularly empower us.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Hymn: \u201cHail Thou Festival Day\u201d\u00a0 Fortunatus (600 A.D.)<\/p>\n The Rev. David Zersen, D.Min., Ed.D.<\/p>\n President Emeritus, Concordia University Texas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD 2021 | A Sermon on Luke 24: 44-53 (RCL) | by David Zersen | There are events and festivals, experiences or impressions that don\u2019t allow rational exploration. Perhaps you can think of some. 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