Jesus is Lord? I Mean, Jesus is Lord!

Sermon delivered on Ascension Sunday, Easter 7C, May 8, 2016, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Westerville, OH.

If you prefer to listen to the audio podcast of today’s sermon, usually somewhat different from the text below, click here.

Lectionary texts: Acts 16.16-24; Psalm 97.1-12; Revelation 22:12–14, 16–17, 20–21; John 17.20-26.

In the name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today is Ascension Sunday, the 7th Sunday of Easter, the day we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus into heaven (Luke 24.50-53; Acts 1.6-11). We actually celebrated the Feast of the Ascension on Thursday (you did celebrate it, didn’t you?). But the Church has also wisely observed it on the following Sunday. Unfortunately, however, most of us have learned to ignore the Ascension. What’s it all about? Who really cares? I mean, after all, isn’t it just some fantastic made-up story that describes Jesus as being the first primitive astronaut, blasting off to heaven? Well, no, the Ascension really isn’t about that at all. The Ascension is really about Jesus completing the path to becoming Lord of the cosmos and that is what I want us to look at today.

That the NT writers believed Jesus is Lord is evident in the language they used to talk about the Ascension. Either directly or indirectly, Luke, Paul, Peter, and the writer of Hebrews all speak of Jesus sitting down at the right hand of God the Father (see, e.g., Acts 2.33; Romans 8.34; 1 Peter 3.22; Hebrews 1.3), language that means Jesus is now in God’s space, heaven, ruling on behalf of God until he returns to consummate the saving work he started in his earthly ministry. This concept of a right hand man is not foreign to us either. We all understand that a big shot’s right hand man has clear authority to speak and act on behalf of the big shot.

But here is where many of us get tripped up about Jesus’ lordship. If Jesus really is God’s right hand man (actually Jesus is more than that, he is God himself), i.e., if Jesus really is Lord, then why doesn’t he do a better job of showing us that he is? Let’s be honest. When we hear terms like Lord and King, we expect to see mighty acts of power that dazzle and awe us. We expect a real Lord and King to take care of us and protect us from all that can go wrong in life or that is evil, and when that doesn’t happen, well, we’re skeptical to say the least. And so we look at the Ascension and yawn. We say to ourselves (or think it unconsciously) that Jesus isn’t Lord. He’s an absentee landlord just like his Father, who really doesn’t care all that much about us and his world. So for many of us, the Ascension is nothing more than a confirmation that Jesus is out of sight and out of mind, and it really is up to us to get on with life and forge a happy existence for ourselves as best we can. When that happens, we not only sin against God, we become powerless and ineffective Christians and are to be pitied most of all.

But thankfully, Jesus is not an absentee landlord, nor are we left to our own devices to schlep through life as best we can. In fact, God gives us lessons like the ones we heard this morning to help us better understand the nature of Jesus’ lordship. To be sure, Scripture provides us plenty of examples that meet our human expectations about what a heavenly Lord and King should look like. We see this in our psalm and epistle lessons. The psalmist talks about the fact that the Lord is King, shrouded in mystery, yet full of light and power, who has the ability and determination to both act dramatically and judge his good but sin-infected creation so as to rid it of the evil that plagues us. We should note that judgment is a good thing according to the psalmist because when God comes to judge his creation and its peoples, right order will be restored and we will no longer be afflicted by any kind of evil or suffering. This is the nature and character of God. That is why God’s righteousness and holiness are to be respected and celebrated. He judges for our good. And we should note that only a real Lord and King has the authority and power to effect this kind of judgment. So too does his right hand man.

We see this same theme of judgment in our epistle lesson. Jesus reminds us at the beginning and end of our lesson that he is coming soon to judge all according to our works (or lack thereof). Jesus can do this precisely because he is given the authority to carry out God’s judgment. Clearly there are going to be those who get to live in God’s new creation, here described as having the right to the tree of life—a right taken from us in the Garden when our first ancestors sinned against God—and access to the New Jerusalem where God lives directly with his people forever. It’s a wonderful, glorious, and life-giving picture! But there are also going to be those who are denied access to the tree of life and the New Jerusalem, a passage curiously (or maybe not, listen if you have ears) omitted by the Revised Common Lectionary. These folks are described as, “dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” (Revelation 22.15). This is not a pretty picture and it should invoke in us a reverent fear (respect) commensurate with a God big enough and powerful enough to be called Lord.

But that’s then and this is now. While the NT makes clear that Jesus will return one day to finish his saving work, we are given no timetable. We are told only that Jesus will return and we should live accordingly. So what about the interim? What does Jesus’ lordship look like in the living of our days? Here again, our lessons today provide us with some valuable insight to help us live faithfully and with power as we await his return so that we don’t buy into the lie that Jesus isn’t Lord and King but really an absentee and uncaring landlord.

Before we look at our NT and gospel lessons, it is critical to remind ourselves what kind of king the NT portrays Jesus to be. He is not a typical king who lords it over his subjects and forces us to obey. No, Jesus is a crucified and risen king, who died for us to break the power of evil and sin in our lives and to reconcile us to God so that we can live in God’s presence. God chose to do this, not by sending in the tanks, not by a wave of his hand to sweep away all evil. To do that would mean that we would be swept away with no hope of being healed or reclaimed because we all carry around evil in us to one degree or another. So we must first and foremost acknowledge and celebrate the fact that Jesus is our crucified Lord. That is why the redeemed in our epistle lesson can eat at the tree of life and live in God’s presence. Their clothes have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, Jesus’ blood shed for us on the cross. Judgment there will be. We will have to give an account of our actions. But at the end of the day, we are assured that when we put our whole hope and trust in Jesus, imperfect as we are, prone to sin as we are, his death is greater than our brokenness, and we are washed clean, thanks be to God!

So when we understand that God’s kingdom was ushered in through ostensible weakness and powerlessness (the apostles didn’t understand this notion that a crucified and publicly humiliated man was actually bringing in the kingdom by pronouncing judgment on sin and the forces of evil until after Jesus was raised from the dead), it helps us to change our conception of what Jesus as Lord looks like. When we understand Jesus is our crucified Lord, it helps us to see signs of his lordship in the most unlikely places.

Take Paul and Silas for example. Their belief that Jesus is Lord had led Paul to expel an evil spirit from a girl and deprived her owners of their economic livelihood. Paul’s exorcism is indeed an act of power that we recognize. But what did it get them? A severe beating and imprisonment. So what kind of Lord fails to protect his followers? Conventional wisdom on power would compel us to dismiss Jesus’ lordship as being weak and/or ineffectual. But this is our crucified and risen Lord we are talking about, who is made known to us in the power of the Spirit whom he sent so that he could be with us, and we see the results of this when we look at the prison scene. Here are Paul and Silas, severely beaten and imprisoned in stocks because Paul had acted in the name of the Lord Jesus. Here is evil and the dark powers behind it doing their best to destroy Jesus’ followers. And what are those followers doing? Singing hymns of praise and thanksgiving to God! What’s going on here? The only plausible explanation is that they knew Jesus is Lord because he was with them in the power of the Spirit. Jesus wasn’t some kind of uncaring or absentee landlord. No! He was with them, ministering to them so that they too could rejoice in their suffering for his sake. For you see, this is how the kingdom comes. Jesus is ascended and reigns as Lord, but his reign must spread through humans acknowledging his lordship though our actions and words. This is how Jesus brings in the kingdom—through us!

I can hear some of you now: But, but, we’re not qualified! We don’t have it in us! We’re only human like everyone else. Well, yes you are, Jesus replies. But it isn’t about you. It’s about me and my power, the power of crucified love made known in and through you in the power of the Spirit. That is why it is so critical for you to avail yourselves of the ordinary means of grace so that you open yourself up to the Spirit’s influence and know that I am really Lord, even when everything around you screams otherwise. Paul and Silas could have succumbed to the same mistake. They could have thought I had abandoned them when they were arrested, beaten, and imprisoned. But they didn’t. They understood they lived in an evil age, but that my love and power have overcome evil when I was crucified, and the power of death was broken forever when I was raised from the dead. So focus on cultivating my presence in you through the ordinary and proven ways I have given you. Read and study Scripture together and individually. Worship me regularly and take to heart the things you hear from brilliant preachers like Fr. Maney. Come to table each week and feed on my body and blood. Pray together and individually. Remind each other of my mighty acts of power, like the earthquake I produced that led to Paul and Silas’ release, and which serves as a reminder to you that even when things look bad, evil and those who perpetrate it will be judged. I am the Lord. This is how I work.

But we want to protest that we haven’t seen earthquakes and other acts of power. Perhaps not, Jesus replies, but some of you have. Don’t discount their testimony. Learn to look for my reign being made known in and through you my people. Every time you honor my request for unity (not uniformity) by loving each other and respecting Christians from other traditions, you proclaim to the world that the Father has sent me. Every time you forgive each other after you have quarreled, you proclaim to the world that I am Lord because I forgave you when I died for you. Every time you see a disease healed or a prayer answered, no matter how big or small the problem is, you see evidence of my love for and presence with you. Every time you show humility and generosity and compassion, you proclaim that I am your Lord—and the kingdom comes. This is how it works. I don’t expect you to fully understand. I expect you to trust and obey me because I’ve got a track record to warrant your trust and obedience. And if you partake in the means of grace we’ve talked about so that you are open to the healing influence of the Spirit, you too can be a Paul and Silas in your faith, even in the darkest valleys of your life. This is why the Ascension matters. It proclaims that Jesus is Lord, now and for all eternity. And that means we have Good news, commensurate with that reality. To him be honor, praise, and glory forever and ever. Alleluia! Christ is risen and ascended! The Lord is risen and ascended indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.