Ascension 2022 – May 29, 2022 Acts 1:1-11, Psalm 47
St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Bon Air Ephesians 1:15-23
The Very Rev. Dr. Jeunée Godsey Luke 24:44-53
Today we celebrate the feast of the Ascension, when Jesus, 40 days after his resurrection rose up into heaven. The ascension calls us to look Upward. To lift our eyes to heaven, and to stand with the disciples in wonder as Jesus rises to glory to sit at the right hand of God. We “Look Up,” knowing that someday, we too will join Jesus and all the company of heaven.
By contrast. a few months ago, there was a movie that came out on Netflix called “Don’t Look Up.” Now, this movie had nothing to do with the Ascension of our Lord.
But it did have Leonardo DiCaprio and Meryl Streep in it, so, I liked it! It was about 2 astronomers who discovered that a planet-destroying comet was heading straight toward earth. But for political reasons, the president played it down and they couldn’t get anyone to take them seriously. Even after leaking the information to the press, they found that political appointees denied or downplayed their findings in order to promote their own agenda.
Finally, when the president does alert the world to the imminent threat, [because she wants to detract the media’s attention from a personal scandal,] she still wheels and deals with corporate giants who are more concerned about mining the comet’s precious metals than protecting human life. Meanwhile, the world is divided in its opinions about how dangerous this comet is, if the potential of mining it could help the economy, and those who even doubt it’s existence.
The film is basically a satire about the lack of serious response at all levels to the environmental crisis, but it the satire and critique work or other big issues this world faces as well. It how maddening it is that people can’t just drop their personal or political agendas to focus on the common good, rather than “what’s in it for me.”
Finally, in the film, the astronomers start a “Just Look Up” campaign on Social Media, because, the comet was beginning to be visible in the night sky as the date of impact approached. If people would “Just Look Up” they would see the truth. In response, the president launches a “Don’t Look Up” campaign, wanting the public just to believe what the political and corporate leaders were telling them, and to deny the facts. I don’t want to blow the ending for those who haven’t seen it, but the film was both satirically funny and alarmingly accurate in how it portrays how our news and public opinions are often shaped by those seeking power or money, and how our political system is often too paralyzed or too timid to effectively address difficult topics.
As Jesus’ disciples are looking up, watching Jesus ascend into heaven, two angels appear and tell them, “Don’t look up.” Or rather, they say, “Why are you looking up?” Jesus will come back again in the same way. Instead, the disciples are to “Look Around.” Jesus tells them that after they receive Power from on high, they will be Jesus’ witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and in the rest of the world.
Jesus’ disciples then, and we as disciples today, are called not just to Look Up, but to Look Around, and see with Jesus’ eyes the needs of the world, and then to witness to the Good News of God’s love to address those needs – Spiritual, Physical, and Emotional needs.
It takes both. We must look Up. And we must Look Around.
We need to look Up to see the truth of who Jesus is. Jesus is our Saviour, our friend, our companion. Jesus is the one who overcomes evil and death and sin. When we look up to heaven, when we lift our eyes and hearts in prayer, we can experience God’s presence with us and come to know, at least in part, the peace that passes all understanding. We can discover that God is good, that God loves us, and God has plans for us to thrive in this life.
But we can’t just stand on the hillside looking up. We need to also look around.
And not just look, but Go….
…to start in our Jerusalems, the places and relationships closest to us, and then move outward, to Judea- to our familiar communities, to Samaria – to the outsiders and marginalized, and to the ends of the world.
Because in this world of pain, God’s goodness and love is so needed. Jesus has now ascended into heaven, and so we are the ones left, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world.
This last two weeks have seen two horrific shootings, one in Buffalo, NY and the other at Uvalde Texas. In a predominantly black neighborhood in Buffalo, Ten people killed as they went about their business just shopping for groceries – targeted by the 18 year old white supremacist, because of the color of their skin.
And this week, the same day my 18-year-old step-son graduated High School, another 18 year old, a high-school drop-out, killed 19 4th graders and two of their teachers.
It’s absolutely unthinkable… and yet, way, way too common. Such things shouldn’t happen anywhere, at any time, but they happen way too often. I saw a list of school shootings since Columbine in 1999 and it was much longer than I ever knew. Many of the incidents never made it to national news. Gun violence is epidemic in this country, but like the Movie, “Don’t Look Up,” those who might have the authority and power to do something to help are often too concerned about their own re-elections, or corporate bottom lines to try to work together for the common good. They aren’t looking Up or Around… they are looking in…. What’s in it for me.
Now, I’m not going to turn this into a sermon about gun control. I’m not smart enough to have the answer to gun violence. And I’m not against gun ownership. My grandfather and uncle were police officers. My grandfather and brother are both gun collectors and hunters. I learned how to shoot as a teenager, and have gone to a range for sport as an adult. But it seems ridiculous to me that you have to pass knowledge and vision tests, and complete over 40 hours of practice driving with a licensed driver, and pass a behind the wheel test before you get a drivers’ license, but we can’t seem to put in place sensible, consistent, nation-wide safeguards for licensing gun ownership and use.
And the issue isn’t just the guns, it’s these desperate, mentally-ill, angry young men –mostly men, who now have a tried and true example of how to show their desperation and inflict pain on the world. Some come from homes where they were not loved or they lacked basic necessities, others never have received the mental health support they needed, others were bullied or abused. In their mental state, some are radicalized to extreme ideologies. The state of mental health support in our country is deeply lacking, especially for those who don’t have the means or ability to advocate for themselves. These desperate people decide to move to action and so look around and see that a mass shooting is the way you make yourself known.
It's kind of like when I took part in a homeless challenge several years ago when I was leading the Episcopal campus ministry at Longwood. We were told that as part of our 48 hours on the street in Washington, DC we needed to beg or panhandle at least once. How was I going to do that? I looked around, and it seemed like everyone else had a cardboard sign asking for money, so I made myself one too. A cardboard sign must be the way you express this kind of desperation. I think something like that is what is happening in this society around mass shootings. It’s become the way angry, painful, desperation is expressed in way too many cases.
And we as a society seem to be stuck, unable to negotiate different political agendas to find ways to help our hurting world. I’ve seen signs that have the phrase “Thoughts and prayers” crossed out, and instead have written “Policy and Change.” But that’s a false dichotomy. Thoughts and Prayers exhibit compassion. Policy and Change channel passion.
We need to Look Up to Jesus with our thoughts and prayers. We need to express our thoughts and prayers towards others. God alone is unchangeable and true. Jesus is our source for overcoming evil in this world. Prayer does make a difference. In us and in the world.
But we also need to Look Around, and waiting for Spirit-led guidance, work for Policy and Change to help alleviate the ills of this world…
And even more that inward and vertical thoughts and prayers, and outward, but arms-distanced policy change, you and I are called to Go and Be Jesus’ witnesses in the world. We are called to reach out our arms in love. Starting in our own families and neighborhoods and moving outward.
Never underestimate the power we have to bring Christ’s healing and love to others through everyday actions that share Good news.
The 4th grader you mentor in reading today, can be the successful 18-year-old who graduates tomorrow. The mother who you help to feed her children, or to learn a marketable skill helps break cycles of poverty and desperation. The wayward teen who doesn’t feel like she or he fits in his family or in the world may just need your non-judgemental presence and mentorship. The communities we serve on mission trips, or the money we send to hospitals in Palestine help bring God’s hope and love to the recipients in tangible ways. And some of you have the skills and the connections to work with those who can make effective policy change for issues that matter. All of us have the power to make our voices heard.
But we need to keep looking up, at Jesus, because he is our source of strength.
And we need to keep looking around, at the world, to go where Jesus wants us to go.
I’ll end today with the encouragement and exhortation we heard earlier from the apostle Paul as he wrote the believers in Ephesus, because, in our world today, we need this encouragement and exhortation as well.
Paul writes, “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you,… and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion…And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
Lord, let us look up to you, so in your power, we can look out and act out in your love. Amen.