Acts 16:16-34John R. Hilley

Luke 24:44-53May 21, 2006

PriestLakePC

Nashville, TN

“Who is Free?”

Three Presbyterians arrived at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter quizzed each on the meaning of Easter. The first said it’s that day in November when the family gets together, eats turkey, and watches football on TV. St. Peter lamented the state of religious education. The second said it must be that weekend in May when we remember the past, and those who stood with courage, the many who died for a cause; we have picnics and we hear patriotic speeches. St. Peter was even more disappointed. The third Presbyterian described the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the Betrayal, the Crucifixion, and burial in the tomb sealed by a round stone. St. Peter was really encouraged and happy – until the supplicant explained that each year the stone is rolled away, Jesus comes out, and if he sees his shadow there are six more weeks of winter.[1]

If we have trouble expressing the meaning of Easter and the significance of the resurrection – the power of God overcoming the forces of death and darkness – then we must be a hopeless case when it comes to explaining the meaning of the Ascension. This coming Thursday is the Day of Ascension, marking the fortieth day after Easter. It is based on the chronology used by Luke. We read the text just now of Jesus ascending up to heaven and of the power from on high that will be given to the church.

From the classrooms of the seminaries to our Sunday School rooms to the corridors of your own life, perhaps, a lot of time has been spent asking who Jesus is. Is he a great teacher, rabbi, miracle-worker, sage, political revolutionary, messiah…Lord? The ascension of Jesus calls to mind, not just the question who is Jesus? but “Where is Jesus? Where is this Jesus, the one who we try to interpret and understand? Answering the where question, helps shed light on the first question of who is this Jesus.

Luke says that just before Jesus left the disciples he told them to wait in Jerusalem until the time they will be clothed with power from on high. And then the text says “while he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.” (51)

Taken, literally the ascension belongs to the mythical three-story world view of the ancients. The first hearers of the oral stories that over time became the scriptures we have before us, no doubt, really believed that Jesus ascended to a literal heaven and would return from God’s throne “someplace up there” at the end of time. While we cannot deny the possibility of an ascension into the heavens – after all levitation has been claimed for yogis and other holy men and women – the point of this scripture is missed if we focus strictly on geography and space travel rather than our own spiritual journeys. This is why the title of today’s sermon focuses upon us: our own freedom.

Now, if asked where heaven is, most of us believe that heaven is not “up there.” Up there is a holdover of a primitive worldview. We have a hard time thinking of Jesus as floating up toward heaven like some red helium balloon loosed from a child’s hand.

We think of heaven, if we think of it at all, as what happens when life ends.The Apostle Paul uses the phrase, “heaven”, or “eternal life”, to describe the end and goal of the process of salvation. He writes that the whole purpose of God’s slogging through the muck of history is to prod us into reaching maturity …which for Paul is the measure of the fullness of Christ that dwells in us (Ephesians 4:3). Here in the 21st century, what we can say about Jesus ascending up into heaven is that it was not to an “up there above the clouds” as it was into a cloud of impenetrable mystery.

So…what can we say about where Jesus is? The first thing we can say about where is Jesus is that Jesus is with God. The second thing we can say about where is Jesus is that through the gift of the Spirit, we become Christ’s body in the world. We think of heaven as what happens when life ends. We would do better to think of it as what happens when life begins. When we become Christ’s body in the world.

And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (Lk. 24:49).

He is wherever life begins. I’m speaking not in terms of conception, but in terms of our fullness and freedom.

Two scholars – Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon – co-authored a reflection on the Lord’s Prayer. They note that in the prayer (“our Father who art in heaven”) it makes some difference where Jesus is.

They recall that we speak of Jesus being in our hearts. We sing: “I’ve got the love of Jesus… down in my heart.” If Jesus is safely tucked in our hearts, if God is merely a wish projection of the very best of human aspiration and experience, then this power doesn’t offer us very much power for our living. If that is all God has to offer – some pale image of ourselves and our best aspirations, forget it. These “godlets” are no match for the battles before us.[2]

If I stand up and preach about a God who is the mere projection of the best we can hope for or aspire to, then I might as well pack it up. But to speak of the Creator of the Universe who has acted and acts through Jesus, and, in turn to us, and we are given power from on high; now that is another matter.

So when we pray to Jesus where are we praying? Do we pray to our heart? Do we pray to an idea? Do we pray to an experience? The Apostle’s Creed speaks of Jesus as “seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty” and thus we pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” In the Lord’s Prayer, when we pray to a God who is located “in heaven” we are bold to pray to for extravagant gifts like peace, healing, and hope because God rules.

A Jesus located in heaven, at the right hand of God the Father is counter to the way most of us would like to think of ourselves and God. In the packaging of Christianity today – especially in the “user-friendly churches” is this notion that we and God are tight. We like thinking of ourselves as persons who want to be close to God. The other week I talked about the guiding metaphor of God being the shepherd and we are the sheep…nowadays it seems that we are the shepherd and God is the sheep in our devising a wonderfully user friendly God, a readily accessible deity who is anything but powerful.

We can say that we have the love of Jesus down in our hearts, but that is not the only place Jesus is. God stands at some distance from creation for God is Creator, not created. It seems almost paradoxical, but God has to be over and against us in order to be truly for us. Otherwise we put God into our service rather than putting ourselves into God’s service. God knows we need someone to stand against this tendency and the powers that seek to destroy life.

The ascension of Jesus into this impenetrable mystery comes as a good corrective to our tendency to make Jesus captive to our own needs. If heaven is where Christ is with God in some impenetrable mystery, we say Christ is sovereign over us all. Why do we need to say that; what do we mean by it? To say that Christ rules over us implies that we are not free. To speak of power from on high, to speak of God’s sovereignty in this way calls to mind a description of God who is like a great puppeteer in the skies who pulls and manipulates our strings as we are puppets down below. That doesn’t sound very free.

To say that Christ is ascended and is with God is to say that there is a human face of God.

  • That there is a God who knows suffering as Jesus knows of suffering.
  • That there is a God who has scars.
  • That we are cheered for as Jesus cheered for his disciples.
  • That we know that there is a God of power because people saw and we have heard of the powerful miracles of Jesus.
  • That there is a God who knows peace, because Jesus was the Prince of Peace.
  • That there is a God who knows of freedom as his Son spoke of freedom: “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

The slave girl in the story from Acts recognizes this freedom. I think she wants this freedom, but doesn’t know how to get it. She becomes obsessed with Paul and Silas, following them around as they talk about salvation. She follows them shouting. It’s as if she can’t help herself. Literally. She is unable to help herself. She is enslaved, imprisoned and trapped. She is a slave to some businessmen who use her gifts. She is like a traveling Psyhic Hot Line; she tells fortunes, makes predictions for the tabloids, and provides harmless entertainment for the masses who want their spirituality cheap and comfortable. Paul, fed up with her ranting, cures here in the name of Jesus. Is she free at last!? Not quite. Because she is a slave – someone else’s property – and is now a slave who no longer brings in money for her owners. The owners sue Paul and Silas for lost revenue. With charges of being anti-patriotic and rabble-rousers, Paul and Silas are severely beaten and thrown into prison.

So Paul and Silas are in jail. Deepest cell in the whole place, leg irons, the whole thing. But they’re singing and praying and stamping their feet and jangling the irons in time to the music of God, and they’ve created this congregation gathered from every cell. Middle of the night, too.

Jesus said, “you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8) Paul and Silas know that. Prison hasn’t made them one bit less free. And, as if to demonstrate the futility of even trying to dampen the apostle’s spirit, God taps the divine foot just a little too hard to the music and bursts all the doors with an earthquake. That’s some worship service. A testimony to God’s power.

This story in Acts is a tremendous story about the presence of God….What happens… though…if you aren’t feeling the music; what happens if you are not feeling God’s power or presence? When you look around, all you can see is no purpose, no conquering love. When you look at the news, it speaks more of God’s absence than God’s presence and power. Setbacks are more apparent than victories.

Or maybe it’s not out there you feel God’s powerlessness. Maybe it is in here (inside you) where you most feel the absence of God’s power and presence. You feel like you are in chains like Paul and Silas. But, unlike them, you do not feel free. Stories from the The Book of Acts like the story of Paul and Silas are especially for people in hard times. The proclamation is clear: God’s sovereignty has been revealed. Read through the Book of Acts, and the midst of some crisis, a vision, a dream or action of God’s power is revealed.

Enter the jailer. His job is to make sure that those in custody do not get free. The earthquake opening up Paul and Silas’ prison cell is a nightmare for him. He is so distraught over what he things is Paul and Silas’ escape, and the disgrace that the authorities will heap upon his family, he can see only one option for himself: suicide. It is a crisis. He doesn’t even check the cells first. And deep from within the cell, now with the door open, comes the voice of Paul. “Hold on. We’re still here.”

The jailer calls for lights and rushes in to see for himself. The jailor’s moment of crisis takes a strange turn: he falls to his knees saying, “What do I have to do to be saved?” He is really asking: “what do I have to do to be as free as you?”

The answer comes: believe in Jesus, the one who frees women and men from meaningless lives, who releases us from the prison of guilt and shame, from systems that enslave. It is a wonderful story of how the power of God can be seen in the conquering love of God.

As we look around the world, while the powers of darkness seem hesitant to admit defeat to God’s sovereignty, the most crucial point can be settled now. It has to do with what – OR WHOM – we allow to have sovereignty in our lives.

When I ask where is Jesus?, I am ultimately asking: has he ascended over your living? And, therefore is living in the world through your actions. You see...there are all kinds of things that want the highest claim in our lives.

  • People want this claim.
  • The company wants it.
  • Money sings the siren’s song for top love.
  • Anxiety that leads to depression wants it.
  • Anger. It would love to have the CEO’s chair in your life.
  • Insecurity wants top billing.
  • Despair wants it.
  • Fear – it makes such a strong bid – wants the highest claim in our lives.

They all want top bidding and seek to control your life. None of these can make you free. The jailor asks Paul and Silas: “what do I have to be as free as you?” Believe in Jesus. Jesus said: “if you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31-32) This truth is more than a nice idea. It is a living presence; a power from on high.

So where is Jesus? With God. In the incomprehensible mystery of heaven. And Jesus is here in the fullness of life in the church, Christ’s body in the world through the gift of God’s Holy Spirit.

Where is this Jesus in your life? Has he ascended over your living – as Lord?

I invite you in silence to say a prayer of what is your greatest need today. What force has ascended over your living that really shouldn’t be there. Name it and ask Christ to ascend over your living this day. Amen.

1

[1] Will Willimon, “Suddenly from Heaven there Came a Sound”: Pentecostal Preaching at the End of the 20th Century” in Journal for Preachers, Pentecost, 1998.

[2] See Willimon’s article.