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All Good Things

Feast of the Ascension  

Cycle B

May 15/16, 2021

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051621-Ascension.cfm  

Two years at this time of year, my sister Katie got to deployed to Afghanistan.
  She is an OR nurse in the US Army Reserves and was sent to serve in a forward surgical team in a dangerous part of the country.  

 

When it was time for her to ship out, my family met her at Louisville International Airport to say goodbye in the area between the check in counters and the TSA security lines.    I have a picture of her from that moment that I was looking at as I wrote this homily.  She is dressed in her army fatigues and boots with a big rucksack.   And she is holding my then 3-year old son EJ in her arms.  EJ is her nephew and godson.  In the picture, he is happy for the attention and the hug.  She looks determined and composed—holding back sadness.  There is real sweetness and poignancy in the image. 

 

I remember the mix of feelings I experienced as we said goodbye: Fear and worry for her safety and the terrible possibility that something could happen to her.  Sadness at separation and for all the milestones and family celebrations she would miss.  Pride in her.  Confusion and even anger at the situation.  Juliet was wrong.  Parting is not always sweet sorrow. Sometimes it is bitter. Or it sour. There is no sweetness at all to saying goodbye.  Based on the prayer list in our parish bulletin, I know many of you have experienced goodbyes like this.

 

Why does he have to go? Why is this departure necessary?  Will we ever see her again?  Will she be coming back to us?

 

I imagine Jesus’ first followers felt something similar when they watched him ascend.  The past 40 days had been a time of unimaginable joy.  Against all odds (? All that they could dream was possible—against even their wildest hopes), Jesus had come back to them.  He had defeated death and shown that there was nothing to fear.  

 

Those forty days, that period that we call now “the Easter Season” must have seemed like the Kingdom of God that Jesus had promised was now fully realized.  The resurrected Christ is with us.  He is back and he is blowing away every expectation. He has forgiven Peter and the other male Apostles for abandoning him.  He has shown Thomas that his wounds are real but his body has been transformed beyond pain and decay.  He has celebrated several meals with his followers.  And the meals have felt like the promised banquet at the end of time, where everyone comes together to celebrate the defeat of death, God’s triumph and his bringing of all people into his family.  Surely this is it—the fairy tale “happily ever after,” right? Heaven has truly come to the earth.  They thought the story was really over and the curtains were going to drop.

 

But then Jesus left.  What the heck?  That is not what were expecting.  Now we’re going to be left alone?  That wasn’t really the end of the story.

 

As it turns out, Jesus left and afterwards people still died.  Wars hadn’t ended.  Our loved ones are still gong off to fight them.  Jesus cured the sick.  But after he left, sickness didn’t disappear.  We are still getting Covid, and cancer and diabetes and heart attacks. 

 

Scripture does not let the Apostles dwell for very long at all with this moment.  While they are still looking at the sky watching Jesus disappear from sight, two angels appear and ask, “What the heck are you guys looking at?  Nothing to see here. He will come back in the same way that he left.”  

 

Yet there are 9 days between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost Sunday.  Those days must have been agonizing for the disciples.  I mean, who wants to be left behind after Jesus? Does anyone really want to be St. Peter?  That’s like Robin trying to takeover after Batman retires.  With my apologies to both St. Peter and Robin.  

 

There’s another story of an ascension in Scripture involving the prophet Elijah who famously was taken to heaven in a flaming chariot.  Before he leaves, his disciple, Elisha literally follows him from the north of Israel to the south and across the Jordan.  In each of these places, Elisha says to Elijah, “Please don’t leave me alone.  I don’t want you to go.”  Elijah says, “you need to let me go.”  Three times this happens.  On the third time, Elijah tells him, “Look, I have to go.  Is there something I can do for you first?”  

 

Elisha makes a very bold ask.  He says, “give me a double portion of your spirit.”  Empower me to preach and prophesy like you do.  Let me, through the power of God, work wonders like you do.  Pour your spirit into me so that I might do even greater things than you did.  And that is exactly what happens.  Though Elijah is the Batman of Old Testament prophets, Elisha literally takes up his mantle and is filled with the Holy Spirit to carry on the mission. 

 

This is exactly what happens with those first disciples and with us, too.   The Easter season does not end with Ascension.  There is another great feast coming next weekend – Pentecost—the time that the Holy Spirt comes upon us.  As Jesus says today, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

 

He makes incredible promises saying “in my name [you] will drive out demons, will speak new languages, pick up serpents with [your] hands, and if [you] drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. [You] will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”  Now I am not going to invite us to handle snakes at the power puff game next weekend … but I think we need to believe in the promise Christ makes that he is with us and in us and working through us with the limitless power of the Father.  

 

We have work to do.  We have been Confirmed and sent and God is with us to do God’s work.  

 

My sister Katie returned to us safely in February last year.  It was truly a joyous reunion to see her again.  

 

The promise of Jesus is that we, too, will return.  And we will be reunited again through him with all that we have lost.  

 

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