"Where is Jesus?" - Acts 1:6-14

A Sermon by Alex Evans, Pastor

Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA

Sunday, May 16, 2021 - Ascension

Acts 1:6-14

“Where Is Jesus?”

            “Where is Jesus?” That is the question for this day. 

            Where . . . . is . . . Jesus?

            A certain Sunday School teacher asked this question to the boys and girls in her class: where is Jesus? Several of the children immediately raised hands.

            When the teacher called on the first one, “yes, where is Jesus?” the little boy said, “Jesus is in heaven, with God.” And the teacher said, “that’s a good answer.”

            Then another child with her hand up responded: “Jesus is in my heart.” The teacher commended this answer too.

            One other girl had her hand up, so the teacher called on her, “okay, where is Jesus?” The girl responded, “Jesus is in the bathroom.” 

            A puzzled look came across everyone in the room, including the teacher. The teacher asked: “what do you mean, ‘Jesus is in the bathroom?’” And the little girl said, “well, every morning, my dad yells: “Jesus - when are you coming out of the bathroom?”

            Where . . . . is . . . Jesus?

            Listen now to this story from the first chapter of Acts:

            6So when they (the disciples) had come together, they asked him (Jesus), “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.10While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” 

            This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. 

            This little story at the beginning of Acts wants to help us with that very important question - “where is Jesus?”

            Most of us think in spatial and graphic terms. And in these verses, we have a vivid image to make a lasting and significant point. Jesus, who was born of a woman, who appeared in the flesh, who walked the earth, talked to friends and strangers, lived and loved, was a real person. Jesus helped and healed people in and around the region of Galilee. He was a teacher and a spirit person. He was remembered for his kind ways and miracles. He was also crucified, and died on a cross in Jerusalem. 

            But this Jesus was not just a kind human being, a good teacher, a man of his time. He was a person of all time, every time. While Jesus was a great person, a healer and teacher, Jesus was - somehow in some unique way - also of God, even fully God. The Nicene Creed, you may recall, says it like this: Jesus was “the only Son of God, . . . God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one Being with the Father.” Or, as John’s gospel puts it, He was the “Word made flesh.”

            So we have Jesus as the Galilean Jew, . . . and Jesus as the face and essence of God. We have Jesus - the One who said certain things and did certain things, who lived and loved, helped and healed in the first century. And we have Jesus - Light of Light, Hope of all the world - who lives and reigns forever and ever. We have the person who walked the roads of Nazareth, Capernaum, Cana, and Jerusalem. And we have the Lord of life, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, and the living One; because he lives, we also shall live.

            This little story of the ascension - in Acts 1 - helps us grasp how the earthly Jesus becomes the Lord of life. The ascension - with this depiction of Jesus lifted into the heavens as the disciples watched (and who knows how it really happened) - intends to be the linchpin, the hinge between the earthly life of Jesus and the forever rule and reign of Jesus. 

            Here is what the new Presbyterian catechism says about the ascension of Jesus: “The ascension of Jesus means that Jesus Christ is risen to rule the world as its loving Lord.” The ascension means that Jesus “is present with us at all times and places in his loving power.”

            The ascension, then, affirms for us that the earthly life of Jesus is over, but his presence with us is forever. The ascension reminds us that Jesus - the person - cannot be with us physically, literally, but Jesus - who lives and reigns as Lord of life and light - can and will be in our midst, with his presence, promises, and purposes, always and forever, and everywhere. 

            I love the way St. Augustine puts it: “You ascended from before our eyes, and we turned back grieving, . . . only to find you in our hearts.”

            So where is Jesus? This story in Acts shows us that Jesus is gone in physical presence, but reigning forever in God’s almighty plan and purposes. The book of Acts, all the chapters that follow from this first one, show the disciples fully inspired, empowered, enthused by Jesus and his Spirit to carry on the important work of God that they saw and experienced in Jesus. 

            Where is Jesus? No longer just the teacher with good stories and parables that help us see God, but present everywhere - in the faces of everyone we meet. 

            Where is Jesus? Not just in first century Palestine, not just an interesting historical figure, but a present and powerful reality. Jesus - Light of Light, Lord of all - is there in every moment where love and light are shared, and certainly in the midst of the hard moments that come our way, when our hearts ache, and crises overwhelm.

            Every Monday around noon, as Kate mentioned last week, we ring the bells in the church tower here in downtown Richmond. We ring the bells a certain number of times - one bell for every person killed this year in the city by gun violence. Different church members come downtown to ring these bells. This past Monday, the bells rung 15 times - and that is just the number of “official deaths” from gun violence according to the police. There are always more unconfirmed deaths from gun violence, so the official number lags the real count. We ring these bells to affirm that while deaths by gun violence are atrocious and unacceptable, we also know that Jesus is Lord of life, and Jesus has the last word, even over gun violence. Jesus - the One who rules and reigns - is with the families of gun violence victims. And Jesus - Lord of life - keeps calling us to work for a better world - a world of peace and wholeness for everyone, where gun violence is no longer such a threat to precious life. 

            In these days, we grieve again the warfare, the rockets, the tensions and fear that plague Israel and Palestine. Where is Jesus? Jesus is certainly grieving the devastation and death in that familiar region. And Jesus keeps calling all of us - from every race, religion, and clan - to work for peace, to see Christ in the face of the other, to build a world of God’s shalom. 

            In these days, as we have been dealing with this pandemic for so long, a new word has gained traction: “languishing.” According to a recent article in the NY Times, “languishing is a mental health state that isn't burnout--there's more energy than that. And it's not depression--one still has hope. Life, through the pandemic, just feels somewhat "joyless and aimless."  As the author writes, "Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield. And it might be the dominant emotion of 2021." (4/19/2021)

            Lanquishing - a good term for the past year and more - surely makes us wonder - where is Jesus?

            The story of the ascension re-affirms for us the truth - Jesus may not with us - in person, in space and time. But Jesus is always present - in our hearts - active in the world - bringing about God’s purposes in and around us, with us and through us, even in spite of us, always and forever. Jesus is Lord of life, Light of all, Hope of the world - and that changes everything.

            This powerful, life-changing presence of God that surrounds us, goes with us, changes everything about us - is not really new. Think back with me to the early books of the Bible, especially the Book of Exodus. The Book of Exodus begins with a story about slaves. God’s beloved people were struggling - their enslavement began towards the end of Genesis. They were slaves in Egypt. Out of slavery, their cry rose up to God. And God responded. It says God heard their groaning; God remembered the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God called Moses to confront Pharoah and lead the people out of slavery. There is that wonderful scene of God appearing to Moses in a burning bush, calling Moses to this important work of setting God’s people free. Moses retorts, “who am I” that I should do this job? God says, “I will be with you.” Moses says, “what is the divine name?” God says, “I am.” Or God’s response, because the Hebrew is very enigmatic, is sometimes rendered, “I AM WHO I AM.”

            The important message to Moses, facing the daunting task of confronting Pharoah and leading the people out of Egypt, and the important message to the disciples in Acts, thinking about life without the physical presence of Jesus, is very similar. God goes with us. God will outlast every threat and challenge. God is stronger than Pharoah, stronger that evil, violence, and death. God is present and always at work. Our lives belong to God. Our lives are intended to be aligned with God’s purposes of healing and hope, goodness and love in the world. 

            So where is Jesus? Always and everywhere present, especially when we can trust our lives to God’s good care, especially when goodness overcomes evil, when hope overcomes despair, when light chases away darkness, and when love grows and flows to bring God’s grand purposes of peace and healing. And because Jesus is always and everywhere present, our lives seek to be about following Jesus, loving and serving like Jesus, and working for healing and shalom with Jesus. May it be so. AMEN

Prayer of Commitment - Fill us with your Spirit, O God, so we can carry on in faith, hope, and love, serving your purposes, following Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Alex W. Evans, Pastor, Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA preached this sermon during Sunday morning worship on May 16, 2021. This is a rough manuscript.