Gloria Dei Lutheran Church

Luke 24:44-53

Alleluia!  Christ is risen!

Christ is risen, indeed.  Alleluia!

Thank you to Joe Davis, spoken word artist who was here at Gloria Dei as part of JustMOVE in March, who gave the inspiration yesterday at synod assembly to start the sermon this way.  Put your hand on your heart.  Research suggests that this physical gesture releases oxytocin, which provides a sense of security, soothes distressing emotions, and calms cardiovascular stress.  Pair it with a hand on your belly and you create a circle of centering energy.

God is as near as your breath.

The energy of God’s life is within you.

Where did Jesus go?

Here.

If you take anything from the story of the Ascension, take that.  The place where Jesus ascends is not some other plane that is apart from earth.  It is within.

Walter Wink, a New Testament scholar, suggests that Jesus ascends into our unconscious where we have an image and type for what it’s like to both human and filled with God.  Deep down we have an imprint that centers us.  That’s what I imagine I’m touching when I put my hand on my heart.  That oxytocin that is flowing is God’s blessing.[1]

Of course, the last thing anyone sees of Jesus is his hands raised in blessing.  First, he tells them that they will now be the witnesses, the ones who carry in their body divine fire and all the stories that point to it.  Wink thinks the Ascension is the most important Christian festival because it is the story of how Jesus gets out of the way, so we understand that we are now the body of Christ.

Last time I preached on the Ascension, I told you about Augusta Victoria Hospital.

I thought of it again this time because it’s built on the place where tradition says that Jesus ascended into heaven.  One of the three Ascension churches is in its complex.  Run by the Lutheran World Federation, it is the only specialized care center for Palestinians in the West Bank.  It is right next to area E1, the last remaining piece of Palestinian land that connects Jerusalem and the West Bank.  What made me think of it, of course, is the current war in Gaza.  I learned this week that it is one of the largest treatment centers for childhood cancer.  Two-thirds of the children come from Gaza.  Since October, the hospital has been closed to anyone from Gaza.  Children who were there when the violence began are not able to go home or see their families.  Many already know that their homes are destroyed, or that family members have been killed.[2]

It is one more heartbreaking story of the implications of the conflict on innocent people, particularly Palestinian children.

It gives me hope that the hospital is there, built at the site where we get the last image of Jesus.  A hospital grounded in the vision of Jesus offering his hands in blessing, to heal every child of God.  Turns out that Jesus already did return, just not in the clouds, but in brick and mortar of a hospital on a hill and in hands that do healing work and in the voices that are witnessing to this story for the world.  That hospital’s presence there is no less of a miracle than what happened there on Ascension Day.

Those Germans took it on themselves to be the witnesses. To build an answer to our prayer:  your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.  Their witness speaks of the One who is pure and unconditional Love, the one who blesses the creation.  The One who gives the power of blessing to every body.  If you’ve forgotten already that it resides with you, touch your heart,

We need hope today that Jesus is not away but is still at work. We need witnesses that will tell and enact counter-stories to what we’re taught to believe is most true.

There’s a very old liturgical tradition in which the paschal candle, the sign of Christ’s resurrected presence which has been burning since the Easter Vigil, is extinguished on Ascension Day.  It’s a literal read of the story.  We don’t normally do it that way.  We keep it burning until the fiftieth day, Pentecost, when the Spirit comes down and set us ablaze.

But, today, we’re going to enact the ritual.  And you will be part of it.  No watching someone else do it. At the end of the service, after we have received the resurrected presence of Christ at communion, we will we take light from this candle and give it to some of you.  We simply ask you to do what you made to do.  Share the light.  When it’s clear that there is no stopping it, we will extinguish the paschal candle and head toward the door of the church.

We will be standing at the door, the light of Christ in our hands.  Before we go, when you blow out your candle, put a hand on your heart. Your presence in the world will be no less a miracle than the bread and the wine, the hospital on the Mount of Olives–a community of rather unlikely witnesses that Jesus has trusted with his life.

Whenever you need this week, put your hand on your heart.  Remember that heaven is within you.

Alleluia!  Christ is risen.

Christ is risen, indeed.  Alleluia!

[1]Walter Wink, The Human Being:  Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of Man, Fortress, Minneapolis, 2002.

[2] LWF, “Gaza Patients Fear for Their Lives,” April 22, 2024. http://lutheranworld.org/news/patients-gaza-fear-their-families