Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the thoughts and meditations of our hearts be now and always acceptable in your sight, 0 Lord, our strength and redeemer. Amen.
In the reading from the Gospel of Luke we heard an account of the ascension of Jesus. About the second time when Jesus left his disciples. Jesus had come back in their midst for a time and now he went away again. The disciples faced a life without their dear teacher. Surely a very gloomy moment for the disciples overjoyed by the resurrection, which had taken place not that long ago. As the resurrection was a bodily resurrection - Thomas had after all touched Jesus' wounds in his hands and his sides - the ascension was also a bodily ascension - we are told that Jesus' body was lifted into heaven: not just his spirit or some kind of an etherial force, but the body. Quite a moment actually! The disciples were surely more used to such phenomena than we would be. After all the resurrection was fresh in their minds. After his ascension, Jesus did not leave anything on earth except his disciples. These disciples were to become Jesus' bodily presence on earth. The disciples would not be alone as before Jesus ascended into heaven he promised that the Holy Spirit would come soon. The Holy Spirit would help and empower the disciples. They would be able to continue their ministry in the world without the bodily presence of Christ in their midst - they could in effect become his earthly hands and feet.
In the beginning of the reading from the Gospel of Luke we hear Jesus stating that: "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you - that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." After this Jesus proceeded to explaining how the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament had been fulfilled in his life, death and resurrection. The long awaited promises to Israel and through Israel to all the world had at last come through. These were the promises of a better world of justice, peace and joy - basically the Kingdom of God. The obscure sounding concept of the Kingdom of God is not that obscure in this light. It had been revealed in the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus then stated that the Disciples were the witnesses to all these events that had taken place in his life. The Disciples had been the witnesses for the beginning of the transformation of the whole world. Now the Disciples were called to go to all the nations to proclaim what they had witnessed. To proclaim the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus Christ - the restoration of the living relationship between God and people. This was Luke's mission commandment. This commandment applies to us today as well. We are just as much disciples of Jesus Christ as the people gathered to hear Jesus before his ascension.
Jesus' mission commandment has to be seen in light of the declaration of his mission in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke. This was the occasion when Jesus read the from the scroll of prophet Isaiah and declared it had come true. As well as proclaiming forgiveness of sins (of us having the possibility to be in relationship with God again), Jesus also called his disciples to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free - to proclaim the year of Lord's favour: the Kingdom of God. This was a message of justice and mercy - about proclaiming the unending love of God to all people in all the spheres of life! In this mission commandment from the Gospel of Luke, the disciples were called by Jesus to take part making the transformation of the whole world visible through their lives. Not only by proclaiming the forgiveness of sins - the repaired relationship of people with God, the possibility of knowing God in Jesus Christ. But also in eradicating poverty, helping the sick and protecting the environment. The year of God's favour had come for the whole world - the disciples were called to take part in proclaiming this everywhere they were in word and deed. As Jesus stated - his life, death and resurrection - had proved the trustworthiness of this message, which changed the whole world and has ever since been changing the world.
After stating this Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, where as we declare in the Creed he is sitting at the right hand of God the Father, who is in control of the whole universe. What does it mean to be sitting at the right hand of God the Father? The kings in the past had their closest and most important advisors sitting at the right hand of their throne. This idea has continued to the present times when we talk about the right hand men of people in important positions. The right hand man is the one who is most trusted and most closely listened to by people in power. Basically as we confess our faith in Jesus who has ascended into heaven and is now sitting at the right hand of God the Father we mean that he is important! Really important! He is part of the Triune God himself God is not a stranger to us anymore as we know him as our friend in Jesus. The same Jesus whom we know as our friend is sitting at the throne of God the Father. Neither are the ways of God obscure to us anymore. The way in which Jesus lived on earth is the way God wants the world to be right now. Indeed, God is transforming the world to become more like the Kingdom of God that Jesus revealed through his life. This is definitely Good News! Especially for those who have a yearning for justice and peace!
During my second year of university I had a crisis of faith. I questioned God's relevance to my life and the lives of the people around the world. The Kingdom of peace and happiness that Jesus had promised and initiated during his ministry seemed not to have come any nearer during the 2000 years after his death, resurrection and ascension. People's selfishness seemed to me to be the driving force in the world. The physically or psychologically disturbing conditions so many people around the world lived in made me question the existence of God as I had understood him as a Christian. It seemed that I had based my life until then on a lie. For a month or so I actually stopped believing in God, or rather, I stopped caring about God. I stopped going to Church and stopped praying. God meant nothing to me. Even if he existed this did not mean anything as his existence was not visible in the world. What good would it do to me to believe in a God that was powerless, whose promises of a better world, of the coming of the Kingdom of God, could not be trusted. I could build a better life on my own morals. Trying to get the best I could out of my life without hurting others too badly. Then I started thinking about the direction of my life. The direction I could take in my life and how through my life I could make the world a better place. This made me think about God again. It made me think about Jesus and what he had taught and done. I remembered some of the basic teachings of the Church. That through Jesus, God had created the world. shown himself to the world, saved the world, and that Jesus was now sitting at the right hand of God ruling the world. The goal to understanding the world and my life at any given moment according to the Christian faith was therefore Jesus. Especially this idea of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God in heaven, as we confess it in the Creed. I came to understand that this part of the Creed really deals with the present! Jesus is the king of the whole universe right now. As I thought about his ministry on earth, healing the sick and helping those who suffer, I realised that this message of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God was actually a good message. His ways are the foundation of the world - the true ways of the world. My task was to make this clearer through my life. Indeed, all people are called to take part in this.
Jesus ascended into heaven so that he could now be present in the world through the Holy Spirit in everyone's life - not just in a remote region of the Middle East. He is present in people's efforts as they work for peace and justice, and for a world that knows God better. The true ways of the world are the ways of Jesus - the ways of the Kingdom of God. In light of this the way to respond to the world in which there is much suffering, pain and selfishness, is to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus over all the world - the ultimate victory of peace, love and justice over war, injustice and hate. The Christian response to the suffering in the world is to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus through our lives. I trust and believe that all our efforts to make the world a place of peace, love and justice, however futile they may seem, are important and are helpful. By serving Jesus in our lives, God is changing the world and there is less and less evil in the world. Despite the appearance we can trust that the true nature of the world is of peace, love and justice, not of war, injustice and hate as our loving Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord of all the world. Since Jesus is now bodily in heaven, we are his hands and feet on earth. He needs us in making the world reflect his nature!
Amen.
Sermon by: Valtteri Mujunen