Ascensiontide

From my sermon yesterday:

The Feast of the Ascension is a story about endings and beginnings.  It celebrates the moment when Jesus’ earthly ministry ends and the ministry of the disciples begins.  He who shared our human nature, walked our roads with us, and gave his very life for us, was returning to another dimension of reality he had spoken to his disciples about many times before.  We overhear Jesus praying about his return in the Gospel reading from the seventeenth chapter of John, “I’m no longer going to be visible in the world; they’ll continue in the world while I return to you.  Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life that you conferred as a gift through me so that they can be one heart and mind as we are one heart and mind" (MSG).

Jesus is doing here what all gifted leaders do; he gives responsibility back to the people who make up the body, the organization, the community.  He did not play the role of an all-knowing expert or authority, the one who has the answer for every question and situation.  Rather, he gave the work to the people to whom it belonged.  As I understand it, that is a crucial challenge of effective leadership.

Ron Heifitz, who teaches leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School, is fond of saying, “Leadership is disappointing people at a rate they are they can stand.”  We know that leaders are tempted to try to be and do all: they are tempted to be experts who have the answer for every question, the solution for every problem.  Here we see that even Jesus, capable of extraordinary interventions, does in a sense, “disappoint people”—but at a rate they can stand.

You can see it right here in today’s reading from Acts.  In verse 6, the disciples ask Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”  It’s not an unreasonable question given all that has let up to this moment.  But in response to their question about time, Jesus hedges, and maybe even intentionally, disappoints them: “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.”  They want to give the responsibility for the work of the kingdom to him; but Jesus gives the responsibility right back to them.  “No, you don’t get to know the time, that’s the Father’s business. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses (MSG).”

If we understand anything about the mystery of the Ascension of Jesus, we must understand that God believes enough in us to leave us.  God in Christ has enough confidence in us, more than we have in ourselves, to leave us and entrust us with a profound gift and a profound mission: as the Book of Common Prayer puts it, "to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ."  As I understand it, the Holy Spirit is the chief evangelist, the mission is God's, and the life we live offers a sign and witness of the reconciled diversity that marks the loving reign of God.  At the end of the liturgy we will have this prayer on our lips, "Send us out to do the work you have given us to do; to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord."  There is no back-up plan. Yours are the hands and feet God uses to bless the world now.

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