Feast of the Ascension Sermon

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. My son always has the best questions, and one of the best questions that he has about Christianity that he always challenges me with is, “Where’s Jesus?” He always asks me that question, and we go round and round and round about it. “Where’s Jesus?” You know, he asks me, and I say, “See, you have to find Jesus with your heart.” And he’s like, “My heart doesn’t have eyes, Baba. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He’s a very literal person, you know? Some of that is age-appropriate. You have to teach all things age-appropriately. And when we’re young, we understand things very literally, right? You can’t speak metaphorically to a six-year-old. That’s just a matter of brain development, and especially this six-year-old. So this morning, we were speaking about today, and I reminded them today is Hamparsum, today is the Feast of the Ascension. Particularly Mane, I’m sure would remember this story. We’ve talked about it before, but remember what happened forty days after Easter, Jesus went to heaven. Jesus rose, and there was this thing called the Ascension. And Sion got very excited. And what happens? Sion, why are you so excited? He’s like, “I figured it out.” I said, “What?” He said, “Jesus is in space.” So this is blast-off day for Sion. Jesus went into the upper orbit. But again, very literally, he’s trying to understand this, and he wants to understand it. He’s not trying to frustrate me. But this is very reasonable on his part. But today is important not just because it gives an answer to Sion’s question, but it gives an answer to some very important questions that I think that we all have in our life. When I think about the Feast of the Ascension, for me — and I know I’ve spoken about it on this feast day in the past or maybe on previous Sundays near the Feast of the Ascension — I’m giving thanks to God, only two or three years now that we’ve been celebrating Divine Liturgy on this occasion, and it’s very important that we do, and I’ll come back to why that is the case. The Armenian Church always celebrated Divine Liturgy on the Feast of the Ascension. I’m talking about St. John, San Francisco. But when I think about it at this stage in my life, one of the first memories that comes to me is when we went to Jerusalem for the first time. We went to the Holy Land as a parish, and some folks were on that trip who are here today or have been there before or are from there. And of course, Dad Krikor is here with us today who studied at the seminary in Jerusalem for many years. And maybe during our fellowship hour, you can talk to us about the celebration of the Ascension and how that is done in the Holy Land. But I remember one of the first places that we did visit was the Mount of the Ascension, on top of the Mount of Olives. And it is — some people are very surprised to know that it’s actually a mosque. It’s not a church. The place where Christ ascended to heaven is under the stewardship, let’s say, of Islam. And when you visit, you visit a very small Islamic mosque, like a chapel. That’s where Jesus ascended to heaven. Now, of course, and rightfully so, they do not prevent other people from observing their faith on that site. And so there are other altars nearby, the Rock of Ascension, the physical space, the place where Jesus ascended from, where our traditions can celebrate Divine Liturgy. Like the Armenian Apostolic Church has an altar nearby this small Islamic chapel. But you go into this space, and you see this rock, the Rock of Ascension, and it was such a profound moment for me. I don’t know why. Of all of the holy places that we visited, this one really, really resonated with me. It felt like touching that rock, which is worn away from centuries and centuries of people touching that rock to receive that blessing or to be a part of this crucial moment in the history of our salvation, really, really connected with me on a deep level. And I felt the mystery and the profound impression that was left upon the disciples in that moment when Christ ascended to heaven to understand that something comes next, and that something is very important, that something is foreordained, and it’s designed by Jesus Christ for us. And it was part of his purpose and mission and ministry and the destiny that he’s designed for his people that he should ascend to heaven. Now, when we read about this in the Gospel, particularly in the Gospel of Matthew that we read from earlier today, it’s telling us about the great commission, this assignment that was given to the disciples at that moment in time of the Ascension, which draws this very clear line between Christ ascending to heaven and then what was given to them, that they should go and baptize all nations in the Holy Spirit and teach them to obey all the commandments that Christ has given us. We know that he’s ascended, and he reminds us that he will be with us until the end of the age. This age that is referred to is this period of time when Christ is ascended until the time that he returns. So this age is indefinite in terms of its length and number, defined by the existence and the mission of the Christian Church on Earth, however long that will last. And when we read the Book of Acts, which our parish council member Dan read for us at the beginning of the Badarak — not all of us were here for that — but when we read about the Ascension in the Book of Acts, it says a little bit more descriptively what took place. He rose into the air, the passage says, of the Ascension, and then he was beyond their sight. And then he was beyond their sight. It didn’t say that he left. This is important. The Book of Acts doesn’t say Jesus went away. In fact, according to the Gospel of Matthew, he says the exact opposite of that. He says, “I am with you until the end of the age.” He didn’t say, “I’m going away.” He said, “I’m with you.” And in the Book of Acts, we read that he is beyond the sight of the disciples. So what we know from this is that he is with us. He is here with us now. However, he is beyond our sight. Whenever I speak to Sion, I really struggle to try to explain this to him, to let him know that he’s not gone. He’s not meant to be found someplace else. He is here right now, but it is part of his design for the mission of his church that he be beyond our sight, but not beyond our perception, because we encounter Christ every single day, and where we encounter Christ most profoundly is in this moment that we’re all experiencing right now. This is why it’s the mission of his church to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, so that they may come together in his name and do the things that he has commanded us to do, which is to remember him through his Last Supper, among other things, so that we can perceive him in our midst. As we proclaim during the Divine Liturgy, Christ is revealed amongst us. Blessed is the revelation of Christ. He is perceived in this moment in time. This last Sunday, some of you were here, we went into depth about the hymn, “Surb Surb.” This is Surb Surb. This is the porous nature of this reality becoming apparent to us lowly and earthly creatures, and having the heavens open up to us and encountering Jesus Christ, just as the disciples did atop Mount Ascension. But instead of perceiving his departure, we perceive his return, that he has brought up this lowly world to where he is. He’s brought us up to there. He hasn’t come down to here, but he’s bringing us up there, and we’re meeting in the middle in this thing called the Eucharist. Now, this is why it’s important that we do Badarak on a day like this. I know it’s a Thursday. I know everybody’s got work to do. I’ve got emails to respond to myself. But if this day isn’t important to us, then to whom is it important? If this day doesn’t matter to us, if this day doesn’t deserve our worship, if it doesn’t deserve our celebration and our sacrifice, then what does? Because Christ is here with us right now, and when we do this, we are doing the thing that he asked us to do on the day of his ascension: to obey the commandments that he has given us, and to share that message with others. I’m so grateful that I have that opportunity to do that with you here today, and I feel so gratified by it. I feel like that is a blessing that each and every one of us can share as we walk from the sanctuary today. That’s the peace that Christ gives us, the peace in knowing that when we walk with him, we have nothing to fear. We’re right where we should be, regardless of the chaos of the world. It’s where we belong. I’m so glad that all of you found that you belong here on this blessed day to celebrate and give thanks for the ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.