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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
2 Kings 2:5-15
Acts 1:1-11
- St. Mark 16:14-20
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. (Rom 1)
Who speaks to us this evening, from the Book of Acts and our
Introit:
“Men of Galilee,
why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you
into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Jesus has gone up with a shout and has left us with His
Mighty Word to save. Leaving us teachers to ask questions and expect answers.
Answers that confess Who God is, what He says, and what He has done for you.
Thus, rather than an answer to our questions, God gives Himself in the flesh.
The question from the angels in Acts, is asked along the
same lines as others from Holy Scripture: “Why do you seek the living among
the dead?” (Lk 24:5), “Who told you you were naked?” (Gen 3:11), and “Why
is it that you ask my name?” (Gen 32:29).
Do you know how many questions there are in the Bible? By
one count, there are 2,506 questions asked in the NRSV translation of the
Bible: 1,679 questions in the Old Testament, and 827 questions in the New. If
you search for English question marks, the number goes up to about 3300. The
Bible is evidently a book of questions as much as it is a book of answers.
Questions are important. We do not learn without them. They
cause us to form information we’ve learned and solidify our own learning, thoughts,
and opinions. Our Catechism works off, what’s called, the scholastic method:
question and answer. I think that asking the right question can be even more
important than getting the right answer. Maybe a life well-lived is found not
by having all the answers, but by asking all the right questions.
But what do we do when God asks the questions? There is
always the “Job option” where we simply fall on our face at the question, and
answer, “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my
hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will
proceed no further” (Job 40:4-5).
That may have worked out well in the end, for Job, but it
did not work out so well for King Ahaz. The Lord spoke to Ahaz through Isaiah
demanding he ask the Lord for a sign, any sign, of the Lord’s victory among
them and Ahaz refused God. He was countered with a question from the Almighty: “Hear
then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary
my God also?” (Isa 7:13).
Another way may be the St. Peter option where we speak up
and answer. Being taught by the Lord Himself, should have given St. Peter the
right answer to Jesus’s questions. It wasn’t the teaching, but the student. In
Matthew 16, Peter tries to deny Christ’s suffering and crucifixion and gets, “Get
behind me satan” for his troubles.
There is a third option and it is the most interesting and
exclusive only to Christianity. That is discussion. In a breach of Creator-Creature
protocol, God opens up dialogue. He allows Himself to be questioned and
examined. He invites both doubt and discussion. From Isaiah 1, “Come now,
let us reason together, says the Lord:” (v.18).
Now we see the questions have a point. Not that we
necessarily have the right answer, but that we learn something. But learn what?
Isaiah 1 continues: “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as
white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”
Why is it that no option of answering the Lord works in our
favor? Because of sin. We have lost the knowledge and understanding of holy
reason and divine insight. In other words, we have lost the Image of God. This
means that we cannot know God as He wishes to be known nor be perfectly happy
in Him.
We are not holy and righteous, doing God’s will. The Lord
may be asking questions, yet He may not want an answer for us, but a
confession.
Think about it. When the Lord asked Adam where he was, after
eating the fruit, did He really not know? God knows everything. What He wanted was
for Adam to come out on his own and say, “Here I am, a poor miserable sinner
who ate the fruit of the tree. I have sinned. Forgive me.”
When the Spirit took Ezekiel to the valley of dry bones and
asked, “Son of man, will these bones live?” (37:3). He wasn’t asking for
Ezekiel to do something or even to understand. He simply wanted Ezekiel to
confess: no they won’t, in order that the Lord reply, “With man this is
impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Mt 19:26)
The answers to all of God’s questions lie within the
God-man, Jesus Christ. He is the Ever-Living Who walks among the bones of the
dead and makes them alive again. He is the One Who was stripped naked in front
of the world, scourged, and crucified to reclothe His fallen creatures in His
Blood. He Alone has the Name that is above every Name, which confers salvation
to all Who trust and believe.
For He is the One Forsaken by God, yet beloved of the
Father. Crucified, died, yet is living. The answers we seek and the signs we
desire all rest with the God-made-man. In answer to the St. Job option, we
remain silent and let God speak and act as He wishes. This requires faith to
submit to God’s Way, instead of our own. Its not that our answers offend Him,
its that He wants all the glory in our redemption.
In answer to the St. Peter option, Jesus allows our sinful
answers to have a voice. He willingly and joyfully takes on that sin to
Himself, in order that it hinder us no longer in our quest for holiness. Faith
believes and so it speaks, right or wrong, but seeks forgiveness for it all.
In answer to the St. Isaiah option, God is made man, just
like one of us. 100% man. He thinks, speaks, and acts. He grows weary, thirsty,
hungry. He weeps, gets angry, and laughs. In His own Body, He presents His Holy
Way to us in such a way that we are able to follow His footsteps. For He does
not give us strength to succeed, but strength to believe in Him.
Thus, when asked what we are doing looking up into heaven as
if Jesus were returning immediately or if we just stay in that one spot long
enough, He’ll come back and say “just kidding”.
Like St. Job, we are to remain silent, having faith that
Christ’s ascension and removal from our sight is for our advantage, as He told
us (Jn 16:7). Though we do not understand it, we have faith this is most
certainly true. Like St. Peter, we are to speak up. The Lord has ascended, we
cry!
“I believe in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord…Who…on the
third day He rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven.”
Like St. Isaiah, we wait in hope for the Lord to then cause
our own ascension, biding our time and waiting amongst His holy signs in Word
and Sacrament. We continue the lessons, constantly asking what is this Word,
what is this water, what is this bread and wine? And constantly receiving the
answer through faith, by grace, for Christ’s sake.
It is the Lord and His Way of His Church is glorious.
Jesus will return on the same path He ascended. Though He is
hidden yet from mortal eyes, the pillar of cloud will be lifted, the scales of
sin will fall off our eyes, and we will finally see behind the veil of Moses,
that it was, is, and ever shall be the flesh and blood of God answering all our
questions.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
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