May 17, 2026 Ascension Sunday

May 17, 2026

Ascension Sunday

Most of us spend more time sitting in chairs than thinking about chairs, but maybe we should devote even more time to hunting for the perfect chair. There's a whole book about that pursuit. It's titled Now I Sit Me Down and it's written by architect Witold Rybczynski (Rib-shin-skee).He refers to some chairs as follows:+ used in ancient Greece called klismos, which had a curved backrest and tapering, out-curved legs;+ the yokeback chair of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), which included one of the earliest uses of lumbar support; (How thrilling!)+ the modern ergonomic desk chair; (I don’t think these were designed for humans)+ the rocking chair that famously helped alleviate President Kennedy's back issues; (Could someone find that chair for me please? Oh, never mind. I wouldn’t have room anyway)+ and how about the dentist recliner that made it easier to treat cavities. (Or for one to fall on one’s head!)Rybczynski explains that the history of chairs is a social history -- of different ways of sitting, of changing manners and attitudes and of varying tastes. He notes that the ancient Chinese switched from sitting on the floor to sitting in a chair, and how the iconic chair of Middle America -- the Barcalounger -- traces its roots back to an art school in Germany. He even looks toward the future, suggesting we mortals may eventually invent a chaise-like seat designed around browsing a smartphone. (You mean to tell me they haven’t already??)But here's the main point for us: Rybczynski says that the search for the perfect chair will never end -- because humans aren't built to sit. "We are good at walking and running, and we are happy lying down," he writes. "It is the in-between position that is the problem." (I don’t know who he interviewed for his book, but quite obviously he did not interview me!)Then there’s Stan Purdum, an author of  books, and a long-time pastor, tells of a couple in their 80s who were members of the first church he pastored and were in good health. Every time Purdum dropped by to visit, he found the wife busy around the house and the husband out back in his woodworking shop, making items he gave away. One time, Purdum commented on their activity level, and the man said, "When my brother retired at 65, he went out on the front porch and sat down. That's where he was most of the time. And within three years, he was dead. I don't think we're made to sit for long."With this in mind, consider the final verses in Matthew's Gospel, that section we usually shorthand as "the Great Commission."Here, Jesus tells his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, and to baptize them. And Christians ever since have understood these words as a call for the whole church. We can say that Jesus is telling us that we're not made to sit because he has work for us to do. (I am retired, but  I guess he won’t accept that as an excuse! I apparently wasn’t yet awake when I start this sermon. However,….)But there's a little comment Matthew includes in the narrative that we sometimes overlook. In Matthew's timeline, when the 11 disciples -- those remaining after the defection and death of Judas -- come to a mountain in Galilee for a rendezvous with the resurrected Jesus, it's the first time they have seen him since they fled at the time of his arrest. True, Luke and John tell of post-resurrection appearances of Jesus to the disciples in Jerusalem, but Matthew does not. So, sticking to Matthew's account, when the 11 see Jesus in Galilee, we are therefore led to believe that it's the first time they've laid eyes on him since before his death. And there Matthew comments, "When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted."Some doubted? With the resurrected Jesus standing right there in plain sight, some of the 11 who had been with him throughout his ministry doubted??Well, yes. We can imagine that seeing a dead person alive again was so far outside anything that they'd ever known that they maybe weren't sure whether their eyes were playing tricks on them.Maybe Matthew's comment about their doubt, however, applied to the whole experience there on the mountain, because Jesus told them to do three very hard things, and they may have wondered how those could possibly be accomplished.The first hard thing Jesus told them was to go and make disciples of all nations. The world of the disciples was smaller than the world as we know it. They probably had no idea of the existence of North and South America, for example, but they also were limited by first-century modes of travel and communication, so even restricting their world to the geography they did know about, making disciples of all nations must have sounded like a daunting task. (I do not know why they did not just book a flight on American – surely they would have been upgraded to first class??)But beyond the dimensions of the mission, a latent distrust of foreigners was a huge problem, especially for disciples who were neither well-traveled nor learned men. (Hmmmm, that seems to have a ring of familiarity. Opps, wrong topic!)And yet Jesus says to these most unlikely of candidates: "Go turn the world upside down." It must have sounded like a monumental -- impossible -- undertaking. (Well, at least until an elected official got into office …. Opps, sorry! Wrong topic again!)Second hard thing: Jesus told the disciples that once they got moving on that first work, they were to baptize the people. Of course, baptism was not the first step in making new disciples; baptism only took place after a person had been evangelized and was persuaded by the Gospel message to embrace Christ as Savior and Lord. So what Jesus was telling the 11 to do was huge. He was telling them to share the Gospel with strangers, to publicly identify themselves as followers of someone who had just been officially declared an outlaw and executed. They were to give personal witness to their faith (and we all know how hard that is!).Third hard thing: Jesus told them to teach these new converts everything he had commanded them. That, too, must have sounded like mission impossible. Even assuming a few of them had the gift of teaching, where was the curriculum? The Gospels hadn't been written yet. Paul, whose letters would eventually become much of the New Testament, had yet to be converted. The Church hadn't been formed yet, the doctrines hadn't even begun to be formulated and the creeds were still a couple hundred years or more in the future. What teaching materials available were the Hebrew Bible -- our Old Testament -- and their memories of what Jesus had said and done while he was with them.No wonder some of the 11 doubted that day!

But those three hard things were their commission, and somehow, initial doubts notwithstanding, they pulled it off -- or at least the big start of it.And then there's this: With the passage of time, that commission gets passed on to new generations of Jesus' followers. Each generation of Christians has the same Great Commission, telling us that his followers are not to be sitters. Rather they -- we -- are to be goers, movers, shakers, tellers, proclaimers, explainers, teachers, witnesses and more.Jesus never said it would be easy, but he did say -- just do it and shut up! (Well, alright, maybe he didn’t say shut up, but I bet he wanted to!)It shouldn't surprise us that what Jesus asks us to do is hard, because that's right in line with other things he said -- like these from his Sermon on the Mount:+ Love your enemy. + Turn the other cheek. + Be pure in heart.

+ Rejoice and be glad when people revile you.

+ Don't lust.

+ Go the second mile.

+ Forgive others their trespasses.

+ Don't worry about tomorrow. + Do unto others as you would have them do to you. + Be doers of his words and not just hearers. Yes, Jesus did talk about one kind of easiness: "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Compared to a life of sin or the burden of trying to be righteous by following all the rules without the grace of God - his way easy indeed.But when he talked of being his disciple, he said, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." Self-denial? Cross-carrying? Nothing easy there.

Thankfully, those 11 disciples who were present when Jesus gave the Great Commission didn't let the difficulty of the mission stop them from trying. They got up, did what they could, and God did the rest.

Let us pray.

As we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension, we reflect on Jesus’s instruction to the Apostles before he ascended into Heaven – to communicate his message to all nations. We pray for the wisdom, the faith and the love of God to be witnesses in today’s unbelieving world to His Holy Word. We pray to the Lord.               

We pray that the message of Christ be brought to all nations, so that a spirit of truth, goodness and love can guide all its peoples to peace, integrity and care of the weak, the sick, the hungry and the homeless. We pray to the Lord.               

On this World Communication Day, we pray for all those who have committed their lives, both at home and abroad, to communicating the word of God.. We pray to the Lord.                       

We pray for all involved in the world of communications and media, that their work may serve the cause of truth and justice and bring real benefits to all. We pray to the Lord.            

We pray for responsible use of the internet and social media, so that our digital communications be a tool to spread truth and happiness, love and respect, inclusion and positive encounter rather than falsehood, exclusion, unhappiness and alienation. We pray to the Lord.            

We pray for our children that they may be protected from social media that exposes them to negative and damaging content. We pray also for those who have suffered abuse on social media that they may be comforted through love and respect from their peers, families and communities. We pray to the Lord.   

We pray for an increase of priests, deacons and religious. We pray to the Lord.

We pray that those with generous hearts may be led to our small church and give generously to our mission so that we may continue to be a church open to all peoples . We pray to the Lord.

For those on our parish prayer list, that they may receive swift answers to their needs and that they may find consolation through Christ’s healing presence. We pray to the Lord.

We bow our heads and remember in silence our own personal intentions and the intentions of those who have asked for our prayers (pause). We pray to the Lord.        

O Lord our God and Savior, who sent the disciples and apostles to the very ends of the earth to teach and proclaim your message, to heal all illnesses and to reveal the mysteries of the faith which have been hidden from humankind since the creation of the earth, send us your blessing and enlighten our understanding, and may we be given the gift of final perseverance. By your Spirit, enable us to do and to act in accordance with your commands as set out in the Gospel, and may the fruit of the Gospel be increased in us many times over. We ask all these things through Christ our Lord. Amen.

God Love You +++

The Most Rev. Robert Winzens

Pastor – St. Francis Chapel

San Diego, CA.

As a small parish, we come to you all as beggars! Share with us this Christmas, a little sacrifice for the Christ Child. Your generous support also allows us to continue these important projects that fuel the movement of progressive Christianity. Thank you and God bless you! +++

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