A Cycle – Feast of the Ascension 26

Eph. 1:17-23

That moment on the mountain had to be both amazing and at the same time frightening. They were still confused and confused about their future and were worried about staying in Jerusalem.  But Jesus told them to say for the fulfillment of the “promise of the Father.”  Paul, in his epistle to the Ephesians, opens this epistle with a statement we all should repeat as a daily prayer.   “God give me this Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of Him.  May the eyes of my heart be enlightened,”  

The simple truth is our faith formation has given us an intellectual knowledge of Jesus. Everything He said and taught we know and have heard with our ears not our hearts. The disciples were no different in their knowledge of Him. Even though they were in constant, daily contact with Jesus. Even though they witnessed Hi miracles, performed those same miracles he did and had their hearts burning within them, they still did not understand the demand to become witnesses. Neither do we. Understand we need more than intellectual knowledge of Jesus. We need the eyes of our hearts to be opened.  

We need to do experience what every disciple, what Paul the apostle and every saint experienced – a baptism of Spirit and fire.  A baptism Jesus promised we would receive but can we say we have experienced it.  Yes, we received the Spirit at our baptism but has our baptism given us a hope that comes with His call. Not wishful hope but a certain belief that we share the glory of the saints and share in their inheritance. 

We have this promise of the Father available to us by inviting the Spirit to transform us.  We do not have to live our spiritual lives by hoping we have done enough.  This baptism by the Spirit reveals to us the power of the cross and its impact of freeing us from the penalty of our sins.  Freed from a wishful hope because we live in the kingdom of God. We have been freed from the penalty of our sin because God’s plan was for Jesus to be the sacrifice for the sins and the Holy Spirit to provide for us the ability to live according to Gods, plan.  A future fueled by the Spirit guiding us and inspiring us. d witnesses by making the words of the gospel real for today.

The prodigal son is you and me; Paul was a prodigal son, Peter was a prodigal son and every Agustine, Francis and many more saints were prodigal sons.  The prodigal son is everyone because we all have our moments of breaking the Fathers heart by settling for less than what God is offering us.  Remember the prodigal’s sin was punishable by death and yet the prodigal went to the father much with a hope to avoid death by becoming a slave in his father’s house.  Those words describe us perfectly, because we are willing to settle for less than the father desires to give us. 

The promise of the Father is more than a promise; it is a fix for the sin of relying on our intellectual faith.  It is a need to have our hearts long for God and hunger for a powerful experience that changes us. It is a rejection of a reliance on what we do to please God and an acceptance of our need to rely on the third person of the trinity to guide us, enlighten us and free us to worship in Spirit and truth.  The ascension of Jesus paved the way for the Spirit to enter the hearts of all who believe. 

Stay in the city and pray for the promise of the Father.  Pentecost, we know, was the fulfillment of that promise. It was the first wholesale empowerment of one hundred and twenty men and women who believed in the message and mission of Jesus.  We are today’s believers, who need this same empowerment and enlighten us to go out and be today’s disciples proclaiming the good news of the gospel.  Next week we will celebrate Pentecost.  Pray every day this week for that Spirt to flood through you and cleans you, heal you and transform you.