200521 Ascension Drive in Service Audio 200521 Ascension of our Lord Order of Service Sermon manuscript: I didn’t grow up going to Ascension services. You probably didn’t either. They weren’t offered in the church where I grew up. The first time I ever went to an Ascension service was when I was in seminary. Up to that point I hadn’t really thought much about Christ’s ascension into heaven. It was just a line in the creed: “He ascended into heaven.” It was kind of a raw historical fact, but I was at a bit of a loss as to the significance of it.This goes to show something about our regular church services. We easily take them for granted. With the repetition every year of the same Sundays, the same festivals, it can seem like just a matter of course. Long time Christians probably aren’t blown away by all kinds of new information when they come to a church service. Maybe there is only one or two things at most that they might learn from a service. But those things add up over the years. Christians slowly but thoroughly learn the meaning of the Christian festivals over the years. This was at least part of why I didn’t know what to make of Christ’s ascending into heaven.In fact, to be honest, I think I secretly thought the ascension wasn’t too good of an idea. It seemed to me that we Christians would be better off if Jesus had stuck around. It seemed to me that it would be easier for people to believe in him if they could see him. So the ascension almost seemed to be something that should be mourned rather than celebrated. But this is thinking in a rather earthly way. This is thinking about the successfulness of one’s congregation or church body. This is the hankering after earthly power and success—wanting the excitement that comes with being with a large crowd of people. Jesus was not interested in this kind of thing. If he were interested in making a big and powerful movement, then he would have done a lot of things differently than he did.True success for the Christian church is not a matter of accumulating big followings, big offerings, putting yourself on the map. The Christian church is not a building or an organization. The Christian church is solely made up of people. The Christian church is the communion of saints.  The Christian Church consists of people who follow the voice of the Good Shepherd. They are born again by the water and the Holy Spirit in baptism. Their old evil heart is being sanctified by the power of the Holy Spirit so that they no longer cling to evil lusts, but rather to love God and one’s neighbor. As holy people, as saints, they are on their way to the promised land to live together with God. There will be no Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in heaven. There will be no bureaucracies or church officials. There will be no pastors in heaven. There will only be one Pastor, or Shepherd, and that is Jesus. He will lead us, his sheep. He will shelter us with his presence so that we will hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, the sun shall not strike us nor any scorching heat, for the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be our Shepherd. He will lead us to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.So if you think of the successfulness of the Christian Church as getting bigger and bigger, as getting more and more powerful, more and more persuasive, then Jesus’s ascension isn’t good news. The Christian Church’s message would be more acceptable to our reason if Jesus had stuck around.  But this is not what the true Christian Church is. The true Christian Church is made up of believers, not visible, powerful, earthly institutions. And if you believe in Jesus, then the Ascension is, indeed, something to celebrate. This is, first of all, something to celebrate as far as Jesus is concerned. Then, secondly, it is something that we celebrate as his disciples. It is something to celebrate as far as Jesus is concerned because he has finished his course on earth. The Son came down