On Ascension Sunday we celebrate
Jesus’ enthronement a Lord of all creation, his taking his seat at the right
hand of the Father. He has defeated
evil, sin, and death through his incarnation and faithfulness in life and his
death and resurrection. All things
belong to him, are in his hands. All
power is his. But, and to be frank, saying that Jesus is LORD of all creation
is a bit of a hard sell these days. It's
been just shy of 2,000 years. The world
is still full of evil. The pandemic of
sin is still raging. Death is still the
leading cause of death. What's
changed? Really, what has changed since
Jesus was enthroned as LORD of all creation?
One could easily argue that Science and Technology have done way more
good than him. You could even add that
religion, all religion, that great “opiate of the masses” has caused more death
and suffering than any disease ever has and continues to do so. How can we talk about Jesus reigning as LORD
over all creation when reality is so “obviously” contradictory with it's facts?
One thing we do not do is play that
old faith card. Where we say that faith
and reality are two different things.
You just have to have faith. True faith is not divorced from reality.
If we are going to say Jesus is LORD and that he is ultimately reigning, then we somehow have to work in there that yes, its been 2,000 years; yes,
evil, sin, and death are still around; and yes, those who claim to believe in
him have done some pretty heinous things.
Indeed, to be faithful to faith, when we go looking for the reign of
Jesus we have to go right smack-dab into the heart of all the brokenness and human insidiousness and there we will
find both his reign and true faith.
Just before Jesus ascended his
disciples asked him was right now the time he was going to set things to
right. Instead of making his victory
overtly manifest by putting the world to rights, he told his disciples to stay
in Jerusalem and wait for the gift the Father had promised them, the Holy
Spirit who would empower them to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. They would be clothed with power from on
high.
All power is given to Jesus and he
passes that power on to us. Yet, we have
to remember that his power is different than what the world calls power. His power, the power by God created this
universe and sustains it, the power by which the Father raised Jesus from the
dead is that of love expressed in humilty and weakness. Jesus on the night of his arrest did not
raise a military. He stripped down to
his under clothing, picked up a towel, and washed his disciples feet and then
he died on a cross. For us, Jesus’ power
becomes manifest in us through the futility of prayers and acts of humble
service by those who are indwelled by the Holy Spirit. His Lordship is attested by small gatherings
of individuals who have been changed at heart by God's presence in them. Let me give you and example. This is an account of a day in the life of an
Emerge nurse, Dawn Husnick, that I think speaks loudly to how Jesus is LORD:
“In my years
in the ER, I saw Jesus daily doing his kingdom work in and through a group of
his followers. It was a true expression
of church. One day stands out beyond all
others and left me radically changed forever.
It was the day I saw Jesus face to face...
'Give us hearts as servants' was the song they
were singing as I left the church service, heading for my second twelve hour
shift in a row. Weekends in the ER can
be absolutely brutal! I was physically
and emotionally spent as I walked up to the employee entrance. The sound of ambulances and an approaching
medical helicopter were telltale signs that I would literally be hitting the
ground running.
'Dawn...can
you lock down room 15?' yelled out my charge nurse as I crawled up to the
nurse's station. (When someone asked for
a lockdown it was usually a psychiatric or combative case.) Two security guards stood outside the room,
biceps flexing like bouncers anticipating a drunken brawl. My eyes rolled as I walked past them into the
room to set up.
The masked
medics arrived with N strapped and restrained to their cart. The hallway cleared with heads turned away in
disgust at the smell surrounding them.
They entered the room and I could see N with his feet hung over the edge
of the cart covered with plastic bags tightly taped around the ankles. The ER doctor quickly examined N while we
settled him in. The medics rattled off
their findings in the background with N mumbling in harmony right along with
them. The smell was overpowering as they
uncovered his swollen, mold-encrusted feet.
After tucking him in and taking his vital signs, I left the room to tend
to my other ten patients-in-waiting.
Returning to
the nurse's station, I overheard the other nurses and techs arguing over who
would take N as their patient. In
addition to the usual lab work and tests, the doctor had ordered a shower
complete with betadine foot scrub, antibiotic ointment, and non-adherent
wraps. The charge nurse looked in my
direction. 'Dawn, will you please take
N? Please? You don't have to do the foot scrub—just give
him a shower.' I agreed and made my way
to gather the supplies and waited for the security guard to open up the hazmat
shower.
As I waited
with N, the numbness of my business was interrupted by an overwhelming
sadness. I watched N, restless and
mumbling incoherently to himself through his scruff of a beard and
'stache. His eyes were hidden behind his
ratted, curly, shoulder-length mane.
This poor shell of a man had no one to love him. I wondered about his past and what happened
to bring him to this hopeless empty place?
No one in the ER that day really looked at him and no one wanted to
touch him. They wanted to ignore him and
his broken life. But as much as I
tried...I could not. I was drawn to him.
The smirking
security guards helped me walk him to the shower. As we entered the shower room I set out the
shampoo, soaps, and towels like it was a five-star hotel. I felt in my heart that for at least for
those ten minutes, this forgotten man would be treated as a king. I thought for those ten minutes he would see
the love of Jesus. I set down the foot
sponge and decided that I would do the betadine foot scrub by myself as soon as
his shower was finished. I called the
stock room for two large basins and a chair.
When N was
finished in the shower I pulled back the curtain and walked him to the 'throne'
of warmed blankets and the two basins set on the floor. As I knelt at his feet, my heart broke and
stomach turned as I gently picked up his swollen rotted feet. Most of his nails were black and curled over
the top of his toes. The skin was rough,
broken, and oozing pus. Tears streamed
down my face while my gloved hands tenderly sponged the brown soap over his
wounded feet.
The room was
quiet as the once-mocking security guards started to help by handing me
towels. As I patted the foot dry, I
looked up and for the first time N's
eyes looked into mine. For that moment
he was alert, aware, and weeping as he quietly said, 'Thank you.' In that moment, I was the one seeing
Jesus. He was there all along, right
where he said he would be.
'...Truly I
tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of theses who are members of
my family, you did it to me.'”[1] Friends, for now it is in the prayers and
little acts of love insignificant people of transformed heart do for other
insignificant people that Jesus is attested as LORD. Friends, our God reigns and you are part of
it. Never underestimate what is going on
when you feel moved in your very bowels to show kindness to someone. Amen.
