Last Thursday, May 17th, was the Feast of the Ascension, . . . which celebrates the day on which the Lord God Almighty made the Risen Christ to

sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come; and he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church

as the Apostle puts in in his Epistle to the Church at Ephesus.  In other words, it was God’s will that Jesus Who was dead but is now risen; . . . it was the will of God that the Risen Jesus should not only be Lord of Life and Victor over darkness in a particular place and moment, . . . but that the Risen Jesus should ascend to a place and moment of eternal effect, . . . where He should be Lord of Life for all ages; . . . where He should be Victor over darkness in all places and their circumstances.  . . . But the Risen Jesus didn’t ascend to this new dignity, Saint Luke told us on Thursday, . . . the Risen Jesus didn’t ascend to His new dignity until He said to His disciples, . . . “you are my witnesses.”  . . . You are witnesses to the great thing that God has done for all of humanity down through the ages, of every language and in every place; you are witnesses to the everlasting Life and unconquerable Light to be had in Christ Jesus!  . . . And so, when I preached at the Ascension Day Liturgy here at the Church this past Thursday, . . . I said that even though Daniel Herzog and David Bena have lost heart and abandoned our Communion because the Leadership of the Episcopal Church, fascinated as they are with accommodating the World and the Flesh, would not listen to Daniel or David; . . . even though Daniel Herzog and David Bena have lost heart and abandoned our Communion, . . . the Ascension gives the rest of us every cause not to lose heart!  For Christ is Risen and Ascended into Heaven to sit at the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty, . . . and in the fullness of Time Jesus will sort out all of eternity’s errors and sorrows.  He will correct those who are mistaken . . . and bring into everlasting felicity all of us who, in every time and place, have believed that in Christ . . . the Lord God Almighty is our only and ultimate hope.  . . . And we are witnesses to this truth; . . . indeed, Christ, at His Ascension, commanded us to be!

    And so, you are Christ’s witnesses; . . . you are witnesses to the risen and ascended Jesus Who is Lord of Life and Victor over darkness.  . . . And so, we read, today, in Saint John’s Gospel, that on the night of His arrest . . . on Maundy Thursday . . . Jesus not only prayed for the Eleven, . . . but He prayed to the Father for us as well:

I do not pray for these only [Jesus says], but also for those who believe in me through their word . . . The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, … that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

And, you see, the reason why John tells us that Jesus prayed these things . . . is so that we might know that if this was Christ’s prayer at the hour of His humiliation, … it is certainly His prayer now that He is glorified.  It is the Risen and Ascended Christ’s prayer because it is the eternal desire of Jesus . . . that you receive His glory and so be God’s sons and daughters, . . . and, beholding Christ’s glory, . . . you might be filled with the Father’s love . . . and Jesus might be present to you.

    But if this is Christ’s prayer for us, . . . then how do we explain Saint Paul?  For, here we are, today, in the district of Macedonia at the city of Thyatira where Paul has baptized Lydia but made little progress in opening anyone else’s heart to believe in Jesus.  In fact, his work is being hindered by the spooky antics of a slave girl possessed by a spirit of divination, who has probably been set upon Paul by her owners to do precisely that:  hinder him.  Because, you see, there is nothing fake about divination; there is nothing fake about tarot card, wiji boards, and the like.  There is nothing fake about divination; it’s all very real.  But divination draws upon the darker spiritual powers; . . . the very powers which evoked the first sin, . . . the Original Sin; . . . for, the spirits of divination offer a knowledge of good and evil; … the spirits of divination offer a knowledge of good and evil which makes the diviner seem like a god to the weak and frightened souls they prey upon and become very wealthy from; . . . the diviners seem like gods to the weak and frightened souls who have never seen and do not know the One, True and Living God.  . . . So, the sacred knowledge which Paul was preaching was a threat to the wealth of the diviners in the city of Thyatira . . . and so, they set the possessed slave girl upon him in order to confuse everyone.  . . . Paul endured the girl’s rantings for awhile, … but finally, out of sheer frustration and to be rid of the demonic minstrel show following him about, Paul exorcises the spirit . . . so that the girl is no longer compelled to disrupt Paul’s ministry.  . . . The exorcism infuriates the diviners who owned the slave girl, and, stirring up among the bystanders the normal suspicion of strangers that haunts a town fascinated with magic, the diviners incite a riotous crowd to drag Paul and Silas (who was with him) before the local magistrates who, because of the mood of the crowd, have no other option but to strip the two men of their cloths and beat them with rods until they are bloodied.  . . . Paul and Silas are then placed in the maximum security section of the local jail . . . and left there with their feet in stocks and their blood caking on the cloths which have been returned to them and are now sticking to their backs, so that every time they move . . . their wounds are reopened.  . . . The pain is exquisite.  . . . So, if Christ is praying for us, . . . how do we explain the success of the injustice done to Paul and Silas?  How do we explain the fact that God has allowed the men for whom Jesus prays to have their backs split open down to the bone; . . . how do we explain the fact that God has allowed Paul and Silas to be beaten and neglected in jail to suffer terrible pain and discomfort . . . when they are innocent of anything except offending the greed of evil men?  . . . Is this how God answers the prayers of His Son?  Is this how God treats the men and women to whom Christ has given His glory so that they might be loved by God?  Is this how God loves us!

    Well, yes it is.  . . . Because, you see, sometimes people cannot see the Truth that is in Christ until they see that His Church does not lose heart.  . . . And so, for the sake of all humanity, enslaved by the demands of the world and of their own flesh; . . . for the sake of all humanity, God allows Paul and Silas to be imprisoned in Thyatira, beaten and caked with blood; with their feet in stocks.  Because, along about midnight, when it is silent and dark as death; . . . along about midnight Paul and Silas, who have not lost heart; . . . Paul and Silas are praying to the God Who loves them.  That love fills their hearts with song . . . and so, they sing hymns; . . . they sing songs in praise of God and of Jesus Christ His Son, Who is Lord of Life and Victor over darkness!  . . . And everyone in that place is astonished; . . . they are astonished that men, treated so badly, should not lose heart . . . but pray so fervently to their God so as to sing so cheerfully in the dark.  Everyone in that jail in Thyatira finds themselves encouraged and hopeful; . . . even the jailer comes to Paul to ask him, . . . “How can I have this kind of hope and courage?”  . . . And the jailer and all his household discover Jesus; . . . discover the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

    Could you do that?  Could you, for the sake of all humanity; so that they might discover Jesus; . . . could you be stripped naked, beaten, and imprisoned . . . and not lose heart but pray and sing hymns aloud to God’s praise?  . . . I think you could.  And so does your heavenly Father.  That’s why His sacred Word tells us about Paul and Silas.  That’s why God’s sacred Word tells us that knowing Jesus isn’t a ticket to an untroubled existence.  . . . Knowing Jesus doesn’t protect you from life.  . . . Along with all the tremendous happinesses that God showers upon us in this life . . . there is also sin; and there is accident, maliciousness, trouble . . . and all the sorrow that goes with them.  . . . Knowing Jesus doesn’t protect you from life.  . . . But it does bring us into Life’s completeness . . . so that even at the grave we make our song:  Alleluia . . . Alleluia; . . . Alleluia.  . . . Even you can be stripped naked, beaten, and imprisoned . . . and not lose heart but pray and sing hymns aloud to God’s glory.  You can do it because Jesus is praying for you.  He has given you His glory so that you may know the love with which He and the Father love you.  . . . The Risen and Ascended Jesus prays for you, who are His witnesses.  . . . He is Lord of Life and Victor over darkness in all circumstances and places, . . . and He prays for you.  Indeed, because you have the Father’s love the Lord of Life and Victor over darkness is with you; . . . He is with you even to the end of the ages.  Alleluia.