1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this day we observe the Ascension of our Lord and also celebrate the Rite of Confirmation is taken from Ephesians 1:15-23, it’s entitled, “Never Alone,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Grief is isolating. Depending on the circumstances and the weight of it, grief can make you feel like the only person on earth going through something so devastating. You can stand in a crowd of a thousand people and feel utterly, completely alone.
3. I remember a hospital chaplain describing an early morning scene — a young man had died in the ICU. His family made it just in time. Afterward, walking to their car across a bridge over a busy street, rush hour in full swing below, his sister stopped and looked down at all those cars, all those people scurrying to work like nothing had happened. She sighed and said, “This is so unfair. People get to go about their lives like nothing’s happened. My life is destroyed.”
4. Grief is isolating. We can feel very alone, even when surrounded by people. Now — today of all days — we might feel a similar thing about Jesus. He ascended. He went up. He’s… gone. Right? And we can’t see him. We can’t touch him. And if we’re honest, most of us have had moments — maybe in a hospital room, maybe at a graveside, maybe at 3 o’clock in the morning staring at the ceiling — when we wished Jesus were visible, so we wouldn’t feel so terribly alone. But here’s the great, glorious, almost surprising message of Ascension Day: The risen Jesus ascended to fill all things, so that He is always with us — all of us, everywhere.
5. And this weekend, we also welcome into that great promise our confirmand who is being confirmed in the Christian faith. This weekend Abby, our Confirmand here at Grace, will publicly claim this promise as her own. And I want her to hear it clearly: You are never alone.
6. What we celebrate on Ascension Day is that Jesus ascended into heaven to fill all things. Let’s start with a little trick question. Ready? “When Jesus ascended into heaven — where did He go?” Well, of course we would say that He ascended into Heaven, and we might think that He has left us. But, Jesus didn’t leave. He changed the mode of His presence. When He walked the dusty roads of Galilee, He voluntarily set aside the full use of His divine power and majesty. That’s what we call the state of humiliation. He was fully God and fully man, but He didn’t always use His omnipresence, His omnipotence. He was, in a very real sense, in one place at a time.
7. But now? Now He has ascended. Now He is in His state of exaltation. Now He uses His full divine power — all the time. Paul puts it this way in Ephesians 1: God “raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion.” Now — don’t picture “the right hand of God” as some La-Z-Boy recliner way up in the clouds somewhere. God’s right hand is not a location. It is power. It is authority. It is the hand that holds the universe together. And Christ now reigns from that hand — for you, for His church, right down here. That is the message of Ascension. He didn’t leave. He expanded.
8. We remember that Jesus was left alone so you never have to be. But how did this happen? How is it that the Son of God gets to reign in glory and fill all things? Because He was first left utterly, completely, cosmically alone. You and I — our sin would have left us alone. God is holy. His holiness cannot abide sin. It’s not that He won’t — it’s that He can’t, any more than light can coexist with darkness. Our sin separates us from God. And in ways we often don’t think about, sin separates us from each other too — because sin makes us selfish, guarded, hidden. Even in community, sin keeps us alone.
9. So what did Jesus do? He took every last bit of that sin — yours, mine, the sins of our confirmand, the sins of every poor miserable sinner who ever drew breath — and He carried it to the cross. And there, at Calvary, Jesus experienced the full, unfiltered weight of what our isolation deserved. He cried out — and meant it when He said it — “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That was real. That abandonment was real. He was left alone — so that you never, ever have to be. And then God raised Jesus from the dead. Paul calls it “the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.” That same power that opened the tomb and raised Jesus from the dead — that power is now working for you. That same Jesus who conquered death is now seated in authority over every ruler, every power, every darkness — and He is with you.
10. Jesus Is with you — yes, even you. Now Paul writes this letter from prison. Chains on his wrists. And yet — joy. Gratitude. Thanksgiving. He’s heard about the Ephesian Christians, their faith, their love, their works of service for one another. And from a prison cell, Paul rejoices, because he sees the risen and ascended Christ at work in them. He’s not alone in prison. Christ is there. The Ephesians weren’t alone without Paul. Christ was there too.
11. And here is the question I want to put to you today: Where do you feel most alone? Is it in a marriage that’s struggling? Christ is there. Is it in a grief that nobody around you quite understands? Christ is there. Is it in a fear about the future — about health, about finances, about what the world is becoming? Christ is there. Is it — and I speak now especially to our confirmand — is it in the hallways of your school, where sometimes following Jesus feels lonely, where the crowd goes one way and you’re called to go another? Christ is there. Paul prays — and I pray this for you today — that “the eyes of your hearts” would be enlightened. That you would see — really see — the hope to which He has called you, and the riches of His presence with you.
12. And here’s where Jesus has promised to be found — not as some vague spiritual feeling, but concretely, really, truly: In His Word. Open it and He is there. Read it, hear it preached, and the risen and ascended Christ speaks to you. In the Sacraments. In your Baptism — that water and Word by which you were claimed — He was there. He is there. And at this altar, in, with, and under bread and wine, the whole Christ — the ascended, glorified, reigning Christ — comes to you. To you. Not to some general humanity, but to you, by name.
13. To our confirmand this weekend: today you stand before this congregation and before God and you say “Yes.” Yes to the faith into which you were baptized. Yes to the promises of God. Yes to the life of discipleship. I won’t sugarcoat it — that life will have lonely moments. There will be days when the faith feels hard, when doubt creeps in, when the world tells you that all of this is foolishness. On those days, remember today. Remember what you confessed. Remember your Baptism. Remember that the ascended Christ — reigning above every power and principality, head over all things for the church — He is with you. Not occasionally. Not when you’ve earned it. Always.
14. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age, Jesus said (Matthew 28:20). That is His promise to you. It does not depend on your feelings. It does not expire. It is sealed in His blood and confirmed by an empty tomb.
15. Missing someone you love. The death of someone precious. Distance from those who matter most. Three in the morning when the darkness presses in. We all know what it is to feel alone. But the Ascension of our Lord answers that feeling — not with a platitude, but with a Person. The risen, ascended, reigning, glorified, omnipresent Christ — who was forsaken so you never have to be — is here. Right here. In this Word. At this font. At this altar. In this assembly. The eyes of your heart may see it. May trust it. May rest in it. You are never alone. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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