This is the feast of victory by our God!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

I don’t know what you were doing this past Thursday afternoon,
but once I heard about the fire in Maria Stein,
I went outside and looked for smoke in the sky.
Then I received the first of many text messages with photos from the scene.
I began googling the internet for more photos and videos.
Like the disciples staring at the sky
in our first reading,
I couldn’t help myself.
God should have sent me an angel proclaiming,
“Why are you standing there looking to the sky?
The church in Maria Stein is only a building.
The body of Christ is the people who worshipped there,
and they are still alive in their sadness and in their faith.”

And while this morning,
the people of St. John the Baptist Parish
may be worshipping in other churches
that are part of the Christ our Light Family of parishes,
they are still worshipping Jesus Christ,
the Living God,
who ascended to the Father
so very long ago,
and who is still with them
as he promised he would be forever.

This is the feast of victory by our God!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Jesus promised to send the promise of his Father upon us.
He promised that though he would no longer be with us
in the same way as he had been
when he walked among the disciples.
He promised to be with us forever.

As we gather here this morning.
God is with us.
God has gathered us together.
God had washed us in the waters of baptism
and made us his holy people.
God continues to speak to us in the words of scripture,
to feed us with is Body and Blood,
to forgive our sins
and make us a chosen a race, a holy people,
God’s own people.
God has blessed us
and has not left us orphans,
and a week from now,
we will celebrate that day
when God sent us the Holy Spirit
so that we might become in some small way
the very presence of God in the world.

This is the feast of victory by our God!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

We’re not here today
staring into the heavens,
wondering what we’ll do
now that the Lord has left this world.
We’re here to hear the Word of God
and be transformed by God’s amazing grace,
so that when we leave here
we can bring the presence of God
to everyone we see and encounter this week.
We’re not here to be rewarded for what we’ve already done.
We’re here to be nourished for the journey ahead,
to be strengthened so that we can face whatever comes our way
in the days to come.
We’re here to experience the mercy and hope
that come from our God alone.

On Christmas Eve 2024,
Pope Francis opened the holy doors at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
He proclaimed holy year
and called us to be pilgrims of hope.
Pope Leo, too, has called to us share that hope
with the world.

This is the feast of victory by our God!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

No matter what has gone wrong
or what is going wrong in our world today,
the ascension of the Lord
challenges us to be filled with hope and joy.
The disciples, we’re told in today’s gospel
“returned to Jerusalem with great joy”
and “they were continually praising God.”
May the grace of God we encounter here
enable us to leave this place with great joy
and continually praise God.

This is the feast of victory by our God!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!