Scripture: Acts 1:6-14; John 17:1-11; James 5:7-8; 1 Peter 4:7; Hebrews 10:37; Philippians 4:5; Ecclesiastes 1:2; 1 Corinthians 13:12 Series: Easter
An Ascension Sunday sermon framing the entire Christian life as a ‘coda’ or aftermath lived between the already and the not-yet. Using the NBA playoffs and Tolkien’s Scouring of the Shire, Wilson argues that worldly victories fade because their thrill lives only in anticipation — but the church’s anticipation of Christ’s return never goes stale because the victory is already won and the not-yet has already begun. Drawing on John 17, eternal life is defined not as clouds and harps but as knowing God; with Augustine, believers participate in heaven now through faith, hope, and love. The closing call is to concrete works of love — prayer, service, worship, fellowship, invitation — not to earn salvation but to see God more clearly while awaiting the something big still to come.
Illustrations: nba-playoffs-anticipation, spurs-wemby-championship, tolkien-scouring-of-shire, sequel-replays-last-scene, honeymoon-and-diapers, layoffs-divorce-diagnosis
May 17, 2026
Get Ready for Something Big
Ascension Sunday
Acts 1:6-14 John 17:1-11
Acts 1:6-14
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.
John 17:1-11
After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. ”I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.
Sermon Transcription — The Aftermath
We are in the middle of the NBA playoffs. Some of you may follow the league. Others, not so much. My kids have gotten really into basketball this year, and so we watch a lot of basketball. It’s really lovely. Some games are on a little too late for my comfort, but it works out for us to have this activity that we are all interested in.
I think that the playoffs in any sport are exciting because of the contingency of what could happen. We don’t know exactly what is going to happen. We know who the favorites are, but not what is going to happen.
Ironically, as you get closer to the end, as you get closer to the finals, the excitement isn’t really there anymore. When you have a team that you support in a championship game — in the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Finals — it’s very stressful. At least for me. It’s not this peaceful, joyful, ebullient feeling. And then when it’s over, it’s over. When the Astros won the World Series, I was excited for like two days. When they lost the World Series, I was pretty sad for like four days. Either way, I moved on with my life.
What comes after? Often the excitement is based around anticipation, but when you accomplish your goal or you fail to accomplish your goal, there’s not much anticipation left. You can look to the next year and the next season, but it doesn’t have the same feeling.
This is why it’s hard to have a good ending to a movie or a novel. So many endings are so unsatisfying. One of my favorite books growing up was J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and the series ends not with the destruction of the Ring of Power at Mount Doom but like two hundred pages later, in the aftermath, in the Shire — the Scouring of the Shire. It’s a section of the book that wasn’t adapted into the movie because it doesn’t fit the cinematic energy.
Tolkien wrote his fantasy in light of his experiences in World War I and the horrors of trench warfare. The ending of the books are in large part about the consequences of even righteous action. The destruction of evil in Middle-earth doesn’t lead to everyone being happy in total harmony. There are still consequences that can’t be tied up in a neat bow.
When we look at John chapter 17 and the Book of Acts, we have to realize that basically all of the Christian faith is lived as a coda to the life of Jesus Christ. We are in the aftermath of that ending — of his death and resurrection — and there’s anticipation for the future. Something big is going to happen. But how should we understand and see that?
Acts chapter one takes place right after the events of the four Gospels. The writer of the Gospel of Luke is thought to be the same writer as the Book of Acts, and there’s a continuation here, but it’s not a direct sequel. It’s one of those movie things where they replay the last scene at the beginning. The Gospel of Luke ends with Jesus ascending. The Book of Acts begins with Jesus ascending, then we have what happens next.
And the friends closest to Jesus — his students, whom we call disciples — went back to Jerusalem and prayed. Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the other women were there, back in Jerusalem. They were trying to take care of the after, but they didn’t know what to do. Something big was going to happen, but they didn’t know what it was.
The New Testament is filled with this expectation of the imminent return of Jesus. He is coming soon.
James writes Be patient… because the Lord’s coming is near.1
Peter writes “The end of all things is near.”2
Hebrews 10:37 — “For in just a very little while, ‘He who is coming will come and will not delay.’”
Philippians 4:5 — “The Lord is near.”
This doesn’t even get to the book of Revelation. Folks who knew Jesus thought that he was coming back soon, so they acted in the manner as if that was true. This language fills the New Testament so much so that there is a certain group of Christians who believe in the literal meaning of the New Testament so much that they think in Jesus actually did return in 70 AD but then he left again.
The Ascension of Jesus marks the beginning of the age in which we currently live, between the already, and they not yet. We live in a world transformed by the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We also live in a world still filled with the brokenness of sin and destruction, crying out for redemption. These two realities seem contradictory. If God was all powerful, why is there suffering in this world? If Jesus came to save our sins, why are people still sinning?
back to the nba
I wants to go back to the NBA playoffs for a minute or two. Let’s say the Spurs pull it out and Wemby wins his first championship. I will be thrilled. A lot of people I know will be excited. There will be a parade in San Antonio. We’ll probably get a hat and then it will fade, like everything else. As the book of Ecclesiastes begins with, vanity of vanity says the preacher; vanity of vanities, all his vanity, and the chasing after wind.
It’s all ultimately unsatisfying, these things of the world. If you win the lottery tomorrow, if you got that big promotion, if the company work for public in the IPO quintupled your wealth, if your child got into the school of their dreams, whatever marker we give to ourselves in our world is ultimately not enough. Frodo and Sam destroyed the ring of power at the summit of Mountain Doom and it didn’t leave warm bubbly feelings for the rest of their life.
As those of you have been married, remember, every honeymoon does not last forever. For every child that is born, eventually they’ll start eating solid foods, and that smell in their diaper is gonna change.
These are the good things in life, but the obverse is also so true and is much more encouraging. When your job is downsized and it feels like nothing Good is going to happen, it is not the end of the world. When you’re girlfriend breaks up with you or your spouse files for divorce out of the blue or you realize that you have been an abusive relationship for a long time in need a fresh start it is not the end of the world. When you or someone you love gets diagnosed with a disease or get sick, it is not the end of the world for them or for you. That anticipation and excitement for the big thing to come is the life of faith we are offered in this life now is that anticipation continually for what is to come through Jesus Christ not that we are going to win the NBA championship or have a life free from harm, but that the glory of of God will be revealed in all the Earth and the all will be well and all will be well and all manner of things will be well.
Our faith is that the God who created everything who revealed himself fully in the life at the resurrection of Jesus Christ has not left us alone in this period between the already and the not yet.
In John 17, Jesus, defines eternal life. “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
Eternal life is not clouds and harps and wings, but knowing God. We still look through a glass darkly, as Paul says in first Corinthians 15, but we are still able to discern God through Grace. And the power of that Grace is that the not yet we are anticipating, the big thing that is coming has already begun.
As St. Augustine wrote,
Why do we on earth not strive to find rest with him in heaven even now, through the faith, hope and love that unites us to him? While in heaven he is also with us; and we while on earth are with him. He is here with us by his divinity, his power and his love. We cannot be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him, we can be there by love.
We can be a part of it in the most surprising of ways: by closing our eyes and lifting our minds to the Lord in prayer. By taking time in a week to serve our neighbor even when we don’t need to. By worshiping God and singing, hymns and songs of praise, even if they aren’t our favorite tune. By meeting together and sharing together, and Christian conversation, even with people who aren’t our best friends. By inviting others to worship or a small groups or to lunch and being open about what we believe our ultimate destiny is before us, but it is not closed off to us.
These are the works of love or actions of love. They are not ways to earn salvation but what we can concretely do to see God more clearly. We are saved by faith but we are not left alone to try and reinvent the wheel.
You are so loved by God that God has called you to be a part of the kingdom building here and now. The victory has already been won, but that celebration is not going stale or growing old instead, it gets more exciting and deeper every year every month every week every day.
In the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.