Views from the Valley

Sunday, May 17, 2026

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.

Romans 8:26-27

        Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

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.”

The Sermon

I have belonged to many internet type groups over the years. Once upon a time, when I was working in my second church parish in Wyoming, I used an internet forum called “Ecunet.” In most of the groups, we shared information about common interests and replied to each other’s posts. Sometimes someone would make a prayer request, and another person would reply, “Prayers ascending.” I’ve heard that sentiment expressed many times since then.

       It’s a meaningful image. It makes me think of prayer as like smoke from some kindling or a candle, where the smoke rises and ascends upwards into the sky. (Of course, that’s assuming the wind isn’t blowing and you’re always seated, no matter how many times you move, on the side of the campfire where the wind blows smoke right into your face.) Some people say, “Prayers arising.” Both portray to some extent the image of prayers moving upwards. Which shows us that what when we think of the location of God, to whom we pray, we visualize God being “up there.” “God above,” we say. “God, in the heavens.” “God, the man upstairs.” The gospel lesson says that “Jesus looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come…’”. His looking upward was an act of respect and confidence in his faith in God, though it’s easy to interpret it as affirmation that God, and heaven, are above us, and when we pray, our words rise upward toward God.

       The word “ascending”, or “ascension,” has another meaning that applies today. Last Thursday, the 14^th of May, was “Ascension Day.” The passage that was read this morning from the book of Acts briefly describes the event as a time when the disciples gathered, after some conversation during which Jesus told them of the coming of the Holy Spirit. And then with those words spoken, the scripture says that “as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.”

       Now, that would be something to see! Of course, we know that those who’d spent a significant amount of time with Jesus would not be as surprised as we would if someone we were just talking to suddenly rose into the air like a balloon and disappeared into a cloud. They’d already seen Jesus do amazing things, not the least of which was rise from the dead. The story in Acts does not describe their surprise, though it does give an impression that they were a bit mesmerized. “What just happened?” “Where did he go?” “Is he coming back?” And it’s then that angels come to the rescue, snapping them out of their trance, just as angels did at the tomb when the women were standing there wondering where Jesus was after discovering the stone rolled back and the tomb empty.

       And so what did the disciples – the men and women who had gathered together – do after that? They returned to Jerusalem, and ascended the stairs into a room where they were staying, and they prayed. Jesus, their greatest pray-er, their greatest friend and teacher, had just ascended, and now their prayers were ascending right along with him.

       Imagine it: a room, who knows how big, filled with people, praying. They had just gone through the most amazing experience of their lives and were still trying to sort it all out. One thing after another. Jesus teaching, being beloved by so many. Jesus experiencing pushback from the leaders of the faith, then being betrayed by one of their very own among them, then undergoing a trial and a horrendous crucifixion. Jesus dying. Jesus lying in a cold stone tomb. Jesus no longer in the tomb, but appearing to them in all his glory, with evidence on his hands, feet, and torso, proving the ordeal he had recently been through. And now, there he goes…poof! Up into the clouds.

       Yet there were no tears that we know of. We don’t hear of weeping and grieving, even though Jesus was no longer with them. Instead, we hear of them in prayer. It’s as if, in his absence, something was still present among them, binding them together in this shared experience. Who could describe it? The most challenging part was that even though they’d heard and seen all these things with their own eyes, not everyone to whom they told the story would have that luxury.

       And yet, we know, because we are here, that the story had an impact on people who were not present to know the living, walking, resurrected Jesus. And for some, that impact was no doubt just as strong and powerful as it had been for those who experienced it first-hand. Maybe even more so.

       They prayed.

       In our gospel lesson, we see Jesus himself in an intense posture of prayer. A prayer that was prayed in the presence of those same disciples. It wasn’t a personal, secret prayer that Jesus said when he was off on a journey in the wilderness. It was a prayer for the disciples, on their behalf. He said so directly in the prayer. What makes this prayer especially powerful is that Jesus himself had just told the disciples that he and the Father were one; that whatever the Father did, so Jesus did.

       This means that God was praying for the disciples, for the people who loved and surrounded and learned from Jesus, through Jesus himself!

       Which leads me to the Romans 8 passage that I also included as a scripture reading. It says, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

       Here, as was mentioned in last week’s message, about the Advocate Jesus promised to send once he was gone, is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit spoken of after Pentecost, which we will celebrate next Sunday. The promised coming of Jesus’ presence into the hearts and minds of the disciples and to all those who would believe in Jesus in the millennia to follow. The promised presence of Understanding, of Help, of Advocacy, of Comfort, of Counsel. Not Jesus in the flesh, but God in Spirit, coming into our hearts – yes, not just the disciples’ hearts, but yours and mine and the hearts of all who seek God through understanding and knowing Jesus. Jesus returning to earth by living inside us. Dwelling in us. Inhabiting us. Praying for us, in us, with us, and through us.

       And this is where “prayers ascending” is appropriate and essential and necessary.

       We see Jesus praying. He’s honoring God, and speaking to God, in the presence of all those for whom he is praying, asking God for the things he knows that God wants for them and for all his people.

       We see Jesus’ followers, men and women crowded together in that room, praying, looking to God, speaking to God, in the presence of one another and what sense they had that remained of Jesus, because even though he was no longer visibly with them, they felt him. Through that prayer they felt and expressed him, lived him and breathed him.

       We have the letter to the Romans that speaks of the Spirit, who was sent following Jesus’ ascension – the prayer of God, going to God, coming from God, whose power lit up the church like a magnificent, fiery, beautiful Christmas tree, energizing it from the bottom to the top and the top to the bottom. The Spirit of God, who prays for us when we don’t have the words. The Spirit of God, who knows the heart of God and the will of God, and prays the most magnificent, perfect prayers for us. How nice it is to know that it’s not all on our own shoulders to create beautiful, effective prayers.

       And it is true. So many people wonder how to pray. I am sure I can hunt up a formula or two – some say to use the Lord’s Prayer as a model. But let’s say that we don’t have access to the Lord’s prayer. Let’s say that we are in deep distress, or confusion, or bewilderment, or grief, or fear, or even excitement, ecstasy, and joy. So moved are we that we don’t know what words to say. But we want to say something. We have to say something. Even if it’s just, “Gracious God!”

       It’s then that we remember, and trust in the words that Jesus said, the words that were said in the book of Romans: that the Spirit intercedes on our behalf with groanings too deep for words. We don’t need a formula. God isn’t interested in the correct words. God is groaning and rejoicing and agonizing right along with us, whether we realize it or not.

       Because we are believers, and we know and see Jesus, learn about Jesus, sing, pray, give, shake hands, smile, commune, eat, and ring bells together, we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. We can say, “Teach me how to pray, O God,” and then say whatever words that are in our hearts, and then we trust. Trust that God will speak the words and desires of our hearts through us, like breath. Breathe in, breathe out. Air goes in, it goes out. Air may change constitution along the way as it nourishes our bodies in the way that it does, but it is an ever-circling, ever-flowing process. We pray. God hears. God enters our hearts and minds as God sends us the fresh oxygen of inspiration, and we pray it out, and it goes to God, and comes back again, and it circulates, recycles, always perfecting itself into better things.

       Maybe we want it to feel like magic. It is, but it is not. It is life, and living, and breath. Prayers are you, asking God to inhabit your thoughts. Prayers are your thoughts going to and coming from God, not only for yourself but for all those with whom you live, work, play, love, and worship.

       We are the disciples, gathered together in this place, praying, through every aspect of our worship. We are praying, and we are waiting for God to move.

       The reality is that God has moved, is moving, and will continue to move. We trust, we allow, and we move, too.

       On Pentecost, we will celebrate the day when God’s presence became known in a very powerful way. Whether or not we experience that power in that amazing way is up to God. But we know that this is the essence of prayer: God breathing us as we breathe God. Let us think of this today, and go into this week asking God to help us to be joyfully aware of this presence, this reality, asking God to show us in small and gentle, or large and specific ways, just how present God is with us. God prays for us right now. God loves us so much that we are all God thinks about, that’s how devoted God is to us.

       And it’s because of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and what we’ve learned in the Scriptures and in our faith among our brothers and sisters, that we know this and will continue to live from this day forward. Go and breathe God’s spirit, and live in prayer and joy. Amen.