The Ascension
One of Our Own Up There
Ascension 2009 May 24, 2009
Acts 1:1-11 1 John 4:7-10 Luke 24:50-53
To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a temple not built by human hands[2]
First reading from Acts 1:1-11
In the first book, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While meeting with them, he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for "the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak; for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
When they had gathered together they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" He answered them, "It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven."
The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (24:50-53)
Glory to you, Lord.
Then he led the disciples out of the city as far as Bethany, where He raised his hands and blessed them. As He was blessing them, He departed from them and was taken up into heaven. They worshiped him and went back into Jerusalem, filled with great joy, and spent all their time in the temple giving thanks to God.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Introduction
Memorial Day 2009
Tomorrow is Memorial Day. For many it’s an eagerly anticipated three day weekend when we (freed from the austerities of winter) head for city parks to celebrate. In the nation’s history and collective memory, however, Memorial Day is much more than that. As a boy growing up in a little town in Wisconsin, on Memorial Day we didn’t head for the town’s parks; we headed for its cemeteries where city officials got up on a platform and gave speeches about how glorious it was to die for your country in war. Then living soldiers shot over the graves of dead soldiers to enhance the solemn feeling of the occasion. In fact, Memorial Day, in those days, was called Decoration Day. It was the day people went to cemeteries and decorated the graves of their beloved dead (especially their beloved fallen sons) with flowers. Only after that solemn civil duty was performed did we head for the town’s parks.
Yes, on Memorial Day let us go and celebrate in a park with picnic lunches and barbecues, for the winter has been long and severe for some, and the present economical depression weighs heavily on others. But also let’s take a moment out to remind ourselves and our kids what it is we remember on Memorial Day. Visit a cemetery and decorate the grave of a beloved one. Fly a flag, not to support the politics of war but to support living soldiers and to call to mind the dead ones. Perform a little home liturgy: light a candle in some little niche in memory of the 4,955 soldiers killed in the Iraqi war as of May 19, 2009.
Ascension Thursday on a Sunday
Tomorrow is Memorial Day but today is the Feast of the Lord’s ascension into heaven. On various occasions after His resurrection Jesus appeared to the apostles and disciples for forty days. Then promising to send them His Holy Spirit, He ascended bodily into heaven (Acts 1: 3; Lk 24: 50-53). So counting forty day after Easter gives us a Thursday for the feast of the Ascension. But the Church in some places moves the feast to the following Sunday to make it more convenient for the faithful to attend Mass on such an important feast like the Ascension.
A bodily ascension
Some don’t take the resurrection of Jesus literally. They say it simply means that He’s alive in our midst by his teaching and example. That doesn’t do justice to traditional Christian belief which unequivocally confesses that on the third day He rose bodily from the dead. Some also don’t take the bodily ascension of Jesus literally. They say it’s nothing more than a convenient device on the part of the early church to discredit claims of Jesus’ ongoing appearances. That, too, doesn’t do justice to the traditional belief which unequivocally confesses that He ascended bodily into heaven.
The Westminster Confession of Faith states that with the same body in which he suffered and rose from the dead, “Jesus ascended into heaven and there sits at the right hand of His Father to make intercession for us until He comes again.” The Heidelberg Catechism states that in Jesus’ bodily ascension into heaven “we have our own flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that He, our Head, will also take us, His members, up to Himself.”
A strange farewell
The bodily resurrection of Jesus without His bodily ascension into heaven would raise a question: What happened to His body? Luke tells us what happened. “As He was blessing the disciples, He bade them farewell and was taken up bodily into heaven.” (Luke 24:50-52)
Orthodox theologian Nicholas Baerdeyev says, “All farewells have the taste of death about them.” If he’s right, then how strange was the farewell of the ascension when the apostles lost their best friend, Jesus! They expressed neither grief nor disappointment as He left them and ascended into heaven. Instead, Luke writes, they went back into Jerusalem, “filled with great joy, and spent all their time in the temple giving thanks to God. “ (Lk 24:25) What a strange way to feel when you’ve lost your best friend!
Orthodox theologian Nicholas Baerdeyev says, “All farewells have the taste of death about them.” If he’s right, then how strange was the farewell of the ascension when the apostles lost their best friend, Jesus! They expressed neither grief nor disappointment as He left them and ascended into heaven. Instead, Luke writes, they went back into Jerusalem, “filled with great joy, and spent all their time in the temple giving thanks to God. “ (Lk 24:25) What a strange way to feel when you’ve lost your best friend!
The ascension: the Incarnation continued
In his book Jesus Ascended: The Meaning of Christ's Continuing Incarnation, Gerrit Scott Dawson admits that the ascension of Jesus has always been difficult for us humans. It just seems too fantastic. Did a guy really rise up bodily in the sky and then disappear? Dawson says that he was like most Christians who figured that after thirty-three years of life in human flesh (which ended up crowned with thorns and crucified on a cross) Jesus didn’t hang on to his humanity but dropped it like a hot potato, and then got back to being the Son of God without the drag of our human nature.
Dawson says it boggles our minds to think that Jesus in heaven is “still in our skin suit” and still bearing our humanity. The ascension, he says, is the Incarnation continued. The ascension, he says, is the boggling belief that we have one of our own, “still in our skin suit,” who knows what it means to be human, sitting at the right hand of God and interceding for us.
Dawson says it boggles our minds to think that Jesus in heaven is “still in our skin suit” and still bearing our humanity. The ascension, he says, is the Incarnation continued. The ascension, he says, is the boggling belief that we have one of our own, “still in our skin suit,” who knows what it means to be human, sitting at the right hand of God and interceding for us.
A liturgical correction
In times past after the reading of the Ascension gospel, a server would dramatically snuff out the Easter candle burning in our midst for forty days where it stood as a symbol of Jesus present in our midst through His post-resurrection appearances for forty days. After extinguishing the candle the server would whisk it off to some dark closet in the sacristy. There it remained out of sight until the Easter Vigil of Holy Saturday. That liturgical gesture quietly said, "He's left us! He’s gone!”
But since the bodily ascension of Jesus is really the Incarnation continued, liturgist decided that the Easter candle should not be snuffed out on Ascension. Rather, it should remain in our midst until Pentecost Sunday—the feast of Jesus’ new presence with us in his Holy Spirit. Then the Easter candle should not be relegated to some sacristy closet but moved close to the baptismal font, where it should burn brightly as we baptize our babes throughout the year.
But since the bodily ascension of Jesus is really the Incarnation continued, liturgist decided that the Easter candle should not be snuffed out on Ascension. Rather, it should remain in our midst until Pentecost Sunday—the feast of Jesus’ new presence with us in his Holy Spirit. Then the Easter candle should not be relegated to some sacristy closet but moved close to the baptismal font, where it should burn brightly as we baptize our babes throughout the year.
Conclusion
One of our own up there
The bodily ascension of Jesus is the consoling good news that we have one of our own, “still in our skin suit,” who knows what it means to be human, sitting at the right hand of God interceding for us and pledging that where He is we will one day be.
[1]] By “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church institution but those whom the institution has left!
