Sunday after Ascension

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts, be alway acceptable unto Thee, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

From the Collect: GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

In the Apostles Creed, Our Lord’s life is briefly summarized as follows:

“[He] was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”

Each of these events in His life are commemorated in our Church Year.

The Feast of the Annunciation, of which we make far too little, marks His conception.

Christmas marks His birth, of course.

Good Friday marks His suffering, crucifixion, death, and burial.

Holy Saturday marks His descent into Hell.

Easter marks the Resurrection.

Finally, the Second Coming cannot have a specific Holy Day, since “of that day and hour knoweth no man.” (Matthew 24:36)

Nevertheless, the Second Coming is one of the two focuses of Advent.

Of course, I have left out Our Lord’s Ascension and his being seated at the right hand of God; the right hand being the place of highest honor, as in one’s “right hand man.”

The Ascension commemorates both His departure from Earth and His glorious arrival in Heaven.

Reading over the Ascension hymns in the hymnal will make this clear.

His return to whence He came is the event of His life we celebrate today.

This passage, from Daniel, gives us some sense of the grandeur of that reception:

“behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” (Dan. 7:13-14)

Our final hymn also gives us some sense of it:

“saints and angels crowd around him, own his title, praise his name;

crown him, crown him, spread abroad the Victor's fame.

Hark, those bursts of acclamation! hark, those loud triumphant chords!

Jesus takes the highest station; O what joy the sight affords!

crown him, crown him, King of kings and Lord of lords!”

Brothers and Sisters today let us join our hearts with theirs in praise!

Having accomplished His great and terrible mission, He truly deserves “all might, majesty, power, and dominion, both now and forever.”

We rejoice that, seated at the right hand of the Father, He sends the Holy Ghost Who to continue His work on Earth through the Church, until His coming again.

We rejoice also in His promise to us, given to the Apostles at the last Supper, “I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

The Resurrection opens the grave for us; the Ascension opens Heaven.

One marvelous thing about the Ascension is what Jesus took with Him.

He took with Him His humanity.

The Incarnation did not end with the Ascension.

Saint John’s vision of the risen Christ in Heaven which he relates in the first chapter of Revelation makes this clear; while marvelously transformed, He is still “one like unto the Son of man.” (Rev. 1:13)

In Heaven, He remains both fully Man and fully God.

Since He is still fully man, “we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb. 4:15-16)

He knows what we are going through, having gone through it all Himself; He truly has compassion, which is to say, He suffers with us.

As God and Man, He continues His work as our Mediator and Advocate, making Intercession for us to the Father; “if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1 John 2:1)

He is an Advocate who never loses a case.

As Our Great High Priest, He eternally presents his sacrifice of Himself to Father.

Sometimes we think of his sacrifice as being only on Good Friday, but there is more to a sacrifice than simply the death of the victim.

Until the sacrifice is presented to God, it is just a dead body.

Animal sacrifices were presented to God by burning all or part of them, the smoke ascending to God.

Our Lord’s living sacrifice is presented to the Father in His Ascension.

We are privileged to take part in this presentation in every Eucharist.

In the Eucharist, we do not call Heaven down, but rather we are lifted into Heaven, with “Angels and Archangels and all the company of heaven.”

We present “our selves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto [the Father],” an offering holy and acceptable to God by being made with His sacrifice.

Finally, since He is now physically located in Eternity and Heaven, He can fulfill a precious promise.

He promised, “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20)

If He was on Earth, keeping this promise would be impossible.

A human body, even Christ’s, cannot be in two places at one time, here on Earth.

But Heaven touches every place, even as Eternity touches every moment.

Time and space are now irrelevant for Him; He can be anywhere and everywhere at once.

This means He can be with us here, and at All Saint’s, and at the Vatican, and indeed everywhere Christians gather in His Name, all at once.

By now, I hope we can see, at least in part, just how wonderful and how necessary the Ascension truly is.

It is a glorious Feast, a joyous Feast.

Yet, perhaps sometimes, perhaps like those first Apostles, we may stand looking up into Heaven, wishing He were still here with us visibly.

It would be so much easier, we think, if only he were.

There would be no room for doubt.

True enough, there would be no room for doubt, but there would also be no room for faith; “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

We need to be remember the words the two angels said to the apostles on that first Ascension Day, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”

Jesus will come again, but in the meantime, He has given us work to do and promises us the power to carry it out, “ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

Pentecost is coming; let us pray to be filled with the power to be good and faithful witnesses.

Amen.

And now we ascribe, as is most justly due, unto Thee, O Lord, all might, majesty, power, and dominion, both now and forever. Amen.

“Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.”

(1 Chron. xxix. 11.)