Ascension

 

Yesterday was Ascension Day when we remember the physical departure of Jesus from this earth.  In the words of the Nicene Creed: On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.  He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.   A couple of sentences before this we are told that by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary and was made man.

In church we say words like this Sunday after Sunday but can sometimes miss their import  -sometimes great truths can be hidden in plain sight.   One of the Christians claims about the Ascension is that now there is humanity in the heart of the Trinity.  The Jesus that was made man is the same Jesus that returns to heaven and God will never be the same again because of this.  I do believe God can change in some ways, not in his character but in his experience which now includes being human.   He now knows what it is like to be us.  As we read the gospel stories we can connect with Jesus’s humanity, but we can forget that this same humanity is now in heaven.  Indeed the Creed gives almost as much word space to Jesus in heaven as it does to his time on earth! 

Along with preaching at our Ascension Day service yesterday I also had four significant and long pastoral conversations, an international zoom prayer meeting for India and my old school there and facilitated a zoom conversation about secularism and faith in the UK.  In one way or another all these illustrated the importance and relevance of the Ascension.    Some were exploring where God could be present in their challenging situations and whether he would answer prayers said or unsaid.  Others were asking the same thing about our public and global life, where is God there and how can his purposes work themselves out.

The Ascension comforts us with knowledge that God connects to our pain and confusion and feeling of lostness.  This may not  change circumstances, but as my last late phone call of  the day explored, perhaps our praying is to help bring us in line with the way things are going and to prepare us for the hard inevitable.  And we are assured that we will have what we need to get through that.  The man Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand, interceding for us.

Finally the Ascension reassures us that God’s purposes will be fulfilled and that Jesus’s kingdom will have no end.  Being seated in the symbolism of ancient world meant being in a position of great power, and this power is now held by the Incarnate Jesus who knows what it is like to be us and who will make sure that in the end all will be well and all manner of things will be well.

So, let’s not rush too quickly to Pentecost in 10 days time, but use this period to really address the ascended Christ and allow these great truths to find their way home in your heart and bring comfort and reassurance