The Ascension Of Our Lord
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VII, Cycle C
Object:
Theme For The Day
Jesus' ascension is an otherworldly event that has big implications for how we live in this world.
First Lesson
Acts 1:1-11
Jesus' Ascension In Acts
This passage occurs in all three annual cycles of the lectionary for this day. After a brief prologue, in which Luke makes necessary connections with the events of his gospel (vv. 1-5), he relates the story of Jesus' ascension. He has already told this story once before, in Luke 24:50-53. In verses 6-7, he deals with the question of when Israel will be restored to its former glory. "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority," he replies (v. 7). Don't become obsessed with crossing off dates on the calendar, he advises. Learn how to wait in hope and expectation for God's time to become fulfilled. Verse 8 sets the scene for the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, clearly the most significant story Luke has to tell in these early chapters, and perhaps in the entire book. In full sight of all the disciples, Jesus is then lifted up, and "a cloud [takes] him out of their sight" (v. 9). Understandably, the disciples continue to gaze up into the sky. Two angelic figures appear, and gently chide the disciples for continuing to look up. "This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven," they say, "will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven" (v. 11). While the ascension presents certain problems of comprehension for people like us -- whose cosmology indicates that heaven is not "up there," above the dome of the firmament -- this was an extremely important story for the early church. Not only does it mark the conclusion of Jesus' ministry and the beginning of the era of the church, it suggests that Christ is now reigning over all and will one day return.
New Testament Lesson
Ephesians 1:15-23
Christ Rules Over All
This passage occurs in all three annual cycles of the lectionary for this day. The author of this letter shares not only the affection he feels for the Ephesian Christians, but also the content of some of his most heartfelt prayers. These are prayers for wisdom and enlightenment, that the readers may come to know the tremendous power for living that is available through the Christian faith. Verses 20-23 are a summary of the church's proclamation concerning Jesus Christ. This writer makes it clear that God raised Jesus from the dead; he did not rise up of his own accord. Jesus is now enthroned at God's right hand, ruling over all (v. 20). He is "head over all things for the church, which is his body" (vv. 22-23). This is the Christ Pantokrator, so often depicted in Eastern Orthodox art as the divine ruler, whose mosaic-tile eyes gaze impassively down from the sanctuary dome overhead, a hand raised in blessing.
The Gospel
Luke 24:44-53
Jesus' Ascension In Luke
This passage occurs in all three annual cycles of the lectionary for this day. In this, the second of Jesus' post-resurrection appearances related by Luke, Jesus has just appeared to the disciples, shown them his wounds, and eaten a piece of broiled fish (which, for Luke, demonstrates that this is a bodily resurrection, not a ghostly vision). Jesus then repeats his earlier teaching that he is the subject of the Hebrew prophecies, and "[opens] their minds to understand the scriptures" (v. 45). Luke has just related how Jesus made a similar revelation in the Road to Emmaus story (v. 27); what the disciples could not comprehend before, they can now understand in light of the resurrection. "You are witnesses of these things," he says to them, a commission to share the good news (v. 48). Verse 49 is a promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The remaining verses of this section are Luke's brief account of Jesus' ascension (see above for the more extensive Acts version). He blesses them, withdraws from them, and is carried up into heaven (v. 51). After that, they return to the temple, to worship with great joy.
Preaching Possibilities
"He ascended into heaven." Those words roll trippingly off the tongue for anyone raised on the church's creeds. Yet, to the modern mind, those words we often speak so thoughtlessly in worship present certain intellectual difficulties. Many of us, in teaching church members to understand the scriptures, encourage them to move beyond the archaic Genesis cosmology: a flat earth, covered over by the sky-dome of the firmament. Yet the biblical accounts of the ascension belong, frankly, to this outmoded worldview. "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?" ask the angels of the disciples, who are gawking upward like country rubes on a Manhattan sidewalk (Acts 1:11). Plainly, Luke wants us to understand that Jesus went up there, and that for him, up there is where God lives.
Yet the next phrase of the Apostles' Creed sounds just as absurd, if we take it literally: "... and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead." The imagery here is that of a formal Roman banquet, with the guest of honor seated at the host's right side. This is the place of honor in that culture. Of course, the apostles would have imagined Jesus enthroned in imperial splendor, greater even than that of the emperor reclining on his bejeweled couch in Rome. Is there really any saving truth associated with the concept of Jesus being seated to God's right? What if he ended up on the left? Would it make any difference? Does God even have a right or a left hand?
Clearly, we must seek to understand the ascension in terms that are more spiritual than literal. As for the question of whether there ever were a particular historical occasion when the disciples found themselves looking up at the soles of Jesus' feet, as he became progressively smaller before vanishing into a cloud, it's a question we probably ought to discard as irrelevant. Is the ascension primarily a cosmological or a theological event? Smart money is on the theological.
Although he undoubtedly believed in a literal ascension, Paul provides a pointer toward theological interpretation of the ascension as he writes:
"So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory" (Colossians 3:1-4).
For Paul, the ascension serves to highlight the boundary line between this world and the next. We should not be overeager to see that boundary line breached, for when it is, it means that the end is near and the destruction of the world as we know it will ensue. It is enough for now that Christ himself has crossed the boundary, as our forerunner.
Here are four theological implications of the ascension, any one of which could form the basis of a sermon:
1. Jesus belongs no longer to a particular place, time, or culture, but belongs rather to all people. Until his ascension, Jesus is a Galilean Jew. After his ascension, he is simply God's Son. Because Jesus is ascended, we no longer have to approach him through his own culture. He belongs to the world now, as Kenyan theologian John Mbiti attests: "The centers of the church's universality [are] no longer in Geneva, Rome, Paris, London, and New York, but in Kinshasa, Buenos Aires, Addis Ababa, and Manila." (Quoted in Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity [New York: Oxford, 2002], p. 2). Mbiti's statement is an ascension declaration.
2. Jesus is reigning as Lord of all. The ascension is a powerful symbol of the fact that Jesus not only belongs to all people, but rules over all things. The one who was crucified is now exalted to reign. The power at the heart of the universe is the same power that tasted death so that we might be saved from sin.
3. As a bodily reality, the ascension teaches that our essential personhood can live on after death. Luke very clearly teaches that Jesus' physical body left the earth and went into heaven. He didn't dematerialize, slowly vanishing from his followers' sight, as a ghost. The biblical documents are less influenced by the neo-Platonic dualism of body and soul than some later Christian theology. At this early stage, the human person is viewed holistically, including both body and spirit. This means that, when human beings enter heaven, they continue to be who they essentially are. Personality persists; it does not lose all individuality by merging into a cosmic, world-soul, as some Eastern religions teach.
4. We are empowered to be on our own now: the era of the church has begun. Luke gives us the story of the ascension twice: at the end of his gospel and at the beginning of Acts. In both cases, this event serves as an important boundary, a hinge between one segment of the story and the next. With the ascension of Jesus, the time of his earthly life and ministry are ended. The stage is now cleared for the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the beginning of the era of the church.
Prayer For The Day
Blessing and honor and glory and power,
to you, Lord Christ,
who are seated on the heavenly throne!
For God has raised you up,
far above anything we can see or know or experience.
Yet, in raising you up,
God has also made it certain
that you are present in all places.
O Christ, we cannot see you,
nor can we ascend to where you are.
To you we raise our hopes and hearts,
knowing that, always and everywhere, you reign! Amen.
To Illustrate
In May of 2005, students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology put on what they called the first ever (and last ever) Time Travelers' Convention. The idea was that time travelers from the future could show up and hobnob not only with other time travelers, but also with the M.I.T. students. This was the first and only such event, because -- time travel being what it is -- it wouldn't need to be repeated in order for time travelers from different eras to attend.
No time travelers showed up, as it turned out, but the students had a good time anyway, grilling burgers in a campus courtyard. This all took place beside a roped-off area that was designated as a safe landing-pad for time machines, so as to avoid causing any damage to trees or dormitories.
The students publicized the event through a website, and also by placing invitations, on acid-free paper, inside volumes in the M.I.T. Library for future generations of students to discover. The notice on the website asked the time travelers to bring certain gifts with them from the future: "Things like a cure for AIDS or cancer, a solution for global poverty or a cold fusion reactor would be particularly convincing as well as greatly appreciated." In case their university does not exist forever, the students thoughtfully posted the precise latitude and longitude of the East Campus Courtyard.
-- Based on a story by Pam Belluck, "Time Travelers to Meet in Not Too Distant Future," New York Times, May 6, 2005
The story of Jesus' ascension teaches us that he is now beyond both space and time.
***
William Willimon tells a story that was related to him by an Episcopal friend, Ed Covert, about an unofficial Ascension Day observance at his seminary. It seems that, on Ascension Day, the seminary community gathered in the chapel for a high-church worship service, complete with vestments, incense, and every other sort of ecclesiastical regalia.
The service ended, and amidst clouds of incense, the company of worshipers emerged from the chapel singing hymns appropriate to the occasion. Unknown to the worshipers, however, some enterprising student had taken a hollow, plastic, outdoor Christmas crèche figure and placed some kind of rocket inside it. As the ecclesiastical procession made its way into the courtyard, the student lit the fuse, sending the statue soaring up out of the shrubbery. It mounted into the sky trailing smoke and sparks, and did a nosedive onto the roof of a nearby dormitory.
The dean of the seminary was not impressed with the student's defense that he was "simply trying to dramatize my belief in the reality of the ascension."
-- William Willimon, "Deus Ascendit," in A Wild and Windy Mountain (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon, 1984), p. 100
***
A tribal chief lay dying.
He summoned three of his people and said, "I must select a successor. Climb our holy mountain and return with the most precious gift you can find."
The first brought back a huge gold nugget.
The second brought back a priceless gem.
The third returned empty-handed, saying, "When I reached the mountaintop, I saw on the other side a beautiful land, where people could go for a better life."
The chief said, "You shall succeed me. You have brought back the most precious gift of all: a vision of a better tomorrow."
***
And now his face grew bright with luminous will:
The great grave eyes grew planet-like and still.
Yea, in that moment, all his face, fire-white,
Seemed struck out of imperishable light.
Delicious apprehension shook his spirit,
With song so still that only the heart could hear it.
A sense of something sacred, starry, vast,
Greater than earth, across his spirit passed.
Then with a stretching of his hands to bless,
A last unspeakable look that was caress,
Up through the vortice of bright cherubim
He rose until the august form grew dim --
Up through the blue dome of the day ascended,
By circling flights of seraphim befriended.
He was uplifted from us, and was gone
Into the darkness of another dawn.
-- From "The Ascension," by Edwin Markham
Jesus' ascension is an otherworldly event that has big implications for how we live in this world.
First Lesson
Acts 1:1-11
Jesus' Ascension In Acts
This passage occurs in all three annual cycles of the lectionary for this day. After a brief prologue, in which Luke makes necessary connections with the events of his gospel (vv. 1-5), he relates the story of Jesus' ascension. He has already told this story once before, in Luke 24:50-53. In verses 6-7, he deals with the question of when Israel will be restored to its former glory. "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority," he replies (v. 7). Don't become obsessed with crossing off dates on the calendar, he advises. Learn how to wait in hope and expectation for God's time to become fulfilled. Verse 8 sets the scene for the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, clearly the most significant story Luke has to tell in these early chapters, and perhaps in the entire book. In full sight of all the disciples, Jesus is then lifted up, and "a cloud [takes] him out of their sight" (v. 9). Understandably, the disciples continue to gaze up into the sky. Two angelic figures appear, and gently chide the disciples for continuing to look up. "This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven," they say, "will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven" (v. 11). While the ascension presents certain problems of comprehension for people like us -- whose cosmology indicates that heaven is not "up there," above the dome of the firmament -- this was an extremely important story for the early church. Not only does it mark the conclusion of Jesus' ministry and the beginning of the era of the church, it suggests that Christ is now reigning over all and will one day return.
New Testament Lesson
Ephesians 1:15-23
Christ Rules Over All
This passage occurs in all three annual cycles of the lectionary for this day. The author of this letter shares not only the affection he feels for the Ephesian Christians, but also the content of some of his most heartfelt prayers. These are prayers for wisdom and enlightenment, that the readers may come to know the tremendous power for living that is available through the Christian faith. Verses 20-23 are a summary of the church's proclamation concerning Jesus Christ. This writer makes it clear that God raised Jesus from the dead; he did not rise up of his own accord. Jesus is now enthroned at God's right hand, ruling over all (v. 20). He is "head over all things for the church, which is his body" (vv. 22-23). This is the Christ Pantokrator, so often depicted in Eastern Orthodox art as the divine ruler, whose mosaic-tile eyes gaze impassively down from the sanctuary dome overhead, a hand raised in blessing.
The Gospel
Luke 24:44-53
Jesus' Ascension In Luke
This passage occurs in all three annual cycles of the lectionary for this day. In this, the second of Jesus' post-resurrection appearances related by Luke, Jesus has just appeared to the disciples, shown them his wounds, and eaten a piece of broiled fish (which, for Luke, demonstrates that this is a bodily resurrection, not a ghostly vision). Jesus then repeats his earlier teaching that he is the subject of the Hebrew prophecies, and "[opens] their minds to understand the scriptures" (v. 45). Luke has just related how Jesus made a similar revelation in the Road to Emmaus story (v. 27); what the disciples could not comprehend before, they can now understand in light of the resurrection. "You are witnesses of these things," he says to them, a commission to share the good news (v. 48). Verse 49 is a promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The remaining verses of this section are Luke's brief account of Jesus' ascension (see above for the more extensive Acts version). He blesses them, withdraws from them, and is carried up into heaven (v. 51). After that, they return to the temple, to worship with great joy.
Preaching Possibilities
"He ascended into heaven." Those words roll trippingly off the tongue for anyone raised on the church's creeds. Yet, to the modern mind, those words we often speak so thoughtlessly in worship present certain intellectual difficulties. Many of us, in teaching church members to understand the scriptures, encourage them to move beyond the archaic Genesis cosmology: a flat earth, covered over by the sky-dome of the firmament. Yet the biblical accounts of the ascension belong, frankly, to this outmoded worldview. "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?" ask the angels of the disciples, who are gawking upward like country rubes on a Manhattan sidewalk (Acts 1:11). Plainly, Luke wants us to understand that Jesus went up there, and that for him, up there is where God lives.
Yet the next phrase of the Apostles' Creed sounds just as absurd, if we take it literally: "... and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead." The imagery here is that of a formal Roman banquet, with the guest of honor seated at the host's right side. This is the place of honor in that culture. Of course, the apostles would have imagined Jesus enthroned in imperial splendor, greater even than that of the emperor reclining on his bejeweled couch in Rome. Is there really any saving truth associated with the concept of Jesus being seated to God's right? What if he ended up on the left? Would it make any difference? Does God even have a right or a left hand?
Clearly, we must seek to understand the ascension in terms that are more spiritual than literal. As for the question of whether there ever were a particular historical occasion when the disciples found themselves looking up at the soles of Jesus' feet, as he became progressively smaller before vanishing into a cloud, it's a question we probably ought to discard as irrelevant. Is the ascension primarily a cosmological or a theological event? Smart money is on the theological.
Although he undoubtedly believed in a literal ascension, Paul provides a pointer toward theological interpretation of the ascension as he writes:
"So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory" (Colossians 3:1-4).
For Paul, the ascension serves to highlight the boundary line between this world and the next. We should not be overeager to see that boundary line breached, for when it is, it means that the end is near and the destruction of the world as we know it will ensue. It is enough for now that Christ himself has crossed the boundary, as our forerunner.
Here are four theological implications of the ascension, any one of which could form the basis of a sermon:
1. Jesus belongs no longer to a particular place, time, or culture, but belongs rather to all people. Until his ascension, Jesus is a Galilean Jew. After his ascension, he is simply God's Son. Because Jesus is ascended, we no longer have to approach him through his own culture. He belongs to the world now, as Kenyan theologian John Mbiti attests: "The centers of the church's universality [are] no longer in Geneva, Rome, Paris, London, and New York, but in Kinshasa, Buenos Aires, Addis Ababa, and Manila." (Quoted in Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity [New York: Oxford, 2002], p. 2). Mbiti's statement is an ascension declaration.
2. Jesus is reigning as Lord of all. The ascension is a powerful symbol of the fact that Jesus not only belongs to all people, but rules over all things. The one who was crucified is now exalted to reign. The power at the heart of the universe is the same power that tasted death so that we might be saved from sin.
3. As a bodily reality, the ascension teaches that our essential personhood can live on after death. Luke very clearly teaches that Jesus' physical body left the earth and went into heaven. He didn't dematerialize, slowly vanishing from his followers' sight, as a ghost. The biblical documents are less influenced by the neo-Platonic dualism of body and soul than some later Christian theology. At this early stage, the human person is viewed holistically, including both body and spirit. This means that, when human beings enter heaven, they continue to be who they essentially are. Personality persists; it does not lose all individuality by merging into a cosmic, world-soul, as some Eastern religions teach.
4. We are empowered to be on our own now: the era of the church has begun. Luke gives us the story of the ascension twice: at the end of his gospel and at the beginning of Acts. In both cases, this event serves as an important boundary, a hinge between one segment of the story and the next. With the ascension of Jesus, the time of his earthly life and ministry are ended. The stage is now cleared for the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the beginning of the era of the church.
Prayer For The Day
Blessing and honor and glory and power,
to you, Lord Christ,
who are seated on the heavenly throne!
For God has raised you up,
far above anything we can see or know or experience.
Yet, in raising you up,
God has also made it certain
that you are present in all places.
O Christ, we cannot see you,
nor can we ascend to where you are.
To you we raise our hopes and hearts,
knowing that, always and everywhere, you reign! Amen.
To Illustrate
In May of 2005, students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology put on what they called the first ever (and last ever) Time Travelers' Convention. The idea was that time travelers from the future could show up and hobnob not only with other time travelers, but also with the M.I.T. students. This was the first and only such event, because -- time travel being what it is -- it wouldn't need to be repeated in order for time travelers from different eras to attend.
No time travelers showed up, as it turned out, but the students had a good time anyway, grilling burgers in a campus courtyard. This all took place beside a roped-off area that was designated as a safe landing-pad for time machines, so as to avoid causing any damage to trees or dormitories.
The students publicized the event through a website, and also by placing invitations, on acid-free paper, inside volumes in the M.I.T. Library for future generations of students to discover. The notice on the website asked the time travelers to bring certain gifts with them from the future: "Things like a cure for AIDS or cancer, a solution for global poverty or a cold fusion reactor would be particularly convincing as well as greatly appreciated." In case their university does not exist forever, the students thoughtfully posted the precise latitude and longitude of the East Campus Courtyard.
-- Based on a story by Pam Belluck, "Time Travelers to Meet in Not Too Distant Future," New York Times, May 6, 2005
The story of Jesus' ascension teaches us that he is now beyond both space and time.
***
William Willimon tells a story that was related to him by an Episcopal friend, Ed Covert, about an unofficial Ascension Day observance at his seminary. It seems that, on Ascension Day, the seminary community gathered in the chapel for a high-church worship service, complete with vestments, incense, and every other sort of ecclesiastical regalia.
The service ended, and amidst clouds of incense, the company of worshipers emerged from the chapel singing hymns appropriate to the occasion. Unknown to the worshipers, however, some enterprising student had taken a hollow, plastic, outdoor Christmas crèche figure and placed some kind of rocket inside it. As the ecclesiastical procession made its way into the courtyard, the student lit the fuse, sending the statue soaring up out of the shrubbery. It mounted into the sky trailing smoke and sparks, and did a nosedive onto the roof of a nearby dormitory.
The dean of the seminary was not impressed with the student's defense that he was "simply trying to dramatize my belief in the reality of the ascension."
-- William Willimon, "Deus Ascendit," in A Wild and Windy Mountain (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon, 1984), p. 100
***
A tribal chief lay dying.
He summoned three of his people and said, "I must select a successor. Climb our holy mountain and return with the most precious gift you can find."
The first brought back a huge gold nugget.
The second brought back a priceless gem.
The third returned empty-handed, saying, "When I reached the mountaintop, I saw on the other side a beautiful land, where people could go for a better life."
The chief said, "You shall succeed me. You have brought back the most precious gift of all: a vision of a better tomorrow."
***
And now his face grew bright with luminous will:
The great grave eyes grew planet-like and still.
Yea, in that moment, all his face, fire-white,
Seemed struck out of imperishable light.
Delicious apprehension shook his spirit,
With song so still that only the heart could hear it.
A sense of something sacred, starry, vast,
Greater than earth, across his spirit passed.
Then with a stretching of his hands to bless,
A last unspeakable look that was caress,
Up through the vortice of bright cherubim
He rose until the august form grew dim --
Up through the blue dome of the day ascended,
By circling flights of seraphim befriended.
He was uplifted from us, and was gone
Into the darkness of another dawn.
-- From "The Ascension," by Edwin Markham
