Ascension at Dulverton

Ascension Day 2009

Travelling Home to God

 

No one saw Jesus leap down from heaven into the womb of Mary at the Annunciation.

 

No one saw Jesus being raised from the dead leaving the tomb empty at Easter.

 

But, according to Luke (who records the event twice in the Gospel and the Acts), Jesus ascending into heaven (from a place near Bethany) was seen by at least the eleven apostles and possibly by others who kept company with them in the upper room after the crucifixion and resurrection.

 

Luke 24.50-51 “With hands upraised he blessed them. As he blessed them, he left them, and was taken up to heaven”.

Acts 1.9 “He was lifted up before their eyes, in a cloud which took him from their sight”.

 

The Ascension of Our Lord is the second stage of His Resurrection in triumph. Now he returns to heaven, whence he came, and there he takes his seat at the right hand of the Father and shares his power and glory.

 

His promise to us is “I go to prepare a place for you so that where I am you also may be” (John 14.3). The Ascension is about our destiny as well as his. It is about our travelling home to the Father and our participation in resurrection victory and glory. Through his grace in us and with us we too may follow faithfully where he has pioneered.

 

Thanks be to God.

Ascending to the Father

Luke 24.44-53



44 Then he told them, 'This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms, was destined to be fulfilled.' 45 He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them, 'So it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses to this. 49 'And now I am sending upon you what the Father has promised. Stay in the city, then, until you are clothed with the power from on high. 50 Then he took them out as far as the outskirts of Bethany, and raising his hands he blessed them. 51 Now as he blessed them, he withdrew from them and was carried up to heaven. 52 They worshipped him and then went back to Jerusalem full of joy; 53 and they were continually in the Temple praising God.



Homily from Dulverton Chapel



The 14 Stations of the Cross are familiar to us all. Less familiar, but complimentary, are the 14 Stations of the Resurrection. In some churches, during Eastertide, Stations of the Cross are removed and replaced with Stations of the Resurrection.



In the sequence of gospel events commemorated by these Resurrection Stations we arrive today at the 12th - The Risen Lord Ascends to the Father. On Sunday the 13th marks 'Waiting for the Holy Spirit in Prayer' whilst a week on Sunday, the 50th day of Easter, we reach the 14th and final Station - The Risen Lord Sends the Promised Spirit to the Disciples.



Our Lord's incarnate life has a beginning and an ending in time. It begins with the Annunciation and it ends with the Ascension. Both events are historical moments when the gap between earth and heaven is closed and the joy of heaven comes to earth.



Today we live in an age of materialism when it so easy to forget the benefits to be derived from looking upwards from earth to heaven. Many today suffer from spiritual short sightedness or even total spiritual blindness and live deprived lives devoid of the insights and inspiration derived from the prayer peep-hole into heaven. Looking heavenwards does not mean forgetting earth but rather is a resource for viewing earth in a new light.



Today, as Jesus ascends to the Father, he carries our humanity to the heart of God. In this context the value and potential of every human life is transformed. We are glorified with him.

No wonder those first disciples went back to Jerusalem 'full of joy'.

Risen Lord, you went ahead to prepare a place for us. The rightful place for the children of God is at the right hand of the Father. Our place there has been purchased by you. Let our eyes be fixed where there is eternal joy. A taste of paradise can change everything. As we look forward to the fullness of Easter that is yet to come, we commit ourselves to making the Resurrection present for every person and for humanity itself.

The Season of Easter

It can seem that once Easter Sunday has passed easter is finished, but the celebration continues for fifty days.

Next Sunday is traditionally known as Low Sunday or White Sunday which refers to the white baptismal garment of the newly baptised. Divine Mercy Sunday is a new feast also celebrated on this day. It comes almost as an opportunity in which anyone who missed out on celebrating the mercy of Christ in Holy Week has another chance.

After forty days we celebrate the feast of the Ascension of Christ who returns to the Father to send us the Holy Spirit. We spend the novena (nine days) between Ascension and Pentecost praying for the Spirit like Mary and the apostles in the Upper Room. On the fiftieth day (which is the literal meaning of the word 'Pentecost') Easter ends. On that day Christ's Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Our celebration of Easter resonates throughout the rest of the year: full of gratitude for Christ's passion, joy in his resurrection and, strengthened by the Spirit, we continue our Christian journey.

Ascension of the Lord

The Book of Common Prayer says today is "Sunday after Ascension".
Common Worship tells us it is "Easter 7".
The Roman Calendar from this year has it as the solemnity "Ascension of the Lord".

Today's Gospel for the Ascension is Luke 24.46-53:

Jesus said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
50Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 51While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. 52And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; 53and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

Comments in Bible Alive:

The Ascension is a festival of the future of the world. One day we will be redeemed body and soul. Ascended, our beings will be radiant and resplendent with God's light and glory because through baptism we are united to Christ: in his death, in his resurrection and in his ascension.

Today, then, we celebrate with joy, confidence and hope our future destiny. Christ is the hope of glory. Jesus' ascension into heaven gives us, if you like, a glimpse into our own eternal destiny. We don't often admit it, but there is deep within each of us a longing for performance and eternal life. We have a sense of not quite belonging to earth and that we are moving on to somewhere else - like pilgrims on our pilgrim way.

God, in his mercy, wants us to have a living hope in the promise of heaven. Such a hope comes not from arrogant presumption or naive optimism, but is rooted in understanding the victory of Christ. God wants us to have a joy welling up deep inside us. Without this joy we can lose our way.

St Thomas Aquinas said: 'No one can live without delight and that is why someone deprived of spiritual joy goes over to carnal pleasure.' Fundamental to knowing this joy is grasping how sure are the promises of Christ. We can build our lives on them. Like Jesus we shall possess a glorified body and partake in the divine nature.

C.S. Lewis articulated the Christian revelation of the resurrected and glorified body beautifully when he said: 'It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.'