Ascension Day, May 1^st 2008

 

St Mildred’s, Addiscombe

 

 

 

Today is Ascension Day when we remember that Jesus ‘ascended into heaven’ as we say in the Creed week by week. We may not generally ‘rate’ the Ascension as important a Christian festival as for eg Christmas Day, Good Friday or Easter Sunday. Yet, the Ascension is a pivotal point in God’s drama of salvation: a day for looking backwards and also looking forwards. It’s like standing on the top of a hill where we can see in both directions.

 

 

This key importance of the ascension is clear to Luke, as we see in our readings. Luke concludes his Gospel with the ascension of Jesus to heaven, and he then begins his second book, Acts, also with the ascension. The return of Jesus to his Father in heaven concludes one act of the story and opens the next.

 

 

In our Gospel reading as Jesus prepares to leave his disciples he both looks back at his own ministry, his death and resurrection and how it was foretold in by the prophets; and he also looks forwards as he tells the disciples that they now have a task to fulfil. They are to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. The purposes of God as seen in the OT and in the ministry of Jesus will now continue in their work:  ‘You are my witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father has promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’ This is the Holy Spirit who will be with them and in them to equip them to share in God’s purposes.

 

 

So as Jesus is parted from his disciples it is not a tearful goodbye, because it is not just the end of something, but also the promise of a new beginning. As Jesus ascends to heaven, we’re told,  the disciples worshipped him and then ‘returned to Jerusalem with great joy,’ as they await the coming of the Spirit.

 

 

The ascension is a key moment in God’s drama of salvation.  Jesus’ earthly life is over and he returns to the Father. This reminds us again of who Jesus is. He is not only the earthly man who lived at a particular time, who healed and taught the crowds, was responded to with both  love and hatred; a man who ate food, slept, laughed and cried, suffered and died. He is the majestic, eternal Son who existed before he came to live among us. At the ascension he returns to the Father who sent him into the world, and as he returns to the Father, he takes our humanity with him. Our human nature is, in Jesus, exalted in God. Our humanity is taken into the heart of God, the Trinity.

 

 

The ascension ends what began in Jesus’ birth, in the Incarnation. God humbled himself in becoming human to live with us; now, in the risen ascended Jesus, we have the promise we will be raised up to live with him. Jesus’ ascension points forward to the fulfilment of all things when all creation will be made new and men and women will live with God forever.

 

 

But before that final day we have the time of the Church; our time, now. This time began with Jesus’ ascension when he passed a task on to his disciples. Just as those first disciples were called to be witnesses to all they had seen and heard and believed about Jesus, so are we. We are not spectators but participants in this drama of God’s salvation. The task of making disciples of all nations, declaring Jesus’ transforming love and forgiveness is OUR task.

 

 

I’ve had to rush back for this service from the launch of Love Croydon in centre of Croydon. I don’t think some of the organisers had realised today was also Ascension Day, but actually it hit me that there was something fitting in the launch being today. Love Croydon is about being witnesses to those around us of our faith in Christ and all he has done for us; Christians of many different traditions and denominations joining together to proclaim in word and deed God’s grace in Christ, just as Jesus commanded those first disciples to do as he left them to return to the Father.

 

 

Of course we may often feel – I do – that we’re not up this task of being witnesses! Who are we to preach and live God’s forgiveness, healing and promise of new life? How can God work through us in all our weakness and apathy, lack of faith and love? But we are not called to this task on our own - like the first disciples we are promised the power of the Holy Spirit. So we need to pray earnestly for a deepening awareness of and openness to the Spirit among us and within us. We are called to make a difference to the community around us here in Addiscombe and the world as a whole. We’re to live out God’s compassion and love in serving others and also to speak to others about our faith, to point people to Jesus and welcome them into the Christian community. And in various ways we are trying to do these things as a church.

 

 

So today, Ascension Day, marks a key moment in God’s purposes. We celebrate the end of Jesus’ ministry; the exaltation of Christ and the mystery that our humanity is, in him, taken up into God’s life. We also celebrate the promise of the Spirit, the calling to us now to share in God’s work in our world, and we look to the future when all God’s purposes will be fulfilled and we will be drawn in to the life of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.