Let us pray: O Lord, You have given Your Word to be a Lamp for our feet and a light for our path. Grant us grace to receive Your truth in faith, hope and love - that we may be obedient to Your Will and live always for Your Glory; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Did it ever strike you how a passage like those read today would be utterly unintelligible to a person who had no faith in the risen Christ? Which is probably as it should be. In fact, the whole faith story told in the Bible only makes sense if you believe. When you believe you find these kinds of passages, not just making sense, but warming you from the inside out
So it is with the story of Ascension. At first it makes no sense at all. Why in the world would this story, with its tale of Jesus, in his resurrection body being lifted bodily from the earth into heaven, recorded only by Luke, end up forming such a central part of the gospel and the creeds of the church?
How does it go in the Apostle's creed?
I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; He ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
He ascended into heaven - and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
Or, as it says in The Book of The Acts of The Apostles:
He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. "Men of Galilee", they said, "Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
This record of the bodily ascension of Jesus into heaven after his death and resurrection is strange story to those who do not believe, one that is hard to understand, but for me - and for all who believe - it is a story of tremendous comfort - for it points to - and completes - the story of who Jesus was - and is - namely the Son of The Living God, the one who came from heaven and took upon himself our flesh, and who, having died for us - takes the essential part of our nature back with him into heaven - where he - and by implication we, are made holy.
Christ Jesus, is at the right hand of the Father - even as he shares completely in the nature of the Father. He is there - with the saints - to intercede for us and to care for us until he returns again - in the manner he left us - upon the clouds.
The Ascension is that part of the story of Christ Jesus that allows us to say that where two or more are gathered in his name, there he is.
The Ascension is that part of the gospel that allows us to say that unto Jesus - every knee shall bow - in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
The Ascension preserves - and indeed helps to create - what we call the Trinitarian mystery - namely that God is both three and one.
He is seated at the right hand of the Father, and from there he shall come to judge the living and the dead.
Our Jesus - our Saviour - did not simply fade away like some breath on the wind after the resurrection. His form, his substance, his identity, are instead made one with the Father's - and yet remain unique - much as we believe our form, our substance, our identity, will also, in a similar manner become one with the Father - and yet remain unique.
It is a marvellous tale - this tale of the Ascension - when you believe. It assures us of the integrity of the story - and of our own future within it.
If the story of the ascension is hard for unbelievers to read and understand, then the gospel passage today is even more so. For here we have recorded a portion of prayer of Jesus on the night of his betrayal - that section which is often labelled in modern editions of the Bible: "Jesus Prays For His Disciples".
Its talk of being in the world, but not of the world, is confusing to those outside of the church. So too is the talk about how Jesus and the Father share all things both in this world - and in the next - including us. So much so it can obscure the message that Jesus is giving his followers even as he prays to the Father for them and about them.
If you read the passage a couple of times as a believer however, two things came out. One is that Jesus is worried about the rag-tag group of followers he is leaving behind. (His concerns are well founded).
The second thing is that Jesus is grateful to God that he has these followers (including you and I).
Jesus prays for the disciples - and for us - knowing what difficulties they will have to face. He reminds them and us that we have been called and consecrated or - to use the word most commonly used in the translation of this passage, sanctified.
In the Hebrew tradition, to be consecrated meant to be set apart for a specific purpose. Things were set apart for use in the Temple, but more importantly, people were set apart to do God's work.
To be set apart means that we not go into protective hiding, but that we realize we have been called and are to be agents of God in the world. We are sanctified or consecrated in truth.
This sense of being consecrated was a repetitious theme of the prophets as well. The People of God were a consecrated, a chosen people. They were not to gloat and feel privileged, but had a responsibility.
They, and we as Jesus' community, must live out the responsibility of that call, that "consecration in truth". We are called to work for justice, peace, love and ethical behaviour in the world. The forces against us belong to "the world" that Jesus mentions in his prayer, and knowing the power of "the world", he is praying for us as we go out to bring his message.
It is evident from Jesus' words that he has planted something in us that gives us a different vision, a different way of being and acting. He has planted in us a Word that he has received from his Father. It causes us to see things in another light, to evaluate ourselves and others by a different kind of standard; a standard of love.
Hence the talk of being in the world, but not of the world. It serves to identify us more fully with him - who himself was in the world but not of the world.
Jesus doesn't want his disciples to pull out of this world and start a new nation on some distant island. If that was the plan for us - he would have said so. Rather he sends us equipped to go into the world and make a difference, and to do so as one who is not of this world, but rather is "consecrated in truth".
What does it mean to be in the world but not of the world.
The struggles of Northern Ireland have long contained stories of offenses of one side against another and then reprisals for the offenses. An Irish Methodist minister, Cheryl Jane Walter, tells a story that exemplifies being "in the world but not of it ".
A bombing of civilians in the town of Ennishillen, Northern Ireland in 1987, killed many civilians. The IRA claimed responsibility, leaving no doubt of the perpetrators. A 20 year old student nurse Marie Wilson, was trapped in the rubble with her father, Gordan. She asked him if he were all right, and clutching his hand said her last words, "Daddy, I love you very much." She was removed from the rubble, but later died in the hospital. Gordan Wilson grieved for his 20 year old daughter, yet he said he felt no ill will. Indeed, he said he would pray for the people who planted the bomb. Normally reprisals are the response to such an act. Gordan Wilson's words of forgiveness defused the community's anger.
Isn't that what it means to be in the world but not of it? And isn't that what it means to be "consecrated to truth" and, as Jesus prays in the opening of the prayer, protected by God's Holy Name?
It doesn't make sense - unless you believe. But then it does.
And so does the Ascension - it makes clear just who and what we have in Christ Jesus
We have the story not only of God taking on flesh and coming among us, in this world but not of it, fully human, fully one of us, but we also have that human one taking our nature with him back to God, being there, ruling, being everywhere.
It is the completion of the story, save one item, the giving of the Holy Spirit, which we celebrate next week.
As it is found in the prayer of Jesus...I will remain in the world no longer, but I am coming to you.
Because Jesus is glorified and lifted up to God. Because he is ascended into Heaven, he is able to be with us now. Because he has been sanctified, he can sanctify us. His prayer for us is heard.
We need not look up and wonder where he is, for by his going, he is able to come. What we are to do is to open ourselves to the Spirit, listen to the word that God has given us, and go out into the world, and do what we are to do, knowing that God will protect us - and bring us safe to his side when our work and witness is done.
May His name be praised day by day! Amen.
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