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sascend04
The Challenge of
an Ascension Faith
Text:
Acts 1:1-11
Date: The Ascension of Our Lord 
5/20/04 fifa2003 seri no
Easter,
the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the central and essential
event of the Christian faith. We confess every week, "on
the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures."
Those first Easter days were strange days, but they were good days
-
the
days when Jesus would, here and there, now and then again, appear
to his disciples to convince them he was alive by "Many convincing
proofs."
But
that wasn't the whole picture yet. On this day, the fortieth day
of Easter, we commemorate an equally central and essential aspect
of the resurrection faith which we, likewise, confess every week,
"he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the
Father. From thence he will come to judge the living and the dead."
On this day the risen Lord Jesus appeared to the eyes of his disciples
for the last time. But this was to be no ordinary farewell. For,
though gone into heaven, he was not thereby to be absent from his
disciples. He ascended to the right hand of the majesty on high
in order that, by the sending of the Holy Spirit, he, Jesus, might
continue to be with his people, his Church, in a more intimate
and powerful and enduring way.
There
is no indication at all anywhere that the early Church continued
to dwell on the expectation or even the possibility that Jesus would
appear again after the ascension until his glorious and final return
on the day of judgment. They understood that Resurrection-Ascension-Pentecost
are inseparable: Christ was raised to be glorified and to give the
power of his Spirit to the church. Sentimental hymns speaking of
Jesus walking with us "in the garden alone" wouldn't have
even made the play list, much less the top 50 in the early Christian
years. Any imaginations of such individual, private experiences
are a denial of the Ascension Faith.
What
is an Ascension Faith? It is the faith that takes the ascension
of our Lord seriously; the faith that sees in Christ's ascension
the broadening understanding of the purpose and mission of the church,
namely, to make disciples of all nations through the Spirit-filled
proclamation of the Gospel of the risen Christ. "You shall
receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you," says the
ascending Lord. Power...for what? For the speaking of the Word of
God boldly. You will receive power to witness, power to speak the
Word with boldness.
"You
shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you
will be my witnesses" in ever-widening concentric circles.
Like a stone dropped into a lake, the impact of the stone causes
repeated circles to radiate, so the repeated and constant witness
of the Church radiates "in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth."
The
ascension faith sees the Lord Jesus now given lordship over all
the nations and all creation. The challenge of the ascension faith
is to not be caught gazing in wonder "at the clouds" but
to capture the sense of mission in our particular "Jerusalem,"
for that is where Christ intends us to be. We are quite powerless
in ourselves. And so the Word points us toward the gift of a coming
power "when the Holy Spirit has come upon you." Easter
is incomplete without the Ascension, and Ascension is incomplete
without Pentecost.
Finally,
the greatest challenge of the ascension faith is also the greatest
blessing and comfort, and that is the challenge and blessing of
the Sacrament of the Altar. For now, though Christ ascended
to the right hand of the Father, he is not "confined"
there. Rather, still as true God and true Man, his true body and
blood is on many altars all over the world at the same time according
to the omnipresence of his Divine nature shared fully with all attributes
of his human nature. Here, in a most physical, personal and
intimate way, he is still Immanuel, still God with us. Here we are
connected, "as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup,"
connected to our Lord's death, resurrection, ascension, and even
his coming again. Here Christ's body continually takes on new flesh
and blood as he dwells in us and makes us his true Body on earth,
each of us individual members of it. And what greater witness can
we give than as we regularly come forward publicly before the world
in Holy Communion?
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