Ascension & Baptism
“And 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”
Summary
The Feast of the Ascension was on Thursday (40 days after the Resurrection). If we lived in continental Europe we would have had the day off work to celebrate but as we didn’t we are marking it today. The Ascension is not recorded in 3 of the 4 gospels but Luke gives us two versions: with one (the one we hear this morning, Luke 24:44-53) Luke brings his gospel to an end and with the other he opens the book of the Acts of the Apostles. The Ascension is a moment for the followers of Jesus to look back at his ministry, death and resurrection and begin to make sense of all they have learnt and experienced as Jesus “opens their minds to understand”. In order that, when they receive “power from on high” they will be able to continue Christ’s work in the world. The Ascension is the bridge between Christ’s ministry in Jesus of Nazareth and Christ’s ministry in the church on earth, in you and me. It leaves a Jesus shaped hole in the world into which we are sent to bring good news, healing, justice, forgiveness reconciliation and well-being. We worry, of course, that we are not up to the task and we are not. But in this short passage we are told that we will be given all that we need for this ministry: we will be given one another; we will be given the strength and wisdom of God’s spirit; and, perhaps most importantly, we will be given repentance and the forgiveness of sins because we will get it wrong until we get it right. In the account given in Acts we are also given some helpful angelic messengers who ask us “why are you standing still looking up into heaven?” In other words, the world has need of you, go on, get on with it!
GOSPEL
Luke 24.44-53
‘ Jesus said to his disciples, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And 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.’
Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.’
