Ascension Day as a liturgical festival often gets overlooked in the interval between Easter and Pentecost. The intensity of personal reflection during Lent was released in the exuberance of Easter with triumphant music, powerful preaching on the Resurrection, Easter lilies, and packed pews. Pentecost is just around the corner with multilingual calls to worship, red vestments, and Holy Spirit joy to celebrate the birth of the Church. Few followers seem able to muster much energy for Ascension Day.
Ascension Day is often overlooked liturgically, but even more sadly, this celebration is underappreciated theologically. If the death of Christ was for our forgiveness of sins, and the Resurrection of Christ was His victory over death forever for our sake, the Ascension of Christ was His enthronement as King of kings, and Lord of lords. The servant leader Jesus of Nazareth, at the Ascension, is enthroned as King! Because of the Ascension and His enthronement as King, all authority on heaven and on earth has been given to Him (Matthew 29:18; Psalm 110; Acts 1:11).
The early church recognized the significance of the Ascension. The Ascension is found in every major creed, including the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed:
The Apostles’ Creed: 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.
The Nicene Creed: On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
The creeds only confirm what is in the New Testament (see Ephesians 1:20; Philippians 1:9-11; I Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 1:3). The Ascension is the climax of the earthly life story of Jesus Christ and THE KEY to understanding the role of the Church.
This Sunday I would like to invite you to be a participant in our community of faith as we open the Word of God to understand the significance of the Ascension for our lives in the 21st century. I will be teaching. Then we will join together as we give thanks for Christ being our manna (bread of life) as we celebrate Holy Communion.
With love and peace,
Fr. Tony