Sunday after Ascension Day June 1, 2003

A sermon by Dean Keith Joyce

Yet there would have been no giving of the Holy Spirit had there not been one other thing in Jesus Christ's life, namely his ascension to heaven. While he was on earth Jesus was able to be with his people. They could interact with him regularly and enjoy his immediate presence. Christ's work could be done in and through his followers, under his personal direction. Since Jesus was on earth the Holy Spirit was not needed because Jesus was there to do the work. Therefore the coming of the Holy Spirit is directly related to the ascension of Jesus. Jesus himself was aware of this when he said, "It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you." (John 16:7 [NIV])

His actual leaving was with no fanfare, no chariots of fire, no heavenly hosts filling the sky, no vast retinue of the faithful. It was a simple, quiet withdrawing. No pomp and little ceremony. Few are there to see it. And it is not even in Jerusalem. It's in the small town of Bethany. We read that a "cloud took him out of their sight". In the Old Testament the appearance of a cloud indicated the presence of God. Yes, Jesus is taken up into the cloud of God's glory. And in this same way Jesus will return.

How is this ascension of Jesus Christ significant to anything we hold important?

It expands our perspective, breaking us out of the confined earth-bound understanding of what life is all about. The Ascension helps us to lift our gaze and remember that reality is not defined, let alone limited, by this present existence. It is as if we stand with one foot on earth and one foot in heaven.

The Ascension accents, even more than the resurrection, the universal Lordship of Christ as Saviour of the world. God has done more than only raise Jesus from the dead. If that is all he had done, then Jesus would have remained simply a local deity, confined only to where he physically could go. He has exalted Jesus to his right hand, that place of power and authority. By knowing of his ascension we can continue to know him as our Lord, and as the Lord present to us and the whole world through his Holy Spirit. In other words, he is not just living in Palestine.

The Ascension, with the resultant sending of the Holy Spirit, marks the completion of Christ's work. When he cried out on the cross, "It is finished"! he was speaking of his work of redemption, of winning humanity's salvation. That was completed on the cross. He hadn't said "I am finished" as if there was nothing more for him to accomplish. The work of proclaiming that salvation was to continue and it is still to go on. It's exciting to consider that Christ's ascension was vital to the continuation of our Lord's work here on earth, a work to be done by his body, the Church.

Crucially, as the exalted and reigning Lord, he has given gifts to his followers, the most important of those gifts being the gift of the Holy Spirit himself. As Peter explained on the Day of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was a demonstration of the exaltation of Jesus Christ, the same Jesus who had been put to death so recently. And this Holy Spirit would supernaturally equip his followers to minister in the Church and in the world, and in turn give them his own gifts, the gifts of the Spirit, and grow in them the fruit of the Spirit. While the Ascension was necessary for the Holy Spirit to come upon the Church, and individual believers, it was also an indication of the extent of the power which was made available to complete the task that is set before the Church.

A most encouraging truth of the Ascension is that Jesus not only reigns at the right hand of God but that he continually intercedes on behalf of the saints of God. That's you and me. Just think about it. Jesus, as the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, the Saviour of the world, cares enough for each of us that he is there, on our behalf, praying for us! What a strengthening comfort that is!

The Ascension also assures us that we are able to be in the throne room of heaven itself. He is the "forerunner on our behalf". The hope of heaven is not just a bit of wishful thinking but is a "sure and steadfast anchor of the soul". (Hebrews 6:19-20) Through Jesus we are freely admitted to the eternal presence of God. Through him we can live with confidence before the very face of God himself.

I watched a movie the other day that left me dazed with the reality of how much human beings can hate each other, how violent we can be toward one another. It was Harrison's Flowers and it had to do with a war situation where life was so cheap, people shot for the simplest of reasons, or for no reason at all. They all seemed to live with the constant threat of a gun to the head. I kept asking myself, how is it that we, myself included, can dislike one another so much? Why are we so violent towards one another, whether it be the violence of verbal and psychological abuse or of gossip or of violence physically expressed in so many situations?

With these thoughts in mind, I wondered how the ascension of Jesus had anything to do with such inhumanity given and received. What does the ascension of Jesus have to do with "real life"? Why bother with the Ascension in a sermon when there are so many more important things to consider in the day-to-day world we face, which touch us, which bother us, that hurt us?

The Ascension gives us, as I said earlier, the sense of us standing with one foot on earth and one foot in heaven. While the foot in heaven does not remove the gun to our head, the gun to our head does not remove heaven from our reality and our hope. Clearly, with feet so planted, heaven is not simply a false escape from reality. The gun is to our head, the cancer is in our body, injustice is experienced by our neighbour, workers are unfairly treated, nations still rage against each other, and the list goes on. But at the same time, the gun, the cancer, the pain, the suffering is not the last word and it will not ultimately win.

The Ascension gives us this bigger picture of reality, God's reality. It does not mean that fatalistically we give up on the challenges we face. It does not mean we deny our real feelings about the pain and suffering we go through. No, we fight, we struggle, we strive to defeat cancer and to stop injustice and to bring peace to this world. But, the Ascension reminds us that we are engaged in the struggle as people with hope.

As difficult as the struggle is, it is a temporary struggle. The fight is not the final, nor is it the full picture of real life, of real reality. As we gaze up, this Ascensiontide, at the cloud into which Jesus ascended, the cloud of the glory of God, may we see this larger, real picture. As we grasp the truth of that picture let us move into all that we face, as difficult as it may be, with a renewed hope and vigour, in the power of the Holy Spirit, under the life-giving authority of the ascended Lord, so that the victory of Good Friday released on Easter Day is known in every heart and soul on the planet. May this be our passion, the driving force of our lives, the hope of our existence as we go through each day, step by step, in the company of the blessed Holy Spirit.

Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 24-25 [NRSV])