Sermon for Sunday, June 1st 2025

While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

Please be seated. Luke LOVES the ascension. It appears in both his Gospel and the Book of Acts. For him, the ascension is NOT a footnote in the story of God redeeming the world through Jesus Christ. It is a part of the story that we shouldn’t overlook.

When I searched for liturgical calendars in Google Images, most of the calendars represented Advent, Christmas, Ordinary Time, Holy Week, and Easter. Some had Epiphany and Pentecost. But not the Ascension.

After a couple of minutes of browsing, I could only find one calendar recognizing the Ascension.

It’s not surprising that many of us talk little of the ascension.

In the Anglican Church of Canada, we are given the option to read the scriptures for the Seventh Sunday of Easter OR Ascension Sunday. If you did not grow up in a liturgical church, it is unlikely that you heard much about the Ascension. If you have not spent much time in the Church, the Ascension is likely a headscratcher. Given that our faithful apostle ends his Gospel account and begins his book of the history of the Church with this story, let’s wonder together, church. What was God accomplishing through Jesus’ ascension and what does it mean for us today?

Jesus’ disciples had gone through quite a shock. Not that long before, they watched their leader die on the cross. The one they thought was the long-awaited Messiah. The one they thought would release them from the boots of Roman oppression. Maybe they had got it all wrong. And they dropped their heads in despair and wailed.

Three days later, the unthinkable happened. Jesus’ tomb was empty. Jesus rose from the dead. He wasn’t a ghost. Blood was pumping through his veins. He ate broiled fish. He had wounds from the nails of the cross on his hands and feet. This was wonderful and yet quite strange.

Many of the Jewish people believed in the resurrection of the dead. They believed that they would rise at the end of time, not that one would rise before all others. How miraculous, odd, and perplexing. If he’s alive, that means that even death couldn’t destroy him and that is good news for us and the whole world.

At Easter we proclaim with other Christians, angels, archangels and the hosts of heaven, Where O Death, is your victory? Where O Death is your sting? And we are right to proclaim this. Through God raising him from the dead, Jesus tore asunder the chains of sin and death. But without recognizing the ascension it makes no sense. Israel hadn’t yet been restored.

In Luke’s account, they recognize Jesus by eating a fish breakfast with him and he tells them that what happened to him was foretold by the prophets and the psalmists of old. That after the Messiah is raised from the dead on the third day, the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins would be shared with all the peoples of the earth. Jesus told them that he would give them power from on high, or as John puts it, “An Advocate”. The disciples must have been confused by this. But then he led them to Bethany and blessed them. He called the disciples to join in to what God is accomplishing in the world. And he did not abandon them. While was blessing the disciples that Jesus ascended into heaven.

The disciples praised God in the temple at Jerusalem because they knew that they had received God’s blessing. They were called to join in the work that God was doing in the world. They would not have to do the work of calling for repentance and forgiveness of sins alone while Jesus watched in the heavens. We know that in our neighbourhood and in our world, things are not as they should be. People are struggling to make ends meet. Tech billionaires are making profits by stealing our attention through social media rage bait. Fascism is on the rise and climate change continues to destroy livelihoods and habitats. The death toll of Palestinians who have been killed by the Israeli military continues to climb every day. Our world has fallen into systemic sin.

No matter how committed to being good we are, we know that not all is right within us. Have you ever raged within your hearts when “those people” seem to have all that they want, and you don’t? Have you ever resigned yourself to hopelessness and despair? Do you from time to time, give into the bootstraps mythology, and forget that our common life depends on each other’s toil and the Grace of God? We have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But our sins do not ultimately define us. We don’t need to hang our heads in despair. We don’t need to be anxiously looking at the sky, waiting for Jesus to take us away. Jesus is among us and Jesus will come again and restore this earth. Our hope is not just in the resurrection of our souls but our bodies too. Like Jesus’ in the resurrection our wounds will be transformed and renewed. That’s the hope of the Resurrection.

The Ascension reminds us as we wait for the new creation, that we have been tasked with a job of spreading this message in word and deed. We don’t know exactly what the new creation is, or what N.T. Wright calls life after life after death. We look through a glass dimly. But we have been told that our labour is not vain – that all good work that we do will be renewed in the new creation. We can teach, work in medicine, advocate for just policies, take care of our elders, fix machinery and use the gifts that we have been given, knowing that no one good thing will be lost in the eyes of God.

God has granted us another blessing in this period of the here, but not yet. We have been given the gift of the body of Christ.

At church we glimpse the new creation, in our liturgy, in the passing of the peace, and in the Eucharistic feast. We confess our shortcomings and recognize the goodness that God has created.

The hymn “Sister let me be your servant” calls us to hold Christ light for each other, when we are fearful, to help each other to bear the load, and to speak words of peace when we are struggling. With God’s help, we can continue to be a blessing to each other and to a weary and tired world. With God’s help, let’s work together to be a people that bless one another.

Let us pray.

O God, who knows our every desire and counts all the hairs of our heads, we thank you for the gift of your Son and the sending of your Holy Spirit. Mold us into Ascension people. Help us to be a blessing to others and to share the love that you have made known to us. Amen.

Kate Strathdee