May 29, 2022

Ascension

Acts 1:1-11
Luke 24:44-53

Last night, I was speaking to my friend about this sermon and about the ascension, and she told me that it made her think of fireworks. A crowd gathers to watch as Christ ascends until he is hidden from view, and they all remain staring at the sky, waiting for that spectacular moment where sound and light pierce the darkness.

To risk spoilers for next week’s readings and for advent, this moment for which the crowd waits in our analogy is twofold in the narrative. At Pentecost, the Spirit descends as fire and fundamentally shifts the way in which humans encounter God. On the last day, Jesus will appear again, coming on the clouds with loud noise and bright light.

We stand between these two moments in the story, looking up and waiting for that explosion which happens both now and not yet.

As a Widnes girl though, having spent a lot of bonfire nights under the Jubilee bridge, this isn’t quite my experience of fireworks. Since leaving home, nobody’s firework displays seem to compare to the sight of a significant chunk of Halton Borough Council’s budget going up in smoke on the wall between the ship canal and the Mersey.

Having been spoilt in this way, my favourite pastime at fireworks displays, and one I commend to you all, is to look at the faces of the crowd. There is something about those illuminated faces that reminds me of Moses: the awestruck illuminated by the one they behold; the pure, relaxed, unselfconscious beauty of one who gazes on something higher than themself.

As a good Anglican, I take great delight in saying that we must do both of these things and live as those who enjoy firework displays in two ways.

As those waiting for Christ to return just as he went, our eyes must be fixed on the heaven into which he went, and as those living after Pentecost, we must turn after the advice of the men in white, to look upon each other.

The ascension means that there is a real, flesh and blood, human body currently in heaven, and Pentecost means that there is God in our bodies. Thus, we must look up and behold God, in our prayers and in our gathering and in this sacrament. Also, we must look at each other as we are illuminated, in our gathering and in our mission.

The ascended Christ and the descended Spirit together bring close the perfect unity of God and creation that is ruptured in our falling and sin. This is the repentance and forgiveness which Christ sends us out as witnesses of. Not simply to report what Luke has witnessed and passed on to us, or even what we have witnessed ourselves, but to witness again in the world and in the faces of those we meet that repentance and forgiveness, that glorious work of restoration as heaven and earth reunite.

So this evening as we gather in the presence of God, as we commune with God and each other, let us keep our eyes both on the heavenly presence of the ascended one, and on the signs of God’s presence in our friends, neighbours, and enemies. As we go out, let us seek reconciliation, and seek out those signs of repentance and forgiveness in the world, and those places where our witness might bring it forth.

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