2022-May-29: The Ascension of the Lord

 2022-May-29: The Ascension of the Lord

 

Some congregations celebrate Ascension of Our Lord on Thursday, as that comes 40 days after Easter. 


Acts 1:1-11

Luke addresses both his books to Theophilus  (a combination of the Greek noun theos, translated “God,” and the verb phileo, meaning “to love” or “cherish”) perhaps refering to a historical person and/or symbolically to readers who consider themselves as the friends/lovers of God.
The first book, the Gospel according to St Luke portrays the birth, life, death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The second book, Acts of the Apostles recounts the events after the ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Luke and Acts both describe the ascension (Luke 24:50-51, Acts 1:9) Today's reading talks about the Ascension into Heaven but before going Jesus tells his disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the seminal event of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, which will in turn empower them, transforming them into Christ’s “witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit will lead the faithful to God, no matter how relentlessly the world seeks to lead us astray.
Even Jesus conceded his ignorance regarding God’s timeline for re-establishing the new kingdom of Israel (1:6). Such authority belongs only to God the Father (1:7). We too should not shy away from claiming not to know everything; it helps to remember that God’s ways are not our ways, and God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).

Psalm 47

The five verses of Psalm 47 in a sense reads like a catechism. Who is God? God is king, powerful, and eternal. How strong is God? God is the creator and mightier than the power of the ocean. Are God’s laws certain? God’s laws stand firm. Can we trust our life with this God? Is this God eternal? Is this God holy? 
In Psalm 47, the Psalmist provides a miniature Torah — God is the creator, preserver, and lawgiver and the one we can place full trust, offer praise and worship, and obey his laws.

Hebrews 9:24-28; 10:19-23

The Epistle to the Hebrews is one of the books of the New Testament. While the text does not mention the name of its author it is traditionally attributed to St. Paul the Apostle. Critics are quick to point out that Hebrews bears the markings of neither Pauline authorship nor the correspondence style of his letters. 
There is little doubt that the occasion for such proclamation was to build the community based on the pascal sacrifice of the Lamb of God. The promise of Christ in this text is not to be found in ritualistic repetitive worship, but rather that God lifts the very conditions and systems of sin as a mercy to all peoples of the world. The cycle of sin and atonement ends in the risen Christ.
Just as the earthly tabernacle had to be cleansed with sacrifices, so too did the heavenly tabernacle have to be cleansed by the pascal sacrifice of Christ.

Luke 24:46-53

Luke has two accounts of the Ascension, one in the gospel, one in Acts. The one in the gospel is placed at the end of Jesus’ ministry (Luke 24:44-53) and its purpose seems to be the vindication of his ministry. The one in Acts is placed at the beginning of the apostles’ ministry (Acts 1:6-11) and the purpose seems to be the authorization of their work of proclamation.
Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure by instructing them to remain in Jerusalem for the Descent of the Holy Spirit. But waiting is rarely easy and it can be even more difficult to endure when you do not know when the end will be. The grace and strength received from the Holy Spirit is the true way of bringing God's Kingdom here on Earth.


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