Ascension Day
Our service for Ascension Day is at 7.30 pm at St Thomas' Church. If you're not able to join us in person there are some readings and a sermon below.
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles
While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This’, he said, ‘is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’ So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my wit¬nesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’ Acts 1:4–11
The Collect for Ascension Day
Let us pray that our risen and ascended Lord will lead us to eternal life.
Grant, we pray, almighty God,
that as we believe your only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ
to have ascended into the heavens,
so we in heart and mind may also ascend
and with him continually dwell;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Gospel reading
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke
Jesus said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’
Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 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. Luke 24:44–end
Sermon
In days of yore, it used to be the tradition that, on Ascension day, the Pascal candle (lit to memorialise Jesus’ glorious resurrection on the first Easter morning) would be snuffed out. It perhaps signalled one interpretation of the events of that day: that the Light of the World, Jesus, has returned to His Heavenly Father and He has left us.
The scene laid out for us at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles is of the disciples gazing skywards at their Master disappearing in a cloud. They thought, mistakenly, that they had lost Him after His death on the cross … but now He has really gone for good, and they know they will see Him no more.
The experience of those first disciples chimes with what we are going through today. At first they were in fear for their lives; hiding behind closed doors and afraid to step outside. When they saw the risen Christ ascending to heaven, they had to begin to adjust to life without His physical presence … a sort of ‘new normal’.
In John’s gospel, Jesus has already told them that his going away (and the arrival of the Holy Spirit) will be better for them ‘It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.’ (John 16:7)
The disciples had, so far, been living in the full light of Jesus’ presence, He was the light of their world. As Jesus left the physical world, the light was not extinguished, but they had to learn to live in, and with, the light in a different way. Just as they did, we also have to learn the same lesson. Without His physical presence in our lives, we have to stand on our own feet, with the mess and muddle and mistakes of the world around us and in our own hearts, but always in, and by, His light … a spiritual journey of discovery.
The direction of that journey is clear in Jesus’ last words to his disciples and to us. ‘You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8b). In other words, His risen presence is no longer to be confined to Jerusalem and to just a small number of people there. His presence is about to become available to all people and to all time … and we are the means by which His light can continue to reach the dark corners of society and the wider world.
Jesus is saying…you are now my eyes and ears and hands … it is for you to love the world as I have loved you … to share the good news of God’s saving grace by the example of the way you live your lives among others…you are now the bearers of the light (remember Matthew 5:16?)
At this troubled time when many of us are living restricted lives, we must still remember that we are charged to live life in all its fullness, and that even though doors may be closed, we can still open our hearts to the light of Christ. We can still be ‘out there’ in prayer for those who are suffering, and being generous in responding, as we are able, to those in need.
Jesus’ promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit reminds us that our true life is not a life of fear. We live in the light of Christ, so it is a life of fullness, a life of joy, a life of witness … of service … of faithfulness … and most importantly of all, a life of love. The flame of Easter still burns on!
Amen.
Bible readings from NRSV translation
Sermon by Revd Jane Hyde
Please also find below a recorded reflection for Ascension Day by Bishop Mark Ashcroft -
