Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 12 May 2024.
The Ascension of Jesus in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry circa 1410 (Source )
• First Reading: Acts 1: 1-11 (The Ascension of Jesus)
• Epistle: Ephesians 1: 15-23 (Paul’s prayer: Spirit of wisdom and revelation)
• Gospel: Luke 24: 44-53 (You are witnesses. I am going to send what My Father has promised)
I suppose that there are many things which excite and stimulate us. It could be a work of art or music, or the performance of a favourite athlete or team.
It could be the success of a preferred political candidate, or the expectation that a visionary scheme of improvement will be fulfilled.
There is that definite sense that the more our politicians like to engage themselves with more detailed aspects of our lives then the more we either welcome them – or resent them. Maybe both.
But then there was – and is the ascension of Jesus. He had completed His ministry on earth and was going back into heaven in order to facilitate and empower that of His disciples.
And they indeed had a worldwide mission, and despite two millennia it is still not complete.
In some eyes or regions it may even have gone backwards.
But Jesus was going to be present to all who believed in Him – only a prayer and a breath away. The nerve centre of a task entrusted to all believers and for the sake of the whole world.
And the task He had set them was very simple: preach the gospel, heal the sick, pronounce forgiveness of sins acknowledged in the sight of God and encourage and exhort all people to come to that place of humility where this might be done.
And this would not be without opposition. Apart from offending the prevailing cults and deities with the news that all had sinned and come short of the Kingdom of God, there would be the simple facts of politics.
Jesus had been executed under Roman rule and yet had overcome death and had risen again. Not exactly the stuff to keep the rulers of the world and the purveyors of social control leaping for joy.
Now there was a profound challenge for they had been stripped of the fear of death, and this was something to be enjoyed and even relished by the poorest and the least powerful in the land.
Now a new kind of equality could be proclaimed: All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God – and yet equally, Jesus had died for the sins of the whole world, with no exceptions and no preference for the wealthy and connected.
Death would be an equal leveller, and no amount of prowess in any field of endeavour or excellence would be an escape.
Not only that but sins might be acknowledged in the sight of God and forgiven, new life might be bestowed and more, the person of Jesus Christ would be made available to all who called upon Him through the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit.
What had been localized in the Roman province of Palestine during one lifetime was now global, overrunning the borders of all empires present and yet to come.
Now the message of the gospel would be more than a handful of disciples – or even a congregation of 120 as on the Day of Pentecost.
Now it would be there for all who wished to receive.
And the celebration would be more than that Jesus was risen, but that He was ascended and glorified, at the side of God, above and beyond whom there was none other.
And no system would be able to supplant Him: neither Roman law, nor that of China, nor the mercantile laws of the great trading nations, or the laws of explorers, the principles of philosophers or the pronouncements of scientists would be able to withstand Him.
A new kind of equality would become the common currency of humanity. All other forms of wealth and superiority would have to fall back: whether in knowledge or riches or sporting prowess.
There might be attempts to set aside the message of the gospel in favour of some more socially acceptable idiom.
Perhaps the gospel could be taken as read and other aims attached: not ill-chosen in themselves except when used to take priority over the gospel itself.
There are all sorts of justice to be pursued – even if the means chosen are more about revenge and the settling of scores.
There are all sorts of equalities to be proclaimed and in which equal honour and respect are demanded, yet even these are more about setting up different kinds of social hierarchies.
And humanity is rife in its selection of personal resentments, all demanding redress and restitution.
But none of this remotely sets aside the glory and wonder of Jesus Christ, risen and ascended.
None of it supplants the gospel message or the ministries of the Holy Spirit who lead us in proclaiming it as opportunities present themselves.
Rather, we are all given that personal assurance that Jesus is as close as our own breathing, and ahead of us in our thoughts. He came that might have life in its abundance and a joy that might be complete.
It is a peace that passes all understanding – but which only waits for us to seek it – and it is given, freely and joyfully and without limit.
