Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 21 May 2023.
The Ascension of Jesus in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry circa 1410 (Source )
• First Reading: Acts 1: 1-11 ()
• Epistle: Ephesians 1: 15-23 ()
• Gospel: Luke 24: 44-53 ()
They had followed Him from the shores of the Sea of Galilee, the receipt of custom, from under fig trees, from their own political agendas and he had led them through the land, from Galilee to Judea, from the coasts to Jerusalem, from the lands of the nations to the centre of Judaism.
He had led them from their own sense of religious piety and practice into His own radical and utterly penetrating vision of the law and the prophets. He had shown them what it is to teach and to heal, to discern and to debate.
And then, at the climax of His ministry He had allowed Himself to be killed by the enemies whom He could so easily have evaded. He could have talked Himself out of trouble any day of the week, but instead had remained silent in the face of taunts and threats.
Even the Roman Governor who had wanted to release Him was allowed by Jesus to be blackmailed into having Him crucified.
And after all that, He had come back to life, in rude health and with a further set of instructions and a new volume of teaching to be absorbed. There were souls to be restored, but more important, there was a new mission to commission and to frame.
The last three years really had been a rollercoaster. From the adulation of crowds to the baying hysteria of the mob. From feeding 5000 and the Sermon on the Mount to the mystery of the Transfiguration and taking control of the winds the waves.
And now this was the final chapter. Well, sort of. Maybe. Perhaps the final chapter of this volume but there would be many more volumes to come: one for each generation and regime. The story was not complete.
Even the angels who accompanied Jesus’ ascension into heaven were saying that He was indeed coming back, and would do so in the same manner as he had gone up. Same place, same spectacle. Only seen worldwide, on TV.
What they had lost in the immediate personal presence of Jesus they would more than make up for in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
All they had to do was to wait for Him and He would surely come. Just don’t leave town before He does and there will be no mistake when it happens.
Instead of sadness they were rejoicing. They were exultant and this expectancy was drawing them together. They wanted each other’s company, and they were not just huddling together against the threat. No, they were gathering strength as they met and studied and prayed. They were getting ready for whatever was to come, for come it would.
It is easy so say that Oh well, that was fine for New Testament times but these days we are different. Superior. We have our technology and our global economy and worldwide institutions. Our education systems are more sophisticated and our culture is far more enlightened.
We are less prejudiced or given to tales of miracles, resurrection or instructions by others on the holy and righteous life.
But then there is something that we share with the disciples of the Ascension. The Jesus who ascended did indeed bestow the Holy Spirit on the disciples. They were fully witnesses to Jesus both in His ministry and in the subsequent courses of their lives.
But there is more for the disciples wrote down what they had seen and heard – at least, part of it. Enough to sustain later believers for the next 2000 years.
And those believers who had also come to know Jesus had meditated on the scriptures and on the generations of faith in whose shadow they were living.
Each generation would have its story to tell – but it would still be the story on the one Jesus Christ and of none other.
Each generation would find its own way to proclaim the things of the gospel of Jesus Christ, received from the scriptures but meditated on by their prayers and their coming together to study and to worship.
Each generation would find that hunger for the things of God and for the grace to proclaim it in their own lives.
And today we are making a public statement of that faith, not just as we meet for worship but as we take that worship into our personal lives.
And so Craig has come forward asking for an opportunity to make a public statement of his faith in Jesus Christ. For while our baptism may have been when we were babies and we were not able to claim a personal ownership of our faith, we now have the opportunity to make it both personal and public.
In this sense he is taking up the challenge that Jesus gave to His disciples: ‘You are My witnesses.’ Not you may be, or will be but you ARE My witnesses. Having been with Jesus the disciples were already qualified.
But as we come to our personal faith, and make our personal commitment so we also take up that same task of proclaiming Jesus as Lord.
Of one thing we may be sure: He who has called us and commissioned us will also equip and supply us in the fulness of His Holy Spirit. All we need do is say with Isaiah: Here am I. Send me. And He will do the rest.
