Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 16 May 2021.
The Ascension, from the 12th century Hunterian Psalter held at Glasgow University Library
• First Reading: Acts 1:1-11 (The appearances of Jesus. His final instructions. His ascension)
• Psalm 47
• Epistle: Ephesians 1: 15-23 (Paul’s prayer for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation)
• Gospel: Luke 24: 44-53 (Jesus’ final teaching – repentance for the forgiveness of sins to be preached. Led them out to Bethany, taken up into heaven)
I once worked in an office where the most senior professional was promoted to a higher position in the organization. From then on he would be part of the higher management and he would mix with the great and the good. The colleagues of his own office, however, were thereafter regarded with suspicion, and one who was both liked and respected became a figure of irritation and even contempt.
The atmosphere in the office became bitter and angry and never recovered. Nobody resented the promotion but all noticed the change in manner.
For Jesus however the situation was entirely different. Yes, He was leaving the disciples physically but He would be only a prayer’s breath away in the spirit. He would be as near as their own hands and feet, closer than their own breathing.
Far from ascending to a squabbling and riven Mount Olympus of the Greek and Roman deities, Jesus was ascending to the side of the One whose plan was always that He should take human flesh and live and die among His own people.
Jesus may be going home, but He was going home enriched by His own disciples, knowing each of them by name.
Instead of becoming part of a separate caste or class of being, remote and inaccessible, Jesus was taking with Him the new calling to which His disciples were summoned. Their task would be His and He would be there to empower and to enrich the mission that He had entrusted to them.
They were never going to be on their own for Jesus had said to them ‘As the Father has sent Me, so I send you.’ He would shortly endow them with His personal presence to be with them all over the world and down all the ages and centuries to follow.
Far from entering a glorified managerial penthouse suite and slamming the door behind Him, Jesus had entered the very presence of God to sit beside Him and to present the prayers of His people to God. It was as if Jesus had entered the portals of heaven and left the door wide open behind Him.
And so the disciples returned to Jerusalem rejoicing. This was not a separation so much as a new kind of engagement and commitment. Their crucified and risen Lord was with them wherever they went and meanwhile they were holding together in sheer joy and exuberance.
Their worship was celebration and their fellowship was the regathering of a family held together by ties even stronger than blood.
If God was with them then who could possibly be against them and prevail? Even death had been stripped of its power to terrify and intimidate. Even the emperor would face death and judgment while they had already died in faith and had been forgiven their sins.
Even the prospect of imprisonment and torture could not last forever, while the salvation of the Lord was eternal. The disciples were going to be unbeatable.
And so Paul was able to write to the church in Ephesus in the light of Jesus’ resurrection and ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
He also had an exuberance in the Holy Spirit, even when in prison. He still looked for the church in Ephesus and everywhere else to be filled with the power and glory of God. He looked for them to be renewed in their thinking and understanding with the wisdom and revelation of God.
They might have grown up with the conventional thinking of going along in order to get along, but now they would be able to think carefully and critically about the assumptions and priorities of the society in which they lived.
Now, whatever their material poverty and low social standing, they would still abide with the hope of unbelievable blessing.
But Paul says something even more remarkable when he points to the power and strength of God in raising Jesus from the dead and raising Him to heaven.
It was the same power and strength that could and would work within each of the followers of Jesus in blessing them with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. It would enlighten them to know the hope of heaven to which they were called and the riches of the inheritance awaiting them there.
It would take what was dull and routine in life, what was utterly predictable and commonplace and would give it a new colour and light. It would allow the greatest trials to be brought under the sovereignty of God, and either deliverance or endurance would be bestowed.
There would be no trial which could not be brought before the throne of God, and no anguish that could not be prayed over.
The mercies of God would surely be there, sometimes open and glorious and sometimes subtle and hidden, even mysterious.
The prayers of Jesus’ disciples in every land and age would be heard, loud and clear. Sometimes He would want to teach them to pray the prayers He had prayed Himself and to wait for them to be answered.
But for all this, the dull condemnation of life without the promise of sins forgiven and the hope of life to come would never be able to cripple them or to deny them the joy in believing.
