Scriptures: Acts 1:6-14; Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36; 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11; John 17:1-11
Reflection by The Rev. Kathryn Snelling
Today is the seventh and final Sunday of Easter.
It is also known as Ascension Sunday.
The feast of the Ascension comes 40 days after Easter - after the resurrection.
And as Kit pointed out last week, it will always fall on a Thursday
But for those who do not have a service to attend on Thursday, we transfer the Feast day of the Ascension to the following Sunday
The Ascension is far too important an event to go unobserved, being one of the seven Principle Feasts of the church.
And I see the Ascension as particularly closely connected to two of the other principal feasts:
Christmas Day, when we celebrate God becoming human in the baby Jesus
and Easter when Jesus defeated sin and death through the resurrection of his human body
Christmas, Easter and the Ascension form a complete circle—the completion of the work he was given to do.
As we heard in John’s gospel - as Jesus prayed during those final hours with his disciples - even before he went to the cross he prayed; “I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. Now Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory I had in your presence before the world existed.”
Then after the resurrection we have been reading the accounts of Jesus appearing to the disciples on various occasions - assuring them that he was truly alive; showing them his wounds, eating with them and opening their minds to understand the scriptures that were written about him.
Now it was probably unlikely that the disciples were counting the days Jesus was with them.
But if they had they may have gotten an inkling that something momentous was about to happen.
Forty is a number that pops up throughout scriptures when something significant is happening: Noah was in the ark 40 days- the Israelites wandered in the desert 40 years- Jesus was in the wilderness 40 days and nights and so on.
But instead it appears that some thought that maybe now Jesus was going to oust the Romans and restore the kingdom of Israel.
Not yet quite understanding that he had established HIS Kingdom, the Kingdom of God
A lot of focus is given to the disciples on the ground, staring up as Jesus ascends - their Rabbi and friend, leaving them again.
But there is another view - the one from heaven where all the angels and heavenly hosts are looking down, watching Jesus returning home as triumphant King.
Whereas the disciples watched with awe and probably a mixture of sadness and bewilderment—I imagine heaven watched with pure joy.
Before Jesus ascended, he again assured them that they were not being left alone -
but that they will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon them — and says to them, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth.”
And of course they do and we will talk more about next week.
But today we understand that this is the same work we have been given to do:
We who have received Jesus into our hearts and know his transformative love - are
now to be witnesses and bearers of that love in our world.
To proclaim Jesus’s work of redemption and reconciliation - his showing and paving the way to a right relationship with God.
To spread the Good News, In our “Jerusalem”, our local neighborhoods, “Samaria” our connections in the wider community and “to the ends of the earth”, beyond our imaginations.
It is the Church, the people who are Jesus’s body on earth.
I finish with these words from Saint Teresa of Avila , a 16th century nun and priory of her convent.
Christ has no body but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on the world
yours are the feet with which he walks to do good
yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world
yours are the hands
yours are the feet
yours are the eyes
you are his body
Christ has no body on earth now but yours
Amen