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Sermon for the Ascension of our Lord – May 16, 2021
Ephesians 1:15-23, Luke 24:44-53
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Ascension of our Lord used to be a major festival in the church year. It was considered as important as Christmas or Easter, bringing in throngs of worshippers. In fact, in some ways it was considered the chief festival and the fulfillment of all the others! Here’s what St. Augustine, writing in the fourth century, had to say about the Ascension of our Lord:
“[The Ascension of our Lord] is that festival which confirms the grace of all the festivals together, without which the profitableness of every festival would have perished. For unless the Savior had ascended into heaven, his Nativity would have come to nothing…and his Passion would have borne no fruit for us, and his most holy Resurrection would have been useless.”
The Ascension of our Lord still appears on liturgical calendars on a Thursday every spring exactly forty days after Easter, but it usually passes by unnoticed – unless the pastor decides to push it to a Sunday. And even then, it doesn’t draw the joyful throngs of worshippers that Christmas or Easter typically do – not like it did in centuries past, not like it did in Augustine’s time, and or even as it still did in Luther’s time a thousand years later. If it weren’t for the brief reference we have to the Ascension of Jesus in the Nicene and Apostles creeds, Christians might not even realize that Jesus “ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
I’ve been thinking all week about how it could be that something that was once a major festival among Christians could fade so dramatically.
I’ve been wondering to myself how it could go from being a major celebration in the church year to being something barely noticed.
And then I remembered a book sitting on my nightstand, a book I’ve been working my way through for several months now. I specifically remembered the title: “The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self.” In this book, author Carl Trueman walks through modern intellectual history from Rousseau to Nietzsche to Freud and others to trace how there has been another ascension: the ascension of the self. Do you hear the ascension language in the title? “The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self.” Trueman argues that we have come to a point, in western civilization anyway, where we increasingly define our own reality, or at least we try. We are at a point where the highest authority, sometimes the only authority, is the authority of the self.
Maybe this is a stretch, but it is hard not to notice a correlation between the rise of this trajectory in intellection history with the decline of the church’s celebration of the Ascension. Part of what we celebrate on the Ascension of our Lord is Jesus ascending to take his place at the right hand of God. This is a position of power and authority. As St. Paul puts it in our epistle reading for today: “God…seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
Has the church decided it still likes the baby in the manger and the resurrected Lord, but it doesn’t want the ascended Lord being in charge? Have Christians bought into the worldviews swirling around us and decided we like the idea of being our own authorities rather than submitting to the authority of Christ and his Word? Does this at all account for the diminishment of this festival day?
One of the most popular programs and book series in recent years has been “Game of Thrones.” I read the first few books before I got tired of it. I haven’t watched the HBO series, which I understand is mildly pornographic, so don’t take this as an endorsement. The series tells the story of several disparate families and groups and individuals all jockeying and conniving and plotting to sit on the Iron Throne, the throne of Westeros. If you sit on the Iron Throne, you are in charge. You have the authority. People use manipulation and betrayal and back-stabbing – often literally! – to claw their way onto the throne. This leaves everyone involved in the struggle as soulless shells, exhausted by their efforts and constantly afraid of losing their power.
The truth is, we all want to sit on that throne. We all want to be in charge. We want to be our own authority. And in our attempts to sit on that throne we not only betray Christ and our fellow Christians, but we ultimately end up as soulless shells. We end up exhausted and afraid. This is why we need the Ascension of our Lord. This festival day reminds us that we don’t belong on that throne! It reminds us that that throne belongs to Jesus! It reminds us that Jesus was lifted up from the earth in order to take his place at the right hand of God, a position of authority far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, making him head over all things for the church, head over all things in our lives. The Ascension of our Lord knocks us off our high horses. It exposes the so-called “rise and triumph” of the modern self, which often has us seeing ourselves as our highest authority. It boots us off our self-made thrones as we are brought to repentance.
But the Ascension of our Lord is ultimately a day of celebration. It is a day of celebration because it tells us we can stop playing that game of thrones that leaves us so exhausted and afraid and depleted in our souls. The Ascension tells us that Jesus has fulfilled the mission that had him born in a manger and killed on a cross and raised from the dead. It tells us he has been taken up and seated on his throne at the right hand of God where he rules forever, using his authority to forgive our sins and to restore us to himself.
The gospel tells us that before he ascended, Jesus opened the disciples’ minds to understand the scriptures. He told the disciples that their job was to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins to all nations. He told them that they would be clothed with power from on high. He lifted his hands and he blessed them. And the disciples worshipped him. They returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God.
As we get off our thrones to kneel before his, our ascended Lord continues to open our minds to understand the scriptures. As we surrender our authority to live under his, he continues to clothe us with power from on high so that we can carry out our callings as his people. As we look up to him as the head of the church and the head of our lives, he continues to lift his hands in blessing upon us, moving our hearts to worship him with great joy.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church