On the Edge of the New World: A Sermon on the Feast of the Ascension

Acts 1:1-11
Psalm 47
Ephesians 1:15-23
Luke 24:44-53

St. Thomas's Anglican Church
Toronto, ON

“And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.”

+In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

It is tradition to extinguish the Paschal Candle
following the Gospel on the Feast of the Ascension

The Feast of the Ascension is one of the great Feasts of our Lord and one of the great mysteries of the Incarnation. Jesus is taken up into heaven and is removed from our sight, and yet through his ascension we are drawn closer than ever to him because his presence is now known to all the world. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is now enthroned in splendour on the right hand of God the Father. He returns from whence he came, and he is fully received into heaven as the Incarnate Word of God. His humanity is not subsumed by his divinity, nor is his divinity diminished by his humanity. His ascension changes everything, and yet so much remains the same. What does this all mean for us in 2020, and how can we begin to grasp this mystery in our lives?

Syriac icon of the Ascension

The sixth-century Syrian bishop Jacob of Serugh writes regarding the Ascension “in the Son of God, heaven and earth had joined each other; and in Him were pacified, both the human race and the angels.” In the Ascension, the timeless and unchanging heaven is united with the ephemeral and transient Earth, and the two are united now by Christ. When Christ returns to heaven, he returns with that human body that was formed in the Incarnation. That body is like our bodies. It carries with it the marks of time, every line from laughter and the joys of life, the aches and pains of middle age, and of course the scars and trauma of his crucifixion and resurrection.

Christ’s pains are revealed and glorified in heaven, and just as those pains were lifted into heaven, so too are our pains lifted up into heaven with him. There is no theosis, no union or restoration of our original divinely beheld image without the ascension. Christ shares in our humanity so we can share in his divinity, as Athanasius of Alexandria from the fourth century writes. Jesus’s wounds are known to God and remain present with him, and by those wounds our relationship with God is restored. There is no journey gone so far that we cannot stop and change direction, and Christ’s ministry including his ascension reveals this to us. We cannot go back to the beginning, but we can begin anew, looking back on what has brought us to this point, and looking ahead at what is to come.

And yet, now we remain, here on earth in a world that has indeed changed and yet remains all too familiar.

Image from CTV News

Slowly, our city and world is beginning to open up. Though the lockdown was severe and sudden, the release is slow and cautious with the possibility that further lockdowns may be in the future until a vaccine or other viable treatments for COVID-19 are found. Even as some aspects of life slowly return to normal, there is the recognition that we are exiting our homes into a new world. And we come into this world with the anticipation and fear of the unknown, and the knowledge that not all of us can safely exit our homes until a later date. We may feel like we are at the edge, staring into the unknown. When Jesus departed from the apostles, they gazed at the heavens in anticipation and wonder as they too stood at the edge of a new world. Jesus departs from their sight, but he does not abandon them, nor does he abandon us. He offers us the promise of peace and his blessing. Turning again to Jacob of Serugh, he writes that:

“Jesus had given peace so that they themselves might give it to the whole earth, and he would fill them with his peace, instead of himself. He encouraged them and promised them, ‘I am with you’ so that when he would be raised up from among them it would not sadden them. He is with them and behold, the name of the Father is with them and he will send the Spirit so as not to leave them behind as orphans. His peace is with them and the name of the Father was made the guard, and the advocate carried the riches for the discipleship.

As we stand on the edge of our new world, do not be afraid. Even though we are still in many ways isolated, we are not alone. Even though Christ has gone up into heaven, those burdens that we carry in our lives, the sorrows and the traumas of our present time, the sorrows and traumas of our present experience, are known to God and held dearly and lovingly by God. He will not abandon us. The Holy Spirit brings us ever closer into intimacy with Christ because the Spirit fills us with God’s blessing, peace, and love for us. Even in his departure, even in his seeming absence, do not be afraid, for Jesus tells us to “remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Amen.