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Readings for Ascension of the Lord
Ascension of the Lord
Acts 1:1-11; Ephesians 1:17-23; Matthew 28:16-20.
My Witnesses in Jerusalem
The feast of the Ascension of the Lord, which is of course the feast of our parish, is especially jubilant. In the Church calendar, it comes forty days after Easter, signifying Christ's translation into Heaven, where he takes his place in his glorified body at the right hand of God. Luke, who is the author of the Acts of the Apostles, describes the scene of Christ's elevation in vivid language: Jesus is speaking to the assembled disciples when suddenly he is swept up into the sky: "When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight."
The Ascension is witnessed as a celestial event but its meaning is entrusted to the apostles - and therefore to us - as a something belonging to this world. There are things we need to do. Right before he departs, Christ says, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." As the apostles gaze at the vanishing Christ, two mysterious men, clothed in transfigured white, urge them to take action: "Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?"
My witnesses in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the place at the heart of Christ's ministry, the seat of religious power, the center of faith in the world he knew. Historian of religions Mircea Eliade referred to such a place as an axis mundi, a spindle around which the world turns. What this means, both practically and in actuality, is that from the beginning of the Church Jerusalem was a great city in Judea but that it is also a place forged in the imagination of its followers.
Paul, writing to the Ephesians, gives us a glimpse of this city of the imagination, this city of faith, when he suggests the Ephesians envision Christ seated in the heavens, "far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come." Traditionally, Christians have interpreted these principalities, powers, and dominions as ranks of angels surrounding God in heaven. Paul wants the Ephesians to "know what is the hope that belongs to [God's] call." This hope he visualizes in terms of Christ's glorious presence in eternity, the very thing his Ascension activates.
This week's gospel reading consists of the closing verses of Matthew's gospel with their imperative to preach the good news of Christ, who tells the eleven disciples assembled that because he has been endowed with all the power in heaven and on earth, they should go forth and make disciples of all nations, assuring them that he is with them in the present and until the end of the age. From this injunction, two thousand years of Christian history unfurls. The Ascension is what makes it possible.
William Blake is one of my favorite poets; one of my holy authors. He commences his great prophetic poem "Milton" with one of his best-known verses, a hymn about the need to build a new Jerusalem in the England of the Industrial Revolution he lived through. Blake's hymn concludes with these two stanzas:
Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!
I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In Englands green & pleasant Land.
To this, Blake adds a quotation from Numbers 9:29: "Would to God that all the Lords people were Prophets."
The Ascension of the Lord makes the New Jerusalem possible. Why are you standing there looking to the sky? All the power in heaven and on earth has been given to us. Let's get building.
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Peter O'Leary is a lector and a member of Ascension's School Board. He teaches courses in religion and poetry at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and at the University of Chicago.
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