Sunday after Ascension

Ascension Tide is one of the shortest of Church’s liturgical seasons, lasting only ten days. Forty days after Easter, Christ has ascended to the Father. Ten days later, He sends the Holy Spirit into the Apostolic Church at Pentecost, or Whitsunday. In these few days, we are called to examine the significance and meaning of the Ascension for us.
         
By His Ascension, Jesus Christ has restored redeemed humanity to God the Father. Every part of our fallen human nature has been healed and glorified in Him and now sits at God’s right hand to draw us upward. Heaven is now our true home. From there, Christ intercedes for us and prays the Father that we might freely will to go where He has gone.
         
On Ascension Day, we glimpsed the sovereignty of Christ manifested gloriously in His return to the Father. He returns to Heaven as its Lord, having subdued the earth, reclaimed it for God, and redeemed those who believe in Him. His Ascension seals the fate of the universe. Christ, who humbled Himself to redeem mankind and creation, now asserts His rule from Heaven until His coming again, to judge both the quick and the dead.

The extent to which His followers can convert the nations depends upon His continued rule of their hearts and souls. Without the rule of Christ within us, His most holy Incarnation would be left without witness and success. As Paul Claudel writes,

Jesus Christ, the Man-God, highest expression of creation, rises from the depths of matter where the Word was born by uniting with woman’s obedience, toward that throne which was predestined for Him at the right hand of the Father. From this place He continues to exercise his magnetic power on all creatures; all feel deep within them that summons, that injunction, to ascend. (I Believe…159)
 
All creatures have always felt something of this magnetic power of Christ, the Logos, the Wisdom of God that perfects all things in an imperfect world. The apple tree grows and bears fruit following laws written upon it by God. Farm animals provide nourishment and reproduce, continuing the cycle of life. Even fallen man, at the very least, reproduces and lives on in his children. All creation follows the Lordship of Christ by laws inscribed in its nature.

Yet for man, there is more to be discovered in the magnetic power of Christ. For restless souls, seekers, and explorers, the magnetic power of Christ satisfies the deepest longing for union with God and eternal happiness. St. Peter says this morning that the end of all things is at hand. (1 St. Peter, iv. 7) Something more decisive and lasting has been accomplished and finished in the life of Christ. Man’s alienation from God has been overcome, sin has been conquered, death has taken on new meaning, and Satan has been put in his place. Repair, redemption, and salvation have now become real possibilities through God’s Grace. The human life of Christ is offered to all men as the way home to Heaven. For those who follow Christ, there is a summons and call to ascend with Christ in heart and mind, and with Him to continually dwell.

But, as St. Peter reminds us, Ascension for Christians means more than gazing up into the Heavens. It is a call to be born again inwardly and spiritually as the Ascended Christ reigns in our souls. St. Peter insists that we must be sober and watching unto prayer. (idem) If the magnetic power of the Ascended Christ is to be effectual in our lives, we must submit spiritually to His sovereignty. As Bishop Westcott writes, Christ is not only present with us as Ascended: He is active for us. (Sermons…) Beneath the surface of life in the body, we are called to embrace His action, which intends to make us into something beautiful and true.

So, we must set our hearts on things above and not things of the earth. (Col. iii. 2) With Paul Claudel, we must confess that the time has come for us to take our flight, body and soul, toward our Higher Cause. (I Believe, 160) In Christ, the higher cause and greater meaning of life is to be found. If we have our conversation with Him in Heaven, to love His appearing, we shall be dissolved into His love. (Jenks, 352) As we ask Him to begin to reign and rule as King Supreme from the thrones of our hearts, He will draw us up from the poor perishing enjoyments here below to the glorious and eternal gifts above.

Today, Christ promises us that from His Ascended Glory, He will send the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth. (St. John, xv. 26) The Spirit will testify to Christ’s salvific power, establish His magnetic power as the source of our redemption, and effect our transformation. But the Spirit will also protect us amidst the world’s hostility.  

They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. (St. John xvi. 2,3)
 
While we may suffer in the body, the Spirit will protect or souls.
        
The Ascended Christ pleads our cause at God’s right hand. To live in this eternal security, we must allow Christ’s character to rule and govern our souls. Bishop Westcott said long ago, heaven is first a temper and then a place. May Christ’s temper reign in us, enabling us to live above ourselves and walk in Heaven’s ways. For when the Holy Ghost comes to us, we pray that He finds our hearts and minds already conformed to the Ascended Christ and longing to share His Grace with others.

This week, as we prepare for Pentecost, where in your daily life is Christ calling you to set your hearts on things above and not on things of the earth (Col. iii. 2)? May we allow the Ascended Lord to draw us upward in heart and mind so that when the Holy Spirit descends, He finds us ready.
 
Amen.
©wjsmartin