The Rising Son, Sermon on Ascension Day 13 May 2021

When I woke up at 7am this morning I had not written one word of this sermon. The subject set before me seemed to be too high, out of reach, too remote, too final, too everything… and I thought to myself when, two weeks ago, Fr James asked me to give a sermon on the Ascension he had bowled me what, in cricket-speak, is called a googly! Not that I knew what a googly was, or even how to spell it! But I looked it up on cricketershub.com and, by 7.30am, I was reading How To Bowl the Perfect Googly, Different Types of Spin Bowling including: Right Arm Leg Break, Right Arm Off Break, Left Arm Chinaman, Left Arm Orthodox… yes, I know, it is called displacement activity – and there was still no sermon. However, at least the word ‘Orthodox’ reminded me of the beautiful 16th-century Russian icon we had used on the cover of our Order of Service – and this brought me back to what I was meant to be doing.

So what exactly are we celebrating today, on this Feast of the Ascension. What we see in this icon represents the last scene in the final chapter of the extraordinary life of Jesus on earth. What is happening here had been foretold by the prophets and it is something we repeat every time we recite the Creed – be it the Nicene, the Apostles’ or even the Athanasian.

[Nicene: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.
Apostles: He ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
Athanasian: He ascended into heaven, He sits on the right hand of the Father, God, Almighty; From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.]

What a journey! Born in a stable, he astounded the elders in the Temple with his wisdom as a young lad, emerged as the most extraordinary teacher and a worker of miracles, attracted a band of loyal followers and also the unwelcome attention of the authorities, was arrested, put on trial, sentenced to death and crucified – all by the age of 30 or so. One or two ‘men in white’ (more about these later) are seen at his tomb, after which the resurrected Christ appears to his disciples on more than one occasion. After 40 days, He leads them out of Jerusalem to nearby Bethany, the Mount of Olives, and this is the last time on earth they will see him.

Christ is risen; now He ascends.

So, what do we see in the icon that is shown here on your Order of Service. Certainly, it depicts Christ’s Ascension into heaven but not strictly according to what is written at the end of Luke’s gospel and the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles. It is set in a rocky landscape and some have thought that those are four olive trees sprouting along the horizon, which marks the border between the divine and the earthly realms. There are those two ‘men in white’ again, this time pointing heavenward. The disciples to the right of Mary react with shock to this extra-terrestrial event, one even seems to be cowering in fear – and who can blame him? And there is Peter reaching towards the ascending Christ as if he can’t bear to let go. On her left, though, they seem much calmer and do not look up but, instead, are focussed on Mary, herself, as if looking for guidance, asking for an explanation as to what is happening.

And what of Mary herself? She looks directly at us, gesturing with her right hand to show us the very human reaction of the disciples, on her right, to this miraculous event, and, with her left hand, she seems to say stop, She asks us to take time to witness what is going on here and to consider what it might mean. She seems to say: meditate on this in your heart. With good reason, as this is the most astounding event ever to have happened in human history. She seems to says: ‘My son, Jesus Christ, who is fully human, is ascending into the divine realm. He has been through death and hell. He has been resurrected. Now he is taking his place at the right hand of God Himself. This has never happened before and it will never happen again.’

Mary wants us to take in the whole picture of the Ascension – not just to be overwhelmed, fearful and confused – as I was at 7am this morning – but to see our human reactions, to stay focussed on what she is telling us, and also to look up and see above the horizon those eternal truths that cannot be spoken.

Shining with light Christ is borne aloft, supported by two winged heavenly beings, and has entered the highest realms (symbolised by three concentric circles). As he rises, he blesses his mother, his disciples and, I dare to think, us all.

We don’t see it depicted here but Luke tells us that ‘a cloud received him out of their sight’. Throughout the Bible, the cloud symbolises the presence or nearness of God. So, could this be the Cloud of Unknowing that shields us from the blinding Light Divine, which is beyond the limits of the human mind and that cannot be approached by reason alone?
In today’s Collect we pray that ‘we in heart and mind may ascend’. There is the clue.

And this could be the end of the story but, in fact, it is just the beginning. The men in white ask the apostles why they are standing around looking at the sky. This prompts them to return to Jerusalem and to wait for the descent of the Holy Spirit which we will celebrate at Pentecost next Sunday.

Finally listen to what a real theologian has to say about the Ascension. This is part of a sermon by Rowan Williams:

‘The ascension of Jesus… becomes a celebration of the extraordinary fact that our humanity in all its variety, in all its vulnerability, has been taken by Jesus into the heart of the divine life... [The] Ascension is a celebration of the glory of humanity, the unlikely possibilities of people like you and me, the eternal potential locked up in our muddled struggling lives. And a celebration, too, of God’s capacity, through his Holy Spirit, to reach into those parts of humanity that are so far from glorious, that are rebellious and troubled and broken, to breathe through them, to take them home, to drop them into that fire and melt them and recast them. The promise of the Father is that we as Christians will receive that level and dimension of divine life that we call ‘Holy Spirit’, so that, like Jesus, we will find that nothing human is alien to us. And the promise of the Father is that by the love of Christ spreading through us and in us, the world may be brought home to Christ, who brings it home to his Father’.
Amen.

Lindsay Fulcher