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Every Sunday and holy day we say in the Nicene creed, “He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” The Apostles’ Creed, which those of us who say Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer say twice every day, has the exact same phrase: “He ascended into heaven it is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
And when we say it, we just say it as if, “Oh, nothing very extraordinary here! He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” Who is the Father? Oh, the One who created the universe, the One who spoke the word and things came to be, the One who has no beginning and no end, whose wisdom and knowledge is light-years beyond our limited understanding. That Father. “He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
That’s where he is. And what is he doing there? Saint Paul says that “There he is 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 that which is 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.“
He is the Lord, the Master of the universe. There is nothing that does not fall under his authority. Everyone is answerable to him, and that means not just human beings but even heavenly beings. All powers and authorities are under his rule”
Sometimes we hear well-intentioned Christians say the most unchristian and heretical things. I wish I could say that they are Christians who don’t know or use the creeds, but often they are. They will say something like this: “All religions teach the same thing.” I’m not very familiar with Buddhism, but I think I would know if it taught the Lordship of Christ. And I’m not a scholar of Islam, although I’ve read the Koran, but I believe that I would be aware of a Christocentric focus, if that happened to be the focus of Islam. I am familiar with the Hebrew scriptures, but Jews and Christians don’t read them in the same way, for Christians see in the them prophecies of Christ throughout, and Jews consider that heresy. Christians who say that all religions teach the same thing want to affirm that God loves all people. That is a noble desire and certainly true, but we must not affirm that tenet of our faith by sacrificing the most important aspect of our faith, and that is that Jesus, as God’s only-begotten Son, is the fullest revelation of Almighty God and the one through whom we are saved.
This phrase of the creeds, which rolls so easily off our tongues, comes from the scriptural teaching that Christ is Lord of all, that he sits at the right hand of the Father, where he has authority over all persons as well as all other parts of God’s creation. All people are under his authority: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, atheists, pantheists, and Sunday golfers. That’s part of what we’re saying when we say, “He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
But what is much more to the point is that when we acknowledge that Christ sits at the right hand of the Father, we are acknowledging that he is the Lord of our life. He has authority over how I treat my fellow workers, my employees, my parents, my children, my friends. He has authority over how I spend my money, how I choose to speak, and what goals I choose for my life. All of that is implied when those words roll off our tongues so easily and sometimes even without a thought: “He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
But there’s even more meaning in that phrase, for when we proclaim that Jesus ascended into heaven, we are saying that Jesus took his human flesh back with him into heaven. Our humanity is now with Christ in heaven. St. Leo the Great says this of the ascension: “On this day not only have we been confirmed in our possession of paradise, but we have even entered heaven in the person of Christ; through his ineffable grace we have regained far more than we had lost through the Devil’s hatred. “ Saint Augustine said it this way: “For just as he remained with us even after his ascension, so we too are already in heaven with him… Out of compassion for us he descended from heaven, and although he ascended alone, we also ascend, because we are in him by grace… For the body as a unity cannot be separated from the head.”
This reality encourages us in our pilgrimage, for as St. Paul says, “If you have risen with Christ, set your hearts on the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; seek the things that are above, not the things that are on earth.”
A medieval hymn sums up beautifully everything I’ve said:
O Lord, Most High, eternal King, by thee redeemed thy praise we sing.
The bonds of death are burst by thee, and grace has won the victory.
Ascending to the Father’s throne thou claim’st the kingdom as thine own;
And angels wonder when they see how changed is our humanity.
Be thou our joy, O mighty Lord, as thou wilt be our great reward;
Let all our glory be in thee both now and through eternity.
O risen Christ, ascended Lord, all praise to thee let earth accord,
Who art while endless ages run, with Father and with Spirit, One. Alleluia!
“He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
Sermon preached by the Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
Ascension Day
10 May 2018