The Very Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Betty came home from Sunday School all excited. Breathlessly, she told her little brother that God made the whole world with only one hand—his left hand. When mother heard Betty say this, she asked, “Betty, why did you say God made the world with his left hand?”
“He had to,” Betty answered, “because the Bible tells us that Jesus sat on the right hand of his Father.”
That’s what this day is all about—Jesus ascending into heaven where he is seated at the right hand of the Father. Every Sunday and every major holy day we say these words: “We believe that Jesus….ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
As with every article of the creed, when we say that, we have said a mouthful! Previous to affirming the ascension we have said that we believe that Almighty God created all things, visible and invisible, through his Son, who himself is also God and eternally existent. This God the Son took the flesh of the Virgin Mary his mother and became fully human as well as retaining his full divinity.
This Jesus, fully God, fully man, suffered, died, and rose from the dead. We have already said all of these things before we get to the part about Jesus ascending into heaven. Every now and then I hear Christians say that while they believe that Jesus is the Son of God, they can’t quite buy into every article of the creed. Or perhaps they might put it into the form of a question: “Do you believe every article of the creed?”
My response is, “Which part of the creed is really more fantastic than any other part? Is it really more difficult to believe in the virgin birth than it is in the resurrection? Is it really more difficult to believe in the ascension than it is to believe that an all-powerful, all-knowing, personal God created everything that is out of nothing? Every article of the creed takes a leap of faith, because every article goes beyond anything that science or reason can tell us. The creed is not contradicted by science or reason, it simply is beyond these human ways of knowing.
Some of you may remember the Jesus Seminar, which was a group of 150 New Testament scholars that ceased to exist after its founder’s death in 2006. They made the news from time to time because of their publishing other disbelief in the Jesus portrayed in the New Testament. One of the more nonsensical things they said appeared in a book by two of their members entitled, The Five Gospels. In it, they say, “The Christ of Creed and dogma can no longer command the assent of those who have seen the heavens through Galileo’s telescope.” That statement calls to mind the Russian Cosmonaut who decades ago embarrassed the Communist leadership by saying that he didn’t see God when his spaceship ascended into the heavens.” Even those who didn’t believe in God knew that the claims of Christian faith cannot be proved or disproved through human knowing. No article of the creed is more fantastic than another. All require a leap of faith.
So that brings us around to the specific purpose of this day—the celebration of the ascension, which is full of meaning for all of humanity. The first meaning is nowhere better proclaimed than in the hymn “Alleluia, Sing to Jesus, his the scepter, his the throne.” Jesus is exalted. Jesus is King of all the earth. He is the ruler, we are his subjects. Every aspect of our lives falls under his authority. What we do with our time, how we conduct our businesses, how we treat our families and friends, how we spend our money—every aspect of life falls under his dominion.
St. Paul said to the Philippians, “Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Second, Jesus has taken our flesh with him into the Godhead. Our humanity, glorified in Jesus, is now a part of the eternal life of God. Through Christ, we know that we, too, have a place in heaven. “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God…Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace.” (Hebrews 4:14, 16). Once again, the uniqueness of Christianity is at the center of the Feast of the Ascension. The Incarnation, God who has taken flesh, is in the forefront as Jesus’ manhood is taken into the Godhead. In the words of the Roman Catechism, “Christ’s ascension marks the definitive entrance of Jesus’ humanity into God’s heavenly domain, whence he will come again.”
Christianity can never be a religion simply about principles, morals, or a way of life. It is fundamentally about a person: Jesus Christ. Obviously, with this kind of particularity, a Christian can never properly say, “All religions teach the same thing,” for Christianity is not about a teaching, but about a person, a person who is King, exalted at the right hand of the Father.”
Finally, what I find most comforting as I contemplate the ascension is that the one who reigns in glory and who will come again to be our judge is one who experienced human life as a human being. He is the One who knows temptation, he is One who suffered, and One who died—and all that I might be reconciled to God. And so this feast once again brings us to the central point of the Gospel: that Christ died for our sins, reconciling us to God, “that where he is, there we might also be, and reign with him in glory.”
Sermon preached by the Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
The Church of the Redeemer
Ascension Day
25 May 2017