The Third Millennium Message, Christ Church Episcopal, Beatrice, NE
Ascension Day, 2025
Jesus’ departure to heaven (‘Ascension’) occurred 40 days after His Resurrection and 10 days before Pentecost; the latter of which marked the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the 120 Christians assembled in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost. Eastertide, between Easter and Pentecost, also is called the ‘Great 50 Days of Easter.’
The following is my new Ascension Day sermon, which you won’t hear preached since we normally don’t have a church service on Ascension Day. (This always falls on a Thursday; in 2025, it’s on May 29.) That being the case I would like to share this sermon here. The lectionary readings for the Ascension are:
Acts 1:1-11, Psalm 93, Ephesians 1:15-23, Luke 24:44-53 (Year C)
Imagine witnessing Jesus ascending to heaven. What else, if anything, was it like? How to describe it? Was it similar/comparable to other extraordinary events, such as Christ’s Transfiguration, His Resurrection, Second Coming; or the exceedingly rare Translation of mortal humans such as Enoch and Elijah to heaven? The Ascension was none of these. It stands unique:
1) It was not a Transfiguration since that was a temporary unveiling of Jesus that revealed to Peter, James and John, His natural and eternal glory: a momentary glimpse here for one moment and gone the next.
2) Not a Resurrection since Jesus already had been raised from the dead: evidence that He was restored to life in a perfect yet bodily state, retaining the Incarnation of His two Natures – Human and Divine.
3) Not His future Return, Second Coming, ‘Second Advent’ as ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’: reappearing to resurrect and judge all who ever lived, and then engage in the creation of the new heavens/earth.
4) Nor was this the Translation of a mortal person to heaven in the way that Enoch and Elijah were taken there without experiencing death first: Jesus already had died and was now resurrected and immortal.
5) Ascension was something new (as Christ’s Resurrection was new): no one ever had gone to heaven before in a resurrected and glorified body.
We might think that any words of explanation, much less the concepts behind them, did not exist in a scientifically unsophisticated and religiously superstitious age. But living 2,000 years later, have we somehow become sufficiently scientifically, technically or spiritually advanced to grasp, much less understand, that same phenomenon? Not at all. Might we reach such a state, 2,000 years or more from now? I doubt it. Some things are simply mysteries and will remain as such – beyond our ability to explain.
Unlike the Resurrected Christ Who appeared on different occasions and was witnessed by hundreds of people in total (1Corinthians 15:3-8), only the eleven apostles (except the recently deceased Judas Iscariot), were present at Jesus’ Ascension. (Acts1:9-11)
Like those other divine events the Ascension was sudden, unannounced, unexpected, but not unplanned. One moment Jesus was among them; then He was not. Yet it was not as if He immediately disappeared – poof! No, when this happened, He gradually was removed from their sight. It was quick but not instant.
‘As they were watching, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight.’ (Acts1:9)
‘Clouds’ are referred to many times in the Bible, sharing common qualities in different circumstances:
1) they are remote and inaccessible from the ground, while still easily visible from that perspective.
2) are ever-changing and dynamic, usually present in one form or another.
3) display varied appearances and can indicate vastly different weather/meteorological conditions.
4) appear ephemeral, while having a common permanent substance to them. (water vapor)
5) are beautiful, although entirely beyond human control.
6) clouds and the energy within them also were used as images of the divine presence and power.
A visual expression/representation of the divine is called a ‘theophany’ (Greek: theo – ‘God’, phaino – ‘to appear’), a direct manifestation of God’s power and/or presence that was not actually God Himself.
There are many examples of theophanies in the Bible:
1) Three Visitors to Abraham, whose identity is uncertain. Were they angels? The pre-incarnate Jesus accompanied by two angels? A unique Appearance of the Three Persons of the Trinity? (seems unlikely to me)
2) a ‘cloudy pillar’ by day and ‘pillar of fire’ by night (two aspects of the same thing) that guarded and guided the Israelites, protected them from the pursuing Egyptian army during the Exodus. (Ex.13:17-22;14:19-20)
3) the burning bush through which God was revealed to Moses. (Exodus3:2-6)
4) ‘angel of the Lord’: appearances of the divine that were displayed 40+ times throughout the Bible.
5) the phenomena that were caused by the Presence of God to Elijah: expressed through the mighty forces of nature (earthquake, gale, fire) and culminated in the ‘still, small voice’ or ‘quiet whisper’/‘silence’ of the Spirit of God to the Prophet’s heart. (1Kings19:11-14)
6) a mighty angel spoke as if he was God when he appeared to John the Revelator; refused to accept the overwhelmed John’s worship of him (twice!), saying that he (the angel) was a fellow-servant of God, like John. So worship God alone! (Revelation19:10;22:8-9) This is sometimes called the ‘divine investiture of authority’: speaking as if one was God yet not actually being God, while being God’s divinely-commissioned messenger.
When Jesus ascended to heaven, did he simply rise up, disappear into the cloud, hidden by its opacity, then the cloud just zipped away? Or was this strictly imagery, a vivid metaphor to describe the inexplicable? (like the 4 living creatures and wheels with eyes, as recounted by Ezekiel, Ezek.1) Perhaps it was a little of both. Where did Jesus go? Heaven. Where is it? Not here. Is it a place/spatially located, another dimension? Maybe. Is it an immaterial state of being? Possibly. Could it be so in both senses? It might be.
Heaven is ‘above’: beyond our earthly atmosphere, utterly removed from this world, our solar system, galaxy, even the universe – apart and separate from creation. Heaven exceeds our comprehension, thus imagery is employed to describe it. ‘Wherever’ and whatever heaven may be, it is clear that Christ was entirely removed from these witnesses’ apprehension, whose senses no longer could perceive Him.
‘He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.’ (Nicene Creed, BCP, p.358) ‘seated at the right hand of the Father.’ (a favored position of authority and power) This is the authentic creedal summary of holy scripture, and is as much as we can know at this time. I am vague here since the text is vague. The objective, the emphasis seems to be that it happened, with few details about how it happened.
‘…suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said to them, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.”’ (Acts1:10-11)
‘He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.’ (Nicene Creed, BCP, p.358) This, too, is the authoritative creedal summary of holy scripture, the teaching of the historic Church, and is as much as we presently can know. (not the timing of events and certainly not the time of Jesus’ Return! Matt.24:36)
This is a clear reference to Jesus’ yet-future Second Coming. But for the apostles this was no time for navel-gazing. There was upcoming pressing business at hand to which they needed to attend. Go to Jerusalem and wait/‘tarry’ there until the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter promised by Jesus. (Acts1:4-5) Select a new apostle to replace the fallen Judas Iscariot.(Acts1:15-26) Prepare for what is to come: for yourselves personally and the soon to be greatly-expanded ministry of the Church. (Acts1:8) Of course, none of them knew any details then. But they would see shortly with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in ten days on Pentecost. What of us? We live during the very long intermediate period after these fifty days of Easter, the Ascension, and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, all the way to ?…whenever Jesus’ Return will be.
As we near the end of this Easter Season, and in anticipation of Pentecost, I remain faithfully,
Fr. Bob +
Christ Church Episcopal 