Ascension Day, 30 May 2019, (Morning) Austwick
Today is Ascension Day; and we reflect on Jesus leaving us to be with his Father in heaven.
Though he has left us - he is more with us now than he has ever been.
Though he has become absent to us - he is more present with us now than ever.
There is a great mystery to us, in all this. Even if we disregard the mechanics of how Christ physically left his friends and returned to heaven, the deeper significance of his ascension still seems hard to grasp.
Though he has become absent to us - he is more present with us now than ever.
But this isn't such a strange thing to say if we connect it with events which we all understand.
A loved one leaves home. Perhaps a son or daughter leaving for their first job or to start their time in a university - many miles away from home. You, the parent, see them off, and as their car disappears around the corner or their train pulls away from the platform, speeding up, you are almost overwhelmed with a sense of their absence - the one you just held, hugged, kissed: suddenly gone.
And yet, almost simultaneously, and for a long while after, that loved one who is no longer with you, becomes as present to you as they've ever been. You think you hear them in their room that evening, you expect them to sit with you as they always did at suppertime, you find yourself very nearly preparing them a meal, because they are so much on your mind and in your heart, so much present to you in their absence.
Just as the bereaved know what this is all about., so do those freshly in love, for whom even an hour's separation from the object of their deepest desires and devotion sharpens their awareness of just how much that person means to them.
This is what Ascension is about. A sharpening of our awareness of Jesus Christ, even in his absence. A sharpening of our awareness of just how much Jesus Christ means to us, though he is not here. In his letter to the Ephesians Paul called this having the eyes of our hearts enlightened. He wrote to those disciples:
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. [2]
It is the spirit of love which enlightens the eyes of our hearts to an awareness of those close to us though no longer with us. It is the Spirit of God which helps us to know Jesus in the same way, present to us in his absence. Jesus told his friends to wait for that Spirit to come: '... see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.'
That power is available to each of us today, the Holy Spirit is a gift which God longs for us to accept. So that when the Spirit comes we can have the eyes of our hearts enlightened; so that we can find all our senses opening to a Jesus more present with us now than ever before.
The greatest gift of this Ascension is that we can find Jesus in the here and now, in the ordinary stuff of life. The mystery of Ascension is revealed in the mundane. ‘Why are you gazing into heaven?’ asked the two men dressed in white. It’s here on earth you’ll find him now, here in the city, here in this village, here in the place you are - where, if we wait with open eyes and hearts, the Spirit will come to us to show us God’s way.
Notes
[1] A version of sermons earlier preached at St Cuthbert's St Cuthbert's Croxteth Park, Ascension Day 2008, and Little Budworth, Sunday after Ascension 2013.
[2] Ephesians 1.15-23.
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