Celebrating the Ascension
There is nothing about being Protestant that precludes celebrating more than Christmas and Easter during the Church year. And yet, with the exception of Pentecost for the more charismatic among us and Palm Sunday for those of us who like waving palm crosses into our old age, we let pass by a great number of incredibly important days of remembrance and celebration, including the one coming up: Ascension Day.
As far as I currently understand it, Ascension Day is the celebration of Christ's ascension to the Father after his resurrection and the affirmation that he has sat down at the right hand of the Father, not only as Savior but now as enthroned, triumphant, and glorified Lord and King. I can understand a Protestant reticence about celebrating the Dormition of the Virgin, but why pass over a holy day celebrating an event that forms part of the Apostles Creed accepted by all of Western Christendom, and, as it seems to me after a little bit of thought and nosing around, is a key moment and reality to:
Jesus (e.g. looking forward to his glorification in John 18; Revelation 1, 5),A conversation with a friend after Good Friday services ultimately produced a plan to prepare ourselves for Ascension Day: read 1 chapter a day from Matthew and then from Revelation and get thinking about the Kingdom. So that’s what I’ll be up to until the Thursday about 33 days from now, with Psalm 46 thrown in here and there for good measure. And then what, I’m not sure – any suggestions?
Peter (e.g. 1 Pet. 3.15-22; Acts 2.32-26, 3.12-26, 5.29-32),
Paul (Eph. 1.18-23, 2.4-10, 4.7-16, Phil. 2.5-11, 3.20-21, Col. 2.6-12, 3.1-5ff),
Luke (who tells it twice, Luke 24 and Acts 1),
the author of Hebrews (1-2; 4.14-16; 8.1-2ff; 9.23-28; 10.11-14, 19-25; 12.1-3),
Stephen (who sees to the reality of the Ascension and the glory of Christ in Acts 7.54-6),
etc.
(Let me know if you can add any more or wish to subtract some of these.)
(Aside: in a stroke of brilliance while walking to the University Library the other day, I realized the perfect Ascension Day celebratory dessert, known for its lofty appearance and soft, pillowy clouds of batter - Angel Food Cake!)
6 comments:
Without the ascension, there would have been no Pentecost/outpouring of the Spirit. See John 16:7 and Acts 2:33.
Also, the ongoing forgiveness of our sins involves our 'advocate in heaven' (a little bit of Anglican liturgy there); cf. 1 John 2:1 and Romans 8:34.
Luke not only describes the ascension twice, he may also have structured his gospel to have it as the focus of the narrative. Jesus setting his face towards Jerusalem (9:57) is a recognised structural pivot and probably also refers to the ascension as the journey's end: "during the consumation of the days of his 'analepsis', he set his face on going to Jerusalem." The cognates of 'analepsis' (the noun only occurs here in the LXX and NT) can refer to death (there is no NT evidence for this meaning), but usually refer to the ascension (cf. Acts 1:2, 11; [Mark] 16:19; 1 Timothy 3:16).
It should also be noted that Psalm 110 ('sit at my right hand') is among the most often quoted, alluded to, and exegeted psalms, and possibly OT texts in general, in the NT (beside Pss. 2 and 22).
Crosswalk has a topical series with a few more additions; see http://bible.crosswalk.com/Concordances/TorreysTopicalTextbook/ttt.cgi?number=T37
Found two others:
Mark 16:15-20
1 Timothy 3:16
From the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia:
"In the Eastern Church this feast was known as analepsis, the taking up, and also as the episozomene, the salvation, denoting that by ascending into His glory Christ completed the work of our redemption. The terms used in the West, ascensio and, occasionally, ascensa, signify that Christ was raised up by His own powers....
"Although no documentary evidence of it exists prior to the beginning of the fifth century, St. Augustine says that it is of Apostolic origin, and he speaks of it in a way that shows it was the universal observance of the Church long before his time. Frequent mention of it is made in the writings of St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and in the Constitution of the Apostles....
"In the liturgies generally the day is meant to celebrate the completion of the work of our salvation, the pledge of our glorification with Christ, and His entry into heaven with our human nature glorified."
And a Reformed perspective from PCUSA's website (http://www.pcusa.org/ideas/2003summer/ascensionday.htm):
" Since John Calvin’s theology placed great importance on the ascended and regnant Christ, Ascension Day is in some ways the Presbyterian feast day. John Calvin and the other sixteenth-century reformers retained it as a feast day of the church. Christ is Lord of the world and head of the church, we proclaim. Christ’s ascension, therefore, is concerned not only with ecclesiastical matters, but also with social and political ones. If Christ has ascended, then Christ’s word rules the world as well as the church. If Christ has ascended, then there are no other rulers—all others are merely pretenders. Christ reigns supreme.
With the raising of Christ to a position above all worldly powers, the earthly ministry of Christ begun at his incarnation at Christmas now concludes. Christ obediently followed the path of faithfulness through the suffering of the cross to the exaltation of glory. From glory to suffering to glory again is the shape of Jesus’ ministry as well as ours. We, too, are destined for the glory we share now with Christ only by faith. “What we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is” (1 John 3:2)."
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