Beauty surrounds us, but we usually need to be walking in a garden to know it - Rumi
The twin aims of our Christian Faith are Praise and Mission. In today’s readings we read that the disciples ‘returned to Jerusalem joyful’, having been given their mission.
Let us look at the events leading up to their joyful return to Jerusalem to see if we can discern the message for us today. It has been a wild, confusing, helter-skelter few years for the disciples. It all started with this Rabbi calling them their trades to follow him. Note, He called them. For three years they had watched him heal the sick and listened to his teaching. They had become sure that he was the long awaited Messiah. His triumphant entry into Jerusalem was surely the time when he would declare himself King of the Jews and overthrow the evil powers oppressing them. But then after a few days things went downhill. Jesus was betrayed by one of His own. He was crucified, died and was buried. That seemed the end. No one has ever risen from the dead. And whoever has heard of a crucified Messiah? Now, on the evening of the third day after his crucifixion, they were hiding in a room in the city with doors locked in fear of the authorities. This morning one of the women who had been to the tomb to anoint His body came back to say that she had seen Jesus. And, just now, the two disciples who had gone back to Emmaus returned to say that they too had seen and spoken with Him. What was going on? At that moment Jesus appeared in the room, even though the doors were locked. There was no doubt that it was Him or that He was alive! In fact He had a meal with them. Luke records: ‘Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them: ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.’ ‘You are witnesses of these things’ he said. This was to be their mission. They were to take the Good News to all nations. Luke then records His final departure from the disciples. However, he does not connect the events together but just describes them as happening one after the other. We must not conclude that late in the evening of Easter Day Jesus would lead His followers to Bethany for a final farewell in the dark. This is confirmed in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles which tells us that Jesus spent more time instructing His followers before He finally left them. That said on the Mount of Olives He gave them His blessing and ‘was taken into heaven’. They had hoped that either this was the time when Jesus would restore the kingdom to Israel, or that they could go back to the old life travelling round the country, following him and learning from Him. But He had finally been taken from them. How were they to carry out the mission with which he had entrusted them? Jesus knew that they could not undertake such an important and dangerous task alone so He told them: ‘And 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.’ They would be baptised with the Holy Spirit in a few days. The Holy Spirit would be their guide, support and comforter. What happened next left them in no doubt that Jesus really was the Son of God. That He was Divine, just as He had been human. Luke tells us that: ‘While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’ He would come again to earth in glory! He would return! Knowing that they returned to Jerusalem ‘with great joy’. Eager and willing to spread this Good News. So what does this all mean for us? First of all, the real message of Ascension Day is Jesus’ exaltation to His rightful place at God’s right hand. Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. He was and is, and always will be Divine. By His death and resurrection He overcame death and took away the sins of the world. For such a great sacrifice as this we must give praise and thanksgiving. Then, Christ is the Word of God and so to love him and to keep his words, which are the self-expression of what he is himself, are intimately bound up with each other. To keep the words of Christ is to treasure everything that Christ is. His words therefore, are not simply words of a Jewish Rabbi spoken some two thousand years ago, recorded in a book we know as the Bible. His Words are the Word of God. We can trust them. They are God-given. Next, He will come again to bring His Kingdom of Peace, Joy and Love, over which He will reign triumphant forever. He will bring an end to the violence, vice and corruption that pollutes the world. He will bring heaven and earth together in one glorious and eternal union with Him. Surely these are all excellent reasons to give Him praise and thanksgiving! Now, the second element. Mission. As the disciples were to be his ‘witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’, so that is now our mission. To bring the Good News of God to the world today. To bring everyone to know God. Like the disciples we have the Holy Spirit to enable us to do that. Living as Jesus’ disciples, means setting aside some time each day to read God’s Word, carefully and prayerfully. Yes, prayer is most important for as the Dutch Catholic priest Henri Nouwen says: ‘Let us listen to Jesus who dwells in the very depths of our heart. He doesn’t shout. He doesn’t thrust himself upon us. His voice is an unassuming voice, very nearly a whisper, it is the voice of a gentle love. This listening must be an active and very attentive listening, for in our restless and noisy world God’s so loving voice is easily drowned out.’ The Holy Spirit will tell us what God wants us to do and will help us to do it. But faith alone is not enough. Faith and works are both needed for, as the Apostle James wrote, ‘faith without works is dead.’ (James 2:26) People need to see Christ in us, wherever we are and whatever we do. By the way we live our lives, by our word and by our actions. Whether that be preaching the Gospel, lending a sympathetic ear to a friend in her, or his time of need, in the queue at the supermarket check-out, or simply washing the dishes. In other words in our everyday lives we must show Christ. Even if it is just, “a smile a day goes a long, long way”, as my wife said. The readings and liturgy for this wonderful feast day invite us all to share in the amazement of those first disciples of Jesus, so that we, too, can become like them – joyful followers of Christ. This week, let us pray for the opportunity to proclaim the joy of the Good News to as many people as possible. Readings: Acts 1:1-11, Psalm 47, Ephesians 1:15-end, Luke 24:44-end
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI am an Authorised Local Preacher in an Anglo Catholic parish church, in the Diocese of Essex UK Archives
February 2022
|