The Ascension

1991 (Year B), 12 May /
Easter 12

Holy Trinity Dalston

Now a little song for you:

Oh one of these days around twelve o’clock,
The whole wide world will reel and rock.
The sinner will tremble and cry for shame
And the Lord will come to his Aeroplane.

Oh, you thirsty of every tribe.
Get a ticket for an Aeroplane ride
Jesus our Saviour’s coming to reign
And he’ll take you to glory in his Aeroplane.

Well maybe whatever the song’s describing isn’t the Ascension, maybe it’s the second coming but it’s all to do with flying. And it all a bit strange isn’t it. You laughed, and it wasn’t all to do with my singing. The imagery is all wrong. It feels silly. How can the Lord come to be in an Aeroplane?

Well here’s the reason. ‘After saying this, he was taken up to heaven as they watched him, and a cloud hid him from their sight.’ Well there it is, according to the Bible he’s up there already. The only way he can come back is by aeroplane.

The point of all this is that you have to admit that the Bible story is funny too. I guess that the main reason we don’t laugh at the second story is because it’s the Bible so somehow it’s more important. It’s more authoritative so it’s more acceptable. But be honest what do you think about it? Do you pretend that all you know about gravity just isn’t true for the length of time it takes to read the story? Or do you say that since this is God he can do anything.

The task that faced the first Christians was to convey what they knew to be true about God and to do it in ways that non-Christians might both understand and find acceptable. Clouds as everyone would’ve known who read the story, were the symbol of God’s presence. So what we’ve got, on this feast of the Ascension, is a picture of Jesus being received into God’s glory and because of that being present to everyone at once, for all eternity. One man wrote, ‘For in the vast company of the blessed, human nature ... was admitted into the eternal Father’s dwelling, to share the glorious throne.’ That was it.

There was no other way for them to do it, except with a story. And the story had to illustrate that the man who had been their friend and companion for so long, was now with God.

Now our task is exactly the same as those early Christians. We are to communicate what we know to be true about Jesus and our Divine Creator. And we have to it in ways that people find understandable and acceptable. I think songs of Aeroplanes, no matter funny are probably not the best way. Nor actually are stories about people being received into clouds. Clouds have all sorts of connotations today and not many of them have to do with God.

How are we to tell people, that we know, because of the Ascension, humanity is received into God’s presence and that he is with us always? What are signs of glory for the people around here? And in what ways do you feel that Jesus is with you until the end of time?

Only you can answer that last question. What ways do you feel that Jesus is present with you? But the important thing is that you can answer it and the answer will mean something most profound, not only to you yourself, but to those you live with.

And so many of us can answer it. From so many different backgrounds and experiences, not only here, but in countries throughout the world and throughout its history. It all seems to me anyway. to point to answers to the first two questions. The experience of the church and our own awareness proclaims it. Christ present with the first disciples, has been with Christians throughout history since, and is worshipped by us now.

And the signs of Glory lie all around, we just need to look again, carefully, gently and imaginatively, at what we’ve been given by our most generous creator. We need to look with Divine eyes. And when we do we will see light which transforms our own broken lives into things of exquisite beauty and reflect clearly the Glory of God. AMEN