Ascension Day and A Tale of Two Thursdays

Lessons: Acts 1: 1-11 Psalm 47 Ephesians 1: 15-23 St. Luke 24: 44-53

The last Thursday we were gathered together as His Church in the Divine Service was Maundy, or Holy Thursday, during Holy Week.  Holy Thursday is “the night in which He was betrayed” and He took bread and the cup, gave thanks and gave us His Body and Blood in bread and wine.  “Maundy” is related to Latin word for “command”:  He commanded His Supper of His real Presence and commanded us to wash each other’s feet in loving service on that night. Ascension, 4o days after Pascha, or Easter, is always a Thursday.  He bodily and  spiritually ascended into heaven to be with us, heaven come to earth, in the Sacrament of Holy Communion which He instituted some 43 days ago, on the Thursday before Good Friday. The two Thursdays are intimately connected in Jesus Christ because the ascended Lord, bodily and spiritually, deigns to be with us in His Supper, proclaiming His death until He comes again.

Thursday is kind of a non important day in the secular world:  not like Saturday and Sunday the weekend or like Monday the first day of the work week, or like Wednesday, “hump day” or Friday, TGIF (Indeed!).  Yet, our Lord did something every day of the week to hallow it, especially Thursday.  The world does not recognize any longer Maundy Thursday and Ascension Thursday. The Church Year is a tool to teach us the Word.  Thursday is good reminder of our Lord’s ascended Body which come to us, This is my Body.  The Church Year is like post-its for the soul.  Sadly, even the Church does not give much heed to Ascension.  I have had many discussions with pastors, “Do you do anything on Ascension?”  “Nah, no one comes.”  As if numbers were the only reason for Liturgy and not the Word of God, Incarnate, preached and written.  Funny:  we don’t ‘have’ Ascension, but we want the ascended Lord to have us! He does and we grab hold of Him in faith.

Almighty God, as Your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, ascended into the heavens, so may we also ascend in heart and mind and continually dwell there with Him, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.