The Ascension of Our Lord: Ascension Day is the coronation celebration of our Lord as He is proclaimed to be King of the universe. Jesus’ ascension to the Father is His entrance to the greater existence beyond the confines of time and space, being no longer bound by the limitations of His state of humiliation. Jesus now sits at the right hand of God, which Luther correctly taught is everywhere, having again taken up the power and authority that were His since before time. Yet our Lord is present with us who remain bound by time and space. He is with us as true God and true man, exercising His rulership in the Church through the means of grace which He established: His Word and His Sacraments. We mortals in those means of grace can grasp the King of the universe and receive a foretaste of the feast to come.
Readings
Acts 1:1–11 Ephesians 1: 15–23 St. Luke 24:44–53
Collect of the Day
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. Amen.
The Ascended Lord Jesus Is with Us Always in His Church on Earth
After He rose from the dead, the Lord Jesus presented Himself alive to the apostles, “appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). When He ascended to the right hand of the Father, He did not orphan His Church, but He fills all things in heaven and on earth and gives gifts to His disciples. Even now, through His Church, He continues “to do and teach” (Acts 1:1), preaching “repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 24:47) even “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Though the cloud hid Jesus from the sight of His disciples then, and He remains hidden from sight even now, He remains with His people through His Gospel and Sacraments. He comes to us by the Word of His apostles, by the promise of His Father and by the power of the Holy Spirit, whom He pours out upon “the church, which is his body” (Eph. 1:22–23). In this holy Christian Church, we bless God and worship Christ with joy, for in His Church He blesses us with forgiveness, lifts us up in His hands and seats us with Himself “in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:20).
At his Coronation, King Charles III held the Orb which signifies that Christ is the King of all Nations, indeed of the universe. To me he looks like he could say, “Now what am I suppose to do with this thing!?” He would be right in so asking and the answer is: nothing. Maybe the King was humbled by this symbol as rule is subject to the King of the Univese. The King of England, any monarch, prime minister, corporate billionaire, dictator, etc. etc. and ad nauseum can’t do anything. Yet, the King of England as head of the Church of England can do something: protect the rule of Christ in the United Kingdom of his subjects and His subjects which is for eternal life, the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed, died for and lives that we may live: ascended, over all authorities and powers, Lord of all nations.
Fallen Adam’s intention is the desire to absolute rule as monarchs, prime ministers, corporate billionaires, dictators, etc. etc. and ad nauseum testify over the long history of Adam. These rulers, even the old Adam in each of us, resist and rebel against His rule of power and love. His rule is not the love of power, but the power of His love. The love of power marks the old Adam, the power of love marks the rule of the Man from heaven. He sends out His Church at His Ascension into all the world to spread His reign. This King. the only true King is with us. We are to follow His outstretched arm and our task, unlike the rule of fallen man is not to master the public but to make public the Master.
As Fr. Richard John Neuhaus wrote and preached that we are emissaries of a disputed Sovereign. Again His rule is not liked, to say the very least and many of those whom He has sent are derided and killed, as of the 12 Apostles, eleven of whom were executed. Their blood, and of so many martyrs, testify to His forgiveness which sets us right in true repentance. As Fr. Neuhaus preached:
“In the right ordering of our loves and loyalties, we are patriots of this foreign country called America, which is also our homeland; but we are patriots bound by a higher patriotism to the country that is our true home,¯the country, the Kingdom, where the sovereignty of the ascended Lord is no longer disputed. Like St. Thomas More, we are “the king’s good servants, but God’s first.” And we are the king’s better servants because we are God’s first…Jesus says, “And you will be my witnesses.”…Our only power is the power of witness. We should want no other, we need no other. The Church is the people ahead of time the community that bears witness now to what one day will be recognized by all when “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”
We live in the clash of Kingdoms. The kingdoms of this world, when necessary, use the sword of steel, but the Kingdom of God we are wield the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. Again, Fr. Neuhaus:
In the midst of the clashes of the principalities and powers of the present age, you have been “clothed with power from on high” to bear witness to the One who was and is and is to be…you bear witness. Your only power, our only power, is the power of witness. We should want no other. We need no other. “Amen, come, Lord Jesus.” Amen.
(These quotes are from a Sermon that Fr. Neuhaus, now of blessed memory, preached at the annual Memorial Mass of the Military Vicariate at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., on the Feast of the Ascension, 2007. It can be found here.)
Concordia and Koinonia 
Leave a Reply