8^th July 2014

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley  Sunday 1 June 2014

Lessons - Psalm 47: Ephesians 1:15-23; Luke 24:44-53

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the
Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

These familiar words are most suitable for our reflections at the Festival
of the Ascension. In our traditions we regularly affirm faith in Christ's
ascension in the Creeds, Sacraments ('Lord prays for us as God's right
hand) and hymns ('he sits at God's right hand till all his foes submit').
However, many of us are unsure what to make of it. Reactions are mixed.

What on earth can this language about 'going to' and 'coming from' heaven
mean to people like us who do not live in a pre-scientific world? Some
think it must be believed because it is 'in the Bible'. Some find it is
impossible for space-age people to believe. Others see nothing odd about a
figure that 'descends' and 'ascends' at will. 'New age' religion is full
of spirits that connect us to our 'true selves' and the universe.

Living in a different world from that of Luke or the framers of the
creeds, we must distinguish between their sense of 'science' and
'geography' and their fine-tuned theological imagination. Otherwise we
will be side-tracked and miss what is being said about Jesus 'ascending'
and 'descending'.

When Luke refers to 'Christ being taken up into heaven' (Luke 24:51) and
'coming in the same way as you saw him go into heaven' (Acts 1:11) he is
using the pictorial language of the day. He is not describing an astronaut
taking off and landing, but using vivid imagery to declare God's sovereign
love for those on earth.

The starting point for thinking about Christ's heavenly 'going and coming'
is his earthly ministry where he embodies the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew
4:17) where God is glorified, the hungry fed, the unjust judged, the
sinful forgiven, the sick healed, the persecuted blessed and outcasts
welcomed. That is heaven!

Therefore the ascension and second coming is the 'logical extension' of
his life, death and resurrection. It declares that the stunning victory of
the crucified-and-risen Jesus over sin and death - already accomplished in
him on earth - does not belong to the past. The One who 'came' to embody
God's purposes on earth is Sovereign Lord over all things who will 'come
again' to put things right and inaugurate the Kingdom of Heaven which
shall have no end.

Notice in the creeds how the past, present and future tenses of verbs are
used to express the complete work of Christ's 'heavenly ministry on
earth', his continuing reign over the world, and his 'coming again' to
bring history to fulfilment. Thus, 'he ascended' declares that his earthly
ministry has reached its climax. 'He is seated at the right hand of the
Father' declares that his heavenly ministry, embodied on earth, is
constant and continuous. 'He will come again in glory to judge the living
and the dead' assures of the future of righteousness and love.

The framers of the creeds and the NT evangelists skilfully draw on their
pre-scientific and political world-views of a three-tiered universe and
the Royal Court to picture a reality that does not neatly fit our ways of
picturing reality. But it fits perfectly with the reality embodied in
Jesus. In his incarnation 'heaven has "come down" to earth'. In his cross-
and-resurrection, 'heaven' is revealed as God's sacrificial-and-victorious
love. In his ascension, 'heaven' is revealed as God's hidden reign over
all things. In his 'coming again', 'heaven' shall be revealed as the
joyful fulfilment of God's good purpose for humanity on earth.

Using the thought patterns of their days, prophets, evangelists and
theologians declared that 'heaven' is where God's will is done, evil is
thwarted and grace, goodness and hope thrive. In speaking of the ascended
and returning Jesus, they acknowledged that he who entered our space at a
particular time and place and took on our humanity continues to be the
sign of hope for people of every time and place.

To begin to understand this stunning state of affairs we need to allow our
thinking to be reshaped. We are not to think that Christ lives in a
particular geographical place (heaven) from which he comes and goes in a
kind of spacecraft. (Strangely, sceptics and fundamentalists share this
view, the difference being that only one thinks it is believable!) Nor is
he a disembodied ghost, as New Age spiritualists are wont to think.

Against such views, the New Testament writers insist that, in ascending to
the right hand of the Father, Jesus did not shed his humanity but
continues to identify fully with us. The ascended Jesus is not less than
who he was on earth! Thus they affirm, not only his bodily resurrection,
but his bodily 'ascension' and (implicitly) his bodily 'return'.

This language and these images stretch our understanding and faith to
breaking point. We would like it to be simpler and more easily graspable!
But we would miss what they are straining to say about the future that God
has planned for our world and our humanity. They are saying that 'heaven'
is not a 'place' where disembodied spirits separate themselves from the
earth but the magnificent and scarcely believable 'place' where our
earthly-bodily-personal-relational life shall be fulfilled and
transformed.

By emphasising the humanity of the ascended Christ, they attest to the
astonishing reality that, although he was 'crucified, dead and buried' and
appeared to disciples, his love for us in our humanity persists through
time. The original third verse of Charles Wesley's hymn 'Hail the day that
sees him rise' (omitted in Together in Song 369) puts it well:

Though returning to his throne
still he calls mankind his own;
him tho' highest heav'n receives,
still he loves the earth he leaves.

This means that our bodily life and God-given dignity is not written off
but sanctified by Son of God who became 'truly human for our sake' and
continues to humanise the world.

This means that, no matter what awful things are done by us or happen to
us in our earthly space, Jesus Christ, the word-made-flesh, is Lord of the
universe. As the One who, in his earthly ministry, suffered evil and death
and defeated their dread power, so he continues to reconcile the broken
world to God.

The Church is called to witness to this reality: to fulfil her mission
between the ascension (when Christ departs) and the end (when he shall
return as judge of all to set all things to rights). This is not always
easy. However, through the ages and still today, where Christians have
suffered persecution or stood beside oppressed people, the 'ascension' and
'second coming' of Christ has often been the focus of joy and hope.

Wherever it is set, the Church is called by the ascended Lord to preach
the word of grace, to resist hatred, falsehood and assaults on human
dignity, to exercise patience and ward off despair or resignation. This
involves praying for and otherwise supporting persecuted brothers and
sisters in many parts of the world
as well as challenging increasingly strident attacks on Christianity in
Western countries where contempt for the body and human dignity is
widespread.

As the Body of Christ we are summoned to celebrate and embody the fact
that the reign of evil and death has come to its end 'in Jesus' who now
'reigns in heaven ('where God is') and who shall put all things right on
earth. We are called to exercise this vocation, as Luke says, not in a
stoic or downcast way, but 'with great joy' (v52). This is also how we
should approach the 'second coming'. It is not an event to be feared (as
many think) but to be welcomed in a spirit of joyful anticipation (as did
early Christians). Things will be put right! Tortured, abused and dead
bodies will be transformed; evil and death vanquished. The eternal Kingdom
of Heaven on earth is a prospect to be savoured, not dreaded!

Clearly, the consummation of his reign 'in heaven' still lies in the
future. Meanwhile, the whole creation as we know so well is 'groaning for
liberation' (Romans 8:18ff). As history unfolds between the ascension and
second coming, we go with Christ's 'blessing' (vv 50,51) to glorify God
because hope for humanity has been and is embodied in him.

We are assured that, despite appearances on earth, God loves us and judges
us in Christ, the crucified-and-risen Lord of all. So may we gladly affirm
Christ's ascension and coming again in the words of the liturgy:

Christ has died
Christ is risen
Christ will come again. Hallelujah!

Eternal Father, whose Son Jesus Christ ascended the heavenly throne that
he might rule over all things as Lord, keep the Church in the unity of the
Spirit and in the bond of his peace, and bring the whole creation to
worship at his feet; who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is the minister of St John's Uniting Church,
Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is a member of the Council
of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.