Readings: Acts 1.4-16 John 17.1-11
On Thursday evening we celebrated the Ascension of Christ –
with stirring liturgy – and wonderful music from our Choir!
His ascension, the conclusion to Jesus’ earthly ministry,
forty days after the resurrection.
Forty, a symbolic number in Hebrew thought, signifying completion.
As Jesus fasting in the desert forty days and nights was full and complete,
so his ministry on earth, is now, full and complete.
And he rises to heaven in a cloud!
What glory have Renaissance artists indeed created from this event!
Back down on earth, his disciples even now,
forty days in Jesus’ risen presence,
his disciples are still concerned with power and status:
Is the the time when you will restore the Kingdom to Israel? they ask him.
They just cannot grasp that Christ’s glory is the cross!
That in the mysteries of his ignominious death on that cross we are set free – empowered in the coming of the Holy Spirit!
In the strange vacuum now left after Jesus’ departure, two angels appear,
promising that Jesus will return again.
Impossible for us to imagine, their state of mind ….
They return to the city from Mount Olivet,
gathering together in the home that Jesus had ‘borrowed’ for Passover.
So many questions we would like to ask about what happened next!
We will never know precisely what it was,
that changed these disciples from a desultory rabble,
including those early doubters, Jesus’ mother and his brothers.
What changed them into an attractive joy-filled community –
rejoicing in this new revelation of God’s purposes.
sharing all things in common – and drawing hundreds to join them!
But it is not a straightforward road ahead.
And Jesus knows that the challenges will be great.
Way back eight years ago in the 2015 May election,
David Cameron blithely presumed he would be back in power
in coalition government with the Lib-Dems –
able to fend off demands from Farage and friends
for a Referendum on EU membership!
Way back in those heady sunlit uplands of yore,
the analysis of Labour’s defeat at the time
suggested that their losses were the result
of failure to recognise the perspective – of those with aspiration.
There had been too much focusing
on those at the bottom of the social ladder and their needs,
rather than on those who create wealth – wealth to support the welfare state!
What the Labour Party was proposing were defensive,
rather than hopeful and ambitious policies, for our future.
Let us not forget our follies, our blindness – our lack of appreciation,
which have brought us to the profound difficulties of our politics today.
Jesus does his utmost to prepare his friends for the challenges they will face.
Earlier in John’s gospel he has warned of a future
when his followers will be put out of the synagogue.
Which in first century Palestine, was tantamount to a death sentence.
For it was impossible to survive outside your community
which was indeed focused around the life of the synagogue.
For those first hearers of John’s gospel, living in the wake of revolt and war, including the destruction of Herod’s spectacular and renowned Temple,
their world, turned upside down, was full of uncertainty!
And not only the Jews, everyone was living within a great maelstrom
of different ideas concerning what constitued the ideal society,
how best to live the good life…..
Little wonder these young Christians were in need of encouragement!
Jesus the Jew is thoroughly Jewish!
Firmly believing that life is to be celebrated!
Ambition, aspiration, to be nurtured and reached after!
Indeed for the Jews, not to make the most
of the talents God has given you, is itself a sin.
Jesus the Christ has promised transformation,
transformation of both the individual and community.
Jesus the Christ is about heralding the kingdom of God on earth –
fullness of life! Human flourishing!
Like Christmas and Easter, every year in the Church calender, this Sunday, the Sunday after Ascension Day, the Sunday before Pentecost,
as we look forward to the coming of the Holy Spirit,
and the birth of the Church, our Gospel readings are taken every year
from Jesus’ Discourse at the Last Supper, John chapter 17.
Christ’s call to us as Christians to be of ‘one mind’:
Holy Father, protect them in your name
that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.
That this call to unity is here in John’s gospel,
indicates that disunity was an issue even in the earliest Christian movement!
And tragically, a matter of fierce and violent dispute down the centuries.
For the Church is not of one mind on many things!
How can this ever have worked? Well might we wonder!
How did Jesus hold together the tax-collector
working for Roman occupiers, and the zealot,
fiercely zealous to be rid of that occupation?!
How did he establish equality between the fishermen – and the women!
Also disciples! Women who in first century Palestine
were legally significantly lesser beings in status than men.
No wonder Jesus repeatedly calls his friends and followers
not to sit in judgement on one another!
Commanded them: Love your neighbour as yourself.
Declared to them: I desire mercy – and not sacrifice!
Holding together in unity while disagreeing is achieved
as we each grow in humility. That is, a rising above the ego.
And incidentally, a great source of inner freedom!
Relinquishing self-importance – just as Jesus humbled himself
in taking human form. A mindset which seeks to honour the other.
An exercising of compassion towards each other as one family.
In the power of the Spirit.
Hospitality was a central tenet of life in the Greco-Roman world.
As we offer hospitality towards one another we spread the grace of God.
In that early church, believing in Christ was not about
assent to a set of propositions, rather it is about trust.
Trust in Christ and trust in God, trust strong enough to change behaviour and outlook. Trust strong enough to raise hope for the future.
Trust big enough to follow those demanding commandments!
Believing, trusting in one another!
As we reflect on where politically our country is today –
and it is vital that we do, we remember that God’s intention for us,
is fullness of life, abundant life, here and now for all.
That text everyone can commit to memory, John 10.10!
In the words of that second century Greek theologian,
missionary to southern France and Bishop of Lyons, Irenaeus:
It is ‘Man – and of course woman, fully alive’, that is the glory of God.
I would like to end with a prayer of St Alcuin,
8th century Archbishop of York, whose feast was yesterday, celebrated at Evensong in Westminster Abbey, to where our Junior Church
went on pilgrimage with Rupert Sheldrake:
O eternal Light, shine into our hearts.
Eternal Wisdom, scatter the darkness of our ignorance.
Grant that with all our hearts, and minds, and strength,
we may always seek your face.
Let not the wealth of the world or its enchantment
Flatter us into silence as to your truth.
Give us the grace to follow Christ’s word,
To be clear in our task and careful in our speech.
Give us open hands and joyful hearts.
Let no one come to us and go away sad.
Make us to be an honor to the church. Amen.