Ascension 2025

God has made Christ
the head over all things.
Ephesians 1:22

Ephesians 1:15-23

¹⁵ I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason ¹⁶ I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers, ¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, ¹⁸ so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may perceive what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, ¹⁹ and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.

²⁰ God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. ²² And God has put all things under Christ's feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Ascension

Easter is 50 days; Ascension Day is the 40th day of Easter—another instance of the biblical number 40. Although the Feast of the Ascension is on the fortieth day of Easter, a Thursday, since most people don't attend weekday worship, most churches observe Ascension three days later, on the seventh Sunday of Easter.

To paraphrase the Heidelberg Catechism, we move from Christmas/Incarnation with the mystery of Spirit in Flesh, to Ascension, with the mystery of Flesh in Spirit.

Ascension relates to space or action (a plane or a bird going up, an individual getting promoted), but in easy theological terms ascension, ascendancy, ascent means sovereignty, authority, stewardship—dominion in our reading from Ephesians.

Not "lording it over" as some misinterpret dominion in Genesis 2, but caretaking and responsiveness to the needs of creation, of all life everywhere. Unlike with human governments and organizations, Jesus' authority, his ascendancy, has no checks and balances. It is supreme. It is absolute. Along with Ephesians 1:20, the ecumenical creeds express that reality by saying Jesus is "seated at God's right hand."


Ephesians

The second reading for Ascension is from the letter or epistle to the church at Ephesus. The Temple of the goddess Diana was in Ephesus, with almost the entire city involved in her cult. Ephesians is not one of the seven undisputed or authentic letters written by the apostle Paul; the grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure are different from his. Back then, using someone else's name wasn't the legal and moral offense it is today. Attributing your writing to someone famous complimented that person, and it could lead to wider readership.

Today's short reading from Ephesians provides three (body part) images of Jesus' ascendancy, lordship, leadership, rule:

• 1:20 seated at God's right hand
• 1:22a all things under his feet
• 1:22b made him the head over all things for the church…

…1:23 which is Christ's body!

And I love verse 18, that the "eyes of our hearts" would be enlightened. That we'd see and perceive more clearly because we've experienced more light. In biblical terms, our will and our intentions reside in our hearts. Eyes of our hearts? Perception and insight – yes! – and everyone knows how literally painfully aware we are when something gets in an eye.


Pentecost Day and Season

The Savior's ascension means we're getting ready to celebrate the indwelling Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the fiftieth day of Easter. That renewed awareness helps us prepare for the half year long Time of the Church, Season of the Spirit when we act as Jesus' representatives everywhere. For almost six months, we count Sundays after Pentecost, when the church really comes into its own with the Holy Spirit of life that enlivens and revitalizes all creation.

The Heidelberg Catechism asks, "Why is the son of God called Jesus, meaning Savior?" And then, "Why is the son of God called Christ, meaning anointed?" And then: "But why are you called a Christian?" Answer: "Because by faith I share in Christ's anointing, and I am anointed to reign over all creation for all eternity."

Because of Jesus Christ's Ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit, we can walk the talk as his healing, redemptive, transformative presence.

God is gone up with a shout,
the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God, sing praises:
sing praises unto our King, sing praises.
For God is the King of all the earth:
sing ye praises!
Psalm 47:5,6,7

Easter 6C

The land has yielded an abundant harvest,
and God has blessed us.
Psalm 67:6

Acts 16:6-15

⁶ They [Paul and Timothy] went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. ⁷ When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; ⁸ so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.

⁹ During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." ¹⁰ When he had seen the vision, we [Paul and Timothy] immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

¹¹ We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, ¹² and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. ¹³ On the sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there.

¹⁴ A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. ¹⁵ When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home." And she persuaded us.

The 6th Sunday of Easter

The lectionary scheduled another reading from Revelation this week, but I love the Lydia story so much I wanted to write about it. During the Great Fifty Days of Easter we hear from Luke's Acts of the Apostles instead of a Hebrew Bible passage. How appropriate is that because at the start of the book, the gathered followers of the Risen Christ receive the indwelling Spirit of Life that enables them to live as the body of the Crucified and Risen Christ after Jesus' Ascension. But then again, we won't celebrate that third great trinitarian festival – the Day of Pentecost – until the fiftieth day of Easter.


The Book of Acts

As Acts begins, Jesus is concluding his post-resurrection ministry. He tells the disciples to wait in Jerusalem because there they will receive God's promised Holy Spirit to such a degree they'll be baptized (immersed) in the life of the Spirit.

Possibly still awaiting and hoping for a military or a royal savior, they ask Jesus if now he will restore "the kingdom" to Israel. Jesus replies the question is wrong because they will receive the power of the Holy Spirit so then they will witness in word and deed "to the ends of the earth" and help establish the reign of heaven on earth that Jesus began. The Holy Spirit is prominent throughout scripture, yet the extra-ordinary Divine Spirit of Pentecost now indwells each of us.

Born of Spirit, Water, and Word, the nascent church made sure everyone had enough, no one lacked essentials. We hear about members constantly being added as a result of dynamic, inviting preaching and caring community.

The earliest members had followed an itinerant rabbi whose teaching and existence got him crucified by the occupying Roman imperial government. Their leader was dead, yet they met Jesus of Nazareth as the very alive Christ of God three days after Rome killed him; the disciples continued to interact with him until his ascension to sovereignty and power "at God's right hand," as the ecumenical creeds proclaim.


Today's Reading

In this passage, after considerable travels that must have been challenging, Paul and his sidekick Timothy went to the Roman colony of Philippi in Macedonia, then down to the river on the sabbath hoping to find an ad hoc synagogue, because if there was no local synagogue, Jews would gather at the river to form a minyan or at least to pray together.

They met Lydia by the riverbank, and eventually baptized Lydia and her entire family. Commentaries from writers familiar with that culture differ on whether Lydia was very rich from selling purple goods or if she was poor and barely scraping by.

Paul was founding pastor and a kind of mission developer of this congregation that was the first church on European soil, so it's both First Church Philippi and First Church Europe. Later on, his letter to the Philippians reveals exceptionally heartfelt love and affection for them.


Empire-Covenant

The itinerant rabbi the earliest church members followed had been crucified by an occupying imperial government. Egypt is another example of an empire. Top-heavy leadership, Pharaoh in control of agriculture and manufacturing, no consideration for the well-being of regular people. Forced labor, production quotas, no days off.

Contrast that with the lifestyle God showed the former Egyptian slaves during their desert trek to the land of promise. God supplied their needs for food and water. God guided and led them, sometimes with "a pillar of fire by night, a pillar of cloud by day," sometimes in the person of Moses. They knew life as gift and not as an arduous burden the way it has been in Egypt.

When they reached Canaan after receiving and promising to keep the Ten Words or Commandments of the Covenant God gifted them with at Sinai, they took advantage of the fertile land and cascading waters and stewarded them well, always keeping a day of sabbath rest to remember life first as gift before it was necessary labor.

They followed the covenant's commands, caring for each other and for anyone passing through who might not have a settled home. They became community, individuals united with the common cause of care and nurture for one another.


Citizens of Heaven on Earth

When he writes to the saints at Philippi, Paul encourages them: "Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel." Philippians 1:27

Lydia and her household were baptized into the gospel of death and resurrection. Paul tells the Philippian Christians to live "in a manner worthy of the gospel" as witnesses to Jesus' death and resurrection—not to Rome's or any other life-negating death-dealing imperialism.

Paul reminds them wherever they are, their real citizenship is in the earthbound reality of God's reign of heaven on this planet. Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann describes baptism as "a subversive act of renunciation and embrace." Beyond resistance! Anti-imperial heavenly citizenship begins with baptism!


Lydia

The early church we hear about in Acts made sure no one did without essentials; they took particular care of the most vulnerable. Rumor has it Lydia's residence may have been a way-station for outsiders seeking to belong and for travelers passing through. It could have a safe stop to shelter women or children escaping abuse or danger.

Outreach and intake actions help counter and resist imperial and other forces that turn humans into numbers instead of addressing them by name. They begin at the most basic level and create a solid foundation. Remember, the occupying Roman government still was at full force, but Lydia and others like her created a humanizing haven.


Where We Live

Acts chronicles the newly birthed church thriving in the wake of Jesus' death at the decree of empire. Although death-dealing excesses of empire still engulf everyone, throughout Luke's Volume 2 we see communities and individuals in those communities doing well.

Our default for "empire" usually is political leadership, but other entities long have functioned in an imperial mode. Today, multinational corporations (ExxonMobil – Walmart – Amazon – Shell – Samsung – what's your least favorite?) influence and affect everyday people's everyday lives. Two millennia after Jesus' death and resurrection, we're still amidst stacked up empires: finance; manufacturing; government; commerce. These are giant scale, mega everything. Covenantal living is smaller scale, often on the micro level.

The early church we hear about in Acts made sure no one did without essentials; they took particular care of the most vulnerable. Like Lydia and the rest of the early church, we're reborn in Water, Spirit, and Word. Living baptized into the good news of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, how do we renounce empire and embrace loving justice?

We can follow the Sinai Covenant's commands, caring for each other and for anyone passing through who might not have a settled home. At those basic levels where life happens daily, we gradually became community, individuals tied together with the common cause of care and nurture for one another.

Like Lydia and the Philippian church, our actions here and now help resist imperial and other forces that turn humans into numbers instead of recognizing them by name.

An Acts scholar could tell us how much elapsed time the book chronicles, but we're continuing to write the Acts of the contemporary people of God in Jesus Christ. Do you ever journal, blog, or otherwise write down what you, your group, or maybe your congregation has done or currently is doing? Do you post pictures on social media or save them for yourself?

Easter 5C

Praise the Lord from the heavens!
Praise God in the heights!
Praise God, you heaven of heavens
and you waters above the heavens!
Let them praise the name of the Lord;
for God commanded and they were created.
Mountains and all hills;
fruit trees and all cedars!
Let them praise the name of the Lord!
God's glory is above the earth and heaven!
Psalm 148

Revelation 21:1-6

¹ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ² And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her spouse.

³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and Godself will be with them; ⁴ God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."

⁵ And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, 'Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." ⁶ Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life."

Easter and Revelation

Easter is a season of fifty days, seven times seven, a week of weeks! On all seven Sundays in lectionary year C the second reading comes from Revelation. As I ("this blogs") mentioned last week, the book of Revelation shows us how empires everywhere operate. It isn't quite a road map, but it's a kind of guide book for living baptized in the context of empire. This week and next Revelation especially shows us ways to live baptized into the new creation that's a new earth and also a new heaven.

Also from last week—scriptural bookends reveal God as origin of all things and end of all things:

• Genesis 1 and 2: Tree of Life, River of Life, and Garden.

• Revelation 21 and 22: Tree of Life, River of Life, and City (that grows out of a well-tended garden).


Today's Second Reading

Alongside glorious words about the new creation, the response is Psalm 148. All this poetry is about a God so in love with Creation that God chose and still chooses to make a home on earth in the midst of creation. Do you know James Weldon Johnson's poem The Creation?

In 21:1 "the sea was no more" isn't about creation's waters receding and disappearing as we currently fear might happen. Scripture sometimes refers to oceans and seas as code for untamed chaos. In Genesis 1:2 the Spirit of God hovers and breathes and speaks over the formless – empty – deep – darkness—the unordered chaotic waters. In our baptism with Water and Word, God calls and enables us to tame, order, and limit the chaos of empire. And yes, the new creation does have a river with life-giving water—"enough" clear clean water along with all we need of everything else.

Home and dwell in Revelation 21:3 are the same word as "dwelt (dwelled, lived, took up residence)" among us in John 1:14, late Pastor Eugene Peterson tells us God "moved into the neighborhood." The Greek implies a tent-like portable shelter that allows God to journey alongside creation.


Where We Live

This passage from close to the end of the bible reveals how physical, earthbound, and incarnational Christianity is. It reveals God's dreams for creation's wellbeing and provides ideas we can follow to partner with God to create heaven on earth.

God's vision of the reign of the Spirit is shalom justice and bountiful sufficiency. Enough food, safe shelter, healthy community. Good work for good pay in good conditions. Abundant mercy and love. No more sorrow or dying or pain. The end of war and violence. Scripture sings in the language of geography and space, because we are embodied humans solidly situated on land.

Along with 2 Peter 3:13, we proclaim and claim, "According to God's promise we look for new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells." That's quite a vision!

Easter 4C

Revelation 7:9-17

⁹ After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ They cried out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!"

¹¹ And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² singing, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."

¹³ Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?" ¹⁴ I said to him, "Sir, you are the one that knows." Then he said to me, "These are they who have come out [who are (still) coming out] of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵ For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.

¹⁶ "They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; ¹⁷ for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Good Shepherd Sunday

Easter 4 is Good Shepherd Sunday in all three lectionary years, so the responsive psalm is…23. In this second reading from Revelation, the Lamb is the Shepherd, the Shepherd is the Lamb.

Genesis 1 and 2 are the first books in the biblical canon; a garden with a tree of life and a river of life belongs with the original creation. Revelation is the last book in the bible; it reveals the new creation with the garden of resurrection grown into a city – the "new Jerusalem" – that like the old Jerusalem, forms an axis mundi to connect earth and heaven. This city has life-giving trees and a river of life but unlike the old Jerusalem, it has no temple. The one who is lord reigns from the throne of God —from the cross.

Revelation is not chronologically the latest book of the bible; Genesis 1 and 2 are not chronologically the earliest.


Author and Context

Tradition says the author "John" wrote from the Roman prison island of Patmos in present-day Turkey, although recent scholarship suggests John could have been an itinerant preacher who made Patmos a regular stop on his circuit. Revelation's author definitely is not John the Evangelist whose community brought us the 4th gospel.

Written between 90 and 100, during the reign of Roman Caesar Domitian, Revelation shows us how empires operate, and provides subversive, counter-cultural ways to resist. Rome was one in an endless series of empires that continues globally through this twenty-first century. Revelation is a liturgical, political, counter-imperial text, a guidebook for living out our baptism into Jesus' death and resurrection as an alternative to violence and death in the midst of any empire.


Revelation Is Not

An indecipherable collection of strange sayings or predictions of events future to when John the Revelator recorded it. Just as with a lot of literature and conversations, Revelation includes symbols, code words, and figures of speech. The book opens with the author telling us it's an apocalypse that uncovers, unveils, reveals: The apocalypse [revelation] of Jesus Christ, which God gave…


This is the Feast

From verse 12 in today's second reading we get "This is the Feast," the hymn of praise we often sing during festival seasons. It brings us seven – the number of completion and perfection – words of praise to God and to the Lamb:

1. blessing 2. glory 3. wisdom 4. thanksgiving 5. honor 6. power 7. might

The liturgical song announces, "This is the Feast of Victory for our God," but verse 10 proclaims God's salvation and not God's victory. In Revelation: Vision of a Just World Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza reminds us in that culture the concept of salvation (brought by a Savior, of course) was synonymous with the fullness of God's reign described in verse 16 as no hunger or thirst, no scorching heat (or icy cold), no sorrow or tears—essentially Shalom. She points out how close this was to the supposed Pax Romana of the Roman emperor that instead of peace dealt out cruelty, death, and devastation.

Note to self: I bought and read the book, but I've yet to review and blog it. I'll add the old Proclamation commentary series from Fortress Press are skinny (less than 200 pages!) books and each provides an excellent and accessible overview of the scriptural book in its title. They're out of print, but look on eBay.


And More

"After this" at verse 9 refers to 7:4-8 and their description of the 144,000 plus tribes of Israel along with ethnicities, nations, languages, and cultures that fulfill God's promise to Abram of faithful descendants greater in number than stars in the sky, more than grains of sand. Some of those faithful descendants include us, the church! These people still stand solidly on earth and have not been raptured.

Verse 14 Those who have come out of the mega ordeal – in the Greek – still are coming out. The church lives out its baptismal call and identity in Jesus' death and resurrection alongside the pain and suffering in the world. God in the Spirit calls and enables us to be a counter-force to the deadly violence of empire.

Verse 15 The Shepherd-Lamb on the throne will shelter us with a dwelling, booth, tent, tabernacle. This is the same word as in John 1:14 that tells us the pre-existent word became flesh and lived in our midst, literally "pitched a tent," a portable structure (ramada?) that would go with us wherever we journeyed. There are many fine articles online and in print where you can read more about God's presence in the Ark of the Covenant /Tabernacle and the Festival of Booths /Succoth.

Every week during the liturgy we pray the counter imperial: "Our Father, who art in heaven… for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever." Authority, power, and glory belong to God. Not to Caesar. Not to any national government. Not to any global corporation.


Postscript

Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant Christians have been very cautious about public reading and interpretation of this book. I've read that Orthodox Churches don't include Revelation in their lectionary schedule of scripture readings. Continental European Reformers Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli famously did not believe Revelation belonged in the bible; John Calvin wrote a commentary on every NT book except Revelation. However, you've likely heard of the Left Behind and Late Great Planet Earth books that flooded best seller lists a few decades ago and still have currency and clout in certain circles.