Ready for the next step

 ‘… so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.. .… (Luke 24:49)

Luke 24:46-53 (Year C: Ascension Thursday)

In defence of Thursday

Today’s feast of the Ascension is a day of ‘great joy’ to use Luke phrase from the gospel passage for Ascension Thursday. That Jesus ascended into heaven is a core belief in our weekly recitation of the creed. Exactly how and when and what of ascension is beyond our reach. We just believe that Jesus is risen and was brought up into glory not in some mere metaphorical or poetic turn of phrase but in a reality that goes beyond our sense of time and space.  The marking of the ascension on a Thursday leaving just nine days to the Feast of Pentecost and within the 40 days following Easter had and has deep liturgical significance which would not have been lost on the early Jewish-Christian communities with the proximity of the Festival of Weeks (or Shavuot) and the Passover which is seven weeks prior to the Festival of Weeks.

Unfortunately, Ascension Thursday has been ‘de-elevated’ in some places (if a pun may be pardoned) by amalgamation into the following Sunday. Even in secular France the feast of the Ascension Thursday remains a public holiday! There is no way that French trade unions would have anything less than a day of rest on a Sunday as well as a Thursday!

In some parts of the Anglican communion Anglicans are encouraged to receive holy communion this Ascension Thursday.

Time for a novena

In recent centuries, the idea of a ‘novena’ of prayer lasting nine days and nights fits with the period from the ascension to the coming of the holy spirit at Pentecost. Every now and again we need to step up the prayer side of our busy lives and join our prayers with others in the ‘upper room’ (Acts 1:13) so to speak. The days are longer now here in the Northern Hemisphere and there is nothing to beat a quiet moment as the sun is rising over the Irish sea on a mild and damp Irish May morning.

Ascension may seem like a going away of Jesus and the leaving behind of a band of disciples – like a family bereavement.  But, it is a bereavement with a difference because those left behind are not alone as they anxiously and joyously await the coming of the holy spirit. They may be still terrified and they may not know how long or in what way this ruah or holy spirit that was promised will come. But come she will (the Hebrew word for spirit or breath is ruah which is feminine – in Irish Gaelic it is anáil or breath which is also feminine). What seemed like a terrible loss and tragedy is about to be turned into opportunity and sending out again but this time in the power of the holy spirit who prepares the disciples for a life of challenge and difficulty – joy notwithstanding.

Ascension in the scriptures

It is clear that what happened in the Ascension was in the context of Easter and the following event of Pentecost. The details given in Matthew, Mark and Luke are patchy. There is a distinct abruptness to each of the three gospels as if the writer(s) was/were cut short and inserted a few sentences about Jesus speaking with his disciples and giving them a commission to go forth and spread the good news and then – suddenly – he was gone. He was lifted up and taken away in a ‘cloud’ (Acts 1:9) reminding us of the very divine presence in a cloud by day (and a fire by night) in Exodus 13:21.

Speaking of ascending and descending is very much rooted in scripture.  There are plenty of stories about people ascending up to heaven (e.g. Jacob’s dream of angels ascending and descending in Genesis 28:12, Jesus’ conversation with Nathanael in John 1:51, Elijah being taken up in a ‘whirlwind’ to heaven in 2 Kings 2:11).  In many different cultures of the ancient world people had a three-tier idea of the universe: the heavens up there, hell down there (an excessively hot place!) and the earth right here where we stand and prepare to move upwards. Over time, other categories were stitched on such as limbo and purgatory to meet various theological conundrums (necessity being the mother of invention!).

The evangelist John speaks of Christ lifting all peoples up when he is lifted up from the earth (which means on the cross but it could also refer to his glorification through his death, resurrection and ascension).  In a mysterious way, the act of departure and being lifted up from the earth in the ascension is necessary to complete the work of the Holy Spirit and her outpouring on the disciples.

‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself’(John 12:32)

Being lifted up from the pits..

In common parlance we uses expressions such as ‘that experience was an uplifting one’ or ‘he is feeling a bit down at the moment’ etc. However, there is another side to being lifted up or being on high. You have guessed. It is being brought down and finding yourself in the pits. A verse in the ‘Apostle’s Creed’ which is said to echo Ephesians 4:8-10 (but only very indirectly) speaks of Jesus descending into hell after his death after which ‘on the third day’ he rose again. This is also linked to another passage found in Psalm 67:19:

‘You have gone up on high; you have taken captives, receiving men and women in tribute, O God, even those who rebel, into your dwelling, O Lord.’

The idea of God descending into hell is challenging! But that is what the tradition says (and most Christians subscribe to all three catholic creeds – Nicean, Athanasian and the (simple) Apostle’s Creed even if the precise scriptural basis for descending into hell is less than clear.  Let’s face it – a lot of people live through hell – whether in some part of the Middle East or next door to us or even this side of the door.  Hell can take many forms and we should never underestimate the depths of bodily, mental, spiritual and psychological hell that people are living through, near and far, as we share these thoughts.  We can be sure – through faith – that God-who-is-love has descended to these places of hell. Like the testimony of Elie Wiesel about the child crucified by the Nazis in a concentration camp:

Behind me, I heard the same man asking:"For God's sake, where is God?"And from within me, I heard a voice answer:"Where He is? This is where--hanging here from this gallows..."

We may find ourselves somewhere in the depths but this too will pass. We can stay firm in prayerful partnership with others as we await the coming of the holy breath of God covering us in power as Luke puts it. In that way we are ready for the next step or steps.