The Ascension windows, St. George’s Episcopal (Germany, 1885)
The Ascension of Jesus into heaven is an ending—the ending of Jesus’ physical presence with the disciples on this earth and his return to his Father—but this ending is necessary for the final binding together of time and space through the fullness of God’s love.
This bridge of love between heaven and earth becomes obvious at the resurrection of Jesus, when God deals death a fatal blow.
At the Ascension, death is banished forever. Jesus returns to his Father, and the bridge between heaven and earth is complete as Jesus opens the way for us in this life and the next, to live in the fullness of love at the heart of the Trinity.
The Ascension allows us to see how Jesus will raise us up, you and me, up on the last day.
But in the meantime, here and now on this earth, we are left to live in the fullness of love, that passage through time and space to the heart of God, even though Jesus is no longer with us in body.
Jesus knows that this endeavor on our parts will be a challenge, for we are living in the world. When John, the gospel writer, refers to the world, he is not referring to God’s creation, but to the mess we human beings have made of life together– our suspicions about one another, our anger, hatred and the violence that results, our indifference to one another, and the list goes on—just think of all the ways that divide us.
So in today’s gospel, Jesus prays for us, for Jesus knows that we cannot yet accompany him physically, but that we will remain in the world, the living, breathing fullness of God’s love visible here and now. We are now the ones now who will make that bridge between heaven and earth visible to others, and inviting to others in the ways that we live in the fullness of love with one another and in our loving service to others.
Jesus prays for us because he wants us, the disciples, to know that the fullness of his love for us will hold us all together, even though Jesus will no longer be with us physically.
Jesus prays that God will continue to set us apart, that God will sanctify us for the work that Jesus has already begun—that we, the disciples, may engage the world with love, as Jesus has taught us to do, and to follow the Way of Love.
If we follow the Way of Love, we will be able to continue the work of Jesus to bring the kingdom of God into the world. In fact, Jesus has said earlier that he himself is the Way. So for us to walk in The Way is to walk through this world as Jesus himself would walk in love. We are to walk in the fullness of Jesus.
Jesus prays that God will protect us, because the Way of Love can be full of danger. The Evil One lurks, waiting to distract us from the path, or if distractions or temptations prove fruitless, to openly attack us, as Jesus is going to be attacked and crucified. The Evil One is always attempting to sabotage the Way of Love, to kill off love, and to replace fullness of the truth of love with the lies of fear that lead to distrust and hatred of others.
As Jesus prays, he states that our best defense against the Evil One is the truth, that God’s word is the truth.
Jesus himself is God’s Word and God’s Truth. As John said at the beginning of his gospel– “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.”
The Way of Love is the true way to walk in this world in the fullness of Jesus. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Jesus himself is the Way of Love.
Jesus has protected the disciples in his time with them. He has shown them how to love in the face of ridicule, suspicion, distrust, and rigidity. Now Jesus prays for God to continue to give the disciples, and us, the power to love fully, bring the kingdom of God near with their love, even when Jesus no longer with us in person.
For to love as God loves is the best protection possible against the Evil One.
And there’s one more thing that Jesus prays on behalf of the disciples that night. Jesus prays that these devastated and grief stricken disciples may be filled with his own joy. This joy is the joy of a faithful one, who having finished his time on earth, can see that the way he or she has come has been on the Way of Love. That Way of Love does not end at death, but continues through the gate of death right on through time and space into the heart of the everlasting love of the Trinity itself. The fullness of love, which begins for us on this earth, becomes complete when we come to dwell eternally in the fullness of love that is the heart of the Trinity.
Finally, Jesus prays that just as God has sent Jesus into the world, so now, Jesus is sending us out into the world. Jesus is setting us apart to do his work in the world, to continue to live in the fullness of his love.
In every ending, there is a beginning. Jesus’ time on earth ends, the Holy Spirit comes, and we, through God’s own power of love at work in us, live in the fullness of love that continues to connect us to Jesus, to draw others onto the Way of Love, and the world changes, moving step by step toward God’s reign being realized on this earth as God’s fullness of love continues to grow through the us.
Here’s one small example of God’s reign being realized little by little on this earth. This year, this month, this church, St Peter’s, is 185 years old. One hundred and eighty five years ago, the people who came before us laid the foundation for us, this current group of disciples, to walk the Way of Love here in Caroline County, to be set apart for God’s work, to go out and to risk loving, to be protected in that loving, to walk the Way of Love in such a way that others will want to walk that way with us. We are getting old! One hundred and eighty five years old! But as each year ends, God begins something new in us. As one thing ends, a new thing begins.
God is continually making all things new in this old place.
And when we live in the fullness of love and walk the Way of Love here on earth, we find comfort and connection with those who have gone before us. My father has been dead now for four months. But slowly, I am beginning to know more fully that I am still deeply connected to my father because we are both still living in the fullness of God’s love and that fullness of that love reaches across time and space, and binds us together still in what we Christians call the communion of the saints.
As disciples walking on the Way of Love and trying to live in God’s fullness of love in this world, our love for this world can deepen, our determination to stay on the Way of Love can be stronger, and we can find new interior strength as Jesus himself continues to pray for us who are still in this world.
Jesus prays that we will continue to draw God’s eternal love into our finite bodies, and that we will show others The Way, the Truth, and the Life that is Jesus by the ways we try to live in the fullness of God’s love with them and for them.
I’m starting to sense more fully what Rowan Williams means he says of the Ascension that “Christ is no longer present to us as another individual:……he is the life that floods the entire universe. And for us to live, to grow up into our full humanity, we need to be flooded by his life, so that it is ‘born’ in us….”
Next Sunday, on the Day of Pentecost, we will recall how the Holy Spirit fills the disciples with a joyful power to love with God’s own strength and will in the world that is so desperate for the fullness of love.
This is the joyful power that allows us to say, “Glory to God, whose power working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.” That’s the kind of power that the Holy Spirit brings –the power of love.
Jesus sends us into the world. Jesus is praying with us and for us.
So may we even now glorify God as we walk confidently in the Way of Love, in the fullness of the One who is Love.