Know Tea

Today is Ascension Day.  Many churches (such as ours) will celebrate it this upcoming Sunday, but it’s actually today.  Ascension is always on a Thursday, because Christ ascended forty days after he rose from the dead, and forty days after Easter is always a Thursday.

Ascension gets overlooked.  It gets overlooked by liturgical churches because it’s lost between the “big” days of Easter and Pentecost.  And it gets overlooked by non-liturgical churches because most events in Heilsgeschichte (the History of Redemption) are not celebrated by non-liturgical churches, except for the Nativity and the Resurrection.  Of course those two events are important, but they do not tell the complete Story.

We don’t need to overlook the Ascension.  The Ascension story reminds us that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ (Matt. 28:18).  It reminds us that Christ now rules and reigns as King of kinds and Lord of lords.  The reign of Christ is not a future reality:  it is a present reality.  Without the Ascension, we lose sight of that.

The Ascension story that is read today in many churches and on this coming Sunday in many others (Acts 1:1-11) also reminds us that the ascended, reigning Christ is also the Christ who will one day return.  The Ascension directs our attention to a glorified Christ, one who is worthy of all our worship, and one who will one day return as the judge of all.

Sonnet No. 7 from La Corona

Salute the last and everlasting day,
Joy at th’ uprising of this Sun, and Son,
Ye whose true tears, or tribulation
Have purely wash’d, or burnt your drossy clay.
Behold, the Highest, parting hence away,
Lightens the dark clouds, which He treads upon ;
Nor doth He by ascending show alone,
But first He, and He first enters the way.
O strong Ram, which hast batter’d heaven for me !
Mild Lamb, which with Thy Blood hast mark’d the path !
Bright Torch, which shinest, that I the way may see !
O, with Thy own Blood quench Thy own just wrath ;
And if Thy Holy Spirit my Muse did raise,
Deign at my hands this crown of prayer and praise.

John Donne (1572-1631)