Ascension and Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Dr Kate Power.

My name is Kate Power and I have been worshipping here at the early service since the start of last year – and also for a while before COVID. Deb asked me to reflect on today’s Bible readings:

1. Because I lead an organisation called Queensland Churches Together, which aims to help Christian churches express the unity Jesus prayed for, towards the end of his time on earth – that his followers might “be one,” just as He and God the Father are “one.”

AND ALSO

2. Because today is the first day in this year’s ‘Week of Prayer for Christian Unity,’ which is an annual invitation for churches around the world to pray for that same unity: that despite all our differences [1 minute] – Christians might live out the unity God gives us in Jesus.

3. In the church calendar, today is also known as ‘Ascension Sunday’, which marks the last day – and even moments – of Jesus’ physical presence on earth … and I’ll come back to that in a minute.

Let’s start by acknowledging the Jaggera and Turrbal people – the Traditional Custodians and original storytellers of this land.

I’d also like to acknowledge – and you might already have noticed this – that some parts of today’s Bible readings are a bit confronting and strange.

• It’s a general principle of Biblical interpretation that we should read individual passages in light of the whole Bible – not pluck verses out of context to prove a point.

• So, if we look at today’s readings – together and in light of the Bible as a whole [2 minutes] – what do they tell us? And what – in particular – do they say about Christian unity?

• I think they tell us three key things – and I’d like to say just a bit about each one.

1. First, although Jesus and his disciples were Jewish – and they initially ministered only to the Jewish community, in the region we now know as Israel and Palestine – Jesus clearly wanted everyone, everywhere to have the opportunity to know and follow God (Matt 28).

• The last of our four readings this morning comes from a historical narrative of Jesus’ life and teaching attributed to one of Jesus’ first followers.

• So, it’s possibly an eye-witness account of the final moments in Jesus’ life on earth – after his death and resurrection [3 minutes], which is, of course, the great wonder of the Christian faith that we celebrate each Easter Sunday.

• In this account, Jesus says: “go and make disciples of all nations…”

o Now, this was a posture of radical welcome.

o In an era when Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews) had next to nothing to do with each other – and when each viewed the other as outsiders, even enemies – Jesus invited everyone.

o Most of his early followers were Jews, but we know from various parts of the Bible that Jesus also ministered to Gentiles.

 He healed a Roman soldier, who would have been viewed as a figure of oppression since Jesus’ homeland was under occupation during his lifetime.

 He also famously cared for a Samaritan woman, despite Jews and Samaritans being well-entrenched enemies, and women being at the bottom of the social order in both camps.

• AND, according to the part of Matthew’s account that we heard read this morning – in Jesus’ last conversation on earth – he effectively told his followers: “People don’t need to come from any particular background to be loved by God. Tell everyone, everywhere about God’s love – and help them learn how to follow in His way.”

• As people seeking to follow Jesus’ teaching today, Christians are called to extend that same radical welcome: not imposing our understanding of God on other people, but – as another part of the Bible explains – “Always be[ing] prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks [us] to give the reason for the hope that [we] have. [And, to] do this with gentleness and respect.” (1 Peter 3:15).

2. The second foundation for Christian unity found in today’s readings is that the God Jesus wants everyone, everywhere to know and follow is both “the great King over all the earth” (Ps 47) and mysteriously Three in One.

• Biblical authors use various names and metaphors for God, to depict different aspects of God’s character.

• Today’s psalm was originally written in Hebrew, and the word it uses for God is Elohim, which is the same word used in the very first verse of the Bible: “In the beginning, God [Elohim] created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1).

o It’s a word that highlights God’s amazing creative power. Political leaders might boast – and we’ve seen a lot of that lately – but they’re nothing compared to the One who brought into being the cosmos and everything in it.

o There’s also something unusual about this word that gives us a glimpse into the mysterious character of God. To explain, I need to mention just a tiny bit of grammar – bear with me!

 Elohim is a plural noun – in the same way “birds” is the plural form of “bird”.

 But when it’s used to describe God, the Biblical authors curiously put it alongside singular verbs – it’d be like us today saying “birds sings” instead of what you’d expect: “birds sing.”

 And this funky bit of Hebrew grammar hints at God – Elohim – being somehow simultaneously both plural and singular.

• And our other readings point to this same mystery – that the God Jesus wanted everyone, everywhere to know and follow is somehow “three in one” (“a Trinity”).

NOTE: I want to make a just brief sidenote here – before saying more about the New Testament readings – because some of the language in today’s psalm sits awkwardly in light of global conflicts today: I’m thinking, in particular, of the phrase praising God for “subdu [ing] nations under us, peoples under our feet.”

o When we read words like this, we have to remember that

 the Psalms are ancient (not modern) songs AND

 ancient Israel doesn’t map directly onto modern state of Israel – they’re two very different things.

 Also, like our music today, psalms come in different genres – this one is an enthronement psalm, celebrating God as king above all earthly rulers.

 But the single largest category are songs of lament, which express the suffering of an oppressed people and their yearning for God to rescue them from their distress.

 Today’s psalm tells the flipside of that story – it’s a sigh of relief after liberation – and should never be misused to support nationalistic aggression.

• But to come back to this notion of God as “three in One,” our New Testament readings help us begin to understand this mystery, by describing what we now call Jesus’ ascension: when Jesus physically left the Earth and returned to heaven.

• Our first clue comes from the “Book of Acts of the Apostles,” which says Jesus “was taken up before [his followers’] very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” Then two men dressed in white appeared and explained that Jesus had been taken into heaven.

o This is a strange story: it boggles my mind to think of Jesus floating up into the sky.

o But ancient literature has many documents describing the great deeds or “Acts” of people or cities.

o In this case, the “Book of Acts” describes one of the founding events of the Christian church:

 Jesus died, rose from the dead, then – after meeting with his first followers – he “ascended to heaven.”

 The Book of Acts was originally written in Greek – and the word translated into English as “ascended” also means “exalted” – which gives us our first clue to understand what Jesus’ ascension means.

• Our second clue comes from the letter to the Ephesians:

• Addressed to the early church in Ephesus (an ancient city in what’s now Turkey), this letter was probably circulated around churches in the region, to share basic aspects of Christian teaching with new believers.

• Because the author doesn’t mention Jesus floating up into the sky, it seems clear that the main thing people wanting to follow Jesus needed to know was not so much how he ascended as where he ended up – and why.

• And the letter answers those questions by telling us that God “raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet” (Eph 1: 21).

o You can’t miss the similarities with today’s Psalm – like Elohim – the ascended (or exalted) Jesus is seated in heaven, reigning over all things.

• And our third clue to understanding the notion of God as both plural and singular comes from the Book of Matthew, which shows Jesus teaching “his disciples to baptise all new believers in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28).

• Churches that share this understanding of God can work and worship together – across all manner of differences – because we are at our core: “birds of a feather.”

3. And this brings me to the final pillar of Christian unity that I see in today’s readings – that the ascended (or exalted) Jesus is the head of the Church, and the Church is his “body” (Ephesians 1).

• The writer to the Ephesians says: “God placed all things under ‘Jesus’ feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

o This phrasing – that the church is Jesus’ “body” and “the fullness of him who fills everything” – suggests that the church is meant to be the physical, living expression of Jesus’ character here on earth: many different parts, harmoniously coming together under His lead.

o Unfortunately – since its very beginning – the church has too often been a sick and sinful body.

o But it’s not a hopeless case.

• The writer to the Ephesians says: “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.”

o We can see that prayer answered, famously,

 in people like William Wilberforce – the British parliamentarian and social reformer, inspired by his faith in the 1700s, to campaign against slavery.

 And in Harriet Tubman a century later – a former slave in the US, guided by her understanding of the Bible, to lead hundreds of other slaves to freedom.

 And – here in Australia – in the Aboriginal Christian elder William Cooper, prompted by his Christian faith in the 1930s to lead the only known non-government protest against the Nazis’ initial attack on Jews in Germany (half a world away from his own Yorta Yorta Country DownUnder).

o You might also be able to think of times you’ve seen that prayer answered in your own life: in Christians who quietly do justice, love mercy, extend a radical welcome to everyone, everywhere – and work harmoniously alongside other Christians – like the different parts of a body moving in unison guided by the head.

 Whenever that happens, we can remember and take heart that, although Jesus left earth physically, his last known words on earth were this promise: “surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

May it be so – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – in the Church and for everyone, everywhere.

Amen