The Ascension-day. The Collect.
GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
Yes, that is the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, and Yes, I am still Presbyterian. The ascension of Christ is a fundamental part of our faith, for as Christ rose, so do we. But even on that day, some disciples doubted.
We are human, and doubt is normal. Fear is usual. Most of the time life is not joyous. One of the reasons that we sing so much of joy is that we don’t see it in our life: it’s like romantic love. We sing about what we miss. We should not consider ourselves guilty because at times we doubt. For the disciples still doubted. After three years with Jesus, after witnessing the miracles, after seeing Jesus resurrected still doubted.
16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The disciples doubted. Despite the fact that Christ had just opened their minds to understand the scriptures. For doubt is part of our makeup, but for the spirit of God, and when we walk away from being with the Spirit the doubt returns.
It is the Spirit of God that calls us and keeps us faithful. It is not our doing. The intellectual part of me — honed by decades of Presbyterian practice and Reformed theology — can argue me out of faith: our knowledge and logic can be used against us, even though it was those very tools — logic, knowledge, scholarship — that led me to faith in the first place. In the same way our practices can lead into syncretism and paganism, falling too far into the trap of practicing thoughtlessly, compounding error.
We are fallen, but Christ is not. He is ascended.
44Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you — that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 45Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day,47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
50Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them.51While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. 52And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; 53and they were continually in the temple blessing God.
But what are we do? We are to obey the words of God. We are not to sit there and gossip about others, buffing our false sense of self righteousness, and not do things. Instead we are to act. We have our commands: we have them twice in the readings for today. That is to make disciples in all nations.
And this is happening. It is happening. Despite the raging of the nations, despite the contempt with which those of Christ are held, it’s happening. Consider the youtube for a second. I hear the accent of my youth, the accent of Auckland and Sydney; I hear harmonies that come directly from the Polynesian influence in those towns (seconds and thirds)
The praise of God not is reflecting back from the Antipodes.
The liberals pretend that they control the spirit of this age and think that they can drown us with their arguments from authority. Which is specious: once you have a few qualifications, which I have, you realize how empty they are. Once you have been in the senior common room for a while (which is a physical place, ironically, that most academics, avoid, including me, for there lives the risk of academic alcoholism) you realize that advanced degrees do not confer wisdom.
It is Christ that holds us and Christ who will preserve us. Our job is to do his work in this time. Regardless of what happens. For this world is not faithful, and we are broken. Christ, however, is ascended in power, and he is faithful.
An industrial building next to a house? What is it – a grow-op? 😉
No, North Dunedin: it contains light industry, student flats and the University. The building is a bakery. This is a view along the street: the fuel tank, about a block away, is in the proper industrial area on the other side of the railway tracks.