Tag: ascension

7th Sunday of Easter

1sr June 2025

Reflection with readings below

Today’s Sunday is always slightly odd. On Thursday we celebrated the Ascension when Jesus left his disciples, removing the physicality of his presence with them, to rejoin God and the heavenly dimensions of life.  The disciples are told to wait – to wait for they are not quite sure what but something that will clearly come from God and which will give them renewed strength and  a sense of direction. This sign becomes the topic of next Sunday – Pentecost. In the meantime what of this Sunday? The readings don’t retell the Ascension story. Some churches observe this period between Ascension and Pentecost as a time of prayer, and/or of evangelism following Jesus’s injunction in Matthew’s Gospel: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

In the first reading from Acts we hear then of Paul and Silas and their ministry as they ‘proclaim a way of salvation’. There must be something about the way that Paul and Silas live their lives and the way they go about this ministry that makes it obvious that who they are is radically different from the norm. That is what the slave girl picks up.

But today how often would people look at Christians and think there is someone who is radically different?  Or think there’s a community that lives a radically different lifestyle? 

Is salvation a way of life for us, or just a box we ticked at our baptism? 

If we were to see and express salvation as a way of living, what would it look like? I’m sure it would be a living expression of kingdom values. Throughout his ministry, Jesus is preaching that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He is announcing in statements, telling in stories and showing in lived expressions, what the kingdom is like and what are its values. In the Ascension readings we hear of Jesus ascending, of Jesus sitting enthroned at the right hand of God – are they telling us that the Ascension inaugurates a new era in the rule of the kingdom of God?

In the passage from Acts, the jailer asks, ‘What must I do to be saved?’  

To be saved – to gain salvation – is about healing and restoration and wellbeing in this world. It is about feeling at one with who we are, not feeling overwhelmed by sin, by the ills of the world, not feeling inadequate not hopeless. It is about being confident that we can be faithful as disciples – and that Jesus has faith in us. It is about feeling we can trust that in God’s hands all will be well. It is feeling that we can be confident in what we do and say – if we what we do and say is as God desires.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus is explaining how salvation brings an interconnectedness into our relationship with God so that we can like Jesus be at one with God, be enlivened by God’s love, and conduits for God’s glory. 

Earlier in John’s gospel we hear Jesus announce in the courts of the temple “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’ ”

Salvation is about life – eternal life. It flows  from within us, bursting up like a fountain. It floods our entire being. Salvation is how we live our lives, it is life as it should be lived. It is about joy and celebration, strength and trust. It is about a vitality that allows us to be radical, that allows us to live according to the kingdom values of Jesus. If we don’t live salvation as a way of life, then can we say that we are truly alive?

So maybe what I am learning is that this in between Sunday is about pausing to discern what salvation is and thus to be open to the gift of the Holy Spirit that will help make salvation not a thing of the moment but a lifelong approach to living in the world.

Acts 16:16-34

With Paul and Silas, we came to Philippi in Macedonia, a Roman colony, and, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.

But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, “These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.” The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptised without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.

Psalm 97

1 The  Lord is King;
let the earth rejoice; *
let the multitude of the isles be glad.

2 Clouds and darkness are round about him, *
righteousness and justice are the foundations of his throne.

3 A fire goes before him *
and burns up his enemies on every side.

4 His lightnings light up the world; *
the earth sees it and is afraid.

5 The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the  Lord, *
at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.

6 The heavens declare his righteousness, *
and all the peoples see his glory.

7 Confounded be all who worship carved images
and delight in false gods! *
Bow down before him, all you gods.

8 Zion hears and is glad, and the cities of Judah rejoice, *
because of your judgments, O  Lord.

9 For you are the  Lord,
most high over all the earth; *
you are exalted far above all gods.

10 The  Lord loves those who hate evil; *
he preserves the lives of his saints
and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

11 Light has sprung up for the righteous, *
and joyful gladness for those who are truehearted.

12 Rejoice in the  Lord, you righteous, *
and give thanks to his holy Name.

Revelation 22:12-14,16-17,20-21

At the end of the visions I, John, heard these words:

“See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.

“It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.”
And let everyone who hears say, “Come.”
And let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.”

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen. 

John 17:20-26

Jesus prayed for his disciples, and then he said. “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

“Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

7th Sunday of Easter

21st May 2023

Reflection (readings are below) 

On Thursday, Ascension Day, I took part in a fund raising event for Glassdoor, in which we took the lift to the top of the Arcelormittal Orbit (an 80+m tall sculpture cum icon). The view from the top was stunning, looking out over the immediate locality of the Olympic Park and all the new local developments colleges, a new V and A, sports facilities. Then to the south the Canary Wharf development, and to the west the city where St Paul’s dome was visible as a little blip between tower blocks, whilst to the north the landscape was more open. Fundraisers have to involve some sort of challenge and this one was to abseil down. Helmeted and harnessed, you have to throw off your inbuilt fear and lean back over the void and begin to walk down. There is only 3 foot of vertical surface before you have only thin air. At this point you have to push off with your feet, tip forwards and belay the rope to lower yourself down. You have to trust that all that has been put in place to ensure your safety will do just that!

The high level view distant landmarks stayed with me for what seemed like along while – perhaps because I wasn’t daring to look down! As I neared the ground however,  roads, people, trees  etc resumed their more normal size and filled once again my frame of vision. It was, in a sense, coming back to earth – ie reality – with a bump! The excitement of the descent (even it had had its moments of fear) was over. I wonder if that is how the disciples felt when the angels tell them to stop looking up to heaven and get on with life where they are. 

I think ascension-tide was tough for the disciples. They have been on such a roller coaster. For a couple of years they have been on a mission with Jesus, treading the roads up and down between Galilee and Jerusalem, watching Jesus heal people, perform miracles and outwit legal-minded scribes; putting up with with no regular place to sleep or eat just so that they can be constantly in his presence, soaking up his wisdom and teaching; beginning to grasp at the enormity of who Jesus was – the Messiah, the Son of God. Then overnight their hopes had been dashed as they saw Jesus arrested, tried and executed. In fear they had tried to hide away. With disbelief they were asked to accept that the Jesus who had died, had also risen from the dead. With increasing joy and hope they began to understand that they did have a future, that Jesus was their conquering hero, that this time there would be no turning back! And yet, only forty days later Jesus is once again confusing them with his words. No, he can’t predict the future for them; no he doesn’t know what the outcome is going to be, nor the timescale – that bigger picture is all in God’s hands. Instead Jesus is telling them that they are going to  receive – at some as yet unspecified time in the future – new powers with which they (not Jesus) will bear witness to the gospel to the ends of the earth. And with that, Jesus once more disappears from their sight. 

The disciples are being asked to take a lot on faith! They are to carry out a mission without knowing the final outcome. They are going to be equipped with an as yet unknown power. They have been given a taste of heaven, and yet they are being asked to return to their old room back in Jerusalem. 

The nine days between Ascension day and Pentecost, is a time of uneasiness, of uncertainty but also of expectation. A time when the bigger picture is not yet apparent, when the final outcome is not yet known. 

I find similar mixed emotions when I try and get my mind around the climate crisis. I know enough to know that it is a big problem. I know enough to know we could as human race, rectify damage we have caused but only if we all act together to change the way we live at a global level. And I know that as one individual I cannot effect that global change. I can only make changes at the level of the individual. Yet I also believe that God desires salvation and fullness of life for creation. I have to trust that God sees and knows the bigger picture. I have to trust that God can use my efforts, however small, to good effect. I have to accept that I am not called to be the total solution but rather I am called to live and work alongside my fellow beings – and to do so not in my power, but in the power that God gives.

Acts 1:6-14

When the apostles had come together, they asked Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.

Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36

1 Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered; *
let those who hate him flee before him.

2 Let them vanish like smoke when the wind drives it away; *
as the wax melts at the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

3 But let the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; *
let them also be merry and joyful.

4 Sing to God, sing praises to his Name;
exalt him who rides upon the heavens; *
YAHWEH is his Name, rejoice before him!

5 Father of orphans, defender of widows, *
God in his holy habitation!

6 God gives the solitary a home and brings forth prisoners into freedom; *
but the rebels shall live in dry places.

7 O God, when you went forth before your people, *
when you marched through the wilderness,

8 The earth shook, and the skies poured down rain,
at the presence of God, the God of Sinai, *
at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

9 You sent a gracious rain, O God, upon your inheritance; *
you refreshed the land when it was weary.

10 Your people found their home in it; *
in your goodness, O God, you have made provision for the poor.

33 Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth; *
sing praises to the Lord.

34 He rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens; *
he sends forth his voice, his mighty voice.

35 Ascribe power to God; *
his majesty is over Israel;
his strength is in the skies.

36 How wonderful is God in his holy places! *
the God of Israel giving strength and power to his people!
Blessed be God!

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.

John 17:1-11

Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”