Rector's Message for Ascension

May will bring us to Ascensiontide when our four parishes come together for a Benefice Communion service at Broughton. So, let us think for a moment about what we mean by the Ascension of our Lord. On the 40th day after his Resurrection from the dead, the time came for Jesus to leave this earth and to return to his Father in Heaven. As we learn in the Acts of the Apostles he was taken up, and a cloud received him. Behind that cloud the gates of heaven were lifted up, and the holy Angles poured forth to conduct their King to the highest place of honour at the right hand of the eternal Father. The disciples could rejoice for angels told them where their Lord had gone and that he would come again to received them unto himself.

So, can we take such an account seriously? The answer has to be yes. It is difficult to see how the Ascension could have been put in language other than this. Jesus ascended, and that means he went up. The important thing about the Ascension is that our Lord withdrew from human sight and was taken into heaven. Angels, who sang when God was born as a human being, now raised their triumphant song when a human being was enthroned on high as God. Our Ascended Lord is the true high priest. He continually pleads for his Church in the presence of God the Father. Our Lord was the first of the human race to enter heaven. He ascended into heaven that we might follow him. The Church has one great hope. It looks forward to the final Kingdom that is yet to come. We have hope then in the life with God beyond death in the Resurrection of the dead. We have faith that after death the human person has a future. That those who have died with Christ will live with him forever.

Your Friend and Parish Priest

Father David