(This celebration is on Thursday, forty days after Easter Day.)
GREETING (adapted from Acts 1:11 & 14)
The day of Jesus’ ascension is the day of his enthronement,
in this way heaven and earth are forever connected by our King.
Jesus reigns with grace and love over his holy church below,
and the day is coming when he will return just as we saw him go.
And so, Father, we do as the disciples before us have done,
we devote ourselves to constant prayer, until Jesus Christ returns.
HYMN 312 “Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise”
PSALM 47:1-7
PRAYER
(Consider some of the following concerns of people for prayers of thanksgiving, intercession, and petition. Follow with your personal prayer list.)
That God, our Father, reigns in heaven The victory of God’s will
That by ascension Jesus rose to his throne The triumph of God’s love
That Christ reigns with the Father The victory of real strength - love
That our future is in heaven with Father and Son The triumph of God’s grace
That Christ has made a heavenly future possible The victory that lasts forever
For the ability to call others to this heavenly future For a faith that trusts in Christ’s ascension
That ascension is another proof of Christ’s divinity For those already carried to heaven
Ascension’s mystery versus human understanding For those soon to leave for heaven
That ascension is more than just “up” and “clouds” For those without heaven in their future
That Christ bears our humanity to God in ascension For the joy of the reunions yet to come
That ascension connects us with God For the faith to live that joy now
That ascension connects us with those above For Christ to return for us soon
For help “in between” Christ’s ascension and return That we be ready for Christ’s return
The promised gift of the Holy Spirit ____________________________
The comfort provided us by the Holy Spirit ____________________________
The Spirit’s guidance for the “in between” times ____________________________
THE LORD'S PRAYER
SCRIPTURE LESSON
(Choose a passage of scripture to read. It can be a chapter, a paragraph, or a particular story. Daily lectionaries are available online or in print that assign a lesson each day from the gospels, epistles, Old Testament and psalms on a three-year cycle. Or you can create a plan to read a book of the Bible, or the whole Bible. Then follow the steps below.)
Read a passage of scripture. Read it out loud, very slowly and carefully as if for the first time. Continue reading until a word, phrase or sentence captures your attention. Stop there to repeat the word, phrase or sentence over and over, listening to it deeply in your heart.
Reflect on why the passage got your attention. Consider the area of your life to which this may apply. Is God saying something to you in this passage? Take time to listen carefully to whatever God may be saying to you.
Respond to God in prayer (or with journaling, music, art or whatever you choose) about what you have heard. Ask questions. Open yourself to God’s will for you.
Rest in God’s company. Be still and quiet. Move beyond thinking, practicing interior silence. Let yourself be open to God’s presence. Savor this moment with God.
PRAYER
Holy, Mysterious God Above,
we stand dumb-struck, wondering what it is we have seen.
The resurrected, living Christ stood there with his apostles,
but then Christ was carried beyond their ability to see him.
Who carried him away, God?
The cloud that hid him gives us our best clue to this mystery.
We know that mysterious, wonderful cloud of your presence.
We saw it at your Tent of Meeting, and again at your Temple.
We saw it at Jesus’ birth, his baptism and his transfiguration.
We know that cloud covers the glory of your divine presence.
It protects us from the intensity of your overwhelming glory.
You were there, in the cloud, returning Jesus to all his glory.
Where did Jesus go, God?
The Gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus ascended to heaven.
Heaven is not like a science fiction type of parallel universe.
You did not create multiverses, God. You created only unity.
Heaven is another dimension of the one universe you created.
It is a spiritual reality beyond our physical seeing or knowing.
And Christ, who rose from the dead in both body and spirit,
carried our physical nature into your spiritual existence, God.
Why did Jesus go, God?
Christ descended from heaven and put on our human flesh.
He was crucified and resurrected in that same human form,
and then he carried our human flesh into your heaven, God.
What does this mean for us? For heaven? For the future?
The ascended Christ has forever united the physical creation,
with your one, eternal, spiritual nature, Heavenly Father.
That which was dying is now a new heaven and new earth.
How can we wait, God?
Give us patience, O God. Our hearts long to be with Jesus.
He said he was going to prepare a place for each one of us,
and that place for us is in your own home, heavenly Father.
Keep us on the one way leading to the place Jesus prepares.
Send your Spirit to keep our lives clean and free from evil.
Make us truly faithful, in our service to your ascended Son,
Speed us, heavenly Father, up to our eternal home with you.
What do we do, God,
but stand around, open-mouthed, still trying to understand?
This is so beyond anything we have known or experienced.
Our thoughts may be confused. Our words may be wrong.
But we know Christ is crucified, resurrected, and ascended.
Scripture and experience tell us that Christ rules with you.
All around us we see the truth and light that Christ brought,
and we see signs of Christ’s work building a new kingdom.
God of new creation,
what you are doing in Christ is so grand and so wonderful.
We offer our praise and our witness in service to the King,
and we trust his promise of a new heaven and a new earth. Amen.
SILENCE AND COMMITMENT
(Pause to reflect and listen. Work to push out of your mind any distracting or irrelevant thoughts. Concentrate your thoughts on the words of the hymns and choruses you have sung, the prayers you have spoken and the scriptures you have read. Be aware of what you are feeling. Listen for anything that God might be saying to you in this time you have spent together. As God responds to your prayer-time, seek guidance for how you can best respond to God’s will. Then commit to serving God’s will for you.)
HYMN 324 “Hail Thee, Festival Day”
CLOSING PRAYER
God of heaven and earth,
keep us looking upward:
remembering his ascension,
awaiting his return for us.
Guard us from the outside,
strengthen us in temptation:
remembering his holy life,
preparing to join him above.
Cleanse us from within,
sensitize us to every sin:
remembering the price paid,
washing in his forgiveness.
Keep us faithful today,
looking for his coming:
remembering our future,
celebrating his promise. Amen.
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
