Month: May 2010

“Behold, a door was opened in heaven”

It was behind closed doors, literally and figuratively, that Jesus made known to us his resurrection. But it is not only behind closed doors that the things of God are made known to us. Through the incarnation and manifestation of Jesus Christ, through his passion and death, through his resurrection and ascension, through the sending of the Holy Spirit, “a door was opened in heaven” and we behold the glory of God in the fullness of his revelation. God makes himself known to us.

Trinity Sunday sets before us the vision of God which is the end of man. “The end of man is endless Godhead endlessly possessed” (Austin Farrer). Trinity Sunday, we might say, is the great Te Deum Laudamus of the Church. We proclaim God as the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. We proclaim what we have been given to behold through the fullness of the scriptural witness to God’s revelation. It is what we have been given to proclaim. It is also what we are privileged to participate in. And nowhere is that more fully captured than in the Athanasian Creed which we have been privileged to proclaim.

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“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind”

Sometimes the things that come upon us suddenly are the things that unsettle us most. Is it so with the Descent of the Holy Ghost? He came down “suddenly” upon the disciples, but was his coming suddenly a coming unexpectedly? That he came suddenly we read; his coming unexpectedly, we do not read. In fact, Jesus tells us to expect the coming of the Holy Ghost, “commanding them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father,” even the descent of the Holy Ghost.

Yet we may wait expectantly and still be caught unawares, for the realisation of what we await may far exceed our expectations and so catch us by surprise. We await for what we do not fully understand. The grace of God is always something more; the mystery of God something more yet again. The promise of the Ascension was the coming down of the Holy Ghost for which Jesus prepares us and bids us wait, yet “suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind.”

Certainly, the effects of this coming down would appear to be most unsettling, the manner of their appearing no less so – “a rushing mighty wind” and “cloven tongues like as of fire” lighting upon the disciples gathered in Jerusalem, filling them with the Holy Spirit and moving them “to speak with other tongues.” To all appearances an event most unsettling and more than a little bit disconcerting.

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“God has gone up with a merry noise/ the Lord with the sound of the trumpet”

It is the psalms, as often as not, that strike the right tone of approach to our worship. In this case, the high note of rejoicing and delight that belongs to the Feast of the Ascension is nicely captured by the words of the psalmist. “God has gone up with a merry noise/ the Lord with the sound of the trumpet” (Psalm 47.5). Another psalm, Psalm 93, too, captures the royal theme of divine kingship over the whole of creation that the Ascension also signifies.

The Ascension of Christ marks the fortieth day of Easter. It marks the end, in the sense of the completion, of the Easter season. One of the creedal mysteries of the Christian Faith, the Ascension is often overlooked, perhaps because it doesn’t fall on a Sunday, but on a Thursday. And yet, it provides some very important and powerful teaching.

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“The Lord is King”

Three psalms begin with the words “The Lord is King,” psalms 93, 97 and 99. In the psalter of The Book of Common Prayer, these three psalms have the same Latin title, Dominus regnavit. It means “the Lord rules,” in other words, “the Lord is King.” The inclusion of the Latin titles, invariably taken from the first words of the psalms in their Latin translation, reminds us of the long and rich tradition of prayer and spirituality to which we are connected. The Latin psalms, in some sense, shaped the thought-world of the West for more than a thousand years. Our Prayer Book honours that heritage and legacy.

“The Lord is King”signals that the God of Israel is the King of all creation. For Christians that kingship is made visible in the paradox and wonder of Christ crucified and dead, and then, Christ risen and ascended; in short, the cross and the glory.

We meet in the Ascension of Christ. Thursday was Ascension Day, the culmination of the resurrection and the celebration of the homecoming of the Son to the Father having accomplished “the will of the one who sent [him].” It is a time of great rejoicing, a time of great glory. “God has gone up with a merry noise,”as the gradual psalm so wonderfully puts it. The Son returns to the Father. Today is The Sunday after Ascension. In the meaning of the Ascension we celebrate the Session of Christ at the right hand of the Father. He “ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of the Father” as we just said in the Creed. What does it mean?

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