Day: May 16, 2010

“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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