Acts 1:6-11
Ephesians 1:15-23
“Called to Hope and Action”
Today we are celebrating Ascension Sunday. We read one of the stories about the final moments that Jesus spent with his disciples, heard the final words he shared with them, and then the description of how he was lifted up into the sky where a cloud took him out of their sight.
It’s a strange thing to imagine happening, and particularly odd because we don’t really think of heaven as “up”. We’ve travelled up in that sky among the clouds, and even sent rockets holding people well beyond it. The theological meaning of the story is not really about “where” Jesus went physically, but that the Resurrected Lord was not raised from death in order to die again. The author of Luke and Acts wants to convey the fact that the early Christians came to believe that Jesus did in fact live forever, and that he was with God.
The Apostle Paul proclaimed that belief to the Church at Ephesus when he wrote to them about God’s great power. He said, “God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly … Read more »