…………………………..

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles

The Apostles met Jesus on a hillside, they asked him, ‘Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth.’     As he said this he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight. They were still staring into the sky when suddenly two men in white were standing near them and they said, ‘Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky? Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come back in the same way as you have seen him go there.’

_____________________________________

Here we have the story of Jesus’ ascension to heaven.  There are many people who are cynical about The Ascension as they believe it’s just a way of proving Jesus never existed, as his body cannot be found anywhere.

There are plenty of other prominent religious figures who’s graves we can visit and pray at, pray at, Abraham is in Hebron, , St Peter is in the Vatican, as is St Paul, St James is in Compostella in Spain, The Prophet Mohammed is in Medina and even parts of Buddha’s body can be venerated in Sri Lanka, but not Jesus.  And we know his followers would have gone to where he was buried.

If you look at the example given just after his crucifixion, when the women wanted to return to where he was buried and anoint his body, this would have continued for a long time.

There have been some silly things said about not being able to find parts of Jesus body, for example ‘God knew we would discover DNA, so if Jesus existed, we’d be able to get his DNA, so this proves that Jesus was not the son of God’.

Ridiculously, this was said on a radio debate, by an atheist, an atheist that said God knew we would discover DNA! An atheist who does not believe in God, said God knew DNA would be discovered.

But that’s missing the whole point of the Ascension.  Jesus did not ascend to heaven to stop us harvesting his body parts in years to come.    He ascended to heaven, in front of his followers so that they could witness that he had done so.  They could witness that he had gone to heaven and was not dead.

Then there are these two men who were standing nearby.  Strangers dressed in white.  We know they are strangers otherwise we would be told their names.  Our reading is from the acts of the Apostles and this was written by Luke who wrote the Gospel of Luke, so we can safely assume they were angels.  Note we were not told they had wings, there was a halo or any of the usual things associated with angels.

But what we are told is that Jesus has gone to heaven, back from where he came.

Many of you will have family in other countries because your parents or grandparents have emigrated from elsewhere. When people do that, when they settle elsewhere they do two things.

1. They assimilate into the new culture
2. They bring some of their old culture with them

Jesus did this when he came to earth, he became human, but he bought some of Heaven with him. Part of what he bought with him is hope, hope of eternal life in heaven.

Those of you who do have family who live abroad, well we like to visit them don’t we, and our visits to that place are made all the more worthwhile by the presence of those we love and more importantly, by the presence of those who love us.

And that’s as it is in heaven, our heavenly Father is in heaven, as is his son and also our blessed mother. And hopefully in time, so shall we be too.

___________________________________

Closing prayer

O God of earth and sky,  as Jesus came among us in Bethlehem to raise us up to heaven, we recall his departing from us at Jerusalem to be in all places. Though he is hidden from our sight, enable us to abide in him by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit, until his mercy and grace fill your whole creation. Amen