St. Dunstan's Anglican Church
Ascension Day 2025 with Baptisms - 10:30a
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  • Hail Thee Festival Day (#216 Ascension)
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  • Introduction

    Today we celebrate Ascension Day. This feast day traditionally falls forty days after Easter, which means it’s usually celebrated on a Thursday. Thankfully, the Church allows us to move it to today, Sunday, so that more of us can gather, celebrate, and rejoice on this special day.
     And we should rejoice because today we proclaim something vital to the Christian faith: Jesus Christ is not only risen—he is reigning.
    Today, the Church lifts its eyes—not to escape the world, but to remember who rules it. Ascension Day is not about Jesus leaving us behind; it’s about Jesus taking his place, his seat, and his reign at the right hand of God.
    So, this morning, let’s not view the Ascension as just a historical footnote—as something tagged on to the end of the story of Jesus’ death and resurrecting. Instead, let’s celebrate the Ascension as the enthronement of our King, for this is the day that Jesus Christ took His place at the right hand of God, far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion, where He reigns now and forever.

    A Story of Movement

    When we teach the Apostles’ Creed, one of the most illuminating exercises is to focus on the verbs of Jesus’ story: conceived, born, suffered, crucified, died, buried, descended, rose, ascended, sits, and will come again.
    Each verb signifies a movement—not just in time, but in theology. The Ascension represents that pivotal transition between the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His return. It is the moment Christ shifts from victory to reign, from the empty tomb to the occupied throne.
    The Gospels do not define Jesus through abstract theology, despite how many people try to do that today. Instead, they tell a story. In that story, the Ascension is not Jesus’ disappearance for the world; it’s his coronation.

    The Present Reign of Christ

    To understand the Ascension, the apostles repeatedly referred to Psalm 110:
    Psalm 110:1 ESV
    The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
    This verse is quoted in the New Testament more than any other Old Testament passage. Why? Because it explains what Jesus is doing right now. He is not absent; he is enthroned.
    In this psalm, Yahweh speaks to someone David refers to as “my Lord.” Jesus himself highlights this distinction in the Gospels:
    Matthew 22:45 ESV
    If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”
    The early Christians recognized in this text not only a prophecy of the Messiah but also the foundation for understanding the Trinity—two persons, both called “Lord,” one seated beside the other.
    But Psalm 110 doesn’t stop there. It also says:
    Psalm 110:4 ESV
    “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
    Melchizedek was both a king and a priest—foreshadowing Jesus’ unique role. Under the old covenant, kings came from Judah, and priests from Levi. Jesus, being from the line of David, fulfills both roles. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah and a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.
    In the psalm, Yahweh says to Adonia, “Sit at my right hand.” But why is he sitting? Because his work of atonement is finished. As Hebrews states:
    Hebrews 10:12 ESV
    But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.
    To sit at God’s right hand is both to reign in majesty and to rest in his finished work. Christ sits today at God’s right hand as both the world’s true King and its great High Priest.

    The Vocation of Humanity

    Psalm 8 offers another perspective by which to understand the Ascension. This psalm speaks of humanity’s original vocation:
    Psalm 8:6 ESV
    You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,
    What humanity failed to fulfill, Jesus now accomplishes. Paul alludes to this in Ephesians 1:
    Ephesians 1:20–22 ESV
    [God] raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet…
    This Old Testament connection is important. The Ascension is not the abandonment of creation. Instead, it marks the beginning of its restoration. The Second Adam reigns not to escape this world but to reclaim it and to fulfill humanity’s original vocation.
    But Paul doesn’t stop there. He adds:
    Ephesians 1:22–23 ESV
    And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
    Here is the radical claim of Ascension Day as it relates to the church: the Church is the fullness of Christ on earth. Christ’s resurrected body has ascended to the right hand of God, but he has not left himself without a bodily presence here on earth. The Church is now his hands and feet in the world. We are the means by which all things will one day be placed under his feet.

    The Church’s Mission

    In Acts 1, after the disciples observe Jesus ascending, two angels pose a pointed question:
    Acts 1:11 ESV
    “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?”
    In other words, this is not the time to gaze upward; it’s the time to go outward.
    Jesus had already told them:
    Acts 1:8 ESV
    But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
    The Ascension is not the end of Jesus’ mission in the world; rather, it extends his mission. It does not signify the fading out of his ministry so that all that’s left for us to do is to stare longingly into the sky. Instead, the Ascension represents the handing over of Christ’s ministry to the Church through the power of the Holy Spirit. So, we must not be looking up, but rather, looking and going out into the world as Christ’s witnesses and disciples.
    Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:
    1 Corinthians 15:25 ESV
    For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
    And how does Christ accomplish that?
    Through you.
    Through us.
    Through his Spirit-empowered Church.
    When lives are transformed by grace, when justice is done in his name, when the broken are healed, and the gospel is proclaimed, his kingdom comes, and his enemies, the true enemies of humanity, are placed under his feet.
    This is our vocation. This is our mission to the world.

    Ascension Day

    So, what are we celebrating today?
    Not clouds. Not distance. Not absence.
    Today we celebrate enthronement.
    Today we celebrate the completed work of atonement.
    Today we celebrate mission and vocation.
    Today we celebrate the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord right now, and everything else is not.
    We do not wait for the day when Jesus will become King because He already is. To say that He has ascended is to say that he has taken his seat at the right hand of the Father, not because He’s tired, but because His priestly work is complete and His kingly rule is underway.
    The throne of heaven and earth is occupied. His enemies are being subdued. His Church is his Body. And His Holy Spirit is the power by which his kingdom spreads.
    That is what we celebrate today, and that is the mission to which he has called each and every one of you.
    So lift up your hearts—not in escapism, but in allegiance.
    If you must look up, fix your eyes not on the clouds, but on the throne.
    But rather than looking up today, heed the words of the angels. Do not look up. Look out. Go out. With your words and with your lives, bear witness to the world that our crucified and risen Lord reigns today at God’s right hand—and that his kingdom will have no end.
    Christ sits at God’s right hand, but you are his body here on earth, and he has given you a mission.
    Come, Holy Spirit, and empower us for this task.
    Amen.
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