He Ascended into Heaven – 16 May, 2021
[When Ascension Day is not celebrated on the Thursday after the Sixth Sunday of Easter, it may be celebrated on the Seventh Sunday.]
On the Day of Ascension we heard Jesus bid farewell to his disciples, now commissioned to be apostles, by promising them the Holy Spirit, who would empower them be his ‘‘witnesses.’’ This word, martyres in Greek and its cognates, is familiar to us English-speakers through its transliter- ation as “martyrs,” those who choose to suffer or die rather than give up their beliefs or principles. The history of the early church under the Roman Empire prior to Constantine is full of stories of those who gave their lives rather than recant their faith in Jesus Christ, the stories of Polycarp and Justin, Perpetua and Felicity, being prime examples. But others, like the apostles Peter and Paul, as well as nearer contemporaries like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King, Jr., are appropriately thought of as martyrs. –– John Rollefson
Luke 24:44-53
In this passage Jesus’s final instructions claim the Torah, prophets, and the psalms record things about him that had to be accomplished. He opens their minds to understand their sacred texts in a new way. He claims they state the Messiah was to suffer and rise from the dead. He commissions his companions to proclaim forgiveness and repentance to all peoples starting in Jerusalem and promises to clothe them with power from God.
What is most significant in this text is that it clearly reports that Jesus’s disciples came to clarify their understandings of Jesus in the texts of their scriptures. It underscores that Christian readings are new insights and interpretations of the text and that the early followers of Jesus understood that they had been guided to these new insights from the resurrection experience. –– Regina A. Boisclair
Ephesians 1:15-23
Verse 20 states that God raised Christ from death, seated him at his right hand, and granted Christ power over all things throughout the ages. It then declares Christ head of the church that is to be understood as his body. The reading begins with noting the love within the Ephesian community and prays that God will gift its members with wisdom and greater understanding of their inheritance as saints. –– Regina A. Boisclair
Acts 1:1-11
Acts 1:9, Luke 24:51, and Mark 16:19 are the only reports of the Ascension in the New Testament. Since Acts has been the first reading throughout the Sundays of Easter, it is not surprising this selection would be the first reading on the feast of Christ's Ascension. The opening of Acts connects the story of Jesus with the ministry of disciples that Jesus declares will be his witnesses to the ends of the earth (1:8). This passage reports that the risen Jesus appeared among his disciples, taught them for forty days and instructed them to remain in Jerusalem until they were baptized with the Holy Spirit that would empower their mission. When Acts reports that the apostles ask the risen Lord if he was now to restore the kingdom or Israel, it tells us that adequate understanding of Jesus took time to emerge. The selection ends with two angels (men in white robes were the first century's image of angels) informing the disciples that Jesus has been taken up into heaven and that he will come again. –– Regina A. Boisclair
Regina Boisclair, a Roman Catholic biblical scholar, teaches at Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage, Alaska.
John Rollefson, a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has served congregations in Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, Milwaukee, and San Francisco.
Homily Service 42, no. 2 (2008): 154-167.