An Ascension Day Sermon for March for Life Canada
CHRIST RISEN LUTHERAN CHURCH, KANATA
Once again, as we have done many times before on Ascension Day in this city of Ottawa, and as we are poised again to ascend to the summit of power in our land on Parliament Hill and march to give voice to those who so cruelly have their life wrenched away, both those tender young ones in their mothers womb through abortion, and the frail and forlorn elderly through the seductive enticements of MAID, with governing authorities instituted by God to protect their earthly well-being shamelessly negligent of such duty, once again, we reverently gather together in this house of worship, before the Most High King on the highest Throne, to make our intercession before Him and ask His blessing on all that we do in His name.
But every year as we come before Him as His people, called by His Name, humbling ourselves with our prayers and supplications, that our nation and its people would turn from her wicked ways, that our Lord would hear from heaven, and heal our land, does it not seem that every year, things just continue to get worse, and worse, and worse, with never any improvement in sight?
When Lutherans for Life – Canada was first founded, it was for the sole purpose of responding to the only threat to life seen at that time, the horrific acts abortion against the unborn. Fervently did we pray that God would rescue and protect the frail vulnerable children in their mother’s womb, but alas, in recent years, we have only seen, even further threats to life, not just at its beginning at conception to birth, but now at its end, through MAID, this not just with the indifference and complicity of a negligent state, but also behind which are the darker and more sinister forces of the old evil foe who seeks nothing but death—if he cannot rob you of life in your mother’s womb, do not think you are safe from his diabolical wiles, he will seek to rob you of life, your whole life long. In fact, because of your sin, you will one day, surely die, such are the wages of sin into which the devil has led all sons of Adam, like us.
And as we earnestly continue to pray and speak out for life, there is then, now, something else of late that the devil has thrust upon us to threaten us, to frustrate us, to silence us--yet another of the ploys of the devil wrought through those in the state instituted by God and called to be His servants, to undermine faith and life. Threats by that parliament on whose hill we soon will voice our convictions of truth, which would seek to even criminalize that voice of confessing our Lord before man as “hates crimes.” We demonstrate, protest, we pray, we intercede for our nation, for our people, for those who are frail and vulnerable, but things just seem to go from bad to worse all around us.
That is, in fact, what the disciples must have been tempted to feel on that day of Ascension--which is the real occasion for which we gather here at this place and on this day. Things going from bad to worse, hopes dashed. First, they saw their Lord put to death on the cruel cross by a tyrannical state, urged on by the sway of merciless and hateful mobs. But “we hoped that He would be the One Who would redeem Israel.”--and now, we have lost Him for ever.
But wait—alleluia!--He rose again! “It was necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory!” He is alive again, beyond all expectations, our hopes are restored again! And now Jesus, You can get back to Your business of righting wrongs of this world. And so, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?” But what does Jesus do? He, it seems, leaves them again, ascending into heaven, leaving the apostles, it seems, alone again, their hopes of a kingdom on this world dashed again. Facing a cruel world with all of the same problems, a society and state which will kill the frail and vulnerable, who have a Roman version of law and policy where if you do not say “Caesar is Lord!” you will charged with hate crimes.
But no, after the disciples see Jesus ascend to heaven, “they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God.” Ah, yes, they knew something about Jesus’ Ascension—what it was really all about!
What they saw was that when Jesus ascended into heaven He did not leave them--nor us; He was actually fulfilling the promise that He would never leave us nor forsake us! What so many Christians often get so wrong about the Lord’s Ascension is that they think that there Jesus left us behind here on earth to fend for ourselves without Him. It makes it look like that the relationship between Jesus the Bridegroom and we His bride is a marriage “on the rocks” and experiencing difficulty, for the simple reason that we are no longer living together, but we are rather a couple separated, living in different homes, Jesus in heaven, and we down here, and this not because of a decision of the bride, but precisely because of a supposed act of the Bridegroom Himself to ascend to move to live in the splendid palace of heaven in a state of glorious exaltation, but leaving the bride behind and alone by doing so. The Bridegroom indeed promises to come back on some unknown future day to rescue her from her sordid and dangerous ramshackle hut of this world and bring her to His safe splendid home, but He will will not live with His bride in the meantime to comfort her and share in her trials, difficulties and crosses with a continued presence with her. Some bridegroom that is!
That false way of viewing Christ’s ascension, so common among many Christians, lures the church to see the Bridegroom in His majesty to be removed from and “out of touch” with her in the midst of her suffering and persecution as church militant, even orphaned (but remember how Jesus promises I will not leave you as orphans!- John 14:18), and left alone to fend for herself until Christ’s return, as we struggle against the forces of the evils of this world, our crosses, our trials, left to ourselves as the lonely bride as we march on Parliament Hill, before earthly kings as the bride of Christ, but without the High King, our Bridegroom with us, on our side. And we view our task as a church, while we are living exiled on this earth, to build up an earthly kingdom while the heavenly kingdom is far away and distant, a hope that is only far in the future, not for now, and this by earthly means, for what else do we have at our disposal? With all that, there is nothing to rejoice about with the Lord’s ascension, only, why did He do that to us, leave us, rather than stay with us as He so solemnly promised?
But oh, the disciples saw things so differently watching the Lord ascend into heaven!--rejoicingly different, Alleluia-ly different!—He did keep His promise to stay with them—and they heard the angels speak with the words of comfort, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven, This Jesus Who was taken up into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven!” How did the disciples see Him go into heaven? With hands raised, blessing them, in that way He parted from them and was carried up into heaven.” And they never did see Him take His hands down as He ascended into heaven! Which means, that Jesus never stops blessing them, high there from heaven!
And that also means that He never left them! When the angels said He will come back in the same way as you saw Him, it is not just talking about His Second Coming some day. It is also taking about when Jesus comes to us in His word and sacrament today in our life, in our Divine Service, where those angels and archangels and all the company of heaven surround us in glorious assembly, where heaven comes down to us. Jesus, the Noble Gentleman and Manly Bridegroom never abandons His bride but always remains present at her side, with her, and for her, most especially in His own Body and Blood truly present in the Holy Supper, sharing His life with hers, so that she may confidently trust in the heavenly weapons of Word and Sacrament wielded personally by the Bridegroom fighting for her, and on her behalf, and where she may always “Hasten as a bride to meet Him,/ And loving rev’rence greet Him./ For with words of life immortal/ He is knocking at your portal./ Open wide the gates before Him,/ Saying , as you there adore Him;/ Grant, Lord, that I now receive You,/ That I never more will leave You.” (LSB: 636) That is what Ascension Day is all about!
And what this means is that Jesus, the Ascended One, precisely because of His glorious ascension, works all things for our good, because the supreme goodness of Life eternal has already been given to us, the riches of His glorious inheritance for us through His death and resurrection. And from His High Throne in heaven, He intimately lives with His Bridegroom the church here on earth, His Kingdom is present in our midst, actively victorious, filled with Life. And in that confidence, with such faith, as we consider all things happening around us in our world, and in such hope, we continue with our vocations and work in this world, letting our light shine among men, that they will see Christ and come to believe in Him, and in that light, we boldly and joyfully march on Parliament Hill. And when our pleas and work seem to no avail, when things just seem to be getting worse all the time, we remember ever fervently that our hope is not in any kingdom of the world, in any earthly kingdom of Israel, or even the kingdom of Canada, but rather Jesus rises and ascends to draw us to the Kingdom of Heaven, where our true citizenship is found, found now in our midst in His Life-giving embassies of water, bread and wine.
We Christians are in exile in this world, like those Jews of old exiled in Babylon. As they were taken from their true home, Jerusalem, their place of worship, the Temple, destroyed, they were dragged to a foreign land where they could never belong. We are in exile, and not just because Canada has so lost its Christian heritage, ceased to be the Christian-church friendly place of our youth. No, it is deeper than that. Our true home is really Eden, with the presence of God, and we have all been in exile from our true home since the fall of Adam and Eve, since the angel with the flaming sword has been placed at the door of paradise blocking our entrance there, and since we have the Old Adam coursing through our veins, which means from the time our mother conceived us, we are in exile from home. We long to go back home, but we will never be at home, until we are finally brought back there through that door where Jesus has stepped before the flaming sword wielded against sinners and let Himself be cut down in our stead, because He became sin for us, and Who rises again, that we might rise with Him, and Who now says to us, “I am the Door,” and it is open for you; the angel has laid down his flaming sword, and through this door, you will find a Father Who welcomes His prodigal son back home, with the Ascended Lord, the Head, leading the way for the Body, the Church. Only in the House of our Heavenly Father are we truly at Home; always we are strangers and exiles in this world, no matter what parliament does or does not do, no matter whatever becomes of Canada, we are here never at home, always exiles.
But do you remember what Jeremiah the prophet said to his exiles in Babylon. What should you do, you exiles longing to go back home? “Build houses, live in them, plant gardens, and eat their produce, Take wives, and have sons and daughters. . . .seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare, you will find your welfare.” (Jer. 29: 5-7)
And that is that we are doing on Parliament Hill. Praying to the Lord and interceding on behalf of those around us in this our foreign land of exile, those threatened by abortion, by MAID, by the hopelessness and brokenness of the false gods which have this land in its bondage, out of love for them, for that is the sacred vocation of Christians in this our life here. Faithfully do we speak to them the words of our true Home, the Gospel, the words of our true King, Who is our brother in flesh and blood sitting on the Highest Throne, and in that way He has restored the Kingdom of Israel, not that earthly realm centred in the earthly Jerusalem, and even less one of an earthly Ottawa, but rather the eternal kingdom of the heavenly Jerusalem where the Lamb Who was slain has begun his reign above all principalities and powers, where the old evil foe is defeated, and his threats of death are no more. And gathered there around our True King, we fear not whatever persecution may come our way, to silence us, to stifle our voice. We speak it faithfully and courageously, joyfully and boldly, with confidence, for the Word of the Lord will last forever, and will not come back void, and the Lord will works good through our suffering. For the Feast of Victory of our true home has already begun, and in this Kingdom, under this King, ascended on high, but even now amongst us in the church militant, where the strife is fierce, and the warfare long, things never get worse, but in Christ, are always already the very best, and yet will always get even better and better without end.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He has risen indeed! Alleluia!
Cover photo: by Tessa Rampersad on Unsplash