Ascension: Freedom
God is in Control
Ephesians 1:15-23
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. May 16th, 2021
When I was growing up I remember we used to have Good Friday off school. Some of the businesses would shut down. And the protestant churches would gather from noon to three for one long service built around Jesus’ seven last words from the cross. Oddly, I remember segments of that service being decently well attended. Nowadays I doubt they still hold that service back home, I don’t think there’s enough people who could get off work to make it happen.
It was not all that long ago that I would go to the ecumenical Good Friday service to sing in the choir. It is one of many changes that have taken place the past few decades that can seem dizzying when you stop to think about it. I have heard people talk about the end of Christendom, the period when the Church fit so neatly into the political and cultural order, and businesses were closed on Sundays. But the decline in Church membership and cultural influence aren’t the only changes that have taken place. We are more aware of gun violence than in the past, with mass shootings publicized and grieved over. If the argument over cancel culture means anything it shows that there are different groups of people in this country with very different sets of norms.
For some of us it can feel like everything once fit, and now it’s coming apart. Or, perhaps we are realizing this was always a world of injustice and our eyes are being made to see. In either case, there is the feeling of a loss of control, helplessness in watching the news, a nostalgia for a time long past.
Where do we go from here?
Today is Ascension Sunday. Today we remember and commemorate Jesus ascending into heaven. Luke recounts that Jesus was carried up into heaven. In Acts he says a cloud took him out of their sight. What a strange episode. Having been raised from the dead, forty days later, Jesus ascends into heaven. We may feel, as his disciples must have felt, that he has left us. Imagine how different this world might be if the incarnate Son of God remained. Continued to perform his miracles, continued to lead us into all truth, and established his Kingdom. Instead he has gone up into heaven. And left us to be witnesses to him.
But the significance of the Ascension is not simply that Jesus has gone up to heaven. It is not simply the doctrine of Jesus’ absence. The significance of the Ascension is that Jesus has gone up into heaven for us. That the crucified one reigns, for us. That he fights his enemies, for us. And that he will come again to set all things right, for us.
Our epistle reading this morning is from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and this passage never ceases to amaze me. Paul is giving thanks to God for the Ephesians, a very common thing in his letters. But he takes the opportunity to wax poetical and to give praise to God. He writes, “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 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 age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
Here he’s talking about the doctrine of the Ascension. He says that when Jesus was raised he ascended, and was seated at the right hand of God. That is to say, he was given a position of great power. In the ancient world the right hand of the King was a place of great influence. God’s right hand is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, which is to say it is far above whatever spiritual power, whatever demonic power, and whatever political power. He is given a rule far greater than Caesar’s, far greater than Jeff Bezos, and far greater than the President of the United States. He has, Paul tells us, put everything under his feet. And he rules not just for his own sake, but for the sake of the Church, the Church which contains his fulness, the fulness of the one who is present to all things.
What a grand statement. You could imagine it being read in a great cathedral, or preached by a powerful orator in flowing lacy robes. The sermon would end with the blast of a pipe organ, hundreds of thousands of dollars in value. A grand choir would sing a song, half of them might not even believe the things they’re singing but they are paid well to sing it. And the well-dressed congregation would boldly praise God for being on their side.
But what makes this passage so astounding to me is that Paul was not a powerful man. He was, in fact, a poor artisan who barely scraped by. Paul only had opportunity to speak to the well to do and powerful when he was brought to them in chains. No, Paul writes this spectacular passage from a Roman prison. And he doesn’t write to a Church that gathers in a grand cathedral, but he writes to scattered house churches. Each church probably gathered no more than twenty or thirty people. All in all this letter was likely circulated among maybe 400 or 500. Possibly less. And they were a rag tag bunch. Many women, many slaves, some artisans, maybe a handful of people who owned homes and could host a gathering. Paul is not writing to the impressive leaders of Rome, showing how God proves his power in blessing them. He’s writing to the rabble. He’s writing to the rabble from prison. And still he has the gall to say, “And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
He has the gall to say it because it’s true. Christ reigns. He reigns for the Church. He is in control. And it isn’t any less true because Paul is in chains, it isn’t any more true when the Church has a hotline to the Oval Office. Christ reigns and he reigns for his Church. We do not need to worry about the future and what it holds. We know the end of the story. We do not need to worry about the Church, Christ has that in hand. All we need to worry about is doing what Christ called us to do, and that is to witness.
This is a world that is in desperate need of the witness of Christ’s love. That is our particular calling. We are called to love. And we are given the freedom to do so because we do not need to be in control. Jesus is in control.