I try, with great and lesser success, to find bulletin images that invite us into worship. This week we are celebrating the Feast of the Ascension, that moment when Jesus physically departs from earth and returns to his Father’s side. And I commend this week’s bulletin cover to you. Often Ascension art depicts Jesus in bright white robes, symbolizing his undefiled humanity redeeming our own. This image is different. Jesus is carrying the colors and patterns and textures of earth with him as he returns to heaven. For the very first time there is a real human being seated at God’s right hand…one who understands the joys and sorrows, potentials and limitations of human existence. No wonder Revelation 5:13 describes this moment with all the language at John’s disposal.
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them, singing,
“To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might
forever and ever!”
Jesus ascends, complete with nail holes and a wounded side. These scars are themselves symbolic of all that Jesus experienced through his 33 years on earth. He understands us as one of us. He has stood where we stand. He has experienced the anxiety we experience. And drawing from his own experience Christ is at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. Jesus bridges the distance between an all-holy God and our fragmented humanity. We want to go our own way, but Christ has made a better way—not by setting a bar so high we cannot follow, but by understanding us from the inside out, and forging a path for our reclaimed humanity to follow.
It really matters that earth has been taken up into heaven. Jesus shines with the light of his glory, but that glory shines through the colors, patterns, and textures of our own lives. Let us celebrate this moment and worship our ascended Lord together.
Then let us adore and give him his right,
all glory and pow'r and wisdom and might,
all honor and blessing, with angels above,
and thanks never ceasing, and infinite love!
