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May 20, 2007, Sunday After Ascension,  All Souls' Church

Our eternal high priest

      Ten days before the Feast of Pentecost, on the fortieth day following his glorious Easter resurrection, our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven. There, in the presence of the Heavenly Father who so loved the world he gave us his only begotten son, our Lord intercedes for us as our eternal high priest. At the temple in Jerusalem, the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies once a year every year on the Day of Atonement where, in the presence of God, he would pray on behalf of a sinful nation. As our high priest, the Lord Jesus, having obtained eternal redemption for us by offering himself upon the cross once and for all, enters once and for all into the greater presence of God in the true Holy of Holies in Heaven. There, with human flesh still bearing the marks of his crucifixion, he ensures that nothing shall ever separate us from God. He has torn down that dividing curtain from top to bottom. As members of Christ’s Body, we are forever in the loving presence of God in Christ and through Christ. He has secured our citizenship in the Heavenly kingdom which is our eternal home. This is what we celebrate in the Ascension of our Lord.

      In the words of a Nineteenth Century bishop, scholar, and hymn writer, Christopher Wordsworth:
Thou hast raised our human nature on the clouds to God’s right hand:
There we sit in Heavenly places, there with Thee in glory stand.
Jesus reigns, adored by angels; man with God is on the throne;
Mighty Lord, in thine ascension, we by faith behold our own.

      These are remarkable words by Bishop Wordsworth. Man with God on the throne of Heaven. These are remarkable words, but true, and they speak to us of the Heavenly, theological, and Trinitarian doctrine which is our faith in its fullness. We must understand our faith in the context of its Heavenly, theological, and Trinitarian fullness or we run the risk of substituting it with a mere caricature of what we believe. And, this is so important particularly as our faith is constantly under attack from militant atheists, clergy, and others with an ax to grind against the church. For example, one sometimes hears the Christian doctrine of the atonement described this way:  A wrathful God who is determined to punish someone for sins we can’t help but commit punishes his son instead of us so that we, Barabbas like, can go free and allow him to take the fall not only for sins we committed in the past but for future sins as well.  Describing the atonement this way is like describing Hamlet as just a ghost story or Casablanca as a movie about Morocco.  And the sad part is that we often do it to ourselves. Years ago at a Confirmation service, I heard a bishop discuss the matter this way: During a hockey game, when a penalty is given to the goalie, one of the other players serves time in the penalty box on the goalie’s behalf. This is the way a bishop described the atonement. (It was right around this time that I began thinking about converting to Rastafarianism.)

       Yes, Christ died for us. Yes, he paid the price for our sins. Yes, his death upon the cross was sacrificial and substitutionary. The Bible does in fact say all these things, and yet we must understand all this in the context of our Heavenly, theological, and Trinitarian doctrine. God was not punishing his son. God gave us his son. Jesus came for this purpose and he did so willingly. He said no man takes my life from me. I lay it down. (John 10:18) He offered himself. Of course, our Lord Jesus was in agony and sweat great drops of blood. Have you ever done something willingly and out of love which caused you pain and agony? This is a rhetorical question because if you happen to be a parent the answer obviously is yes. And, is the wrath of God the negation of God’s love or rather an expression of it? Has love ever caused you to be angry? Again, if you’re a parent, the obvious answer is yes. Also, we do not worship three gods, but one God. The one who became incarnate and gave himself for us is God. He showed us the wages of sin, the self-destruction which comes with turning away from who we really are as God’s children. He made clear in human terms the sacrificial character of love, the necessity of forgiveness, the cost of reconciliation, and the transforming power of grace so amazing and so divine it exults our human nature even to the very throne of Heaven. A human being named Jesus from the city of Nazareth is both God and man. He is God in the flesh; our flesh. As both God and man he is at once “the root and the offspring of David.” (Revelation 22:16) He is now face to face with God in Heaven, and in spirit, so are we. This is what we celebrate in the Ascension of our Lord.

      In Christ and in spirit, we are face to face with God. And yet, our resurrection has yet to occur. We are still in the midst of our earthly pilgrimage. And so, the very love of the Father and the Son dwells within us in the person of the Holy Ghost. Jesus prayed that the love with which the Father loves the Son may be in us. This is the Holy Spirit’s gift. Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit comes to the church, the Father and the Son will make their abode with us. By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we come to know something of that eternal love and unity which is the life of Heaven.

      The Bible tells us that the people of God sojourned in the wilderness for forty years on their way to the Promised Land. Moses served as a type of mediator between God and the people, speaking with God upon the holy mountain, interceding on the people’s behalf, and receiving the law. However, when God’s people entered the Promised Land, Moses did not go with them. They were now a people of the law. They no longer needed Moses as a mediator because the law would tell them how to live and please God. The law would also teach them their need for forgiveness. In the fullness of time, God came to us in Jesus Christ to fulfill the law and reconcile us with God. Now, the only mediator between God and man is God and man. God united us with himself in Jesus Christ. The fullness of the law – the love of God and love of neighbor – dwells within us by the Holy Spirit. The Ascension teaches us that God and man are face to face in Heaven and are united forever in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit dwells within us and teaches us the reality of this divine and human unity. It is true that we have this treasure in earthly vessels, but it is this great and priceless treasure all the same. And so, Jesus prays that we all may be one and that the love of the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Son may live within us. Eternal love in unity is what we celebrate in the Ascension of our Lord.

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