Readings: Acts 1.1–11; Daniel 7.9–14; Psalm 47; Ephesians 1.15–23; Luke 24.44–53
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight, O Lord.
Did you ever watch I, Claudius?
Or perhaps you’ve read the books?
I suppose I was about 15 when I first read them,
shortly before the BBC made that wonderful adaptation.
Remember – Derek Jacobi in the title role,
and a host of other stars?
I well recall our Latin teacher back then
telling us that the books were so good
that occasionally he would forget
whether some incident was actually historical
or had instead been invented by the author, Robert Graves.
And certainly Graves did include
a host of real historical information in the books.
For example, Graves relates
that a few weeks after the emperor Augustus died in AD 14,
the Roman Senate declared him to be divine.
They built an official state temple,
and special coins were minted
showing the emperor being carried up to heaven,
perhaps in a chariot,
accompanied by wing’d figures.
So you see there’s some history
of great rulers being declared gods
when they died
or even whilst still alive.
And a few years after Augustus,
around AD 40,
the emperor Caligula declared himself a god.
Claudius was next,
declared divine immediately he died in 54.
Even his nephew, the infamous Nero
who ruled until 68,
was worshipped as part of the divine imperial family.
I’ve mentioned these dates,
not to try and give a history lesson
– there’s no exam later –
but because they remind us
that this is exactly the time
when the events of the New Testament took place
and when much of it was written.
This is the context
in which Jesus was first proclaimed by Christians
as the Son of God,
and described as being taken up into heaven.
We might well wonder what the relationship is
between the descriptions of Jesus’s ascension
and the tradition of emperors and others
taken up to a pagan heaven.
Let’s think about what we heard earlier in our readings.
The Old Testament lesson from Daniel draws on traditions
several hundred years before those Roman emperors,
Claudius and Co.
It’s a vision of a human figure
“coming with the clouds of heaven”,
coming to the throne of God and receiving eternal kingship.
Clearly Jesus’s ascension sits in this tradition.
And we also had two accounts of that Ascension of Jesus.
Our service began with the opening words of the Acts of the Apostles.
It’s rather the definitive account,
the one we think of when the Ascension is mentioned.
And our gospel reading had the ascension story again,
this time from the very end of Luke.
Did you notice any differences between these two –
one from Acts and one from the gospel according to Luke?
Did you?
Because they aren’t quite the same.
In the gospel
the Ascension happens at the end of Easter Day itself,
but in Acts it’s forty days later,
just as today is forty days after Easter Day –
remember I said it’s the Acts account we generally recall?
And it’s only in Acts that
“two men in white robes” appear
and explain to the disciples what’s happened,
telling them Jesus will return in the same way.
Now don’t forget Claudius and those other emperors.
I’ve suggested that the New Testament descriptions of Jesus’s ascension
have a parallel
in the contemporary Roman emperors being declared divine.
But at the time, of course,
the stories of emperors were much better known
than the story of Jesus.
Whatever it was that the disciples witnessed,
what they are doing is asserting a cult
that is a rival to the official cult of the Roman state.
A cult, a religion, in which their leader
mystically ascends into the heavens in recognition that he is divine.
And of course the disciples, the early Christians,
assert that it is their story which is true,
and that the divinity of the emperors is bogus.
They use the well-known stories about emperors
to proclaim the truth about Jesus.
So what is it that they are trying to say?
Let’s consider two important things.
First
these early Christians were absolutely convinced that Jesus was divine.
They hadn’t yet worked out the theological details,
but there’s no doubt that they had become convinced it was true.
They want the world to hear about Jesus;
and
they want the world to hear
that Jesus is divine.
And secondly:
what do the passages say?
“you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem … to the ends of the earth”
(that’s Jesus in Acts)
and “repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed …
to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem”
(that’s from Luke).
And this is surely the key lesson for us.
You’ve heard me say it before
and I make no apology for saying it again.
The task that Jesus gives his disciples
is to tell everyone the good news about the kingdom of God.
We are to tell people about our hope:
hope in the reconciliation that is God’s love –
hope in reconciliation with God the creator
and
reconciliation with God’s creation, with all our fellow creatures.
Reconciliation with God the creator
and reconciliation with our fellow creatures.
What does that mean in practice? What can we each do?
It means living at love and peace
with our family and our neighbours,
not getting into disputes, not bearing grudges
– “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us” –
and this applies to every aspect of our lives:
to personal conflict,
to local and regional conflict,
to international conflict.
And it applies to issues of social justice as well:
to equitably sharing the bounty of this world –
food, housing, healthcare,
fair employment and fair wages,
ending unjust discrimination.
And to our stewardship of the world that we are called to live in.
It isn’t always easy, is it?
But all this flows directly
from Jesus’s message of love and reconciliation.
This is Jesus’s manifesto of compassionate love.
What any one of us can do
may be quite limited,
but it isn’t zero.
In our personal lives,
in our support for charities, for campaigns,
in how we shop,
how we vote or support political parties,
in how we speak and how we act,
we each of us make
a small but significant impact.
And one final thought.
We’re not alone.
Church is the community of people committed to doing this together.
Here should be the primary community
where we care for each other,
and where we are strengthened for that service in the world,
strengthened by each other
and strengthened by our belief
in the God who loves and reconciles.
Collectively we help advance the kingdom of God,
where God’s love and compassion are shared with all,
and peace and justice flow like a river.
Amen.
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