Ascension Day

Today, forty days after Easter, is celebrated as Ascension Day on the church calendar.  It commemorates Jesus’ ascension into Heaven after multiple appearances to His followers following His resurrection.  It is a special day to remember because Jesus gave us our “marching orders” before leaving this earth in bodily form:

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20

Yesterday I was reading a Christian magazine that contained several short pieces on what churches were doing during, and what they had learned from, the pandemic.  Once person wrote of the “emerging church depth” movement, which is new to me.  The concept of the “emerging church” has been around for a while, so I consider it to be fully emerged at this point.  The depth concept seems to refer to going beyond programs and structures and getting to know people and meeting their needs – not really a new concept.  One sentence struck me in particular: “The emerging church depth movement will not focus on making more disciples, training more outreach teams or imposing ideological conformity. It will be about maturing a motivated minority who become role models of the fruit of the Spirit, spontaneously and daringly, in daily living.” (Bold emphasis is mine).

I think I understand where the author is going – show the fruit of the Spirit every day; move beyond the superficial and programmatic to form relationships; increase the depth of one’s faith.  That’s all good stuff.  But don’t focus on making more disciples?  Those are almost exactly Jesus’ words to us in Matthew and they couldn’t be clearer.  The very heart of everything we do as believers, every ministry we are involved in, should be to make disciples.  It means salvation, surely, but it includes the ongoing process of sanctification, or growing to be more like Jesus.  We are all on the sanctification road at various points.  Sometimes we backtrack, other times we leap ahead.  But each of us has a responsibility to help others along that road to make disciples and to make disciples better followers.

While Ascension Day commemorates a departure, it also commemorates a rising.

Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going. John 14:1-4

Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25

 Jesus rose from the grave then rose into Heaven to return to the Father to await us, to prepare a place for us.  And in the Father’s presence, He intercedes for us.  He has risen to give us hope and He has risen to speak on our behalf.

We are mired in the midst of a mess called COVID-19.  Many facets of our life are different now and will remain different going forward.  But, if we are faithful, we will rise from this.  We will learn and grow.  We will mourn those we have lost, we will rejoice with those who are healed, and we will adapt and move forward.  The way we do church has already changed and I’m not sure we will ever get back to “normal,” and that’s okay.  We will continue to meet and interact with each other in new ways and we will, hopefully, interact with the community around us and the unbelievers we meet every day in new and meaningful ways.  But whatever the new normal looks like we must never, ever stop making disciples.  It is our calling.  It is in our DNA as followers of Christ.  Like Jesus, we must rise.  For us it is rising to the challenges we face, but we can face them with hope and confidence because He rose that we might live.

Happy Ascension Day!