For many, Ascension Day will go relatively unnoticed. Forty days after Easter is just another day with many of us in our ordinary routines. The event it celebrates, however, is an important episode in the life of Jesus that the church has regarded highly through the years.
Luke tells the story of Jesus’ ascension both at the end of his gospel (Luke 24:50-53) and the beginning of his writing about the early church (Acts 1:9-11).
Our creeds affirm the Ascension as a central doctrine of the Christian faith. The Apostles’ Creed reads, “he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” The Nicene Creed similarly states, “he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
Centuries later, our United Methodist forebear, John Wesley, emphasized the day by including it as one of three non-Sunday holy day observances included in his Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America—a forerunner of our Book of Worship. The other two are Good Friday and Christmas.
Wesley also retained language about the Ascension as part of the Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church, which he edited from the Church of England. Echoing the creeds, Article III states, “he ascended into Heaven, and there sitteth until he return to judge all men at the last day.”
Charles Wesley, John’s brother and hymn writer of the early Methodist movement, published a pamphlet of seven Hymns for Ascension Day in 1746 and several more hymns on the Ascension that appear in other volumes of his work.
Today, many United Methodist congregations recognize Jesus’ ascension during regular worship services on Ascension Sunday, the Sunday immediately following Ascension Day.
“Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise”
Interestingly, we have no sermons on Ascension Day from John Wesley, and his Explanatory Notes on the New Testament offer no commentary on the account of the Ascension in Acts and little on the verses in Luke. Most of what we know about the Wesleys’ teaching on the Ascension comes from Charles’s hymns.
Our United Methodist Hymnal contains a Charles Wesley hymn titled “Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise” (312). The lyrics for this hymn, an adaptation of Charles’s “Hymn for Ascension-Day” published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), offer insight into the importance of this day.
Charles begins acknowledging the Ascension as both the ending of Jesus’s physical presence on Earth and his return to his rightful place in heaven.
An important celebration
While much of the world may see Ascension Day as just another Thursday, United Methodists can celebrate. With John and Charles Wesley, we remember that Jesus ascended to heaven where he took his rightful throne as Lord of the whole earth. Though he is not bodily present, he continues to love us, and longs to receive us into the presence of God to dwell with him throughout eternity.
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