Ascensiontide and Whitsuntide Sermons, 2001 The Rt. Rev. John T. Cahoon, Jr. Acting Metropolitan, Anglican Catholic Church Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic States Rector, St. Andrew and St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Catholic Church Alexandria, Virginia

Whitsunday, June 3, 2001

Just before he ascended into heaven, Jesus told his disciples not to go home to Galilee just yet. He wanted them to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Ghost came down upon them. That event would fulfill the promise that God would send them power. The promise came true ten days after the Ascension, as the disciples got together to celebrate the Jewish feast of Pentecost. Note that the disciples still conceived of themselves as Jews.

Pentecost was a spring festival that came fifty days (hence the name) after Passover. It was a tradition in Judaism that God gave Moses the Law on Mt. Sinai at Pentecost, so the main focus of the feast in the first century was giving thanks for the Law.

The Holy Ghost came down as a rushing mighty wind ("ghost" and "spirit" mean "wind") and as tongues of fire which sat on the heads of each of the disciples. That is why my bishop's mitre is shaped as it is. It represents the flame of fire on the heads of the apostles to whom I am a successor.

The disciples began to praise God in languages they did not know. And, in a startling reversal, St. Peter, singled out in the gospels for his particular inability to get much of anything Jesus said, St. Peter preached a sermon which showed that he not only understood the events of the previous fifty days, but he understood also them in terms of the Old Testament. That sermon converted three thousand people.

Jesus had said that the Holy Ghost would make the apostles witnesses to him throughout the whole world. What he meant was that the Holy Ghost would be the motivating principle of the church. It is the Holy Ghost that has kept the church going for two thousand years. We pass the Holy Ghost along from generation to generation through the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and holy orders.

I have told you before that I think the reason many of us don't have a very clear picture of the Holy Ghost is that he is so hard to visualize. Father and Son immediately conjure up mental images, but ghosts and spirits do so rather less -- unless you think of something like Casper or Patrick Swayze which really aren't much help. Jesus acknowledges this fact when he says that you can see what the Spirit does, but you can't see the Spirit.

Today's collect says that two obvious effects of the Holy Ghost in our lives are, first, to give us "a right judgment in all things," and, second to give us "holy comfort," in which we can rejoice. Let's try to figure out what that all means.

The Spirit of God is the source of all knowledge. God knows everything, because he made everything and he sees everything. Any knowledge human beings get comes from plugging into him -- whether we know it or not.

The foundational place where the Holy Ghost imparts knowledge is the Bible. The second main source is in the tradition of the unbroken church. These are not just sources of narrowly religious knowledge. They tell us who God is and who we are and so give us the basis on which we can "have a right judgment in all things" -- not just in strictly spiritual things.

If you want to hear the Holy Ghost's voice as it applies to any concern you have, the most important thing to do is read the Bible. The Bible is also the handbook on how to pray about what concerns you and about what kinds of' answers you may expect to get. Jesus says not, "If you pray," but, instead, "When you pray."

The comfort to which the collect refers is comfort in its original sense. "Comfort" literally means "strength" -- you can see "fort" in "comfort." The Holy Ghost provides you, if you ask him for it, with intensified strength with which to meet all of the problems that arise in our faces every day. I read Morning and Evening Prayer every day like a good boy, and I get a lot of help from the Jesus Prayer, but I'd have to admit my most frequent prayers are, "What next?" and "Help me, Jesus." He has never failed me.

Ultimately the holy comfort is a relationship with God through Jesus. Do you have a relationship to Jesus? Do you know you can have one? All you have to do is ask him to make you aware that he is already in your heart, and then start talking with him in an honest way. If you don't have a sense of personal connection to Jesus, you are probably just going through the motions. We have lovely motions available here. to be sure, but they are supposed to get you through to the real thing, which is Jesus the Lord himself.

Please don't leave here this morning without asking God to make you aware of his presence within you and without you by the Holy Ghost. Accept what you hear in the Bible and in sermons and teaching as God's word directed at you. Rejoice that God will put himself inside you when you receive Holy Communion. There can be no more intimate contact than that.

And never forget St. Paul's command, "Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say 'Rejoice'."

The Collect: O GOD, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit; Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle. Acts ii. 1

The Gospel. St. John xiv. 15.

The Sunday after Ascension Day, May 27, 2001

Today we contemplate what the Prayer Book calls "his glorious ascension." The Ascension of Christ is glorious because it proves once and for all that he is God, and that he reflects the glory of God, which is the light of his presence. The Ascension is also glorious because it is the final expression of Jesus' victory. He has taken, as it were, the worst that earth could throw at him -- humiliation, pain, anguish, and execution -- and he has come through all of it with only a couple of scratches -- scratches which prove that God is stronger than suffering or death.

The glory of the Ascension does not belong to Jesus alone. It is ours to share with him because we are members of his body. When Jesus went back to heaven to be with his father, he did not restore the status quo which obtained before he entered the womb of his virgin mother. He did not go back to being pure spirit as he had been before his incarnation. He has taken our human nature up to heaven with him.

His ascension is a foretaste of our own ascensions into heaven at the last day. The Prayer Book collect tells us we can experience heaven with him now in our hearts and in our minds. He tells us the purpose of his ascension when he says, "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am thither ye may be also."

The disciples on this Sunday were in between two great events. Jesus had ascended into heaven, but he had told them not to go back home and start fishing again just yet. He said, "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." Wait in Jerusalem until I send the Holy Ghost to you. He will show you what I want you to do, and he will give you the inclination and the strength to do it. His promise is still good.

In today's epistle St. Peter tells us, "The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer." We associate the end of all things far more with Advent than with Ascension and Whitsunday, but the urgency of what St. Peter says reminds us that the coming of the Holy Ghost is the last really big and decisive thing God does in human history. From now on the church has to spread the word about Jesus until his coming again.

The book of the Bible which unlocks the more cosmic meaning of the Ascension is the Epistle to the Hebrews. The essential purpose of that book is to explain Jesus' death on the cross in terms of the Old Testament cult of animal sacrifices.

The climactic moment of the liturgical year in Judaism was the day of atonement -- Yom Kippur. On that day the high priest would enter the holy of holies in the temple at Jerusalem and throw the blood of the atonement sacrifice on the place where God was most directly present. That action, among others, took away the sins of all of the people for the year.

Hebrews tells us that when Jesus ascended into heaven he was entering the true holy of holies. The holy of holies space in the temple was just an earthly image of the throne room of God the Father in heaven. Jesus did not carry the blood of animals with him, he carried his own blood -- the blood of his sacrifice on the cross.

His sacrifice was the sacrifice to which all of the animal sacrifices had been pointing ahead all along. His sacrifice was perfect, because the one who offered and the sacrifice that was offered were the same. Jesus is both the priest and the victim.

No sacrifice can outdo his, so his sacrifice brings the animal sacrifices to their conclusion. Yom Kippur forgave sins for one year. Good Friday forgives sins for all time. Jesus is sitting down at the Father's right side because his priestly work -- all priestly work -- is over and done.

At the end of the Prayer for the Whole State of Christ's Church we call Jesus "our only Mediator and Advocate." "Mediator" means "go-between" -- someone who puts himself in between two parties to try to reconcile them. We were separated from God by our sin and disobedience. Jesus is the perfect mediator between us and God, because he reconciles us in his own being -- he is both God and man. He does for us what we could never do for ourselves. His ascension is the final proof.

"Advocate" means "one who speaks for" -- lawyer, as it were. What Jesus does in heaven with his blood is to plead it before God. He defends us -- he is our advocate -- not because he says "Oh they're really not so bad -- they have pretty good reasons to act the way they do -- they're really kind of cute -- why don't we just let them off the hook?"

Jesus is our advocate because he points to his blood and says, "I paid the penalty they deserve. I sacrificed myself so they would get off the hook and have all the charges against them dropped. They sin, but I died. That's it."

So the Ascension becomes the final act in the drama of our salvation. The Father sees that his Son has been completely obedient. The Father sees that the Son's blood means that he has sacrificed himself to forgive us. We can rely on that forgiveness always. We can stand before God without fear because Jesus died. As he says, "In this world ye will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world" -- for you.

The Collect.  GOD, the King of glory, who hast exalted thine only O Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven; We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

The prophet Zechariah tells us when the Messiah appears he will stand on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem. That connects to what the angels tell the disciples this evening, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."

Jesus went back to heaven from the Mount of Olives. Jesus will return from heaven to the Mount of Olives. The disciples' job in the time in between those two great events -- a job they pass to the church -- is to let the Holy Ghost fill them so they can tell about Jesus to the farthest parts of the earth. That is his commission to his apostolic church. That is what we are supposed to be doing.

I am struck every year with the fact that the lessons for Ascension Day -- both written by St. Luke -- tell us what the ascension looked like from the disciples' perspective -- the takeoff -- his going up from earth into the cloud of the presence of God.

But the imagery of the hymns is mostly a description of the landing, as it were -- what it looked like at the other end -- from the perspective of God and the holy angels -- the welcome back -- the "When Johnny comes marching home" end of the ascension.

That imagery is borrowed in turn from one of the most dramatic passages of scripture -- the seventh chapter of the prophecy of Daniel. Let me quote it to you so you can enjoy it. "The Ancient of days" is "the old one" -- God the Father almighty, and Jesus is the Son of Man.

"The Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like a fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened ... I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."

Jesus has gone back to heaven, and he has taken our human nature with him. We are up there with him in heart and mind now. Soon he will appear on the Mount of Olives to take us up to live forever with the Ancient of days. So we pray, as he taught us, "thy kingdom come."

The Collect. Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

The same Collect, Epistle, and Gospel shall serve for every day after, unto the next Sunday, except upon the Feast of St. Philip and St. James.