**Please note this service is based on the format of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada. Unless otherwise indicated, all prayers come from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW). Hymns and other prayers have been sourced to give appropriate credit.
**NRSV translation used for the readings, unless otherwise stated.
**This is for personal use at home as the church is unable to gather in our houses of worship but together we can worship in our own homes.
Introduction to the Day
In today’s readings the risen Christ ascends into heaven and his
followers are assured that the Spirit will empower them to be witnesses
throughout the earth. The disciples are told to not gaze up into heaven to look
for Jesus; we find his presence among us as we proclaim the word and share the
Easter feast. We too long for the Spirit to enliven our faith and invigorate
our mission.
Confession and Forgiveness
Blessed be the holy Trinity, ☩ one God,
who forgives all our sin,
whose mercy endures forever.
Amen.
Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Let us confess our sin in the presence of God and of one another.
Most merciful God,
we confess that we
are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in
thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as
ourselves. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive
us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your
ways, to the glory of your holy name.
Amen.
God, who is rich in mercy, loved us even when we were dead in sin, and made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. In the name of ☩ Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. Almighty God strengthen you with power through the Holy Spirit, that Christ may live in your hearts through faith.
Amen.
Gathering Song – Alleluia! Sing to Jesus (ELW #392)
Greeting
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion
of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
And also with you.
Canticle of Praise
Prayer of the Day
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us pray.
Almighty God, your only Son was taken into the heavens and in your
presence intercedes for us. Receive us and our prayers for all the world, and
in the end bring everything into your glory, through Jesus Christ, our
Sovereign and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and forever.
Amen.
Readings
A reading from the Book of Acts 1:1-11
In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote
about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he
was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to
the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive
to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and
speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not
to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he
said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you
will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So when they had come together, they
asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to
Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the
Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy
Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all
Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as
they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in
white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking
up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will
come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Psalm 47
A reading from the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 1:15-23
I have heard of your faith in the Lord
Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease
to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and
revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart
enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are
the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the
immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the
working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised
him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far
above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that
is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all
things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church,
which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Children’s Message
The Story of Jesus Going to
Heaven
For 40 days after he came back
to life, Jesus came and talked to his friends. One day he was with them on the
Mount of Olives. He knew that it was time for him to go back to Heaven.
So, he told his friends that
he was giving them a gift, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes
to you. When you receive this power, you will tell people about me.”
He wanted them to tell people
about his love. He told them to go to Jerusalem, then to Judea and Samaria, and
then the whole world!
As soon as he finished
speaking, Jesus began to rise up into the air. His followers watched as a cloud
came down and covered him.
They kept looking up at the
sky even though they could no longer see Jesus.
Suddenly, two angels in shining
white clothes were standing nearby. “Why are you men standing here looking at
the sky?” they asked. “You saw Jesus go to Heaven. Don’t worry. He will come
back someday the same way he left.”
Then the men went back to the
city.
Did you know that Jesus going
up to Heaven in a cloud is called the Ascension? The Bible tells us that he
will come back to earth in a cloud to get his followers and take us to Heaven
to be with him forever.
What do you think we should do
while we are waiting?
Should we sit around looking
at the sky like the men in the story were?
Or should we go out and tell
people about Jesus by acting and treating people with love the way Jesus did
during his time on earth?
Let us pray.
Almighty God, when we remember what you said and did, we know you were showing us how good the world could be. Give us the courage and wisdom to follow you. Amen.
Gospel Acclamation
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke 24:44-53
Glory to you, O Lord.
Then he said to them, “These are my
words that I spoke to you while I was still with you – that everything written
about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them,
“Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on
the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed
in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of
these things. And see, I am sending upon you what God promised; so stay here in
the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.
The gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O
Christ.
Sermon
May only truth be spoken and only truth
received. Amen.
Malcolm Guite is a poet-priest who travels England and North America giving lectures, concerts, and poetry readings. He wrote this poem about the Ascension of Christ:
We
saw his light break through the cloud of glory
Whilst
we were rooted still in time and place
As
earth became a part of Heaven’s story
And
heaven opened to his human face.
We
saw him go and yet we were not parted
He
took us with him to the heart of things
The
heart that broke for all the broken-hearted
Is
whole and Heaven-centred now, and sings,
Sings
in the strength that rises out of weakness,
Sings
through the clouds that veil him from our sight,
Whilst
we our selves become his clouds of witness
And
sing the waning darkness into light,
His
light in us, and ours in him concealed,
Which
all creation waits to see revealed.
After Jesus rose from the dead, He "presented Himself alive" to the women near the tomb per Matthew, to His disciples as per Luke, and to more than 500 others as per Paul. In the days following His resurrection, Jesus taught His disciples about the kingdom of God.
Forty days after the resurrection, Jesus and His disciples went to Mount Olive, near Jerusalem, close to the place where he had withdrawn to pray before the Passion in order to remain in deep union with God.
There, Jesus promised His followers that they would soon receive the Holy Spirit, and He instructed them to remain in Jerusalem until the Spirit had come. Then Jesus blessed them, and as He gave the blessing, He began to ascend into heaven. This is the account of Jesus' ascension that is found in today’s readings of Luke and Acts.
It is plain from Scripture that Jesus' ascension was a literal, bodily return to heaven. He rose from the ground gradually and visibly, observed by many intent onlookers. As the disciples strained to catch a last glimpse of Jesus, a cloud hid Him from their view, and two angels appeared and promised Christ's return "in just the same way that you have watched Him go".
The Ascension of Jesus Christ is meaningful for several reasons:
1) It signaled the end of His earthly ministry. God had lovingly sent Jesus into the world at Bethlehem, and now the Son was returning to God at Bethany. The period of human limitation was at an end.
2) It signified success in His earthly work. All that He had come to do, He had accomplished.
3) It marked the return of His heavenly glory. Jesus' glory had been veiled during His sojourn on earth, with one brief exception at the Transfiguration.
4) It symbolized His exaltation by God. The One with whom God is well pleased was received up in honor and given a name above all names.
5) It allowed Him to prepare a place for us. Christ opened the path to us. He is like a roped guide climbing a mountain who, on reaching the summit, pulls us up to him and leads us to God.
6) It indicated the beginning of His new work as High Priest and Mediator of the New Covenant.
7)
It
set the pattern for His return. When Jesus comes to set up the Kingdom, He will
return just as He left - literally, bodily, and visibly in the clouds.
Currently, the Lord Jesus is in heaven. In the Creed we say that Jesus “is seated at the right hand of the Father” - a position of honor and authority. Christ is the Head of the Church, the giver of spiritual gifts.
As Pope Francis so beautifully stated, the Ascension does not point to Jesus’ absence, but tells us that he is alive in our midst in a new way. He is no longer in a specific place in the world as he was before the Ascension.
It is a paradox. In one sense Christ leaves us and is taken away into Heaven, but in another sense he is given to us and to the world in a new and more universal way. His humanity is taken into heaven so our humanity belongs there too, and is in a sense already there with him.
Jesus is now in the presence of God, present in every space and time, close to each one of us. In our life we are never alone: we have this Advocate who awaits us, who defends us. We are never alone: the Crucified and Risen Lord guides us.
Isn’t it a wonderful thing, to know that we have an advocate who will always defend us, who defends us from ourselves and from our sins?
Do not be afraid to turn to him and ask forgiveness, to ask for a blessing, to ask for mercy.
At the same time, do not be afraid to leave things in God’s hands. Jesus was carried into heaven. This isn’t an action that Jesus does to himself. Rather, it was something that God did to him and for him, for the disciples, and for us.
Jesus is being lifted into heaven at the same moment that he is blessing the disciples. He chose to leave it to them. The same ones who were capable in one breath of inspired declarations of faith and in the next breath bumbling it so badly that Jesus calls one of them Satan.
Jesus chose to trust his mission to these disciples – just as he chooses us: This church that is capable of great acts of faith in one moment and then bumbling it badly in the next. Jesus trusts us with his mission.
It’s two thousand years later and we haven’t destroyed the church yet. And we won’t. We might change it, but we will never destroy it.
Because God is God and we are not. We are trusted with a part of the mission but it is God who gives us God’s blessing and power from on high. It is enough for us to bless God in return through the way we live our lives.
The gospel doesn’t end with tears, or a final embrace. There is no crash, bang, whollop. It ends in a blessing, the ceaseless blessing of Christ.
Regardless of whatever is going on in our lives, it is good to know that we are always in a state of blessedness.
I want to leave you today with a second reading of the sonnet by Malcolm Guite:
We saw his light break through the cloud of glory
Whilst
we were rooted still in time and place
As
earth became a part of Heaven’s story
And
heaven opened to his human face.
We
saw him go and yet we were not parted
He
took us with him to the heart of things
The
heart that broke for all the broken-hearted
Is
whole and Heaven-centred now, and sings,
Sings
in the strength that rises out of weakness,
Sings
through the clouds that veil him from our sight,
Whilst
we our selves become his clouds of witness
And
sing the waning darkness into light,
His
light in us, and ours in him concealed,
Hymn of the Day – Lord Jesus, You Shall Be My Song (ELW #808)
Creed
Let us confess
the faith of our baptism, as we say the Nicene Creed:
We believe in
one God,
the Father,
the Almighty,
maker of
heaven and earth,
of all that
is, seen and unseen.
We believe in
one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son
of God,
eternally
begotten of the Father,
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from
true God,
begotten, not
made,
of one Being
with the Father;
through him
all things were made.
For us and for
our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the
virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under
Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the
Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the
living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in
the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds
from the Father and the Son,
who with the
Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken
through the prophets.
We believe in
one holy catholic and apostolic church.
We acknowledge
one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for
the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Prayers of Intercession
Alive in the risen Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, we bring our
prayers before God who promises to hear us and answer in steadfast love.
Silence
You call the whole church on earth to worship and bless you. Empower your church to bear joyful witness to your love made known in Jesus Christ.
Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
You have fashioned a habitat for all your creatures and you fill the earth with your glory. Give rain where it is needed and rescue those inundated by floods. Mend what we have torn in the fabric of creation and replenish and nourish your world. Remind those who may have forgotten how to care for your creation, especially how to show love for one another.
Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
In the majesty of your love, you rule the world with justice and mercy. Give those in authority the spirit of your love, so that all who are hungry and poor receive food and resources, and all people flourish and live in peace. Protect those who experience hate and violence, and guide them to places of safety.
Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
You heal those who are sick and bind up the broken-hearted. Attend to the cares and needs of the hurting and hopeless in our congregation, community, workplaces, schools, and families. We give you now the names known to us who are in need of your healing and acknowledge those known only to you. May they feel your presence during a time of great need.
Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
You have gathered us in this congregation, enlightened our hearts, and given us a share of the immeasurable greatness of your power. Help us love one another, be reconciled where we are divided, and share the riches of your grace with our neighbors.
Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
Please take time to offer your own intercessions or to pray in silence.
In raising Christ from the dead, you put your great power to work in the world. Raise us and all who have died in the faith with Christ. We remember saints in our lives and in our community. Thank you for their gifts among us.
Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
In the hope of new life in Christ, we raise our prayers to you, trusting in your never-ending goodness and mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Peace
The peace of Christ be with you always.
And also with you.
Hymn of Thanksgiving – Lord, You Give the Great Commission (ELW #579)
**Although not physically at our church buildings to share our offering together I would encourage you to set your offering of money aside so that it can be dropped off or placed in the church once services resume, to mail your offering to the church, or to make donations online. Please remember ministry is still taking place.
Thanksgiving for the Word
Let us pray.
O God of justice and love, we give thanks to you that you illumine our
way through life with the words of your Son. Give us the light we need, awaken
us to the needs of others, and at the end bring all the world to your feast;
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy
Spirit, be honor and glory forever.
Amen.
Lord’s Prayer
Gathered into one by the Holy Spirit, let us pray as Jesus taught us.
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
forever and ever. Amen.
Blessing
May our glorious God grant you a spirit of
wisdom to know and to love the risen Lord Jesus.
The God of life, Creator, ☩ Redeemer, and Sanctifier, bless you now and forever.
Amen.
Sending Song – Christ is Alive! Let Christians Sing (ELW #389)
Dismissal
Go in peace. Share the good news. Alleluia!
Thanks be to God. Alleluia!
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