Home Worship for the week of May 17 – Ascension Sunday
Morning Prayer: Everliving God, Your eternal Christ once lived on the earth, confined to space and time. Give us faith to discern in every time and place the presence among us of God who is head over all things and fills all, even Jesus Christ our ascended Lord. Amen. (UMH 323, adapted)
Opening Hymn: #213 Lift Up Your Heads Ye Mighty Gates
- Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates; behold, the King of glory waits;
the King of kings is drawing near; the Savior of the world is here! - Fling wide the portals of your heart; make it a temple, set apart
from earthly use for heaven's employ, adorned with prayer and love and joy. - Redeemer, come, with us abide; our hearts to Thee we open wide;
let us Thy inner presence feel; Thy grace and love in us reveal. - Thy Holy Spirit lead us on until our glorious goal is won;
eternal praise, eternal fame be offered, Savior, to Thy name!
Psalm 24:1-4, 7-10
24 The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it,
the world and its inhabitants too.
2 Because God is the one who established it on the seas;
God set it firmly on the waters.
3 Who can ascend the Lord’s mountain?
Who can stand in His holy sanctuary?
4 Only the one with clean hands and a pure heart;
the one who hasn’t made false promises,
the one who hasn’t sworn dishonestly.
7 Mighty gates: lift up your heads!
Ancient doors: rise up high!
So the glorious king can enter!
8 Who is this glorious king?
The Lord—strong and powerful!
The Lord—powerful in battle!
9 Mighty gates: lift up your heads!
Ancient doors: rise up high!
So the glorious king can enter!
10 Who is this glorious king?
The Lord of heavenly forces—
He is the glorious king!
Prayers of Intercession: (CORE prayers, adapted) With joyful confidence, let us approach our Lord’s throne of grace, there to pray on behalf of the Church, the world, and all people according to their need.
O God beyond all praising, we worship You and adore You. You have revealed Your glory through Your Son, who has risen and ascended and who reigns at Your right hand forever.
Make Your Church abide in Jesus, as He abides in You. May it always preach the Gospel of salvation and celebrate the Sacraments in accordance with that Gospel. Let it proclaim to the whole world Your blessings without number and Your mercy without end.
Unite our hearts with fellow disciples of Your Son, and with missionaries of Your Gospel. Let us all be so united to Your beloved Son and with one another, that in everything, we glorify Your Name and spread the bounties of Your mercy throughout the world.
Let the radiance of our Beautiful Savior fill the hearts and sanctify the ministries of this congregation. Make our worship into a joyful duty, and our service into a sacrifice of praise. Use us to lead others to Jesus, that with us, they may worship, honor, bless and adore Him.
You have appointed Your Son as King of creation and Lord of the nations. Teach our leaders to praise Your name, to love justice and righteousness, and to seek those things that make for peace. Come to the help of those whose lives are troubled by sorrow and hardship. Draw all people into the glorious and gentle rule of Christ their Savior.
We lift our hearts to You on behalf of all whose lives are clouded by any sort of affliction or sorrow. Let the light of Jesus’ countenance heal and cheer them. Let all who care for them do so with tenderness and compassion. Grant that together we may praise You for Your unending mercies.
We praise and magnify You, most holy Father; we entrust our prayers and petitions to You in the strong name and for the dear sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who taught us to pray together by saying …
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 sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us, not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Offering spotlight: May is Foster Care month. LUMC celebrates our connection with Dwell Orphan Care; we support Dwell as they support foster families. During the month of May please purchase and donate Lego sets, bath toys, and toddler sized socks and underwear. Let’s see if we can fill the collection boxes to overflowing! We are about halfway through the month. Take a look at the boxes to see if they are halfway full.
Offering prayer: Blessing God of Presence, even as Christ ascended, You did not leave us alone. While He was blessing them, You were preparing us to carry the story forward, to be Your witnesses, to live in hope and power. In this sacred act of giving, we return a portion of what You have entrusted to us. May these gifts be a blessing to others, as Christ has been to us. Clothe us with courage. Remind us that Your Spirit goes with us. And send us, renewed and ready, to be Your church in the world. Amen.
Hymn of Preparation: #312 Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise
- Hail the day that sees Him rise, Alleluia! To His throne above the skies, Alleluia!
Christ, awhile to mortals given, Alleluia! Re-ascends His native heaven, Alleluia! - There the glorious triumph waits, Alleluia! Lift your heads, eternal gates, Alleluia!
Christ hath conquered death and sin, Alleluia! Take the King of glory in, Alleluia! - See! The heaven it’s Lord receives, Alleluia! Yet He loves the earth He leaves, Alleluia!
Though returning to His throne, Alleluia! Still He calls the world His own, Alleluia! - See! He lifts His hands above, Alleluia! See! He shows the prints of love, Alleluia!
Hark! His gracious lips bestow, Alleluia! Blessings on His church below, Alleluia!
Scripture: Acts 1:6-14
“When the apostles had come together, they asked Jesus, ‘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 you saw Him go into heaven.’
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as His brothers.”
Message: Ascent of Jesus Ben Dodge, Candidate for Ordained Ministry
Indeed, this is the Word of the Lord, captured on paper and embodied in the Son Himself. It’s no wonder the Bible is the most widely produced piece of literature, having opened the gates to the mass production of reading material dating back to the Gutenberg printing press. Centuries after key figures and events took place in scripture, a host of authors have alluded to these epic moments and, thus, reinforced the significance of the Bible. Milton’s Paradise Lost, Dante’s Divine Comedy, and Melville’s Moby Dick are a sampling of classics that draw upon key Biblical themes to establish and perpetuate their respective plots. Renaissance artists have similarly depicted iconic scenes in paintings and sculptures, inspired by both Old and New Testament narratives. The advent of cinema in the twentieth century offered a new lens to interpret scriptural accounts, as is evidenced by Charlton Heston’s The Ten Commandments, Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, and the more recent series The Chosen.
Reading and retelling stories like the Ascent of Jesus should move us beyond the written and spoken text. As the Living Word, Christ resides in us and draws us ever deeper in connection to the Father, much like He pointed His audiences to “the One who sent Him” in both teachings and miraculous deeds. Feeding the crowd of 5,000 with meager rations, casting out demons, and healing the leprous, blind, and paralyzed were public displays of God’s grace epitomized in the Son of Man. No degree of special effects nor blend of colors on canvas can fully portray the weight and emotion of these and other encounters with Jesus. This morning, we cannot help but imagine what the disciples saw and felt, watching their friend leave them and return to the Father in such a dramatic manner.
From their initial calling to follow the Messiah to the days leading to His Crucifixion, the twelve set out on a challenging road complete with improbable moments that tested their faith. In this Eastertime season, we harken back to the recent saga of Good Friday and the ensuing response of the disciples. The magnitude of the death and ascent of Christ set these events apart, even if that’s the only commonality between them. Think of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, and specifically the sugar-phosphate backbones that comprise the double helix. They are deemed antiparallel, meaning the two strands will never intersect, but are oriented in opposite directions. The symbols of Easter echo this antiparallel structure, from the light and dark to fear versus awe; we see God at work in designing this key molecule and outlining these events according to His plan. The cross and the cloud separated Jesus from the onlookers, the former in a much darker setting than the latter. The sky itself was blackened by the absence of the sun, and the earth shook at the heaviness of the tragedy unfolding. Jesus was mocked and tortured on the cross, His mother and closest companions watching in anguish. In the garden and following His expiration, the disciples scattered and withdrew from public view out of fear. By contrast, the already resurrected Christ was fully restored in the light when He was taken up into Heaven, and those gathered around Him remained in awe. Rather than desert the site out of self-preservation, they were compelled to exercise their faith together in prayer.
Also, we can easily trace the events that culminated in the Crucifixion, from Jesus provoking the Pharisees with perceived blasphemy to the betrayal of Judas. The plot thickened in the rising action and led to the climax of the cross, though the Ascension occurred with no advanced notice. “He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority.’” This might be the most abrupt example of foreshadowing in history, for only seconds later, Jesus was taken up in a cloud.
Hope that was once buried with the Son of God was then rekindled in His resurrection, and it continues to evolve in the second, more uplifting departure of the Messiah. As ticket holders to front row seats for a host of miracles, the disciples couldn’t help but look on to yet another surreal experience, and unlike other cases when Jesus would rebuke their lack of faith in their human response, two men in white reassured them of His return. There was no recorded dialogue with questions debated, nor were there reported bold declarations or gestures from Peter. The two strangers told the men everything they needed to know, and their natural instinct was to return to Jerusalem. Yet again, we recall a comparable instance in the travels of Joseph, a man who heeded the warning he received in a dream and took his wife, Mary, and the Christ child to the safety of Egypt. A dutiful and unwavering trust in God alone sustained the family of the nativity along their path to deliverance, and this same trust compelled the disciples to venture to Jerusalem.
Notice the patterns that emerge when different characters react to news or imperatives. Joseph and the wise men adhered to their divine GPS, moving at the time and in the direction advised by the Lord. When Jesus healed the sick and uplifted the destitute, their hearts were touched to the point of stepping out in their community and voicing their newfound hope. The rise of the Savior and a few words from divine witnesses prompted the full day’s trek to a place of prayer, and soon, the setting of the Holy Spirit on the tongues of the twelve would translate to the birth of the Church. The formula sounds easy enough; a divine spark from God—in whichever form of the Trinity that suits the occasion—results in decisive and often joyful action on the part of the recipient. At the core of these phenomena—what drives the process from the beginning and at the junction of God and man—is hope.
At a chemical level, enzymes work as a catalyst for reactions to occur in the body; so, too, does hope drive the spiritual reaction happening in us. The corruption and desperation of Herod was defeated by the hope of refuge in the land of Egypt. Illness and the crippling isolation stemming out of that were remedied by the living hope of Christ, even if expressed in a simple command. The apparent victory of sin and death was snatched by the hope of the resurrection of Jesus, and that hope continues to augment in His Ascension and the eventual foundation of the Church. Hope occupies its rightful place on the Advent wreath to mark the renewed start of the season, for hope is a driver with a lead foot—even heavier than mine—that fuels our calling like it did so many years ago.
Looking around us today, we live in a world that could certainly benefit from the hope we have to offer in Christ. Tuning into the news reminds us of the turmoil that ravages communities here and abroad. Food and financial insecurity, political unrest, and personal conflicts threaten to extinguish the candle of hope at every turn. The needs of our neighbors seem to persist, even with all our efforts to feed the hungry, clothe the impoverished, and comfort the mourning. The scope of these issues seems so insurmountable for mere individuals to tackle, especially when they lie beyond our comfort zone and areas of expertise. When the cards are stacked in such a manner, what can we really do to shuffle the deck and revive the hope of Jesus?
The “sabbath day’s journey” to Jerusalem delivered the disciples to the upper room, where they were intent on “constantly devoting themselves to prayer …” The hope they staked in their Messiah wasn’t gone with Him, but they must have wondered what form it would take now He’s no longer among them. Although the details of their prayers are not revealed in Acts, we can guess what they were petitioning—for answers, for the return of their friend, for the “power of the Holy Spirit to come upon them” so they are equipped for their call. A week will pass before we celebrate this setting of the Holy Spirit, but for now, the disciples are left to ruminate over the parting words of Jesus, waiting in anticipation for the inciting incident to spark their own ministries.
How and where has the Spirit moved you? “Devoting ourselves to prayer” would certainly renew our hope, for when we relinquish our iniquities and fears onto the Lord, we can rest and wait in anticipation for His omnipotence to work in and around us. Gathering in corporate prayer and worship—mirroring the disciples and their reflection with “certain women … and the brothers of Jesus”—would expose the hope to which we cling so earnestly, allowing it to echo in the laughter and shine in the eyes of those assembled. Yes, we must first ensure we top off our own stores of hope before we can effectively spread it on our way to work, school, brunch, and oh, the other places we go.
And in turn, we must not hoard the hope of Christ within ourselves; it should be brimming in our expressions and overflowing in our witness as it was in the founding of the early Church. Hope of the resurrection and the Ascension is a vibrant, living thing that should not be contained to an hour per week, and as a living organism, it breathes new life into those with open hearts ready to receive the Word. The brokenness we see everyday might resurface after our endless work to restore our community, but the hope of Jesus produces a resolve and equips us with the tools to approach these and new opportunities to bring the love and hope of Christ time and again. His rise in a cloud was quite a spectacle we could not hope to visually imitate nowadays, but we are nevertheless tasked with extending that same hope that will leave the world “gazing up toward Heaven.”
Closing Hymn: #733 Marching to Zion
- Come, we that love the Lord, and let our joys be known;
Join in a song with sweet accord, join in a song with sweet accord,
And thus surround the throne, and thus surround the throne.
Refrain: We’re marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion;
We’re marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God.
- Let those refuse to sing who never knew our God;
But children of the heavenly King, but children of the heavenly King,
May speak their joys abroad, may speak their joys abroad.
- The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweets
Before we reach the heavenly fields, before we reach the heavenly fields,
Or walk the golden streets, or walk the golden streets.
- Then let our songs abound, and every tear be dry;
We’re marching through Emmanuel’s ground,
we’re marching through Emmanuel’s ground,
To fairer worlds on high, to fairer worlds on high.
The blessing: Let us go live into the hope God instilled in us through the rising of the Son, and may we be charged with the joyful embodiment of that hope in a world that needs it. May the Lord bless us as we depart, and may His love for you be plainly seen this coming week in all we say and do. Amen.
Go Now in Peace: Go now in peace. Never be afraid. God will go with you each hour of ev’ry day. Go now in faith, steadfast strong and true. Know He will guide you in all you do. Go now in love and show you believe. Reach out to others, so all the world can see. God will be there, watching from above. Go now in peace, in faith, and in love.
