| New Book now Available Here is an anthology of over 1100 brief prayers and thought-starters, for each day of the year, with almost 400 original prayers by Bruce Prewer. Included is both a subject index and an index of authors-- an ecumenical collection of about 300 different sources. |
 |
| Title: Brief Prayers for Busy People. Author: Bruce D Prewer ISBN 978-1-62880-090-6 Available from Australian Church Resources, web site www.acresources.com.au email service@acresources.com.au or by order from your local book shop or online on amazon. |
Year C, ASCENSION DAY
( These readings may also be used on Easter 6)
Luke 24: 44-53
(Sermon:
“When Far is Near”)
Ephesians 1:15-23
Acts 1:1-11
Psalm 47 or 93
PREPARATION
The grace of Messiah Jesus, who is at the right hand
of God, be with you all.
And also with you.
Jesus said: “Do not cling on to me. Go and tell my
friends that I am ascending to my God and your God.”
Our lord has
gone up with a shout, like the sound of the trumpet!
While he blessed them, Jesus parted from them, and a
cloud took him out of their sight.
Clap your
hands, all peoples! Applaud God with songs of happiness!
The man wearing the crown of thorn is now Lord of
all the earth!
Sing praises
to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our king, sing praises!
PRAYER OF APPROACH
Your
love, O God, rules all, and your Christ is forever close to your heart. Uncloud our spirits, unfetter our lips, set
free the joy that too often subsides behind familiarity, or is kept in a corner
by our reticence or formality. Let us thank you with unabashed delight, and
through the hallowed gifts of precious music, praise you with uninhibited
worship. Through this same Christ Jesus, our Brother and
Lord.
Amen!
CONFESSION AND FORGIVENESS
Let us confess how far we have strayed from Christ
and his ways. Let us pray.
For the times when we forget Christ and value each
other by the outward trappings of social status, power and wealth:
Lord have mercy. / Lord have mercy.
For the times when we applaud the humility and
sacrifice of Jesus, yet we live by the rules of so called “movers and shakers
in the community.
Christ have mercy. / Christ have mercy.
For the times when we even try to measure our faith
and churches by the kind of success applauded by this arrogant yet lost and
bewildered world,
Lord have mercy. / Lord have mercy.
God of mercies, heaped up and full to overflowing,
please continue to have pity on our flatulent ambitions and degraded methods of
dealing with the pressures of life. By your Spirit bring us to our senses,
re-establish our souls in the fields of your grace, and banish forever the
shame that would eat away our peace and let us back into sin. Through Christ Jesus our redeemer.
Amen!
FORGIVENESS
It is written for all time: “Through Christ we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins, according to the
riches of Christ’s grace lavished upon us.......whom God raised from the dead
to sit at his right hand........not only in this world but in the world to
come.”
My sisters and brothers,
hear this gospel, trust this gospel, for it is forever yours!
Thanks be to God!
PSALM 47
Clap your hands all you believers!
Sing out your happy songs to
God!
For God, the Most High, is awesome
the king of the whole universe.
Subdued nations are ready to listen,
races sit at our feet to be
taught.
God chose this heritage for us,
a mission for a much-loved
people.
God is lifted up as we cry aloud,
exalted with the sound of trumpets.
Sing your praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to this king,
sing praises!
Our God is king of all the
universe,
sing praises with your loftiest
hymns!
God alone is worthy to rule nations,
from amongst us, on the holy
throne.
The saints and martyrs gather with us
as the soul-children of
Abraham’s God.
For every coat of arms on earth
belongs to the One God who is above
all.
B D Prewer Ó 2003
COLLECT
Most loving God, we who
believe that Jesus has been gathered to your right hand, and made the hope of
the universe. We pray for his universal love to captivate our lives. May we in heart
and mind daily live, through him, close to you, and discover the glory of
heaven which is here on earth for those who believe. To your praise and through
his name we pray.
Amen!
SERMON: WHEN FAR IS NEAR
Luke 24:51
Luke writes: As
Jesus was blessing his disciples, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.
What does it mean to say Jesus ascended in heaven?
What does “up” mean and where is heaven in the
cosmos that our telescopes have revealed?
At first glance, this language may seem fairy tale stuff .
At odds with our enlightened
understanding of the universe. No longer do we have three layer,
hamburger universe, consisting of heaven, earth, and hell. In that primitive
view of the universe, “up” to heaven made sense, and “down” to hell made sense.
These days we know about an immense cosmos, of billions of suns and planets,
all expanding and developing from one mighty moment of creation.
The word “up” is a relative word on a spherical
planet.
A planet set in this immense cosmos. Ascending,
going up, implies a different directions according to
where one is standing on the face of the globe. “Up” when standing in Galilee
is a different cosmic direction from that when one stands on the mighty rock of
Uluru at the centre of Australia. “Up” for a tourist at Niagra Falls does not align with “up” for a tourist at
Victoria Falls. Therefore a word like ascension is not, for many folk, a very helpful one.
Some have substituted the word “beyond”.
That also has problems. Beyond
what? Beyond this cosmos? That puts God and
heaven, and Jesus “at God’s right hand, far, far away from us. Which none of us
believe, do we? What about that saying, which most of us hold to be accurate:
“God is nearer than our breathing, and closer than hands and feet” The word
“beyond,” like the word “above,” cannot be allowed to suggest a God who is
remote.
What then can we make of the ascension story?
THE PARADOX
First we need to realise that “up” and “ascension”
are metaphors
for the exalted position of the
One who was crucified. There is a
paradox here.
Jesus went away from his friends that he might be
always with them.
“Far” means very “near.” He did not go far up above
them or far beyond them but nearer to them. Whatever else we celebrate on
Ascension Day we must at least celebrate this: Our Brother and Saviour is now
eternally, universally close to us. It
is not about Jesus leaving us, but his becoming an intrinsic part of
our lives in a new and radical way.
We need to take hold of the vital truth of this
metaphor.
Otherwise the whole story will remain either an
empty myth, or one that pushes Jesus and heaven to the extremities, far out of
human reach. In the ascension, Jesus moved from the time-bound to the timeless,
from spatial limitation to unlimited availability, from earthly shadows to
eternal light. For all eternity he is around about us, “closer than our
breathing, and nearer than hands or feet.”
[To insist on the literal meaning of “up” and
“ascended” reduces Jesus to a kind of super Pooh Bear, A.A.Milne’s
cuddly character, floating somewhere above us on a celestial cloud singing,
How sweet to be a cloud, floating in the
blue,
It makes me very proud, to be a
little cloud.
Even before our modern understanding of the cosmos,
Christians did not hold such a childish notion. Many of the early scholars of
the church, with their limited cosmology, nevertheless ridiculed such a woolly
idea. Likewise the Protestant reformers, living in the period prior to the
explosion of knowledge which
produced people like Galileo and Newton, did not confuse metaphor
with reality.]
It’s impossible to find the right words,
or even barely adequate words,
to speak of the mystery of the heaven which overlaps, underlays,
and interleaves, our earthly life. It is beyond words. Yet it is real. Heaven
is a mystery which is all around us right now. Jesus went away that he might be
fully with us. He has entered a new dimension of existence which makes his
presence universal.
BIBLICAL IMAGERY
As we use Biblical imagery,
the idea of “up” might be confusing but perhaps the word
“cloud” may be more helpful.
St Luke, both in his Gospel and in his book of Acts,
speaks of Jesus being gathered
into a cloud. I find that more satisfying.
In Biblical metaphors the cloud represents the
intimate, holy Presence of God.
The holy cloud is the shekinah. The shekinah
leads the children of Israel out of captivity. The shekinah is over the mountain when Moses receives the
ten commandments. In the story of Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain, the shekinah of God covers Jesus and
the three disciples.
So when in the event we call the ascension,
the cloud is mentioned by Luke, it represents Jesus being
gathered into the eternal presence of God. His spirit now stands (one could
almost say “blends”) with the spirit of God. Like God, Jesus becomes available
to all people, at all times, in all places. Matthew’s Gospel, which has no
ascension story, expresses the same truth in his own way: Jesus said:: “Lo I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”
AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD
This leads me to a second level of meaning in the
story.
Jesus seated at the right hand of God. In St Paul’s
writings, and in the appendix to the Gospel of Mark, and in the historic creeds, the ascended Jesus
sits at the right hand of God.
Again we have a wonderful metaphor.
The picture of Jesus sitting at the right hand of
God is meant to convey the closeness of Jesus to God, and the authority his
life and teaching now command.
The son of Mary, a ‘country bumpkin’ from Galilee,
is above all others, close to the heart of God, now bearing God’s authority.
What are the kind of beliefs and values that end up
at the right hand of God?
What kind of a person? Philosophers and sophisticated music or
literature buffs? The wealthy and the powerful? Dictators and armies? No! It is only Jesus who ends up with
the very authority of God.
He was humble and misunderstood, a friend of taxgatherers and sinners.
He chose to seem weak by taking the path of
forgiveness and non-violence. He was hungry and thirsty and begged a drink from
a despised Samaritan woman. He was hounded by powerful enemies yet raised no
hand against them. He blessed little children, blasted hypocrites, touched
lepers, spent some night alone in the open, found truth in wild lilies and
sparrows, claimed that God was astoundingly generous and could be absolutely
trusted. He was betrayed, arrested, denied, abused, tried by a “kangaroo court”
and lynched by the cruelest known method. Yet he
forgave those who did these things to him. He died and was buried in a borrowed
tomb.
It is this person, only this person whom God
exalts.
On this Jesus with his particular beliefs and
values, who is at God’s “right hand”. He alone. His love, his mercy, his joy, his peace, his
meekness, his quiet yet tenacious strength, all these have the stamp of God’s
authority on them.
WHAT ABOUT US?
What about us?
Can we trust Jesus more than the wisest academic or
scientific genius? More than astute politicians and their social agenda, or
powerful leaders with who assures us they know best? More than the glitzy stars
of music and screen who are adored by millions? Can we trust belief in
capitalism, or socialism, or survival of the fittest? I don’t think so!
Only one person is exalted by God.
Only one person is at God’s right hand. Only one
person’s teaching and example can be utterly trusted. Jesus. Only
Christ Jesus. That is what the New Testament and the great creeds affirm
when they use the metaphor of sitting at the right hand of God.
Ascension Day says:
Trust this Jesus.
Trust him and you will never be let down. Never. Of course you may be misunderstood, and may have
tragedies happen to you and those you love. You may be “taken in” by some who
wish to exploit what they see as your naivety, or abused by some who misjudge
your compassion for weakness. But your Christ will be there for you.
You will never be alone.
For our Christ, far is near. The ‘ascended’ Jesus is
closer to you than he was when he was in the flesh. He is with you all the way.
In the final analysis you will never be let down by this Jesus. All things
will, sooner or later, be seen to have worked together for good.
Trust Christ Jesus, is to love him and follow him
today.
This is to go on that journey which begins and
continues in the intimate fellowship of the Spirit of Christ, and which ends up
(even for you and me!) at the right hand of God.
Please God! Keep us in that faith!
THANKSGIVING
God of the humble and the homeless
the poor and the persecuted,
we thank you for exalting Christ Jesus
and giving
him a name above all other names.
Today we rejoice
that the meekest and truest
of all
earth’s children
is at your
right hand
Now we know for sure
that the homeless son of man
is more
truly at home
than anyone
else on earth.
Today the poor teacher
who begged for a cup of water
and slept
on the wild heath,
shows us
the way to glory
With gratitude we sing
of the man on a cross
who’s now
the exalted first-born
of a new,
everlasting race.
God of the defeated and
the lonely,
the
despised and the hungry,
the
misjudged and the imprisoned,
the
suffering and the dying,
we rejoice with great excitement
praising the name of Jesus
and adoring your love; Hallelujah!
Ó B D Prewer 2001 & 2012
PRAYERS OF
INTERCESSION
Holy Friend, loving God and Saviour, we pray to you,
both when we are at our wits end and on those days when we feel reasonably
capable and competent.
We ask you to
bless our attempts to aid at least some of the lonely, suffering, bewildered, and
grieving people on earth.
Yet our efforts towards loving our neighbours, both individual and corporate, even at their best and most
efficient are piecemeal.
Sometimes, in
spite of our good intentions, our endeavours may be ill advised and ill directed.
Please, by the loving work of your Holy Spirit, do for our fellow
human beings that which we cannot manage to do.
May no child
of earth, be they friend or stranger, ever face distress or calamity on their
own.
Please guide and bless those gifted people who seem
to have the knack of loving others in appropriate, practical ways.
Give each of
us the commitment and wisdom to express our compassion more wisely and
lovingly.
Loving God, to you all persons are precious. No
neighbour is a nuisance. No enemy is beyond the pale. Please teach us your ways.
Let no person
be forgotten, none neglected, none despised, and none judged as unworthy of the
best care that is available.
Bring the day nearer when your church on earth may
become more truly a redeemed and redeeming community of grace, mercy and peace.
Through Christ Jesus. our
exalted Brother and Lord.
Amen!
DISMISSAL
Christ is lifted up, above all other names;
therefore we go out into the world in
peace,
living with courage,
not repaying wrong with wrong.
Christ is at God’s right hand,
therefore support the weak and
respect everyone,
rejoicing as we serve
the Lord Jesus.
May the blessing of the God of peace consecrate you,
and keep us healthy in body,
mind and soul,
and without shame at the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The One who calls you is faithful,
and will certainly do this and
even more
than you can never ask or
imagine!
Amen!
THAT ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE
BY ORDERING ONLINE
OR FROM YOUR LOCAL CHRISTIAN BOOKSHOP
