They Kingdom come

This Sunday we are celebrating the feast of the Ascension, the celebration of the resurrected Jesus being taken into heaven. Ascension Day actually falls on Thursday 29 th May this year, exactly forty days after Easter Day, but nowadays when we celebrate on a Thursday it tends to get a bit overlooked so moving it to Sunday enables us to give it our full attention.

And it is worth giving it our full attention because Ascension is the culmination of what we begin to celebrate at Easter – the transformation of the whole creation, heaven thrown open and the boundaries between God’s life and ours forever removed, the Kingdom of God revealed. The first message of the resurrected Jesus to Mary Magdalene focused on its importance: “Go and tell my brothers,” he tells her “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.”

It is also the feast that connects our experience with that of the friends of Jesus in the gospels. Whereas sometimes we might think it was so different for them because they had Jesus’ historical presence, after Ascension they share our experience of Christ as a universal and eternal presence received by trust and faith.

This can feel like big and mysterious stuff that is beyond us, but there is a simple way to discover the closeness of Jesus’ presence which is Ascension’s gift to us.

Jesus says: “I am ascending to your Father and my Father”, in other words “Our Father”. Words we can pray with.

This year “Thy Kingdom Come” the international movement supporting ten days of prayer from 29 th May (Ascension) to 8 th June (Pentecost) is focusing on people all over the world praying and reflecting on the words Jesus gave us to help us share in his own prayer, the Our Father. There are free booklets in church to help guide us in this prayer and go deeper with words that may be so familiar that new reflection is helpful. Other resources are also available at Thy Kingdom Come | Thy Kingdom Come. Prayer was the disciples first reaction to seeing Jesus taken into heaven. Perhaps we can share their experience too.

Why not try out giving Ascension-tide your full attention this year by finding your own way to pray supported by an international wave of others praying in Jesus’ words too: Our Father in heaven, Holy is your name, May your Kingdom Come…..