Dear St. Paul Family,
By the time you read this, we will have celebrated the Feast of the Ascension. The “Ascension” section of Lutheran Service Book only contains a mere five hymns. The oldest of those, “A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing” (#493), was written 1,300 years ago by The Venerable Bede, one of the most important early English saints. Interestingly enough, he died in 735 on the Feast of the Ascension, and this year it so happens that the day our church sets aside to honor Bede, May 25, coincides with that feast!
The fourth verse of that hymn reads as follows:
“You see Him now, ascending high / Up to the portals of the sky.”
Alleluia, alleluia!
“Hereafter Jesus you shall see / Returning in great majesty.”
Alleluia, alleluia! Alleluia, alleluia! Alleluia!
And so our Lord has, as we confess in the Nicene Creed, “ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come again to judge the living and the dead.”
Yet that does not mean we are on our own down here! In John 14:25-26, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit when He was no longer with us, and ten days after Ascension, we celebrate the fulfillment of that promise, as described in Acts 2. The brief description of the feast in Treasury of Daily Prayer puts it well:
The risen and ascended Savior has sent the Holy Spirit to be our Sanctifier, entering our hearts at Holy Baptism, nurturing us through the Word, and enabling us to understand the Gospel and to live a life that honors God and serves our neighbor.
Because of this, we can truly sing the words of Bede:
O risen Christ, ascended Lord, All praise to You let earth accord;
Alleluia, alleluia!
You are, while endless ages run, / With Father and with Spirit one.
Alleluia, alleluia! Alleluia, alleluia! Alleluia!
In nomine Jesu,
Jeremy Clifton
