Year B, Lectionary 58
We can limit the significance of the Ascension of Jesus into Christ going up into heaven and no longer seeing him. But we are meant to see how we are opened up to a relationship with the Holy Trinity. We are offered to enter into communion with God by Jesus, fully human and fully divine, entering the divine realm. Uniting Heaven and Earth in the process. Like those early disciples we are not meant to stand looking up at the sky but to go on mission through the Holy Spirit of gathering others into this relationship with God.
Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: • Ascension • Baptism • Calm • Cloud • Descend • Describe • Disciple • Environment • Expand • Experience • Gather • Glory • Heaven • Holy Spirit • Hope • Incarnation • Joy • Kingdom • Mission • Mother • Presence • Priest • Proclaim • Salvation • Sight • Time • Vocation •
“Through the Holy Spirit we receive power not to be passive onlookers staring at the cloud but to become an active cloud of witnesses and ministry with the living Christ who is among us”
“If you read the New Testament in light of the Old Testament you'll notice that the number 40 is a very significant number and whenever you see the number 40, especially 40 days and 40 nights, it always refers to two things: it's a time of transition and it's a time of purification and preparation”
“what Paul is trying to say here in Ephesians 1 is that when Christ ascended into heaven he wasn't simply vindicated as the Messiah, he was also exalted in his humanity, this is really crucial, above all of the angels”
“We don't just preach the Gospel, we embody it”
“Making the mute to speak can be as simple as being the voice of the voiceless, defending the marginalized, using your strength and your position not to harm people but to upgrade them”
“Jesus wants to grow in your heart but it's going to require that you let go and stay open, let Jesus smash the walls of the box that we put him in today so that he can grow larger for tomorrow”
“Will Hunting knew the theory, he had the words but not the experience. The first disciples of Jesus had the opposite problem. They had the experience, but they struggled to put that experience into words.”
“we are called to follow him, we are called to ascend as well, ascend to the heights and in order to do that we must let go of the past manifestation of Jesus and receive the new manifestation of Jesus even in our own lives”
“So Church family remember at every moment of your life ‘I have a mission’ and let that influence your interactions with the world, which is to love”
“God wants to take us from resentment to love, from being hurt into being healed. God wants us to take us from having a grudge to saying ‘I forgive you.’”
“the life of Christians in the Acts of the Apostles mirror the life of Jesus in the Gospel according to Luke”
“Church, your destiny is glory, your destiny, your final destination is to be where Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father”
“The readings from Acts says that Jesus presented himself alive by many proofs. What proofs will we offer the world to show that Christ is alive in us?”
“What influence do I have in the society as a Christian using the skills and opportunities God has given me?”