Ray Anglesea shares the next installment of his sabbatical experiences
St. Mark's Church, Niagara-on-the-Lake remains the oldest Anglican Church in continuous
use in Ontario and is part of the oldest Anglican community in
the Diocese of Niagara. It was established by the first resident missionary of
Niagara, Rev. Robert Addison, in 1792. The church was completed in 1794 but was
damaged by fire during the War of 1812 and subsequently restored. It was not until 1828 that St. Mark’s was
formally rededicated. And it was to this church that my wife and I together
with my Canadian family went for morning worship and communion on Trinity
Sunday.
In his sermon,
the rector Canon Dr. Robert S.G. Wright, otherwise known as Father Bob, drew
attention to the stained glass window in the south transept of the church which
depicts the Ascension of Jesus Christ. Why asked Father Bob had the artist only
depicted 7 disciples with Jesus before he bodily rose from earth and not 11? One
of the reasons suggested by Father Bob was to be found in Matthew 28v16 “Then the eleven
disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.
When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.” Perhaps
the missing four disciples from the window were the ones who doubted? Matthew asserts that some of the eleven didn’t believe, and
by implication they did not worship Him either. Father Bob suggested that Jesus gives the Great Commission to
both groups – to worshipers and doubters alike. We are all commissioned even if
we don’t fully comprehend the doctrine of the Trinity or if we are unable to
understand the Creed or even if we waver in our own faith.
In
my own reformed tradition there are mixed emotions about the celebration of the
Festival of the Ascension on a weekday (Thursday); reformers like Calvin wanted
to banish all such feast-day observances. While that as may be the gospel
account of the ascension is pieced together from different New Testament
accounts. Mark and John tell us nothing about it. Matthew records a final
conversation with the disciples but doesn’t tell us what happened next. Luke
seems to record all his Easter stories as happening on one day; Paul assumes
that Jesus who was raised is now at the right hand of the Father. The book of
Acts gives us a time frame, placing ascension forty days after Easter and
Pentecost 10 days after that.
As
I sat and listened to Father Bob’s excellent sermon I thought of my own
situation in church that morning and reflected of another take on the ascension
story. Here I was in this historic church on the other side of the world enjoying
the first months of retirement (I have joined her majesty’s work and pensions
payroll scheme). The ascension story speaks to me of retirement. Dr Sam Wells, Rector of St Martin in the
Fields, London in a recent published article suggests that the ascension notifies
us that “Jesus’ work on earth had stopped, it had finished. He had done
everything he needed to do; he had given us everything we needed to receive.” I
have to confess that most of my thinking about God concerns the work he hasn’t
done, what he hasn’t given us rather than the work that Jesus had completed,
for example an end to hunger, disasters, AIDS, and war.
But yet the story of the ascension seems to speak of Jesus who went back
to heaven from whence he came because his work was finished. He didn’t hang
around to work on a few more jobs of salvation because there was no more to do.
So what had Jesus done for us – Well’s puts forward the view that “he has taken
the poison out of the sting of salvation, shown us the heart of God, broken
through the wall of death, given us creation, given us forgiveness, given us
eternal life.”
In
other words he had done what only God could do, what matters most – and he had
left the rest to us. This on reflection seems a good deal to me. The logic of
this way of thinking, that Jesus stopped when he had finished means that none
of us is indispensable. Jesus is indispensable – he did what no one else could
or can. But I am not indispensable. Nobody is indispensable. It is a harsh fact of life to learn
but a real one. I am not the only
person in the world who can do the things I do. Every person is in a
replaceable situation when they base their value on what they do rather
than on who they are. While it can be damaging to my pride to realize
that there are people qualified and capable of taking on many of the tasks I
feel I must it’s
also freeing. If there are others who can carry some of the load, then I am
free to do what God has uniquely called and equipped me to do.
If
we live our lives thinking we are the only one who can save the world or serve
the church we are not just insulting our colleagues, wearing out our family
members and heading for burnout ourselves – we are denying that Jesus has
already saved the world. It is a lot easier to retire when you recall that Jesus
has already done the real work. Yes, we are all commissioned both believers and
doubters alike to carry on the work of Jesus Christ in the world, but it is
worth remembering, as I contemplate the years of retirement ahead that salvation
remains today what it was on Ascension Day; Jesus had finished and completed
his work in the world. That notion inspires me; it gives me a life with a faith
to look back on, a hope to look forward to and a love to live.
Ray Anglesea
Ascension, Niagara on the Lake, Canada
June 2014
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