Sunday after Ascension - 29 May 1954
29 May 1954, St. John's Chapel
Acts 1:8: “Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.”
These were the parting words of our Lord to his disciples before His Ascension. Our Lord wanted two things from His disciples. 1) He wanted them to be His witnesses, and 2) He wanted them to receive the power of the Holy Spirit for this purpose.
The Ascension has not removed from us the presence of Christ in the world. Just as God showed Himself to the world through the human personality of Jesus, He is showing Himself to the world through His Church, the Body of Christ, of which you and I are members. Jesus Christ is alive today and is alive in the world through His Church. We are called upon to contribute our share to the Life of Christ now lived in the world by the Church, His body. Just as during the first half of the Church’s year (Advent to Trinity) our thoughts are on the life of Christ and the incidents connected with His life – His birth, death, resurrection and ascension; during the second half of the year (Trinity to Advent) our thoughts are on the life of the Church as it seeks to show forth the life Christ to the world. The Church is the extension of the incarnation. God became flesh in Jesus Christ. It is His will that He should become flesh in us today so that the world may know and love God. That is why our Lord’s parting words to His disciples were that they should be His witnesses.
In the Gospel for today we have a portion of His talk to the disciples in the Upper Room on the night before His crucifixion. There too we find our Lord asking the disciples to bear witness to Him and saying that He would send the Comforter, the Holy Ghost. To bear witness to the truth is no easy task. There will be difficulties, opposition, and even persecution; but with the power of the Holy Ghost we can bear witness to Christ. Let this Sunday remind us of our Lord’s call to each one of us to bear courageous witness to Him wherever we may be – in our classrooms or the playing fields, home or the office. As we come to the Lord’s Table, let our prayer be that God would fill us with His Spirit and thus enable us to witness for Him.