If you’re like me, you’ve probably sung these lines at least once a year for more years than you care to count. Likewise, you’ve probably read or heard Luke’s accounts of the Ascension of  Our Lord in both his Gospel and the book of Acts at least as many times...or at least seen one or two good (or not so good) cinematic renditions of this event.  And, of course, every week in church we say, quite confidently, “he ascended into heaven”...probably without really thinking about the implications (not to mention the logistics) of such an occurrence.  When you think about it, the very fact that we don’t generally give it a lot of thought is rather odd...wouldn’t you think that the (presumably bodily) ascension of Jesus, in front of a group of witnesses who went on to lay the foundations of the church, would be the subject of a major holiday on the order of Palm Sunday or Pentecost, if not Christmas or Easter?

I certainly thought so.  When Jay suggested this topic for an article, I figured the research would be a snap.  When an Internet search yielded several Eastern Orthodox icons depicting the Ascension, a few Ascension Day sermons, innumerable homepages for schools or churches named “Ascension” and at least one rambling pagan poem entitled “The Feast of the Ascension,” but virtually nothing on church observances or practices, I knew I was in trouble. When a call to more learned friends netted little more than “I’ll see if  I can find anything,” followed by “sorry,” I was confused.   Turning to my own library, I found many discussions on the logistics of the Ascension (e.g., did Jesus really “go up into the clouds” or was this merely a poetic conceit...a backhanded reference to Elijah...on Luke’s part?) but, again, nothing substantive on how this occasion has traditionally been observed.  As feast days go, Ascension Day seems to get distressingly short shrift.

Part of this may be due to the location of the feast on the calendar.  Coming only forty days after the ecstasy of Easter, and only 10 days before the birth of the church at Pentecost, it has to go a long way to compete for our attention.  Another factor may be the relatively brief mention it gets in the Bible...only Luke mentions it, and then almost in passing.   Still, it did have an impact (no surprises there!) and it IS observed, especially in the Eastern Church, where it is an occasion for processions (commemorating Christ’s final walk with his disciples to the Mount of Olives) and, of course, the subject of the aforementioned icons.

In the more rationalist West, the observance is more subtle, but it’s there...in the sermons, the lessons,  and the songs on Ascension Day, in the names of those innumerable churches and schools, in art...and, more recently, in the heated discussion between so-called “liberals” and “literalists.”  And, of course, once again, there is that line in the Nicene Creed.  The Ascension may lack the liturgical fanfare of Easter or Pentecost, but its significance surrounds us...for, if Jesus did not “ascend” to the Father in one form or another, then where is he (and, just as important, where are we?)? Without the Ascension, The Resurrection is just another miracle tale among others.  Without the Ascension, as at least one sermonist has noted, there would have been no descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  It is the Ascension of Jesus to “the right hand of the Father” that marks him indelibly in our minds as the Son of God.  It is the exclamation point of the Gospel statement.

And maybe that’s the key.  Whether Luke’s account of the Ascension is literal or figurative, its “Reality”...the Truth that it signifies...is as essential to Christianity as punctuation is to a sentence.  It needs to be acknowledged, if the “sentence” (i.e., our statement of belief) is to be fully understood.   It makes sense of what we say.  At the same time, as any writer will tell you, punctuation is meant to enhance understanding.   Overemphasizing it destroys its impact, as critics lose themselves in musing on whether that exclamation point shouldn’t really have been a question mark.

On Ascension Day, we will put the final punctuation on the sentence begun on Easter Sunday...acknowledging the import of the statement “He is risen!” before we peek ahead to the next chapter entitled “Pentecost.”  There will be no palm fronds, no special vestments, no jingling car keys...it is, after all, only the end of the sentence, not the end of the story.   In fact, it’s only the beginning.