ASCENSION DAY
May 21, 2020
Service of Prayer and Preaching
OPENING VERSICLES
L This is the day which the Lord has made;
C let us rejoice and be glad
in it.
L From the rising of the sun to its setting,
C the name of the Lord is to
be praised.
L Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere;
C I would rather be a
doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
L Make me to know Your ways, O Lord.
C Teach me Your paths.
L Sanctify us in Your truth.
C Your Word is truth.
L From the rising of the sun to its setting,
C the name of the Lord is to
be praised.
C Glory be to the Father and
to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE
L A reading from Acts, the first chapter.
1In
the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and
teach, 2until the day when he was taken up,
after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had
chosen. 3To them he presented himself alive
after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and
speaking about the kingdom of God.
4And
while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to
wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5for John baptized with water, but you will be
baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
6So
when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time
restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7He said to
them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by
his own authority. 8But you will receive power
when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in
Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9And when he had said these things, as they were
looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10And while they were gazing into heaven as he went,
behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11and
said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who
was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go
into heaven.”
L This is the Word of the Lord.
C Thanks be to God.
RESPONSORY
L Forever, O Lord, Your Word is firmly set in the heavens.
C Lord, I love the
habitation of Your house and the place where Your glory dwells.
L Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.
C Lord, I love the
habitation of Your house and the place where Your glory dwells.
L Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
C Lord, I love the
habitation of Your house and the place where Your glory dwells.
TEN COMMANDMENTS
C You shall have no other
gods.
You
shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
Remember
the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Honor
your father and your mother.
You
shall not murder.
You
shall not commit adultery.
You
shall not steal.
You
shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
You
shall not covet your neighbor’s house.
You
shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox
or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
APOSTLES’ CREED
C I believe in God, the
Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth.
And in
Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the
Father Almighty.
From thence He will come to judge the
living and the dead.
I
believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Christian Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life T everlasting. Amen.
LORD’S PRAYER
C Our Father who art in
heaven,
hallowed be Thy name,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven;
give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those
who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For
Thine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory
forever and ever. Amen.
SERMON
Hear again
the words of angels, from Acts 1: “Men
of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up
from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
So where is
Jesus? That’s a question I like to ask the preschool students at Fun in the Son
Daycare and Preschool. “Where is Jesus?” And the answer comes quickly, “In
heaven.” they say. And the children point in that direction, the direction
Jesus went when He ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the
Father, Almighty.
That
question and that answer lead into the next part of the lesson for preschoolers
and for anyone else, that Jesus is also with us. That has been His promise
since His ascension into heaven, “I am with you always, even to the end of the
age.” Although we cannot see Him as those first friends of his did when He was
with them in Bible times, we have this promise that He is with us, here in our
lives, in our struggles, in our worship. That question and that answer get
right to the point of Who Jesus is and what He is doing for us.
He is true man and true God. He has both a human and divine
nature. He is the Divine Son of God who lives and reigns with the Father and
the Holy Spirit, One God forever. He is the human Son of the Virgin Mary, who
lived and breathed and bled and died as a mortal. Rising from that mortal
death, He now draws us into His eternal life.
It’s Important for us to hold Ascension Day dear. It is good for
our faith as the thoughts on Christ’s ascension are informative about His two
natures human and divine. The act of His ascending and sitting at the right
hand of the Father goes into our understanding of His shared divinity with His
Fathers. And we recall all that He gave His followers to show us clearly His
humanity, the center of which is His body and His blood which He continues to
give to the Church as means of grace and salvation.
The angel promised the disciples that Jesus who was taken up into
heaven bodily, will come in the same way. He remains eternally human, eternally
divine.
We do not ever separate those two natures of Jesus, as for
example, assuming that the Man part of Jesus is in heaven and when we say He is
with us, that’s the Divine part only. He is true God and true Man. The human
nature is also able to be with us and we take great comfort from believing that.
We say, “The Lord be with you.” and we mean Jesus, the Son of God
and Son of Man, one person with two natures is with you. He who walked the roads
of Judea, Samaria and Galilee is with you. He who was born in Bethlehem and who
died at Calvary is with you.
There’s a tendency to over-spiritualize religious notions, and say
that the spiritual is all that matters. Not so. The body matters. The Lord is
with us and when He is He cares about our spiritual life and our daily bodily
life. We noticed that meeting together virtually, electronically, is not quite
the same as meeting in person. To say we are together in spirit is only a
little comforting. The body counts for
much. We see that in our Lord Jesus this Ascension Day and we look forward to a
time when we can all meet more regularly together.
We look forward especially to the day the angel promised. “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into
heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the
same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
And on the Last Day our Lord Jesus will,
by His power, raise us up body and soul to have eternal life with Him.
Amen.
PRAYER
L In peace let us pray to the Lord:
C Lord, have mercy.
L For the gift of divine peace and of pardon, with all our heart
and with all our mind, let us pray to the Lord:
C Lord, have mercy.
L For the holy Christian Church, here and scattered throughout the
world, and for the proclamation of the Gospel and the calling of all to faith,
let us pray to the Lord:
C Lord, have mercy.
L For this nation, for our cities and communities, and for the
common welfare of us all, let us pray to the Lord:
C Lord, have mercy.
L For seasonable weather and for the fruitfulness of the earth, let
us pray to the Lord:
C Lord, have mercy.
L For those who labor, for those whose work is difficult or
dangerous, and for all who travel, let us pray to the Lord:
C Lord, have mercy.
L For all those in need, for the hungry and homeless, for the
widowed and orphaned, and for all those in prison, let us pray to the Lord:
C Lord, have mercy.
L For the sick and dying and for all those who care for them, let
us pray to the Lord:
C Lord, have mercy.
L For all those who are sick, suffering from disease or hardships
to mitigate the spread of disease, or are in bodily need of any kind, including
our friend Kason Judisch who was in a serious car accident . let us pray to the
Lord:
C Lord, have mercy.
L Finally, for these and for all our needs of body and soul, let us
pray to the Lord:
C Lord, have mercy. Christ,
have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
COLLECT OF THE DAY
L Almighty God, as Your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
ascended into the heavens, so may we also ascend in heart and mind and
continually dwell there with Him, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and forever.
C Amen.
COLLECT FOR THE WORD
L Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written
for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take
them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may
embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life; through Jesus
Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
C Amen.
BLESSING
L Let us bless the Lord.
C Thanks be to God.
L The almighty and merciful Lord, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, bless and preserve us.
C Amen.
492 ON CHRIST’S ASCENSION I NOW BUILD
(words and music are on the video)
Text: © 1941 Concordia Publishing House. Used by permission:
CPH Limited Promotional License no. 119000000
Tune: Public domain
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Service of Prayer and Preaching from Lutheran Service
Book
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are
from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®),
copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Created by Lutheran Service Builder © 2018 Concordia
Publishing House.
No comments:
Post a Comment