He sat down

Spring is here and that means we are headlong into the season of cards, flowers, new shirts and guilt that serves to commemorate parents everywhere, with Mother’s Day on one end (May 9) and Father’s Day on the other (June 20). I like attention from my children as much as anyone, but there’s a day between those days that’s infinitely more important. It won’t get commercial play, however, and will be easy to overlook. It’s Ascension Day, Thursday, May 20.

The gospel writer Mark summarizes that day like this: “So then, the Lord Jesus . . . was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19 RSV).

A huge truth inhabits the spare phrases “taken up,” “sat down” and “the right hand of God.” It’s a truth that echoes through the rest of Scripture like a joyful, undying song of triumph.

The writer to the Hebrews, for example, just can’t stop reminding his readers (in chapters 7–10) that Jesus is now sitting down. The priests of the Old Testament had to offer sacrifices “day after day.” They stood, performing their ritual duties “again and again,” the “same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year.” Trouble was, this effort could not “make perfect” those who came to worship. One gets exhausted just thinking about it.

But Jesus, “holy, blameless, pure,” offered Himself “once for all” and this to secure our “eternal redemption.” And when this single sacrifice for sins for all time was completed, He sat down. What a picture of rest!

The ascension completes the death and resurrection of Jesus, for the Son returns, bearing what He accomplished. He is seated at the place of highest honour and authority in the throne room of the King. Ascension marks the Father’s satisfaction with what Jesus has done. It opens to the coming of the Holy Spirit in a new way as the Spirit of Christ who will “guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). It signals the Lordship of Christ, “exalted” and bestowed with “the name above every name” (Philippians 2:9), “with angels, authorities, and powers in submission to him” (1 Peter 3:22) and “head over everything for the church” (Ephesians 1:22). In this ascended place, Jesus intercedes for us. Here too, we as believers are positioned “with Christ” (Colossians 3:1–4).

When Jesus bid His sorrowful disciples goodbye just before His death, He insisted it was to their advantage that He leave them and return to the Father. It was hard for them to grasp it, but of course He was right. He saw “the joy set before him” (Hebrews 12:2), a joy that would some day also be theirs. This joy awaits us as well. That’s why Ascension Day is worth celebrating.

Illustration: Lorlie Barkman

Shame and church planting

I was intrigued by the title of one of the workshops sponsored by the Church Extension Commission at the recent convention of the Alberta MB Conference: “Shame and Church Planting.” (Judging by the number in the room, many others were intrigued as well.)

Using J.G. Peristiany’s Honour and Shame, presenter Lance Christie, pastor of Calgary’s Sema Community Church, explained that every social group, whether it is a sports club, family, or church, has “rules.” These rules or social regulations may be written or unwritten, but they definitely and powerfully exist. They are learned and enforced through positive and negative evaluation; that is, honour and shame.

Christie suggested a number of applications of the concepts of honour and dishonour to the work of church planting. In one of them, he reminded us that those who grow up in a Christian environment will find their decision to follow Christ evaluated positively. This will not necessarily be true for those who become Christians from a non-Christian environment. They will face shame or dishonour from their families or other social groups, because of differing values. That certainly figured in his conversion, Christie said. “You can’t become a Christian without dishonour.”

But, he continued, dishonour needs to be for the right reasons. Newcomers may also encounter shame as they try to learn the “social regulations” of the Christian group. If matters of dress, where people sit, body piercings or tattoos, or particular behaviours (like climbing over a pew, in Christie’s case) get a negative reaction that causes humiliation, people may not return. It’s important, therefore, to “remove unnecessary social evaluation – whatever is not biblically based.”

Both church plants and established churches have the task of inviting people to become part of our “Kingdom of God group.” Let’s remember as we do this that the scandal of the cross should not mean being scandalized by those who are drawing near to it.