Sic et Non

The Difference the Ascension Makes

Quote llwilmoth

Two Takes

  1. Nicholas Lash

Luke’s account of the ascension can only be understood if we resist the modern tendency to carve up the paschal mystery into a series of separate ‘events’. The death and glorification of Christ and the outpouring of the Spirit constitute one event, the salvation-event. …

What practical difference would it make to our understanding and living of the christian faith if the phrase ‘he ascended into heaven’ were deleted from the creed?

from “Acts,” in Luke, ed. Duncan Macpherson (London: Sheed and Ward, 1971), 115-6.

Though I could be making too much of this, in context I take Lash to be insinuating that it would make no difference. He’s got a worrying habit of collapsing the ascension and resurrection into the crucifixion.

  1. Andrew Purves

The recovery of Ascension Day as a holy day in its own right means the affirmation of the continuing life and ministry of the resurrected Jesus. I dare to suggest that the recovery of Ascension Day as a major Christian festival…could spark profound renewal in the life of a congregation, as it could in the ministry of a pastor. The reason should now be familiar: Jesus is a living, reigning and acting Lord.

from The Resurrection of Ministry (IVP, 2010), 60.