Ten Days of Prayer: An invitation to pray together from Ascension Day to Pentecost!
As far as celebrations go, this one is the bottom of the barrel, the wallflower of all Christian celebrations.
I’m talking Ascension Day—the day Christians mark the ascent of Jesus Christ to heaven. And it’s this Thursday, May 21.
There’s not much interest in Ascension Day because I don’t think we know what to make of it. Why would we —people who want to follow Jesus, people who seek God’s presence—why on earth would we want to mark a day when Jesus left this world? For all of us who struggle to know God, who sometimes wrestle with seasons when God’s absence is an all-too-present experience, well, who needs a day to remind us of that? And in what feels like a strange world where an unseen virus shuts down the world, who can’t help wonder, “Where are you God?”
But Ascension Day is actually the medicine we need for just such moments. It reminds us that things are not as they seem. There is a larger reality at play in the universe, of which the events and circumstances of this world are but one part.
While Jesus is bodily absent from the world he is not distant from us (recall his final words: “I am with you always, even to the end of age.” Matthew 28:20), Jesus remains actively Lord of all, praying for us and this world, and remains very present through his Holy Spirit.
And Jesus is actively present through his church — which provides another angle to consider God’s presence in this world. Where are you looking for God? So often, we can find ourselves staring off into some distance, hoping to spy some sign of God’s presence in this world. Well, look in the mirror because the Christian story teaches that God is present through people—His Church.
There’s a funny detail in the Ascension story that constantly corrects me. After Jesus is taken from their sight, the disciples are left staring off into space, looking for some sign of Jesus. After who-knows-how-long, an angelic presence taps them on the shoulder and asks, “Why are you staring into the sky looking for Jesus?” and they are sent off with the promise of Jesus’ return.
There are other dimensions of reality — spiritual dimensions — that exist, of which we have only hints. Jesus’ ascension points to these other dimensions. I wish I could more often see into these, to more clearly perceive the ways God is present and active. While I certainly can access it (see the end note on prayer), I mostly can’t see it.
Instead, like the disciples, I’m reminded by Ascension Day to stop staring off into heaven and instead to look around me, because this earth, this life, this time is what I’m called to pursue right now. Following Jesus is not to be waiting around, asking for signs of God.
Rather, because we know Jesus is Lord of all things, because he has empowered us with his Holy Spirit, we shift our gaze. We fully face our bruised and anxious world and step into it as the presence of God. It’s what we were made for and what we’re redeemed for — image-bearers of God participating in God’s renewal of all things.
One of the church’s great saints, Teresa of Avila, got the Ascension right when she said, “Christ has no body now but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion looks on the world. Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.”
So church, be who you are — the living presence of Jesus.
To that end, this Ascension Day we are calling Knox Church to a season of focused prayer, the primary means by which we commune with Jesus and access the larger dimensions of reality. The ten days between Ascension Day and Pentecost are traditionally days of concerted prayer for the church. Jesus called the disciples to wait and pray for God’s power through the Holy Spirit.
So let’s come together in intentional, focused prayer for the next 10 days. There are many ways to pray:
Our morning prayer gatherings: happening every day during these 10 days, we’ll be hosting a guided Zoom prayer time at 8:00 a.m. every morning, found at this link.
Meeting ID: 962 7708 1104
Password: 194138Use the Daily Common Prayer audio resource that is posted from Monday to Friday every week.
As you pray, in whatever way you want, with whoever you want, and wherever you can, let me encourage you to focus your prayers on a few things:
For the empowerment and outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit on Knox Church, that we as his disciples will be given new confidence and encouragement by the Holy Spirit
That we may be made effective witnesses to Jesus Christ. These pandemic days are filled with a large trauma and anxiety - people need hope and good news. May we be winsome witnesses of the life and hope in Jesus.
Pray specifically for friends, colleagues, neighbours and family members to come to know and love Jesus Christ.
Your pastor and friend,
Phil Reinders
