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Content about Ascension

January 22, 2018
Ascension, Pentecost, and the God of Expanse

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.”
—Acts 1:8

Our God is a God of expansion. Abraham was called in order to be a blessing to others. The nation of Israel was birthed so that all others could be blessed through it (Genesis 12:2–3). God pours into his people so they might share that blessing with others.

May 2, 2014
With a Shout

This worship outline is adapted from the opening service of the "With a Shout: What Difference Does the Ascension Make for Everyday Life?" conference held on Ascension Day 2006 at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Litanies and prayers marked TWS are from The Worship Sourcebook, 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources (www.faithaliveresources.org).

Prelude

February 21, 2012
He Ascended to Heaven

February 21, 2012
With a Shout

This worship outline is adapted from the opening service of the “With a Shout: What Difference Does the Ascension Make for Everyday Life?” conference held on Ascension Day 2006 at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Litanies and prayers marked TWS are from The Worship Sourcebook, 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources (www.faithaliveresources.org).

Prelude

March 1, 2011
A Wonderful Hope

This is a service of celebration for Ascension Day. Parts of the service might also be used on Ascension Sunday. It requires at least one leader and a Scripture reader. The congregation speaks the lines in bold.

March 1, 2010
A Litany for Ascension

Note: This litany has been adapted from Psalm 20:6, Revelation 5:12, and Romans 8:34.

Loving God, merciful Father, we wonder at your surpassing goodness, but we are discouraged by the evil we see in this world and in ourselves. We long to be your humble and faithful servants, but we always fall short. Even when we think we are doing your will, we are often deceived. How long before you bring an end to the world’s suffering?

How long, O Lord?

March 1, 2010
Lift Up Your Hearts

Christ’s ascension is a pretty big deal. Saint Luke includes detailed accounts of Jesus’ instruction, blessing, and supernatural departure in both the ending of his “first book” (Luke 24:44-53) and the beginning of his “second book” (Acts 1:1-11). And those in the Reformed tradition stress the importance of Christ’s ascension as a witness and guarantee of our own resurrection as well as a call to evangelism, justice, and compassion (see, for example, Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 46-52).

March 1, 2009
Remember the Former Things; Anticipate the Future

Reader 1: Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. (Isa. 46:9)

Reader 2: I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. (Isa. 46:10a)

Reader 1: We remember Christmas—the former time when Jesus, the Son of God, was born in human flesh, emptied of his glory.

March 1, 2007
A Litany for Ascension Day

Our God goes up with shouts of joy!
Our Lord ascends to the sound of trumpets!
All: Sing praises to our God, sing praises!
Sing praises, sing praises to our King!
The Almighty rides in triumph.
The Almighty leads captivity captive.
Who shouts for joy?




March 1, 2007
Ascension Talk

Sing! A New Creation includes a delightful little sung meditation by John Bell of the Iona Community that has as its opening line, “Take, O take me as I am; summon out what I shall be” (SNC 215).

March 1, 2006
The Incarnation Continues: Recovering the Importance of the Ascension

It seems to me that people are no longer asking the question to which the ascension is the answer. For the Reformed tradition, the doctrine of God’s transcendence, God’s otherness, God’s glory, and God’s sovereignty are central, coupled with an awareness of God as our Creator, the one for whom we are made. Such an understanding of God raises the need for a mediator as our most profound existential question.

March 1, 2006
The King of Glory Now: A Service Celebrating the Ascension of Christ

Last year three pastors of neighboring churches wanted to help our congregations celebrate Ascension Day as a high point of the Christian year. We decided to hold a combined service the Sunday before Ascension Day (Ascension Day is May 25 in 2006), and publicized it as a coronation service.

March 4, 2004
Life in the Spirit: An Ascension and Pentecost Service Based on Romans 8

This festival of song based on Romans 8 was the concluding service of the Calvin Symposium on Worship and the Arts, January 2003. It would be especially appropriate for use anytime between Ascension and Pentecost, or as background material for any service based on a portion of Romans 8. The entire chapter of Romans 8 was proclaimed from memory by different people who had been coached by Dennis Dewey (see RW 65). For this service, we celebrated in song the gifts from the body of Christ from many times and places, united by the power of the Spirit.

—ERB

March 1, 2001
Ascension Matters: a Service Based on the Heidelberg Catechism

For this service I simply took the teachings of the Heidelberg Catechism on the ascension of Christ and coordinated them with Scripture readings and songs (see Lord’s Days 18 and 19, pp. 879-881 in the worship edition of the Psalter Hymnal.) Members of the congregation read the Scripture passages. The worship leader introduced each Scripture reading and song with a heading, which was also printed in the bulletin. We placed the sermon early in the service; but you could insert a sermon at any point in the service where it matches a particular theme.

March 1, 1990
A Hymn and a Prayer for Ascension Day
UP THROUGH ENDLESS RANKS OF ANGELS

Up through endless ranks of angels,
cries of triumph in his ears,
to his heavenly throne ascending,
having vanquished all their fears,
Christ looks down upon his faithful,
leaving them in happy tears.

Death-destroying, life-restoring,
proven equal to our need,
now for us before the Father
as our brother intercede:
flesh that for our world was wounded,
living, for the wounded plead.