worldview

Look Up!

Feast Of The Ascension

Fr. Peter Robinson

Preached: June 1, 2025

Introduction

– In the Lutheran cathedral in Copenhagen, Denmark, a person can admire Thorwalden’s statue of the Christ, at the very front of the church. However, to see the eyes of the Christ-figure, you have to do something unusual. To look into the eyes, you must kneel in front of the statue — then look up. It is only when kneeling at his feet that you look into his eyes.

– The sculptor’s point of view was obvious: he had carved the statue, so that the viewer needed a change of perspective to fully see Christ’s face!

– What is on this feast of The Ascension of the Lord

– So, what might Christ ask of us today, as we look up to him, ascending into heaven?

I. First, consider how we form our worldview

– Because of Jesus’ Ascension, the original disciples needed what we call a PARADIGM SHIFT

– You see, as we process information from the world around us, we do so through several filters:

– There is all that happens to us, minute by minute

– We then filter that data through Belief – what we have been taught and believe is possible

– Then we filter that data through Experience – we accept those things which confirm what we have been taught; we filter out any position that would raise questions about our present perspective

– Then we filter that data through Analysis – so we eventually focus on what we analyze to construct our view of reality; that means that only a limited amount of data becomes …

– Our view of reality

II. We can see worldview in play with Jesus’ disciples

– Jesus’ Ascension challenged their ancient, Jewish world view

– In fact, what God challenged first was their nationalism

– Notice in Acts 1:6, that the disciples ask:

“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

– Following Jesus’ resurrection, his disciples were hoping for political power

– They were expecting Israel to enjoy (once again) global influence

– But because of Jesus’ Ascension, they had to learn that …

1. God’s kingdom is spiritual in its character

2. God’s kingdom is international in its membership

3. God’s kingdom is gradual in its expansion

– In other words, God’s plan is to build a global Church

– And first, he is going to change them

III. Why, then, does Jesus need to change our worldview?

– The basic reason is told to us ⇢ by angels

[The disciples] were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. [They said] …” This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts1:10-11).

– Consider the priest’s words right after the “Our Father,” when he says:

– “Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

– In every mass, we remember that Jesus will come again…

– Only 11 apostles saw him go ⇢ when he comes, “every eye will see him”

– He left alone ⇢ when he comes again, countless millions of holy humans and angels will come with him

– He left from a localized place ⇢ his return will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other

IV. So What?

– Well, remember my opening story?

– What does a person need to do, to see Jesus’ eyes on the statute in a cathedral in Copenhagen?

– Bow at his feet …

– And that is how we live life to the full ⇢ by letting Jesus ask of us every…thing

– Every friendship, relationship, career, hobby ⇢ every…thing

– As a hymn puts it (which I sang countless times growing up Protestant):

“All to Jesus I surrender, humbly at His feet I bow; worldly pleasures all forsaken, take me, Jesus, take me now.

— I surrender all, I surrender all; all to Thee, my blessed Saviour, I surrender all.”

Your Worldview

Feast Of The Ascension Of The Lord

Fr. Peter Robinson

Preached: May 12, 2024

Sometimes, God challenges even our most cherished beliefs! When he does, it involves a certain process.

Now, we have all seen video images of a huge, abandoned building that is first, carefully planted with explosive charges for weeks in advance, and then, when all is clear (with a crowd is watching from a safe distance) someone hits the red button, and …

You see, as we look out on the world around us (through our eyes), anthropologists tell us that we each have a worldview, like wearing a pair of glasses (per Dr. Charles Kraft). There is a process in forming that worldview (and un-forming that worldview). It’s a process not unlike making coffee — with multiple filters.

When we observe all that we can see around us, via our inputs, we filter out data, 1^st, according to what we believe. Our 2^nd filter is then what we experience. Our 3^rd filter is that which we then analyze of the data. This determines our view of reality, our worldview.

So, consider (for a moment) how our Lord’s Ascension, in front of his disciples, must have blown apart their existing worldview. How do you make sense of someone rising up into the sky, and then disappearing in a cloud? You can imagine their view of reality, up to that point, crumbling like that abandoned building that has just be dynamited.

You see, we know what the disciples had earlier believed: look at verse 6, in our First Reading from the Book of Acts, chapter 1. The disciples meet with Jesus, and they ask him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Though these very disciples have spent three years in person with Jesus, and though they have just recently witnessed his resurrection, they still expect Jesus (as a son of King David’s royal line) to “restore,” to bring back, the territorial nation-state of ancient Israel — and to crush the hated Romans occupying their beloved homeland, at the same time.

Next, we know what the disciples experience (and will soon experience). “They were looking intently up into the sky as [Jesus] was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven’ ” (vv. 10-11).

Following that experience of Jesus’ ascension, two holy angels then appear! This leads them into new data, new facts. The earthly Jesus they knew has just gone up into heaven (his Ascension). Within a few days, the Holy Spirit will come down (Pentecost). They will then go out (into the missions). And Jesus will some day come back (his Parousia).

What they have believed (as faithful Jews) is being radically changed by their experience of the risen Christ.

And now Peter analyzes the new data (on behalf of all the disciples): he turns to the Bible to do so, to the Book of Psalms. There he quotes, “‘May another take his place of leadership.” That is, Judas’ empty place must be filled with another disciple, in order they may once again be the Twelve. Matthias is then chosen, and the (now) twelve Apostles launch out to the borders of the known world (the Roman Empire) and beyond. As best we know, all of them (save for the Apostle John) will die a martyr’s death.

So, on this Ascension Day, brothers and sisters, in your worldview what does God need to dis-mantle, in order to re-construct? What, of that which you have already believed + experienced + analyzed, does the Lord need to reconfigure with his truth? Maybe you have a wrong view of God? Perhaps you have been making God into your image? Or into the image of society around us, with its values? Or maybe you have relegated God to the periphery of your life? Or maybe you have made some thing else, or some one else, into your god?

What does the ascended Christ need to do in and with your worldview on this Ascension Day?