Husband, father, and Anglican priest living in the North Georgia Mountains. Sermons, reflections, and articles promoting the "Ancient Faith for Modern Times". Subscribe below to get the latest posts in your inbox.
The last thing the disciples saw of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel was his hands raised over them in blessing. He was carried up in the middle of it. The blessing did not stop when he disappeared. It is still in progress. Ascension Day is the feast of a presence, not an absence.
The Feast of the Ascension celebrates not the disappearance of Jesus, but his exaltation — and not his distance from us, but the new and greater intimacy of his priestly presence before the Father on our behalf. The Feast Day still presses its claims on us today.
Jesus says abide in me — not a dramatic command, just stay connected. The branch doesn't produce fruit by trying harder. It produces fruit by staying on the vine. Apart from him we can do nothing. But abide in him, and the fruit comes. And at the end of it all: our joy will be full.
In an age that hides dependence behind supply chains and packaged goods, Rogation Sunday does something quietly subversive: it takes us outside, sets us on our feet, and teaches us to ask — holding out empty hands to the Lord of heaven and earth.
On the night before the crucifixion, Jesus told his disciples: I am the way, the truth, and the life. Thomas asked for directions. Jesus gave him a person. The way is not a method or a map — it is Jesus himself. Wide open to anyone who comes through him.
"I am the gate" — a claim to divine identity. One narrow gate, wide open to anyone who enters. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. The Shepherd comes for abundant life. The gate was opened at a cost. Only the one who died to open it can say "I am the gate."