ONLINE WORSHIP

Join us for online worship on Sunday, May 16, at 10:15 a.m. at https://vimeo.com/channels/1547852.

You can view and download the bulletin here.

 

The puzzling account of the ascension of Jesus is traditionally read on this last Sunday of the Easter season, the Sunday before Pentecost. In the timetable of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, the Ascension occurred forty days after Easter, so Ascension Day always falls on a Thursday, ten days before Pentecost. But even in the best of circumstances, Congregationalists aren’t going to get together in the middle of the week to mark this event, so we recognize it today instead.

And we do so with some, what—reluctance, embarrassment?

While we still talk about the sun “rising” and “setting,” even though we know that’s not what’s happening, accounts of going “up to heaven” can make us squirm. Maybe you agree with Paul Tillich when he said of the Ascension: “If taken literally, its spatial symbolism would become absurd.”

Turning from an easy literalism, then, we discover a surprising number of ways in which this story can help us in these days.

 

SCRIPTURE LESSONS: Ephesians 2:1-10; Acts 1:1-11

SERMON       “A New Perspective”

The Rev. Bill Lovin preaching

 

ANTHEM       “God Is Gone Up with a Shout”        Healey Willan

                        Kristin Ramseyer, Wen Chin Liu, Colin Wilson, Josh Ramseyer

 

No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome to join us online.