Snatched by the cloud: A sermon on the Ascension
Posted by colfphilippines on June 19, 2011
When God saves us, we are to be a sign to the world of the coming of the ultimate salvation.
We show this through our discipleship, faith, holiness, hope and love and yes, God’s justice. We are to become part of the means by which God makes his Kingdom happen both now and in the future. Here we proclaim and live the gospel – the good news that God (the world’s creator) is at last becoming king and that Jesus, whom God raised from the dead, is the world’s only true Lord who is renewing fallen creation.
Evidently, this now goes beyond an evangelism of a convert entering into a private relationship with God. When evangelism becomes the announcement of God’s kingdom and the Lordship of Christ in it and through it, we raise converts who know from the start that they are part of God’s kingdom project.
But this announcement only makes sense when the church does two things: in its declaration that Jesus is Lord, corruption, injustice and all forms of evil and Satan himself are defeated, first, it must involve itself in the redemptive work for justice, for those who are helpless and who have no voice, for those who are oppressed; and second, it must show in its life as a community that the new creation is indeed happening, celebrating with joy God’s good creation, working to rescue art and music from corruption, calling one and all to a life of holiness and love (N.T. Wright, 227).
