Well greetings, brothers and sisters, and welcome to another Midweek Manna. And for this coming Sunday at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church, we will be celebrating what happens in the middle of the week. And that is the Ascension of the Lord. The Ascension of the Lord in the church life happens 40 days after Easter. So consequently, every Ascension Day occurs on a Thursday. And so because of that fact, we will celebrate the Ascension this coming Sunday here in Mount Vernon. And to celebrate and to be inspired about what the Ascension means for us and for humanity, I’m going to do something very Presbyterian. I’m going to turn to the Book of Confessions, which is one of the confessional pieces, part of our actual church constitution as a confessional church of people who state what we believe during each and every worship service. And I’m going to turn to one of those confessions that came as an outgrowth of the reformation, the Heidelberg Catechism.
And I’m going to turn to question 49, which states, or which asks, how does Christ’s Ascension to Heaven benefit us? And the second point here is the one I really want to focus on. It says, we have our own flesh in Heaven as a sure pledge that Christ our head will also take us, his members, up to himself. And I correlate that with what we often say in the Lord’s Prayer, that we are called to do on Earth as it is in Heaven. And I think now seeing and being invited to look up to the clouds as the Book of Acts tells us that Jesus was raised up and lifted up into the clouds, is we’re invited to look up into the clouds and maybe even get our head into the clouds to use the cliche that we celebrate that not as being lost from what is happening here on Earth, but rather being connected to what is happening there in Heaven, into being united, and bonded and connecting the earthly realm with the heavenly realm.
So that is the good news that we will be sharing here at Mount Vernon, and we hope that you will join us either on our courtyard or right here in mvpchurch.org. Grace and peace. — Barrett
With this Sunday being the Ascension of the Lord, we have some wonderful music for you. And the featured piece for this week is “At the Name of Jesus.” The text was written by Caroline Noel in 1870, and it is put to the music of King’s Weston. That’s a tune that was written by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1925. And it’s a very powerful song. It’s in D minor. And we’re going to do it in a way that has never been heard before. So I hope you’ll enjoy it, and I look forward to sharing that and everything else with you this Sunday. — Matthias
Brothers and sisters, please join me in prayer. Loving and gracious God, we are thankful and grateful for every single day, every single moment that we can attune ourselves to your presence around us, attune ourselves to your presence within those around us, calling us to connect, calling us to build relationships, calling us to reach out. God, continue to guide us into all the ordinary and extraordinary places that you are working in this world, and guide us back to this place of home and rest, restoration, reconciliation, renewal. Call us back to this place and worship this Sunday. It is in Your name we pray, amen. Brothers and sisters, we will see you out on the court yard again this Sunday at 11:00 AM. Peace. — Isaac