Monday Morning Music Ministry

6-2-25

What were the holy days – holidays – of Christians in years past? It seems odd today, perhaps, but Christmas was not a major day during much of the Church’s history. Yes, the birth of the Savior was commemorated, but not in the manner of Easter, Christ’s Resurrection. As the Church became set in its ways (that the Protestant revolt eventually challenged) days devoted to Mary and various saints became Feast Days and specially marked days on the calendar.

This past week has seen – or scarcely has seen – perhaps the most theologically significant holiday of all holy days. Ascension Day. I will suggest some of the church holidays that pertain to Jesus… seen, for a moment’s point, in a “different” light.

• Jesus was born of a virgin. Fulfilled prophecy aside, that did not prove He was the Savior.
• He performed miracles, but that “merely” affirmed His powers.
• He made claims as to His Messianic mission, and yes… they were claims; disputed.
• He suffered and died as foretold in Scripture. Jesus was obedient.
• He rose from the dead, widely recognized as a man who indeed came back to life…

All these things were miraculous evidence of an exceptional Man, indeed the Son of God – matters, still, of faith: “the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.” Supernatural and miraculous as Jesus’s life and ministry were, He was only proven, legitimized, authorized, genuine, accepted, acknowledged, settled, fixed, rooted, set, and confirmed as the Incarnation of God Himself on the Day we call Ascension Day.

Forty days after He overcame death, Jesus bodily rose to the heavens in the presence of Old Testament saints and certain Disciples. On the Day of Ascension He “graduated” from being the Suffering Servant, the Lamb of God, the Son of David… to be, again, one with the Father. A Holy Day! This momentous day should be paramount in a believer’s heart; if any day is worthy of commemoration, contemplation, spiritual devotion, it should be Ascension Day!

Except in traditional,conservative, orthodox churches, however, the Ascension of our Lord is hardly mentioned nor celebrated in America. Perhaps this is a result – certainly a reflection – of the general diminution of regard for the holiness of Jesus. Indeed the decreasing acknowledgement of the Deity of Christ. Bad enough in general society, a scandal within the Church; His church.

A college friend of mine, John Siegmund, moved to Germany after graduation and has served as a Lutheran pastor all his life. He too laments the shrinking reverence for Christian doctrine, and recently reported:

You could be quite shocked, if you would experience how Ascension Day has been totally disgraced in civil life. In Germany, anyway, it also falls on [the secular] Father’s Day, and it is a legal holiday, therefore work and school-free. Many people try to create a long weekend with it, taking off on Friday, because schools are also closed. Here and there you can witness more or less younger fathers riding together in open wagons or pickups, drinking beer and schnapps together, just whooping it up. There are even some Protestant parishes that have no worship services on the Feast of the Ascension, offering maybe concerts, instead.

What is the reason for this degradation? The generally weakened Christian faith due to the increased secularization, and the surge of doubting the Bible within the organized Protestant church, provide the roots. It is a crisis of faith at the basic level.

When I was in active parish ministry, we celebrated the triumphal enthroning of our Lord Jesus Christ in Heaven at the right hand of the Father. Yes, we celebrated the sealing of Christ’s divinity and our hope of being fulfilled in His heavenly kingdom. We celebrated a God the Father’s Day, rejoicing in the fulfillment of all divine promises in Christ. Sure, we had much beautiful music and a heartily celebrated festival Eucharist. We wouldn’t miss this festival of culmination at all!

The further line [next Holy Days] are Christ’s sending us the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, so that we may believe and testify to His divine power. The final Festival is the Feast of the Holy Trinity, proclaiming the onetime eternal, all-consuming greatness and holiness of Almighty God.

That’s why the celebration of the Church Year for confessing Christians is so important and a reason to come together ecumenically on these high Festivals.

Pastor Siegmund shared the words of an old hymn of Swedish Lutheran tradition that expresses in a beautiful manner the meaning of the Ascension of Christ for us.

In realms of glory I behold My risen Lord returning; While I, a stranger on the earth, For heaven still am yearning. Far from my heav’nly Father’s home, ‘Mid toil and sorrow here I roam.

Far from my home — how long, dear Lord, Before my exile endeth? But far beyond the realms of sense, My fervent prayer ascendeth: My prayer, unuttered, but a groan, Shall rend the skies and reach Thy throne.

Then visions of the goodly land By faith my soul obtaineth; There I shall dwell for evermore Where Christ in glory reigneth – In mansions of that best abode, The city of the living God.

In that fair city is no night, Nor any pain or weeping; There is my treasure, there my heart, Safe in my Savior’s keeping; In Heav’n, my blessed Lord, with Thee May all my conversation be.

In glory He shall come again To earth as He ascended; So let me wait and watch and pray, Until my day is ended. That day, O Lord, is hid from me, But daily do I wait for Thee.

And blessed shall that servant be. O Lord, at Thy returning, Whose lamp, Lord, for Thee, Whose lamp is trimmed and burning; Him wilt Thou take to dwell with Thee In joy and peace eternally.

The Word, written by Johan O Wallin, from John W. Siegmund, Pastor Em., Ev.-Lutheran Church in North Germany. Think all year ‘round about the Ascended Lord – not only a miracle-man, an obedient servant, a wise teacher, a sacrificial lamb, but the Savior of humankind, being of one substance with the Father.

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