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Ascension Sunday
Dr. Christopher Graham
All Creation Sings by Jen Norton
Ascension Sunday 2026
Dr. Christopher Graham
Acts 1:1-14, Psalm 47, 1 Peter 5, John 17:1-11
“At Easter, beloved brethren, it was the Lord’s resurrection which was the cause of our joy; our present rejoicing is on account of his ascension into heaven. With all due solemnity, we are commemorating that day on which our poor human nature was carried up, in Christ, above all the hosts of heaven, above all the ranks of angels, beyond the highest heavenly powers to the very throne of God the Father. It is upon this ordered structure of divine acts that we have been firmly established, so that the grace of God may show itself still more marvellous when, in spite of the withdrawal from men’s sight of everything that is rightly felt to command their reverence, faith does not fail, hope is not shaken, charity does not grow cold.
Even the blessed apostles, though they had been strengthened by so many miracles and instructed by so much teaching, took fright at the cruel suffering of the Lord’s passion and could not accept his resurrection without hesitation. Yet they made such progress through his ascension that they now found joy in what had terrified them before. They were able to fix their minds on Christ’s divinity as he sat at the right hand of his Father, since what was presented to their bodily eyes no longer hindered them from turning all their attention to the realisation that he had not left his Father when he came down to earth, nor had he abandoned his disciples when he ascended into heaven.
St. Leo the Great, Sermon 74, “On the Ascension II.”
——–
Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.”
A few weeks ago, we considered the fact that by God’s electing and calling Word, we are composed and re-composed in spite of the voices that seek to distort us and de-compose us. Even some of our own voices. And you may remember that Peter himself heard and struggled with that when he heard Jesus say, “Follow Me,” but Peter’s own voices caused him to doubt as he looked over and saw the beloved disciple.
Of course, that interaction follows the interaction in which three times, Jesus asks “Simon, of John, do you love Me?” with Peter saying “Yes,” to which Jesus commands: Feed my Sheep. It is, of course, a rhetorically poignant interaction because it is juxtaposed to Peter’s three denials and ultimate abandonment of Jesus. We would assume that Peter had this in mind at some point in the interaction or perhaps in reflection. I have also assumed that Peter has another episode in his time with Jesus in mind during or reflecting on this thrice-repeated command “Feed my Sheep.”
Those words are found earlier in John when Jesus says: “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters the flock. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me (John 10:11–14)
Do you feel the gravity of Jesus’s call on Peter? Jesus, the one who said “I AM the Good Shepherd,” then calls Peter, the one who said three times when asked if he was associated with Jesus “I am NOT.” Jesus asked that Peter to be the Shepherd of his sheep!
But something clicks with Peter. He and the other disciples must get it. How do we know? Because as we read in Acts, he does something he didn’t do in the face of Jesus first departure. He and the other disciples don’t scatter like sheep when the shepherd is struck. For as spectacular as the actual ascension is in our reading from Acts, it is also remarkable that after that event, “they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer.”
And these disciples, Peter among them, who were scattered and distraught over three days, now wait for ten days. And so, the sheep become a Shepherd. What a remarkable turn!
As we read in our preparatory reading from Leo the Great: “Even the blessed apostles, though they had been strengthened by so many miracles and instructed by so much teaching, took fright at the cruel suffering of the Lord’s passion and could not accept his resurrection without hesitation. Yet they made such progress through his ascension that they now found joy in what had terrified them before.”
And as if that is not enough, Peter then reminds us throughout his letter that the ones called by God and set apart by God then do the work of the Shepherd themselves. Though they are scattered, as he describes the recipients in the opening of the letter, they are called and set apart as the singular people of God. In the next chapter he says it more directly:
For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls. (2:25)
And the readers—the original ones and those ever since—haven’t even seen Jesus. Of course, this shouldn’t surprise us, Jesus in his prayer recorded in John, of which we heard some this morning, prays:
Just as You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, so that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. 20 “I am not asking on behalf of these alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, 21 that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 The glory which You have given Me I also have given to them, so that they may be one, just as We are one. (John 17:18–22)
We heard many of these points echoed in our reading from 1 Peter 5 this morning:
To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them . . . 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
And so, we are reminded again that we have been called into communion with God in the protection of the Chief Shepherd. This Chief Shepherd, who is, today, exalted at the right hand of the Father. The earliest and most common images in Christianity are of the shepherd carrying a sheep. The good news is not only that Christ, the Shepherd was slain as a lamb for us as his sheep. That Christ is once again alive and serves as our shepherd even now. The one who Peter says in our passage we can cast our cares upon. So we can pray as we did this morning:
“send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.”
And because this Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father and poured out his Spirit, as we will celebrate next week, we can now serve as his under-shepherd. As those who are , as Peter calls is, a royal priesthood who represents him to the world.
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By Rev. Doug FloydDr. Christopher Graham
All Creation Sings by Jen Norton
Ascension Sunday 2026
Dr. Christopher Graham
Acts 1:1-14, Psalm 47, 1 Peter 5, John 17:1-11
“At Easter, beloved brethren, it was the Lord’s resurrection which was the cause of our joy; our present rejoicing is on account of his ascension into heaven. With all due solemnity, we are commemorating that day on which our poor human nature was carried up, in Christ, above all the hosts of heaven, above all the ranks of angels, beyond the highest heavenly powers to the very throne of God the Father. It is upon this ordered structure of divine acts that we have been firmly established, so that the grace of God may show itself still more marvellous when, in spite of the withdrawal from men’s sight of everything that is rightly felt to command their reverence, faith does not fail, hope is not shaken, charity does not grow cold.
Even the blessed apostles, though they had been strengthened by so many miracles and instructed by so much teaching, took fright at the cruel suffering of the Lord’s passion and could not accept his resurrection without hesitation. Yet they made such progress through his ascension that they now found joy in what had terrified them before. They were able to fix their minds on Christ’s divinity as he sat at the right hand of his Father, since what was presented to their bodily eyes no longer hindered them from turning all their attention to the realisation that he had not left his Father when he came down to earth, nor had he abandoned his disciples when he ascended into heaven.
St. Leo the Great, Sermon 74, “On the Ascension II.”
——–
Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.”
A few weeks ago, we considered the fact that by God’s electing and calling Word, we are composed and re-composed in spite of the voices that seek to distort us and de-compose us. Even some of our own voices. And you may remember that Peter himself heard and struggled with that when he heard Jesus say, “Follow Me,” but Peter’s own voices caused him to doubt as he looked over and saw the beloved disciple.
Of course, that interaction follows the interaction in which three times, Jesus asks “Simon, of John, do you love Me?” with Peter saying “Yes,” to which Jesus commands: Feed my Sheep. It is, of course, a rhetorically poignant interaction because it is juxtaposed to Peter’s three denials and ultimate abandonment of Jesus. We would assume that Peter had this in mind at some point in the interaction or perhaps in reflection. I have also assumed that Peter has another episode in his time with Jesus in mind during or reflecting on this thrice-repeated command “Feed my Sheep.”
Those words are found earlier in John when Jesus says: “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters the flock. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me (John 10:11–14)
Do you feel the gravity of Jesus’s call on Peter? Jesus, the one who said “I AM the Good Shepherd,” then calls Peter, the one who said three times when asked if he was associated with Jesus “I am NOT.” Jesus asked that Peter to be the Shepherd of his sheep!
But something clicks with Peter. He and the other disciples must get it. How do we know? Because as we read in Acts, he does something he didn’t do in the face of Jesus first departure. He and the other disciples don’t scatter like sheep when the shepherd is struck. For as spectacular as the actual ascension is in our reading from Acts, it is also remarkable that after that event, “they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer.”
And these disciples, Peter among them, who were scattered and distraught over three days, now wait for ten days. And so, the sheep become a Shepherd. What a remarkable turn!
As we read in our preparatory reading from Leo the Great: “Even the blessed apostles, though they had been strengthened by so many miracles and instructed by so much teaching, took fright at the cruel suffering of the Lord’s passion and could not accept his resurrection without hesitation. Yet they made such progress through his ascension that they now found joy in what had terrified them before.”
And as if that is not enough, Peter then reminds us throughout his letter that the ones called by God and set apart by God then do the work of the Shepherd themselves. Though they are scattered, as he describes the recipients in the opening of the letter, they are called and set apart as the singular people of God. In the next chapter he says it more directly:
For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls. (2:25)
And the readers—the original ones and those ever since—haven’t even seen Jesus. Of course, this shouldn’t surprise us, Jesus in his prayer recorded in John, of which we heard some this morning, prays:
Just as You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, so that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. 20 “I am not asking on behalf of these alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, 21 that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 The glory which You have given Me I also have given to them, so that they may be one, just as We are one. (John 17:18–22)
We heard many of these points echoed in our reading from 1 Peter 5 this morning:
To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them . . . 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
And so, we are reminded again that we have been called into communion with God in the protection of the Chief Shepherd. This Chief Shepherd, who is, today, exalted at the right hand of the Father. The earliest and most common images in Christianity are of the shepherd carrying a sheep. The good news is not only that Christ, the Shepherd was slain as a lamb for us as his sheep. That Christ is once again alive and serves as our shepherd even now. The one who Peter says in our passage we can cast our cares upon. So we can pray as we did this morning:
“send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.”
And because this Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father and poured out his Spirit, as we will celebrate next week, we can now serve as his under-shepherd. As those who are , as Peter calls is, a royal priesthood who represents him to the world.