Music for the Ascension of the Lord Year C 1st/2nd June 2019

Readings:

Acts 1:1-11

Hebrews 9:24-28; 19:19-23

Luke 24:46-53

Luke’s Gospel is full of hospitality and meals and this is where it was all heading. The Lucan community experienced the presence of Christ, and hence his Resurrection, in their meals together, which became their recapitulation of Jesus’ life and mission. The Emmaus story emphasises this with the resurrected Christ only being recognised when they broke bread (Luke 24:31). Until then the apostles thought that story the women brought back was nonsense. (24:11) He next appears at a gathering where he is given a meal. (24:42) The readings from Luke and Acts today tell much the same story with incompatible time management, so we know we are in Kairos time here, with the more obviously liturgical reading in Acts once again siting his appearance to tell them to wait in Jerusalem for the arrival of the Spirit “at table”. (1:4) Whatever timing or cosmology you give to the Ascension stories they tell of a community that fully understands Jesus’s absence after his sacrificial death, and the Hebrews reading connects that story to Eucharist in today’s scripture, but also that they clearly felt the real presence of Christ in the breaking, blessing and giving meals that brought them together and fueled with that their mission began.

Entrance: Lift Up Your Hearts  (O’Connor) AOV 1/156

Psalm 46 (McKenna)

God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.

Gifts: The Fullness of God (Andersen) AOV 2/62

Communion: In the Breaking of the Bread  (Hurd)  AOV 1/58

Thanksgiving: Lord, the Light of Your Love  (Kendrick) AOV 2/59

Recessional: Go Make a Difference  (Angrisano/Tomaszek) AOV NG 52