RCL Ascension [i]
17 May 2026
Saint Helen’s Anglican Church
Vancouver BC
In the summer of 1968, I was hired for my first real job. Two of my grade 9 teachers had a fireworks business that they ran in the months before the 4th of July as a means of bolstering their teaching salaries. They always hired students and these jobs were highly sought after – a side benefit was a generous supply of free fireworks.
One of the teachers, Mr Kordula, taught woodworking and had designed a prefabricated road-side stand. We set up a number of these stands along major roads – usually near a gas station so that we had access to a bathroom. Since this was my first summer, I spent a week or so working with an older student who had worked for Mr Kordula and Mr Knox for two previous summers. I learned a lot about how to keep accurate sales records and inventory as well as how to chat people up when they came to buy.
On the first day of my second week, Mr Knox drove some other students and me to our assigned stands. I got out and waited for someone else to join me. Mr Knox asked me if I had plenty of water, my lunch and the cash box. I said, ‘Yes’, and he said, ‘Great, I’ll see you around 5.00’ and drove off. There I was, fifteen years old, with $100 in petty cash and change – the equivalent of $1000 today, in charge of my little stand on Nevada Avenue. I admit that I was a bit worried and uncertain, but I really had no choice but to open up and get to work.
I looked up to Mr Kordula and Mr Knox; all of us looked up to them. It was great to work with them. I felt safe when I was working with them. What I hadn’t realized is that they were going to reward my trust in them with their trust in me. On that day Mr Knox said without saying it, ‘It’s up to you now, Richard.’ Tuum est.
Next week we will celebrate Pentecost, a festival that is often called the ‘birthday’ of the Church. I actually think that Ascension, the festival we are keeping today, is the real ‘birthday’ of the Church. It’s on this day that Jesus drops us off on a busy street we call ‘the world’, hands over to us the keys to the stand and drives off with a wave and a smile and breezy ‘Tuum est. – It’s up to you now.’
Let’s put ourselves on that hilltop outside Jerusalem two thousand years ago. According to Luke the evangelist, Jesus has spent forty days with the apostolic community. Throughout those forty days, Jesus makes no public appearances; he just spends time with the women and men who are part of his community. Someone might want to ask why Jesus didn’t go to the front door of the high priest’s home, knock on it and say, ‘Here I am. What do you have to say now?’ But, as Luke tells the story, Jesus doesn’t. I think that there is a simple reason: the message of the good news of God in Jesus is one that is meant to be shared by human beings.
In contrast to the celebrity culture that has pervaded human society from the very beginning, the culture of the gospel is wonderfully ordinary. When we think about the early days of the Christian movement, we may want to focus on characters such as Paul, Peter, Barnabas and the like. But the real foundation of the Christian movement was laid by the people who waved goodbye to Paul, Peter, Barnabas and the like as they left town. These ordinary people were responsible for living a Christ-like life in Philippi and Thessalonica and Ephesus and all the other places around the Mediterranean Sea and even as far as the southwestern coast of India. They were the ones who invited their neighbours to become part of this movement; they were the ones who sometimes paid the ultimate price for loving God and loving neighbour after the way of Christ.
In every generation we have had saints and teachers, mentors and even celebrities, who could have become gravity wells that drew all the attention to themselves. For the most part, they have not. They have come into our midst, offered their wisdom and then, with a wave and a smile, went on their way with a cheerful ‘Tuum est.’ ‘It’s up to you now.’
Here at Saint Helen’s, we have experienced both the joys and the sorrows of leadership that builds up the community and leadership that comes to an abrupt and troubling end. If we were to buy into the celebrity and ‘influencer’ culture of our times, then we might well and truly be hooped. But that is not who we are nor is it the culture of the good news. The good news is that celebrities and influencers come and go, some for the better, some for the worse, but the beloved community for whom Christ lived and died always rises again, just as our Lord was raised. We rise and accept the challenge made to every generation, ‘Tuum est.’ ‘It’s up to you now.’
But to do this, we need the gift of the Spirit, the Advocate, the Comforter, the Counsellor, the Companion. What I think the gift that the Spirit brings us – well, come next week and I’ll share those thoughts with you.
[i] Daniel 7.9-14; Psalm 24.7-10 (BAS); Acts 1.1-11; John 17.1-11 (alternative Hebrew Scripture reading and Psalm with Easter 7A Gospel).
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