We are a small Episcopal Church on the banks of the Rappahannock in Port Royal, Virginia. We acknowledge that we gather on the traditional land of the first people of Port Royal, the Nandtaughtacund, and we respect and honor with gratitude the land itself, the legacy of the ancestors, and the life of the Rappahannock Tribe. Our mission statement is to do God’s Will in all that we do.

2023 Ascension Day

Praying Differently this Summer

1. With Clenched Hands

Close your eyes and clench your hands tightly.

Imagine all the pressures and worries and tensions you carry here today. We hold on to a lot of things.

Then, in your own time, turn your gripped hands over so that they are facing down. Imagine God’s hands underneath yours and slowly open your hands so that the things you are carrying fall into God’s hands.

You may wish to repeat this several times. Turn your hands face up, but this time with the palms open and ask God’s Spirit to fill you afresh everything.

2.Worry Knots

As you think about these things, tie a knot in the rope to represent each worry and how it ties you up inside.

Matthew 6:25-34 reminds us, “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”.

Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.

As you untie each knot you made ask God to help you problem-solve when and how you can.

SALT Commentary Lectionary Ascension

Ascension Sunday (Year A): Luke 24:44-53 and Acts 1:1-11

Big Picture:

1) This is the seventh of the seven weeks of Eastertide (poetically one more week than the six weeks of Lent), and the fourth of four weeks exploring Jesus’ teachings about faith, discipleship, and living in intimacy with God. This Sunday is often celebrated as “Ascension Sunday,” marking the risen Jesus’ departure after 40 days of dwelling with the community of disciples. Next week is Pentecost, the birth of the church!

2) Bethany was a village about two miles east of Jerusalem, on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives — and the Mount of Olives was the place God was expected to appear on “the day of the LORD” to reign “over all the earth” (Zech 14:4-9). It’s the same place from which Jesus begins his Palm Sunday procession into Jerusalem (Luke 19:29-40).

3) For Luke, who also wrote Acts, the bookends of Jesus’ ministry are baptism and ascension, “the baptism of John until the day he was taken up from us,” and Acts is about the birth and early work of the church (Acts 1:22). Thus the Ascension serves as a key turning point in the overall two-volume story, the hinge between Part One and Part Two. Indeed, the Book of Acts could be subtitled, “Jesus Ascends, the Holy Spirit Descends, and the Church is Born.”

4) Many in Luke’s audience would have understood the details of Jesus’ ascension to mirror Elijah’s (2 Kings 2) — though here there are no chariots or horses of fire, but rather simply an enveloping cloud, the ancient symbol of divine presence (for example, see Exodus 24:15-18). Elijah’s departure includes a succession (his protege, Elisha, takes up his mantle), and Jesus follows the same pattern: he bequeaths his mantle to the church. The figures in white robes add to the atmosphere of heaven-on-earth, recalling the “two men in dazzling clothes” the women encounter at Jesus’ tomb (Luke 24:4).

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