Tonight, the children’s choir sang for the last time of the season, as they do on Ascension Day. I went into the service assuming that for the first time since we joined the choir, none of our children would be receiving an award (although Ladybug is testing for a new level next month). You can imagine my surprise, then, when Moose received his very first RSCM medal…and not even he knew he was getting it! I’m so very proud of him!
As has become our tradition, we attended the Divine Service for the Ascension of Our Lord at Hope Lutheran in St. Louis. The children’s choir always sings at this service, and they also receive the RSCM awards they have earned. Bunny and Ladybug both tested for the red medal, and Bunny passed with honors, and Ladybug passed with distinction! Even though he’s no longer in the children’s choir, Turkey also took the test, and like Ladybug, he also passed with distinction. Moose didn’t receive an award this year, but he’s still thrilled to be part of the choir!
I managed to get a quick picture of Chickadee before church this evening:
It’s hard to believe, but the children just wrapped another season (and Turkey’s last), of singing with the Kantorei! As was the case last year, those choristers who completed certain exams received awards. Turkey, Bunny, and Ladybug upgraded the light blue ribbons that accompany their medals to dark blue. Moose received the white surplice this year, which is a huge achievement for him!
The medal is the same (and I still think it looks cool!), and I really love the color of the new ribbon!
I am very proud of how hard the children have worked at singing and learning about music!
Tonight was the last time the children got to sing with their choir this school year. At the end of the service, awards were given out to the choristers who had completed certain tasks and tests. Turkey, Bunny, and Ladybug all earned not only the white surplice to wear over their choir robes, but also the light blue medal. (Moose has diligently attended with them all year, but declined to take the exam, which is fine…I’m just glad he enjoyed the experience and learned something along the way!)
And a closer look at the medal, just because I think it looks really cool!
I’m very proud of my choristers!
At our church home away from home to celebrate the Ascension of Our Lord.
From the Treasury of Daily Prayer:
Ascension Day is the coronation celebration of our Lord as He is proclaimed to be King of the universe. Jesus’ ascension to the Father is His entrance to the greater existence beyond the confines of time and space, being no longer bound by the limitations of His state of humiliation. Jesus now sits at the right hand of God, which Luther correctly taught is everywhere, having again taken up the power and authority that were His since before time. Yet our Lord is present with us who remain bound by time and space. He is with us as true God and true man, exercising His rulership in the Church through the means of grace which He established: His Word and His Sacraments. We mortals in those means of grace can grasp the King of the universe and receive a foretaste of the feast to come.
“A hymn of gory let us sing!
New hymns throughout the world shall ring:
Alleluia, alleluia!
Christ, by a road before untrod,
Ascends unto the throne of God.
Alleluia alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!The holy apostolic band
Upon the Mount of Olives stand,
Alleluia, alleluia!
And with His faithful foll’wers see
Their Lord ascend in majesty.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!To them the shining angels cry,
‘Why stand and gaze upon the sky?’
Alleluia, alleluia!
‘This is the Savior,’ thus they say;
‘This is His glorious triumph day!’
Alleluia, alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!‘You see Him now, ascending high
Up to the portals of the sky.’
Alleluia, alleluia!
‘Hereafter Jesus you shall see
Returning in great majesty.’
Alleluia, alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!Be now our joy on earth, O Lord,
And be our future great reward.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Then, throned with You forever, we
Shall praise Your name eternally.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!O risen Christ, ascended Lord,
All praise to You let earth accord:
Alleluia, alleluia!
You are, while endless ages run,
With Father and with Spirit one.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!” Lutheran Service Book #493
Tonight, after several years of trying, but for one reason or another, never actually getting there, we finally made it to the Ascension service at our church. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually been to church on Ascension Day proper, and I was very curious to see what the service was like. It was a festival service, as I expected, and we sang Ascension hymns, also as expected, but one thing did strike me as unexpected, (although, I guess in retrospect, I should have seen it coming)–the snuffing out of the Paschal candle during the Ascension reading.
That one moment put a bit of a somber spin on the otherwise celebratory festival service. And it really made me think. I found I was very disappointed to see that light extinguished. When that particular light is brought back at the Great Vigil of Easter, it is one of the high points of the church year for me. And the candle being lit every Sunday between Easter and Ascension serves as a reminder that we are in a season of celebration. But then, in the middle of our celebration, the candle is abruptly extinguished. And in that moment, I think I got a glimpse into what the disciples must have felt.
Here they were, rejoicing that their teacher, their friend, their Savior, had beaten death, and was back in their midst. They walked with Him and learned from Him in those forty days following His resurrection. And then, just as quickly as He had rejoined them, He was gone again. Yes, they knew where He was going, so the fear of death no longer hung over them, but He was still gone from their midst.
One of our hymns tonight mentioned the disciples’ “happy tears,” and yet, I have to wonder just how happy they were. I was sad enough just seeing the Paschal candle go out; if I had walked with Jesus for all that time, I think my tears would have been pretty heartbroken at His leaving. It makes me wonder just what the disciples were thinking and feeling. It is certainly understandable that the angels would have had to snap them out of their thoughts as they stared up at heaven. But were they left feeling bereft at the Lord’s absence? Excited about the job ahead of them? Terrified of all they had witnessed in the last two months? Probably a mixture of those emotions, and others, I’m sure.