“Hearts to Heaven”

“Hearts to Heaven” A sermon based on Luke 24:44, John 17:20-26 and Acts 1:1-11 preached on Ascension Sunday, May 17, 2026 by the Rev. Alison Dutton Jacobs at the First Congregational UCC of Onekama, Michigan.

We know from John’s Gospel that the resurrected Jesus, who appeared in some kind of eventually recognizable bodily form, usually after naming names or breaking bread, plans to ascend into the realm of God soon. On Easter morning, when Mary Magdalene finally recognizes him as Jesus and not the gardener, he asks her not to try to hold on to him because he has not yet ascended to the Father” and then asks her to go to the disciples and to tell them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” (John 20:17) From this, we gain a picture of a process” of ascension beginning with the Resurrection, for Jesus says “I have not yet ascended,” but “I am ascending.”
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