I've come to realize that the whole idea of celebrating the Ascension of the Christ has left me wanting. I haven't truly understood why there had to be such a moment for the followers of Jesus or, if he needed to ascend, why he walked around on earth for a while first. Part of me would like to cry out to God, "Couldn't he just stay here to help us?" Yes, yes, I know that we have the Helper for that and I couldn't be more thankful for the Holy Spirit and I truly feel Spirit's presence with me every day. In addition, though, I'm a physical being and would like to have a physical Christ to rely upon in the here and now.

The lectionary texts for the Ascension won't really help answer any of these desires of mine. They simply remind us that Jesus lived, Jesus chose to die on our behalf, Jesus lived again, and then Jesus flew off into the sunset - or something like that anyway.

A friend of mine recently told me a bit about some very serious struggles her 10 year old daughter is going through. I feel deeply connected to this young girl. I baptized her when she was just months old and I promised to teach her the faith. She is suffering a great deal due to bullying and this suffering has led her to ask very difficult questions about God. For instance, she said to her mother, "Jesus should really come back to earth because whatever he did the first time clearly wasn't enough." In her pain, confusion, and anger, she speaks words that most of us have felt at one time or another. Where is God when we most need God?

So, this whole ascension thing has been confusing for me. I could really use a physical Christ with me now, guiding me, showing the world how to be good. That leads me to hearing Spirit remind me why we celebrate Ascension in the Church.

I don't know why it all works the way it does, but I've come to believe that what these verses point us toward is a faith that is active, present, and physical in the here and now. Jesus ascended, but not without leaving us instructions to follow, commands to carry out, and help for the journey. We throw around those phrases all the time - "We are Christ's hands and feet" or "We are the body of Christ" - but have these phrases become hollow words to us so that a 10 year old is unable to see the physical presence of the Christ in the faith community around her?

I hate to go from such an important and heavy matter as bullying alongside the Ascension of Jesus to a mostly trivial matter, but such is how my mind works! I'm horrible about equipping my children to clean their own rooms. I mean horrible! Each of them can barely walk from their doors to their beds right now and each has been warned to clean the room before birthday parties happening this weekend or they will not get to go. But, we have been through this before. We will get down to the last second and there will be tears and shouts of how difficult it is to do on their own. There will be begging for help and in the moment it will make perfect sense to me to offer them the help that they feel they so desperately need. And, once again, they will not have learned that picking up one thing at a time eventually leads to a neat living space.

The good news of the Ascension is that we aren't left all alone to clean up the messes of the world. We do have help. But, I've come to believe that the essential message of an ascending Christ is that we have to take those metaphors seriously and do the work of the Christ on this earth, to be Christ for the 10 year olds who are bullied and for the 50 year olds who are living on the streets. I don't know why Christ had to ascend. God's ways are mysterious to me, but I know that he left clear instructions to do his work once he had. I think that is why we have to remember at least once a year that this moment occurred in the life of Jesus and his followers - so that we will remember that we are called to be the answer to everyone asking, "Where is God when we most need God?"

One of the first things I read this morning was a quote in an email from my sister. A pastor herself, she sends disciple-building quotes every day along with a list of prayer concerns. Today's was from Anthony Robinson from http://www.inwardoutward.org.

"We have imagined that Christianity itself is a religion of virtue. But no, Desmond Tutu reminded us, 'Christianity is not a religion of virtue; it is a religion of grace.' And there's a difference. A religion of virtue says, 'If you are good, then God will love you.' A religion of grace says, 'God loves you.' God loves you despite your foibles and failures, not because you're so good but as a sinner in need of mercy. God loves you; live then as one who is beloved, who has been forgiven."

I have found myself asking over the weeks since Easter what in the world the creators of the lectionary were thinking. I mean we had forty L O N G days of Lent gearing up for the big day to celebrate Resurrection and then almost immediately after Easter, we are back to reading images of the lamb being brought to slaughter. I guess it is true that there aren't many resurrection appearance stories to choose from, so what are you gonna do?

So I read that quote this morning and then I read the lectionary texts with all the craziness of Philip telling the story only to be transported, it would seem, in a manner not unlike being beamed up by Scotty and the gospel throwing a whole new metaphor at us with Jesus providing a Gardening for Dummies lesson. It is that 1 John text that is resonating with me most right now.

Why do we have to continue to go back to an image of Jesus as the lamb laying down his life even as we sing the Hallelujahs on Sunday? Because it is such a powerful image of love. And, God is love. We find ourselves returning to these images again and again because through them we are reminded that our virtue gets us nowhere, but the grace of Jesus Christ frees us for living the resurrected life.

The phrase from the gospel lesson for this week that stands out to me is "While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering . . ." I just love this idea of being full of joy even in the midst of disbelieving and wondering. I mean, come on, Jesus was dead and now he is appearing to his friends in all kinds of places. Who wouldn't still be filled with wonder and some feelings of disbelief that it is all just too good to be true? 

I think about the first few days after we brought my son home from the hospital. He was our first born and ended up staying in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for a week. It was the absolute worst week of my life and when we finally had our new baby home, while I should have been overjoyed and at peace, I found myself scared to death something was going to go horribly wrong. I was filled with joy. There is no doubt about that. And, at the same time, it seemed too good to be true and I found it difficult to believe that it would be smooth sailing from then on. I wondered if everything would be okay or if we would find ourselves back at the hospital - or worse.

This third week of Easter leads us through this kind of feeling. We are experiencing the resurrected Christ, but it feels too good to be true. We are reminded through Acts and 1 John that forgiveness and life that is really life can be ours, but we hold our breath waiting for something to go wrong. I like to think that this is a natural reaction. Like the disciples who were able to be filled with joy while struggling through their disbelief and wonder, we journey with Jesus as we struggle through our own disbelief. 

The really wonderful thing is that Jesus honors this, moves forward by asking for something to eat, and sits with us as we arrive at the truth that is sitting in front of us. I love that he honors my disbelief and gives me permission to be filled with joy even before I have all the answers. In fact, he lovingly opens our minds to the scriptures and guides us gently along. Too good to be true? Yes, yes it is. And, it is true nonetheless.

I once preached a sermon for Palm Sunday where I used the analogy of street theater to describe what happened as Jesus entered Jerusalem. It makes perfect sense to me with all the shouting and waving of palms. I wondered before stepping into the pulpit if some would view this as sacrilege. While I have a high view of actors, traditionally in the Church they have been lumped in with liars and thieves.

I was fortunate enough to attend the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as I stage managed a show appearing in that festival one year. For an entire month each year, the city of Edinburgh is home to actors, directors, and performers from all across the world. For the most part, the locals leave town and give it over to the likes of men painted blue and fire wielding witches on stilts. Every space that is large enough for a few chairs becomes a theater. There are hundreds of shows each week and each company wants to be seen by the thousands of people attending the festival. For that to happen, they have to get some attention. In order to get attention, on every corner of the city at any given moment in the day, a tourist can witness all kinds of street theater, little glimpses of what the companies have to offer. They don't perform the entire show, of course. The whole purpose of the street theater is to grab the attention of potential audience members, to get them to come see the real show.

Jesus and his band of actors paraded into Jerusalem as the crowds were gathering for the Passover. And, he performed this amazing bit of theater. There was comedy as he rode in on a donkey instead of a stallion, there was suspense as the people cried out, "Save us!," and there was drama when leaders tried to shut down the performance. But, the whole purpose of this performance was to grab their attention and to invite them to come to the real show.

If your congregation does not hold services during Holy Week, be sure to find ways to allow them to see the real show. There are three acts and you don't want them to miss any of it. Palm Sunday is just the preview. Maundy Thursday is Act I. Good Friday is Act II. And, Easter Sunday is the final Act. And, like any great play, skipping to the end just won't allow us to appreciate the entire story in the same way.

I get frustrated with the Twelve sometimes because they seem like such idiots. I mean from my perspective Jesus tells them over and over again who he is and what must happen and they continue to remain clueless. But, when I read verses like the one in the gospel lesson for this week that says, "Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life," I think it may be a miracle that anyone ever understood Jesus at all! He is like The Riddler from the old Batman series, speaking in a sort of code language that is hard to decipher.

The Prophet Jeremiah. 1508-1512. Fresco. Sistine Chapel, Vatican

Having over 2000 years of interpretation added on top of the words of the Christ makes us think we understand. I think for most of us, we sit in church (or stand preaching in the pulpit) and think we grasp pretty well what the words mean. But, if we were to tell the truth, we may grasp pretty well what some commentator had to say about the words, but the words themselves would be pretty shocking and confusing to us if we only took them for what they are.

I can't help but wonder if Jeremiah wept a lot because of what God had him preaching in the streets. How would we respond to some guy claiming to be a prophet telling us that all hell is about to break loose and it is all our fault? I'd want to throw him into a well too! But, in this pericope, God is sharing the hope we find in the new covenant. Sins will be remembered no longer, the law is not only available to everyone, but actually written on our hearts, and all will have the opportunity to know God up close and in person. Of course, the prophet doesn't get to say it quite that clearly.

So, to participate in this new covenant, we can't rely on ourselves, we can't depend on the worldly ways of life to carry us through. We must listen to the Rabbi's riddle and give up our life so that we can have life abundantly. We are being prepared during this season of Lent to accept the truth of life as a disciple of Jesus the Christ - we are ignorant and we desperately need a Savior. We are being prepared to fully accept our part of the covenant and follow the Resurrected Lord into eternal life turning our backs on all the sins of this world that keep us separated from God. We are being prepared to follow our high priest who learned obedience through what he suffered.

That is just not something that I can fully understand. My comprehension skills are not that good. The good news for us and for our congregations is that it doesn't matter if we understand it or not. Jesus was obedient to God and because of that, we are awarded eternal life. Riddle me this - what could be better than that?

This Week's Lectionary Texts

Numbers 21:4-9

Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22

Ephesians 2:1-10

John 3:14-21

 

This Week's Reflection

A while back I read the gospel lesson for this week which made me look back at the reference it made to Moses and the serpent. I've been extremely fascinated by this story ever since. There are a couple of specific reasons why. I'm not even going to try to touch the whole issue of God sending serpents to kill the Israelites. I can't make sense of that part of the scripture. I mean I can think of ways to interpret it that make me feel better, but truly making sense of it is beyond my capabilities. 

However, here is what stands out. When the people ask for help. They are given help. In fact, when they ask for help - "Please Moses, get God to do something about our loved ones dying of snake bites!" - Moses is told to create a sculpture of a serpent. 

If you are a regular reader of this blog, I hope by now you realize that I believe art is a gift from God. I believe to be created in the image of God is, in fact, to be made to be creative people. So, God speaks through art in ways that is not likely in other ways. This is true for all sorts of artwork - music, visual arts, theatre, poetry, etc.

So, back to this snake on a stick - God tells Moses to sculpt a piece of art which is the image of the serpent. Those who have been bitten are to look at it, to view the piece of art, and they will be saved. In other words, art saves lives.

There is one other thing that is most fascinating to me about this passage. The work of art which is created in order to save lives is created in the very image of the thing that the people feared the most. This is incredible to me. The snakes are biting the folks, they are terrified, people are dying, and the thing that is going to save them is to face that very thing in the form of a sculpture. 

How often do we use works of art to face our fears? In what way is the Christ at work here? What kinds of art can we introduce to congregations in order to help them see Christ's light more clearly?