Last Thursday on the church
calendar it was Ascension day; lots of churches celebrate it today. What are we celebrating? Jesus
leaving-leaving earth and leaving his disciples.
Funnily enough there isn’t
much agreement among early Christians about the importance of the ascension, if
any. Only Luke tells the story in his
usual pageant-worthy detail. In fact,
ascension is a much later word that doesn’t even show up in the Bible, like a
few other things the church globs on to.
One blog I read talked of ADD: ascension deficit disorder, because of
its apparent insignificance to early Christians!! Surely it can’t be terribly relevant today either.
I mean, really, how does one ascend, go up, from a ball that is the earth? Jesus
leaves, that’s about it.
But all scripture is alive,
and worth a second look (forgive the pun).
And in fact there is all sorts of relevance in these few verses of leave-taking,
maybe especially for us as we move into a season of leave-taking as John and
Martha move to Ithaca. One of these
relevant thoughts might speak to you, to us who are also disciples, student
followers of this same Jesus….
1.
Jesus points out
to the disciples that he, and they, are part of God’s big sweeping story—he
connects them with the ancient past, and with recent events, he addresses them
in the present and then connects them with the future—Jesus leaves them yes, but leaves them with a part in God’s story.
2.
He reminds
disciples, student followers like us, that his teachings are the basis for our mission—Jesus leaves them yes, but with a foundation
3.
He gives them a
purpose and meaning for the future: it is the disciples’ job to proclaim that
the world needs to turn away from its failing ways back to God, and pronouncing
God’s forgiveness—Jesus leaves them yes,
but leaves them with a purpose
4.
He acknowledges
that they will have to wait, in live in “an in-between time” of active waiting
for the power that will come…..not a bad reminder to us that we must not try to
be the church without the power of the Holy Spirit with and within us. Jesus leaves them yes, but with a promise
All this is ours from
Jesus: a part in God’s story, a
foundation in Jesus’ teachings, a meaningful purpose, and a promise of power. This is what we at FUMC are all about.
But what actually struck me
this week about this text is the threefold use of the word BLESS/BLESSING
Raising his arms, he blessed them
As he was blessing them, he left them
They were filled with joy and were blessing God in the
temple
Sort of an old fashioned
concept these days; I mean, apart from ‘bless you’ when someone sneezes, or as we
might hear among the southern drawls ,
‘well, bless your heart’ --neither of which actually mean much, right? And, oh yes, maybe a blessing over food, and
a benediction at the end of Sunday worship, but apart from that what do we know
of blessing?
According to the dictionary,
it has something to do with consecrating or making holy, or invoking divine
care, or, in the case of blessing God it has to do with praise. And that certainly all fits with today’s
texts. And it has some element of joy-giving says the dictionary. Jesus
left them, blessing as he went…and they were filled with joy. Joy?
At his leave-taking? No, at his blessing.
Jesus leaves them,yes, but with a
blessing.
His blessing leads to their
joy, which leads to their blessing God.
Receiving and giving
blessing, with joy in between. It becomes that circle of giving and receiving
we talk about here
On the plane rides home
yesterday, I was reading from John O’Donohue’s book of blessings, To Bless the Space between us. Here’s what he says:
Fixated on the visible, we forget that the
decisive presences in our lives—soul,
mind, thought, love, meaning, time, life itself—are all invisible….it is on
this threshold between visible and invisible that our most creative conflicts
and challenges come alive….which is why we reach for blessing. In our confusion, fear and uncertainty we
call upon the invisible structures of original kindness (what we might call God/divine love) to come and open pathways of possibility by
refreshing and activating in us that invisible potential….blessing is the art
of harvesting the wisdom of the invisible world….when a blessing is invoked, a
window opens in eternal time.
When we bless, we draw on
something much deeper than words, (lips) much
more intangible even than thoughts (brain)—we
draw on that deep God-fed soul place within us that is the same place where joy
is found.
Jesus’ blessing comes from
his depths and resonates with theirs. As O’Donohue says, blessing is from soul to soul.
Of course, blessings are
often given and received individually, often at a very surface level, but their
depth and width is usually sourced in true community. Among my sister clergy women and nuns at the
monastery I retreat to, we continually give and receive blessings, and as each
one left this week, at different times, it was that deep community love of God
that blessed each one.
The sisters at the monastery
have a final blessing they give us: arms raised just like Jesus:
May God’s blessing be upon you
May God’s blessing be upon you
May you know peace all your days
And may the deep gift of happiness rest on your
shoulders
May your days be warm and your nights without fear
Until we meet again
Know you are loved.
Such soul to soul blessing
can be done by anyone, to anyone, but it is especially available to the
community Jesus blesses: the community based on God’s story that Jesus leaves
The teachings that Jesus
leaves
The mission that Jesus leaves
WE are a blessed, being
blessed community, called to bless, for Jesus doesn’t just leave, he leaves
it up to us.
His leave-taking, his ‘visible absence’ if you
like, leads to Jesus’ invisible
Presence, the power he promises so we can fulfill our calling.
May we learn to believe how
blessed we are
May we reach deep to receive
and give blessing
May we trust God to provide
the power to move forward.
Amen.
