The Big Bang (C Jewell)

THE BIG BANG

Our scripture today immediately brought to mind one of my favorite quotes: “Christianity started in Palestine as an experience, it moved to Greece and became a philosophy, it moved to Rome and became an institution, it moved to Europe and became a culture, it moved to America and became a business”.

It’s one of my favorite quotes because it reflects a profound truth. Originally our faith was an experience. Not a philosophy, not an institution, not a culture, not a business—an experience. Not just any experience--a direct-immediate, life changing experience of God.

Our scripture today points back to and reflects that strange, amazing, life-changing experience.

One of the big ideas in first-century Judaism and Christianity, was the experience of an ascent to heaven to encounter God…this was THE experience for the founders of our faith…

In the Bible Jesus is not the only one who is said to have ascended to heaven. Jesus, Elijah, Enoch, John in Revelation,  Paul.  Paul describes this journey in his own words for us. 2 Corinthians 12:2-4. (read)

Scholars all agree that Paul is talking about himself. First century Jews thought it was arrogant to speak of their own spiritual experiences so Paul discusses his in the third person. We know from his report that Paul encountered the unknown, the mysterious unknown, when he ascended into Heaven and we know Paul was forever transformed by such an experience. He was converted into a new life—he went from being a Pharisaic Jew to an apostle of the Christ. He underwent a radical shift in perspective.

The Ascension experiences reported in the New Testament, these trips into heaven, they reflect the experience/s that were The big-bang of Christianity, the big-bang of the New Creation---the church came out of such events—and, thanks to great scholarship, that is now indisputable. So the church, of all places, needs to be a place that facilitates such experiences—why? Because they transform lives and by extension, the world.  In our day, there is plenty of science to back it up—once people begin having these experiences, they become more loving, more empathic, less selfish, less materialistic, less controlling, less manipulative, less self-centered. They begin to see themselves—and their own issues more clearly. Heck, many therapists are even encouraging patients to have spiritual experiences. Imagine the effect this type of change has on the world. If you become less-self-centered—less concerned with your own gratification, less concerned with manipulating those around you to get your own way, you change the world. You are the pebble dropped in the pond. Then you don’t have to do anything special—just by living a transformed life you change those in your circle—because the old manipulative self is not there anymore. That is what really transforms the world. The way many people try to change the world is by running around serving everyone for mostly unhealthy and selfish reasons. That gives us toxic churches and toxic charities.  Now I’m not saying these experiences of God give us perfect people—those only exist in bad stories and comic books, but these divine encounters undoubtedly help us grow---why else did Jesus and Paul value them so?

How do we, 21^st century Christians, experience what Jesus and Paul called an ascent into Heaven?—the same way they did! They were human beings---just like us—culturally different, yes, but they were people. That doesn’t make them any less extraordinary—but it does make them real. If we turn them into literary characters that lived in an ancient time of magic when some God zapped them up into heaven—we reduce them—we make them irrelevant for too many adults.  Such Spiritual immaturity has been the true enemy of the church. When we reduce them we cannot truly learn from them. By not making transformative spiritual experiences the primary concern of the church we also reduce the church. We reduce it to an institution that only supports the status-quo rather than transforming it. We allow the church to be an institution that is too-easily hi-jacked and subtly controlled by ideas like the worship of success and competitive capitalism.

Jesus and Paul journeyed into heaven through their own spiritual practices. They meditated and prayed deeply. They went off to be by themselves so that they could be with God. We know this. This is how the human is lifted into the conscious presence of the divine. This is the true miracle of the New Testament: the radically, and when I say radically, I mean completely, from the roots up, the radically transformed lives of people like Paul, Jesus, and the first Christians. The radical transformation of consciousness that is reflected in the ascension stories is truly mysterious—miraculous—stranger than fiction.

When we embark on our own ascent or journey into heaven we must risk leaving behind our old way of life. Because an ascent into heaven is a journey into the unknown—it is, as Paul tells us, a journey into a mysterious place. A place beyond thought and words. It is the place where our humanity meets the divine. It is a place where real people like Paul, Jesus, you and me—are transformed into our true selves. It is the place where Christianity becomes new—it is the place that is always new. It is the place that transforms all of us into the New Creation. It is the big-bang that sends God’s love out into the world. Amen.