Saturday, May 23, 2020

Ascension 2020

COVID-19 #SaferAtHome

Since early March we've been church without walls – as the church always is – but we've been doing it in a very different way. Most of us have been doing our best to accomplish our usual tasks by Staying Safe and Staying Home. With fewer direct service opportunities like serving meals, visiting homebound and sick friends and neighbors, churches all over the world have used this unique opportunity for prayer, scripture study, live and pre-recorded worship and praise. Although I've enjoyed preparing a more formal than usual lesson to blog on Saturdays, I'm looking forward to meeting in real life again soon, and to live, on-campus worship.


Prayer

"Glorious Christ,

you whose divine influence is active at the very heart of matter, and at the dazzling centre where the innumerable fibres of the multiple meet: you whose power is as implacable as the world and as warm as life, you whose forehead is of the whiteness of snow, whose eyes are of fire, and whose feet are brighter than molten gold; you whose hands imprison the stars; you are the first and the last, the living and the dead and the risen again; it is to you to whom our being cries out a desire as vast as the universe: In truth you are our Lord and our God!
Amen."

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Mass on the World, 1923

Luke 24:44-53

44Then Jesus said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." 45Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

50Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 51While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. 52And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; 53and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

Acts 1:4-11

4…Jesus ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. "This," he said, "is what you have heard from me; 5for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

6So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

9When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

Ascension – Easter 7

Easter is a season that's a week of weeks, (the biblical number of) 7 times 7. Next Sunday we'll celebrate the Day of Pentecost, the third great Trinitarian festival, that's the 50th day of Easter—the pentecostal gift of the Holy Spirit enables the church to do the "greater works" Jesus promised. We then move into the green and growing season of Pentecost, a l-o-o-o-n-n-g segment of Ordinary Time when the church really comes into its own.

Today is day 43 of Easter, often commemorated as the Sunday after Ascension Thursday that the church observes on the 40th day of Easter. For Ascension Day this year, Pastor Peg and Friends posted an Ascension worship and study video anyone can watch any time.

In easy theological terms, ascension, ascendancy, ascent refer to reign, rule, sovereignty, power, authority, stewardship. Not "domination" as people sometimes misinterpret dominion in Genesis 2, but caretaking and responsiveness to the needs of all creation everywhere. Unlike in human governments and organizations, Jesus' authority has no checks and balances. It is supreme. It is absolute.


Luke – Acts

As we prepare for the season of Pentecost and close to six months' focus on our living as Jesus' presence in the world, let's consider both Ascension passages from Luke: the account in the gospel that bears his name, along with his account from the Acts of the Apostles.

Luke 24:49 "…I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

Acts 1:5 "…for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

6So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

When the disciples ask the resurrected Jesus if now he finally would "restore the kingdom to Israel," he replies, "the question is wrong," and tells them to wait, they will receive power (the Greek is our dynamite word) and then they'll be his witnesses everywhere. What you’ll get is not reclaimed splendors like the Davidic monarchy or the Jerusalem temple! You'll receive the Holy Spirit so you can live as Jesus' presence in the world; from now on, the world will discover Jesus within the church. In other words, Jesus' disciples (that's us!) will be the ones to restore God's reign of love, justice, mercy, and shalom on earth.

Jesus promises us baptism or literal immersion in the Holy Spirit of life; Jesus promises our lives will witness to him, but we don't do this on our own, by ourselves; we accomplish it with the power of God's life with us and within us. In the global reach of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, we become Jesus' presence on earth and begin restoring God's reign over all creation, as the HS empowers us to walk the talk!


Questions

• What does it mean to be Jesus' witnesses? Think of courtroom testimony.

• When we return to Santa Monica Boulevard, is there any new or renewed ministry you'd like to see happen and/or participate in during the next few months?

• Do you have a sense anything we've been doing will change substantially? I particularly think of the choir and of our own congregational singing. Assuming we'll be arranged 6 feet apart and probably wear face masks for a while…

• I'm also thinking of activities that bring us together in more informal, less structured ways, like craft days and Sunday brunch.

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