Last Thursday, May 14, was Ascension Day. But, you knew that, right? I’m sure The Ascension is a high holiday at your house. I’ll bet you celebrate with a cake with candle flames reaching heavenward. You probably release helium balloons and fly kites. Right? Well … maybe not.
None-the-less, despite the fact that we all but ignore Ascension Day, it is a principal feast of the church – just like Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. Ascension Day comes on a Thursday every year, 40 days after Easter. It is based on the biblical story in Acts. The Ascension scene is Jesus’ last Resurrection appearance, in which the disciples experienced the presence of Jesus in a special way. The setting for this story is the mountain called Olivet, several miles east of Jerusalem. In this parting scene Jesus says to his disciples: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses … to the end of the earth.” The story then tells us, “And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.”
Now listen carefully, the Ascension story is not about geography. It is not about where Jesus went. And the Ascension story is not about gravity. It is not about levitation. It is a simplistic misreading to think it is describing an unaided space launch. As a piece of biblical imagery it is probably related to a similar Old Testament story where the prophet Elijah is taken up into heaven in a whirlwind, with “a chariot of fire and horses of fire”
(2 Kings 2:1-12). There was also the extra-biblical tradition or legend that Moses had bodily ascended into heaven, which was “up there,” of course. For the biblical writer and the early church, this story is a perfectly normal way (in obviously symbolic language) to talk about Jesus as Lord, to say that he was one with God. It is not about space travel. It is about a growing, wider, spiritual vision. It represents another level in the answer to his question, “Who do you say that I am?” It also represents one highly significant turning point in the shared life of his first disciples. For their entire time as disciples – except for the three days he was in the tomb – Jesus had been with them, with them to teach, to guide, to lead, to inspire, and now he was gone. Gone to be with God, true. But gone – gone from their physical sight. And, though he promises he will send the Comforter, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, he is still not with them any longer.
This story is about learning to let go. That is what those disciples had to do. Thy had to “let go” of the Jesus they wanted to contain, to hang onto. He was the best relationship, the most important person they had ever known. In John’s Gospel, the same moment is reflected when Jesus prays to the Father, “But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they [my disciples] may have my joy made complete in themselves (John 17:13).” Complete without me. Jesus prays for his disciples protection, protection in the new circumstance they face.
Like those disciples, we must continue to discover that truth, at different levels, throughout our lives. We human beings have a remarkable capacity for making idols, for hanging too tightly onto whatever has been the best and most significant experience we have known. Sometimes it’s a rose-colored memory of the way things used to be, when life was simpler and we felt more secure and the world seemed a friendlier place. Sometimes it’s an idealized memory of a person with whom we have been able to give and receive love. People in churches too easily make idols out of favorite customs, sometimes parish traditions. Living in to our new exalted humanity means learning to let go of such things, learning to detach ourselves, to turn around and take the next step. It means getting unstuck, and moving on in the journey, without any certainty of what may come next.
We make other idols, too. Sometimes we get stuck inside ourselves at a place of resentment because something or someone just isn’t fair, hasn’t treated us right. Or maybe we just get tied up in an unhealthy place of guilt, a tightly held attitude of being beyond forgiveness. And, many of us hang on to a great many unnecessary worries. We worry about health and money and where our kids will get into school and what the future may or may not bring, and a thousand other things. You can add your own personal worries to the list. Which of us could not use a little practice letting go of some of our worry idols?
Positive or negative, what is the primary stuck-place for you today? What particular idol do you most need to turn your back on this day? What internal constriction most limits you from entering the freedom you have been given, from sharing the love of Christ which affirms and strengthens each of us? What do we hold on to which keeps us from discovering the power of our humanity – the humanity Jesus shared and exalted in his Ascension to the Father? Whenever we let go, we ascend; we rise to a new place on the hierarchy of spiritual maturity. In such ways we move along the road on a journey that has been called the Christian way.
