Luke 24:50-52
The Ascension of Jesus
Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy;
Do you still think it was a good idea?
To pass the baton on to us?
Not sure, Lord, that that was one of your better plans
Sure - You did all you could
Preaching, teaching, showing us the way
You couldn’t have made it any clearer
Or put it any simpler - Love one another
And, You promised
To be always with us
And sent us your Spirit
So how can we get it so wrong?
How can we surround ourselves
with guns and war
with poverty and injustice
with hatred and indifference?
What possessed you to imagine
that we’d be up to the task?
How long, O Lord?
May our creeds and confessions
And all our holy mumble jumble
be torn asunder
Forcing us out of our sanctuaries
and onto the streets
where humanity is broken
May we make it simple
and keep it simple
By loving one another.
With you all the way, Liz, but the Ascension construct puts leagues between me and the divine, necessary only to get Jesus back from whence another construct drew him. There is an urgent need to appreciate that God is amongst us and that we have to journey inwards and outwards, not upwards, to find the divine.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Neville - and perhaps realising the Divine spark in each of us will go a long way to actualising how we live alongside God in the world.
ReplyDeleteMaybe one aspect of the ascension was to have us come full circle back to Eden?
ReplyDeleteThis tine with full free will.
This time with more knowledge.
This time being open, being honest, being vulnerable, being authentic... being really real.
This time maybe...
Not to blame Eve, but not to actually blame God! ( the woman you gave me! - what outrageous blame-shifting Adam tried to pull off there!).
This time, Holy Spirit as the conformer, to be seen - the creation stories state that God was looking for Adam at the end of the day ...mmmm .... God already knew what he had done ....all he needed was for Adam to say - yep, I did’ And not a single word more but only tears of genuine sorrow.
Maybe the point was/is/will ever be to be....
Grown up
Take responsibility
Own our faults, and our failing ...our habits of mind and body and live a full life of abundance AS A RESULT of that ownership ... not trapped in some kind of pre-pubescent garden holding daddy’s hand but now fully human man woman he she it us them ..
To sit with God and walk with God after a day’s graft and for that relationship to just .....be....... enjoyed for and in and of itself ...
the mission of Jesus .....his whole mission in my opinion was LOVE -love WAS IS and ALWAYS will be his purpose but in the context of all the gospel texts which we have access to, he said
And so too will you - heal and move mountains and preach and teach and do it as I did it inI His abundance filled mow with the holy, gently, Holy Spirit grace with a winsomeness and a lightness and a deep deep rooted sense in our inner most self that above all else that we are throughly totally utterly loved, no matter what, and set free to love back to every human being in grace and measure that we know we are loved
Love is the point
Jesus said I come to fulfil the law ... all the law and that was contained in love so thorough and acceptable him being pure and all that he paid the Exodus price for it all for all time for every single human being - he did fulfill every law that needed to be fulfilled
Gladly - not a mamba-Pami sentimental, love
But
Once which
Takes the blame for others
The one that says - I too am Spartacus
The one who says...
Come be fed there is room at my table ... just come
No accounting calculating
No oh ....what if ‘x’ and what if ‘y’
Just ... come!
The problem is that His Body has become a beauracracy of structures and committed, financially draining buildings ...
Maybe ... just maybe soon
The ‘church’ will evolve into something far more powerful, effective, relevant and necessary for a world which bleeds yet through greed and self-centeredness and pride and arrogance and malice and backbiting and utter ‘me-ness’ - that is why he cane and why he as ended - ascending
To guide us into relationship, this time with the Holy Spirit, readyagain to make full-informed choices and , if needful, we too would be crucified beside him for our neighbour.
Maybe. Maybe that was the point?
I am so glad Jesus chose to do it so we could walk with God in authenticity.... no matter what?