A Moment Aside --- 20 May 2020 -- Ascension

     Tomorrow, Thursday, May 21, is Ascension Thursday. This is the celebration of the day when Jesus left his disciples and returned to "the right hand of the Father." It's an odd day on the Christian Church calendar. It means very little to some people, yet for others it is a very special day. It appears that Ascension is special to farming people and I'd guess that it was a welcome break from the work that needs to go on in a farming community. The date is always 40 days after Easter and because of that it is a Thursday. The narrative can be found in Act of the Apostles 1:6-11.
     It seems odd that such a day celebrates nothing less than the absence of Jesus. Jesus leaves his disciples and "ascends" into heaven. The book of Acts had Jesus going up until a cloud obscures him from his disciples' eyes. This leads to a few questions...
     Is Heaven "up"? Or is Heaven all around? Some folks wondered if astronauts would encounter God and the angels as they left the earth beneath their feet. "Ascension" could mean "going up" to a higher way of being rather than a helicopter ride to "up there."
     Something a pastor taught me years ago has stayed with me all these years. If Jesus ascended to heaven in his resurrected body - which was a real, material body that could be seen and heard and touched and could eat - then the body is somewhere. Jesus did not vaporize or blink out of existence. He went somewhere which means he is somewhere. Where he is is beyond me to figure out, but he is there.
     It is possible that Jesus rose and ascended and sent the Holy Spirit so he could be with us where-ever we might be. He is beyond the usual restrictions of time and space. To go further, he lives in each of us as his disciples.
     If we want to see Jesus today, we have a number of places to look. We can turn to the written Scriptures where his presence can surely be found. We can turn to the Church's sacraments, especially the Lord's Supper where his presence is assured to us. We can look to each other for each Christian is a reflection of Jesus' life and grace. (I must admit that some show this better than others, but that's how it goes.) If we are of a poetic mind and spirit, we can find the presence of Jesus in the natural world, in the astronomy of the skies, and even in the science that expresses the wonders of creation to us all.
     Hear the words of Psalm 139: 7-12:

Where can I go from your spirit?

    Or where can I flee from your presence?

8

If I ascend to heaven, you are there;

    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

9 

If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limit of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night,"
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,

    for darkness is as light to you.

However we see the Ascension and however we celebrate it, it means that Jesus is with us and within us. 

Something worth both remembering and celebrating.