The Ascension of Christ

1994 (Year B), 15 May / Easter 7

St Peter de Beauvoir Town

‘After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them, ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go.’ An incredibly simple, powerful picture. A scene jam packed with symbolism, most of which is lost on us. And a scene, I guess, which none of us believe happened as it is written down in Luke’s gospel or the Acts of the Apostles.

So if it didn’t happen like that what’s the point of reading it now? If it didn’t happen what did? If it didn’t happen why make it up? Well the Ascension is an attempt to show, to enflesh a mystery. A mystery which people have tried to fathom from the very beginning. The mystery is this. It has two parts. What is the relationship between the risen Jesus and God? That’s the first part. The second is this. How can we express the relationship we feel we have with that risen Jesus now. Easy questions. Much harder to convey that which cannot be expressed and try to understand that which is beyond understanding.

All Jesus’ followers, from the beginning had a simple desire. ‘Lord show us the Father and that will be enough’, said Philip to Jesus, ‘show us the Father’. Show us God and then we’ll believe. That had been the constant cry. ‘Unless I see the wounds in his side,’ said Thomas, ‘I will not believe. Go on show us. Show us.’

And Jesus spent his whole ministry showing people the Father, showing the divine in stories, revealing the divine in signs and miracles, showing the love of God in his life. Showing. That’s the key. And now we come to the Ascension. The ultimate showing when according to the stories Jesus rose up in front of their eyes and was hidden from them by a cloud. And those who heard the story would all know that the cloud was the presence of God. Jesus was enveloped, shown to be taken into the very presence of God. And now somehow because of that we all are able to call Jesus Lord.

God is known by being shown. That’s the key to a truth that we’ve lost because the history of the church from quite early on is a history of a community trying to communicate a vision in words; and words, just like those I’m using now, ultimately break down. The language of religion falters and fails for we find ourselves trying to express things that we can only see with in our hearts and know in love.

We concentrate on telling people about God. Our confusion stems from the fact that we are constantly trying to tell people about God rather than simply revealing the divine. The story of the Ascension is an attempt to show people God. Nothing more, nothing less. And it worked. It won’t do now. Our minds work in differently. We can’t cope with bodies rising into the sky. It won’t fit with the things that science tells us are real. Our thoughts, our knowledge are very different. Yet the task remains the same. We must show people God. That’s the only way. And we must do it in ways that people find understandable and acceptable.

The Ascension cannot be proved by means of historical evidence, nor must we only wait for the next world. It’s proved here and now, through the courage for revolt and the protest against deadly powers, and the self-giving of women and men for the victory of life. It’s shown in the way some people are able to transcend themselves and touch the very things-of God. We can see-them and know it in our hearts.

The church consists of those who have been dead and are coming alive. It is the company of those who were banished and are now restored. It is the community of those who were paralysed and are now forgiven. It is a story of those who were immobilised and are empowered to function fully again. It is the community of those who know their need for God and experience divine love in their lives. We can see them we know them and when we meet them we see God. It’s the community of the Ascension.

A clue to the mystery is hidden in the attitude in which Jews prayed. They prayed not like you or I with hands folded, clenched hands and bowed head, crouched and absorbed in themselves and God. They prayed with hands raised and spread out towards heaven, with open eyes and upturned gaze. (From an incredibly young age I have thought of this exactly as Jesus stood at the Ascension). This, we have to suppose, was how Jesus stood before his disciples. And as he stood like this, open body and soul for God, the brightness and reflection of God fell upon him, and was mirrored back from him again, not merely in his spirit but in his whole being. He had remained a man among men, but as he prayed and the Father beheld him, his life shone like a mirror -like a reflector which by itself is nothing, until it throws back the light it receives – throws it back father and farther until it diffused it round itself That is the secret of Jesus. It is the secret of the Ascension.

Now all we have to do is go and do likewise. AMEN