Year C
\u00a0Acts 1:1-11
\u00a0Psalm 47
\u00a0Ephesians 1:15-23
\u00a0Luke 24:44-53<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ascension Day was three days ago\u2026 but we commemorate it today because it may just be more important than we realize\u2026 and to use some artistic language\u2026 it has to do with positive space\u2026 and negative space\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And drawing from an article [ no pun intended ] by Daniel Drage in Image magazine\u2026 we’re reminded that in Genesis\u2026 the sacred is fashioned not only by empty and defined space\u2026 but also by time\u2026 that God\u2019s creative activities end on the seventh day\u2026 when God rests\u2026 and in doing so creates the first Sabbath\u2026 itself a type of negative space\u2026 ] we remember that Adam and Eve\u2026 hid themselves from the presence of God among the trees of the garden\u2026 but God called to the man and asked\u2026 Where are you?<\/em>\u2026 a theme of absence and presence that will occupy much of the Jewish scriptures as God pursues humanity\u2026 and when the man and woman are driven from their home in the garden\u2026 the equation is reversed\u2026 and humanity is left to search for God\u2026 sometimes in negative spaces\u2026 like from the cleft in the rock where Moses hid\u2026 when this preeminent spiritual leader was granted a vision in only negative form\u2026 the back side of the Divine\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Matthew’s Gospel\u2026 there is silence about Jesus’ ascension\u2026 the original ending of Mark’s Gospel included nothing about it\u2026 a negative space of sorts in itself\u2026 that had to wait almost two hundred years to be filled by the last two verses of that Gospel\u2026 and Luke\u2026 who is also known to be the author of Acts\u2026 tells two different versions of the Ascension\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In today\u2019s Gospel\u2026 the Ascension happens on Easter day\u2026 just a few vv. before\u2026 Jesus appeared to the two on the Emmaus Road\u2026 and was known to them in the breaking of the bread\u2026 was known to them in the space created when he was no longer there\u2026 and in today\u2019s reading from Acts\u2026 the resurrected Jesus remains with the disciples for forty days\u2026 and speaks about the Kingdom of Heaven\u2026 and tells them that they will receive power from on high\u2026 and only after he had said this\u2026 forty days after the resurrection\u2026 did he ascend\u2026 forty days…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gail Ramshaw\u2026 a former professor of religion at LaSalle University\u2026 who writes on liturgical language\u2026 reminds us that for a people whose lives were determined and measured by heavenly cycles\u2026 particularly the 29.5 days between full moons\u2026 that forty is longer\u2026 it exceeds the familiar and measured lunar cycle\u2026 and so things happen for a long time\u2026 let’s call it forty days that it rained on Noah\u2019s ark\u2026 it’s forty days that Nineveh is threatened with destruction\u2026 and that Jesus is tempted after his baptism\u2026 at age forty Moses kills an Egyptian taskmaster\u2026 forty years later he meets with God on Mount Sinai\u2026 for forty years Israel wanders in the desert\u2026 and forty years later Moses dies\u2026 and Saul\u2026 David\u2026 and Solomon each reign forty years\u2026 a long time\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n So did the Ascension happen on Easter Day\u2026 or was it forty days later\u2026 is one story right and the other one wrong\u2026 were our Jewish-Christian ancestors\u2026 telling literal stories\u2026 or symbolic stories that we now take literally\u2026 ] on our church calendar at least\u2026 the Book of Acts wins the day above the Gospel of Luke\u2026 because there are forty days from Easter Day to Ascension Day\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if we have enshrined in time\u2026 what really exists out of time\u2026 then we have also enshrined it in space\u2026 that is\u2026 in three dimensions\u2026 because the language in Acts and in Luke conveys action and direction\u2026 lifted up\u2026 gazing up\u2026 looking up\u2026 taken up\u2026 carried up\u2026 so in which direction is the Heaven to which Jesus went\u2026 and how does the answer take into account that the Earth is round\u2026 ] is Heaven place\u2026 or is it perhaps really a quality of presence\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps Luke delays the Ascension in Acts\u2026 because he knew not only of the power of community\u2026 but he knew that it can take a long time for lasting change to take hold\u2026 for the neural pathways in our brains to be re-wired\u2026 and if forty days is how long we must wait for God\u2019s intent to be realized\u2026 and we rush it\u2026 then maybe we\u2019re really not changed at all\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obfuscation… reversal\u2026 and negation\u2026 these are the paradoxical modes of engaging a God who prefers to be present through absence\u2026 it’s no wonder then\u2026 that when the Israelites seek to create a resting space for God\u2026 whether in the Tabernacle or eventually in the Temple\u2026 God determines for them what must be left open\u2026 empty\u2026 and undisturbed\u2026 since God\u2019s presence will rest\u2026 as described in Exodus 25… above the mercy seat\u2026 from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the covenant<\/em>\u2026 in other words\u2026 God meets the chosen people\u2026 only in negative space\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And even in the Gospels\u2026 which tell the story of God enfleshed\u2026 negative space remains\u2026 from the vacant tomb\u2026 to the punctures in the hands and feet of the embodied God\u2026 signals of emptiness remain\u2026 and like sculptures\u2026 the sacred stories tell of openings framed by closures\u2026 matter embracing the immaterial\u2026 and absence meeting presence\u2026 in relational fullness\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in his Ascension\u2026 Jesus too creates negative space\u2026 as our Prayer of the Day says\u2026 he ascended so that he might fill all things\u2026 and so that the disciples might be clothed with power from on high\u2026 but it’s not just them\u2026 it’s all of us now too\u2026 and I think fifth-century Pope Leo came very close to a paradoxical truth\u2026 when he said that Christ ascended into the sacraments\u2026 the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace\u2026 and in baptism\u2026 in the waters of baptism\u2026 our sins are forgiven us\u2026 in the waters of baptism\u2026 the public profession of our faith that we make\u2026 unites and integrates us with something far bigger than we realize or can imagine\u2026 and we can reject the lie in which we expect ourselves and each other to be more than human\u2026 and what I hope we remember from today’s Gospel\u2026 is that as Jesus was taken up\u2026 he didn\u2019t pray for the disciples\u2026 he blessed them\u2026 so he must bless us as well\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year C\u00a0Acts 1:1-11\u00a0Psalm 47\u00a0Ephesians 1:15-23\u00a0Luke 24:44-53 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 Ascension Day was three days ago\u2026 but we commemorate it today because it may just be more important than we realize\u2026 and to use some artistic language\u2026 it has to do with positive space\u2026 and negative space\u2026 And drawing from an article [ no pun intended ] by Daniel Drage in Image magazine\u2026 we’re reminded that in Genesis\u2026 the sacred is fashioned not only by empty and defined space\u2026 but also by time\u2026 that God\u2019s creative activities end on the seventh day\u2026 when God rests\u2026 and in doing so creates the first Sabbath\u2026 itself a type of negative space\u2026 ] we remember that Adam and Eve\u2026 hid themselves from the presence of God among the trees of the garden\u2026 but God called to the man and asked\u2026 Where are you?\u2026 a theme of absence and presence that will occupy much of the Jewish scriptures as God pursues humanity\u2026 and when the man and woman are driven from their home in the garden\u2026 the equation is reversed\u2026 and humanity is left to search for God\u2026 sometimes in negative spaces\u2026 like from the cleft in the rock where Moses hid\u2026 when this preeminent spiritual leader was granted a vision in only negative form\u2026 the back side of the Divine\u2026 In Matthew’s Gospel\u2026 there is silence about Jesus’ ascension\u2026 the original ending of Mark’s Gospel included nothing about it\u2026 a negative space of sorts in itself\u2026 that had to wait almost two hundred years to be filled by the last two verses of that Gospel\u2026 and Luke\u2026 who is also known to be the author of Acts\u2026 tells two different versions of the Ascension\u2026 In today\u2019s Gospel\u2026 the Ascension happens on Easter day\u2026 just a few vv. before\u2026 Jesus appeared to the two on the Emmaus Road\u2026 and was known to them in the breaking of the bread\u2026 was known to them in the space created when he was no longer there\u2026 and in today\u2019s reading from Acts\u2026 the resurrected Jesus remains with the disciples for forty days\u2026 and speaks about the Kingdom of Heaven\u2026 and tells them that they will receive power from on high\u2026 and only after he had said this\u2026 forty days after the resurrection\u2026 did he ascend\u2026 forty days… Gail Ramshaw\u2026 a former professor of religion at LaSalle University\u2026 who writes on liturgical language\u2026 reminds us that for a people whose lives were determined and measured by heavenly cycles\u2026 particularly the 29.5 days between full moons\u2026 that forty is longer\u2026 it exceeds the familiar and measured lunar cycle\u2026 and so things happen for a long time\u2026 let’s call it forty days that it rained on Noah\u2019s ark\u2026 it’s forty days that Nineveh is threatened with destruction\u2026 and that Jesus is tempted after his baptism\u2026 at age forty Moses kills an Egyptian taskmaster\u2026 forty years later he meets with God on Mount Sinai\u2026 for forty years Israel wanders in the desert\u2026 and forty years later Moses dies\u2026 and Saul\u2026 David\u2026 and Solomon each reign forty years\u2026 a long time\u2026 So did the Ascension happen on Easter Day\u2026 or was it forty days later\u2026 is one story right and the other one wrong\u2026 were our Jewish-Christian ancestors\u2026 telling literal stories\u2026 or symbolic stories that we now take literally\u2026 ] on our church calendar at least\u2026 the Book of Acts wins the day above the Gospel of Luke\u2026 because there are forty days from Easter Day to Ascension Day\u2026 But if we have enshrined in time\u2026 what really exists out of time\u2026 then we have also enshrined it in space\u2026 that is\u2026 in three dimensions\u2026 because the language in Acts and in Luke conveys action and direction\u2026 lifted up\u2026 gazing up\u2026 looking up\u2026 taken up\u2026 carried up\u2026 so in which direction is the Heaven to which Jesus went\u2026 and how does the answer take into account that the Earth is round\u2026 ] is Heaven place\u2026 or is it perhaps really a quality of presence\u2026 Perhaps Luke delays the Ascension in Acts\u2026 because he knew not only of the power of community\u2026 but he knew that it can take a long time for lasting change to take hold\u2026 for the neural pathways in our brains to be re-wired\u2026 and if forty days is how long we must wait for God\u2019s intent to be realized\u2026 and we rush it\u2026 then maybe we\u2019re really not changed at all\u2026 Obfuscation… reversal\u2026 and negation\u2026 these are the paradoxical modes of engaging a God who prefers to be present through absence\u2026 it’s no wonder then\u2026 that when the Israelites seek to create a resting space for God\u2026 whether in the Tabernacle or eventually in the Temple\u2026 God determines for them what must be left open\u2026 empty\u2026 and undisturbed\u2026 since God\u2019s presence will rest\u2026 as described in Exodus 25… above the mercy seat\u2026 from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the covenant\u2026 in other words\u2026 God meets the chosen people\u2026 only in negative space\u2026 And even in the Gospels\u2026 which tell the story of God enfleshed\u2026 negative space remains\u2026 from the vacant tomb\u2026 to the punctures in the hands and feet of the embodied God\u2026 signals of emptiness remain\u2026 and like sculptures\u2026 the sacred stories tell of openings framed by closures\u2026 matter embracing the immaterial\u2026 and absence meeting presence\u2026 in relational fullness\u2026 And in his Ascension\u2026 Jesus too creates negative space\u2026 as our Prayer of the Day says\u2026 he ascended so that he might fill all things\u2026 and so that the disciples might be clothed with power from on high\u2026 but it’s not just them\u2026 it’s all of us now too\u2026 and I think fifth-century Pope Leo came very close to a paradoxical truth\u2026 when he said that Christ ascended into the sacraments\u2026 the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace\u2026 and in baptism\u2026 in the waters of baptism\u2026 our sins are forgiven us\u2026 in the waters of baptism\u2026 the public profession of our faith […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[129],"class_list":["post-1625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-ascension"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1626,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625\/revisions\/1626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}