Long, LONG ago, Marie and I were returning late in the evening from a family funeral. As we came north on the Pennsylvania Turnpike extension, we ran into a huge fog-bank which only got worse as we drove along. At length we came up behind another vehicle and were able to follow it for a few miles of relief from trying to keep on the pavement. Every five miles or so, the lead car would pull over and the other guy would navigate through the cloud. To the unknown driver, THANK YOU for getting us home! Scripture readings for the upcoming weekend–Ascension Day–seem to be written for all of us who struggle to see the way.
Acts 1:1-11 is a synopsis of Jesus’ post-Resurrection instructions to the Disciples during forty days of companionship and presentation of the Kingdom of God. Having assured them of the coming Holy Spirit, “he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight”. An image from some movie pictures Jesus being enswirled by the gathering fog; and when it lifted he was no longer there (sort of a reprise of the scene at Transfiguration). But don’t overlook the two angels, who told the witnesses to stop gawking and get on with it. Including us.
Pauline take on the Ascension is to link it to the enthronement of Jesus as Christ at the right hand of God, “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named…” The author has asked that the “eyes of your heart [be] enlightened”, a reference to seeing through and beyond the Cloud, to my way of thinking. “He wants the Ephesians to know that Christ’s resurrection and ascension both prefigure and make possible their own resurrections and ascensions.” (David L. Bartlett, in FEASTING on the WORD, A 2:513)
Luke 24:44-53 is the ending to Luke’s Gospel. Perhaps the worship leader may choose to read this passage just BEFORE the lesson from Acts, which would provide continuity. Whichever, the point of this Ascension story is to recognize that Jesus is here carrying the fullness of humanity before God. Our ancestors in the faith returned “with great joy”, somewhat like the shepherds at Christmas; and did not separate themselves from the rest of the world, but met in plain sight in what most contemporaries would call the holiest of all places, the Temple.
An anonymous English writer (or writers) penned a book on spirituality sometime near the time of Chaucer’s CANTERBURY TALES, called “The Cloude of Unknowyng”. The reader is urged to put aside the machinations of space and time, and to fully take the hand of God as together they walk into the Cloud. More recently, a TV commercial pictures an office-worker stumbling and confused by all the mist around him–until he buys the product, and the cloud all fades out the door! Some days are cloudier than others, and we spend much time & energy peering into what lies between us and Paradise. Our virtual realities have become lost in the Cloud. Ascension Day reminds us that we’re not abandoned in the mist!
In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King
My wanderings with biblical passages assigned to the upcoming weekend can be observed every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com
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