Ascension Ponderings

Photo by Jeremy Perkins on Unsplash

I have never really thought about the Ascension,
the Ascension of our Lord,
I mean.
In 33 years of ordained ministry,
I can count
on one hand
the number of times
that I have presided at an Ascension Day liturgy,
or preached on the Ascension texts,
or led a Bible study on the Ascension story.
Perhaps,
it is because Ascension falls on a Thursday,
and, well –
Thursday liturgies are hard.
Thursdays just aren’t days
that we typically gather,
or worship in community,
or think about “church things” –
And who wants to celebrate
an exit
when entrances
are so much more captivating,
and haven’t we already celebrated
the only exit that matters –
the earth-shattering exit,
from the tomb,
I mean,
and wasn’t/isn’t
that the point –
the Resurrection –
the culmination
of the Incarnation,
so who really needs Ascension,
anyway?

Perhaps,
it is because I have served much of my life
in academic contexts,
and Ascension Day always seems to fall
in the midst of
end-of-the-school-year-type-things –
banquets,
and parties,
and Commencements –
and who has time or interest
in celebrating
the leave-taking of Jesus
when there are so many other important
milestones,
and so many more
present-tense leave-takings to acknowledge?

Perhaps,
my lack of attention
and contemplation
on the Ascension
has something to do with
my own
incomprehension
of the significance
of the apprehension
of the enfleshment
of the Holy
into the Trinity
that is the Divine –
and if I don’t really get it,
or think it is noteworthy,
or even mystically grasp
its contribution
to the thinning of the veil
between what is
and what will be,
then, well –
how would I ever
accompany my people
in a liturgical immersion
in the
day,
and the time,
and the experience
when the One
who came
to dwell among us
takes a holy leave?

But this year,
my Holy Week discipline
was not focused
on the footwashing,
or the meal,
or the torture at the hands of the state,
or even on
that holy waiting
between Friday and Sunday
when the whole world
holds its breath,
even if it doesn’t know that it is –
waiting to see
if the belly of whale,
or in this case,
the earth,
emblematically stylized as a tomb,
would expel its holy inhabitant
so that
that which once was,
would be again,
and that which is
would be made new.

No –
this year,
while the Church
in all of her perfect imperfection
was drawn into the
holy upside-down-ness
of the logical consequence of
Incarnation,
And the death-interrupted
of Resurrection –
I was deep in the throes
of wonderment
and prayer –
about the Ascension.

This contemplation grew,
not so much
out of holy curiosity
as it did out of
practical necessity.
You see,
as a part of my call
to steward a project
that leans into how we
Nurture Children through Worship and Prayer,
I have committed to crafting
child-attentive,
arts-enriched,
liturgies for every Festival.
Every includes Ascension.
Every includes
this least celebrated,
most forgotten feast day
                (thank you for those words, Barbara Brown Taylor)
That always comes
40 days after
the great exit from the tomb
and 10 days before
the holy winds
and tongue-loosing fire
that made the Word that became flesh
become words once again.

This odd juxtaposition
of the Great and Holy Week
                and the lifting up
                of the raised-up One
opened up the mystery
of the Ascension
for me
in ways that have felt akin
to the tomb bursting open anew.

Here is where my Holy Week-Ascension-ponderings
have led.

First,
It is the Enfleshed Word that ascends.
That may seem obvious,
but bear with me.
The Word –
enfleshed in the earthly stuff
of blood and bones,
Risen –
still wounded and scarred –
that same, yet made-new-yet-same body
is
who and what that ascends.
The stuff of earth becomes
a part of not just heaven,
but of the Divine.
It is the Ascension,
therefore,
not the Resurrection,
that completes
the Incarnation.
The Word becomes flesh
and the enfleshed-One –
takes the stuff of earth,
our own flesh,
into the unity that is the Trinity.
That has to say
something
about the goodness
of BODIES.

For me –
mind blown.

Second,
and for this, I have the artist Albrecht Durer
to thank.
In his depiction of the Ascension,
most eyes are looking upward
at the disappearing Christ,
yet one figure
is clearly looking
at the ground that had been under Jesus’ feet –
where it is marked
by the footprints of Jesus.
The Enfleshed Word has left –
AND his footprints are left behind –
Footprints, it seems
that are not
simply scars in the sand
to dissipate on the winds
of that holy hilltop,
but FOOTPRINTS
that we
who are called to be witnesses,
we who are now the Body of Christ on earth -    
                not metaphorically,
                but literally –
                as in, we really are Christ’s body,
                Enfleshing Jesus  -
                Enfleshing
                Love Divine
                In the world today –
we are called to continue to make
the footprints –
                and dare I say
                hand prints
                and heart prints
of Christ on earth.
Begging the question,
of course,
what kind of footprints
                and hand prints
                and heart prints

are we leaving?
Are we –
Are you –
imprinting the world
With DIVINE LOVE?

Mind blown again.

And finally,
Luke tells us
that Jesus led them out –
Out of the city,
Out of their comfort zones
Out beyond
where they were
what they knew
what they understood
what they imagined
what they comprehended.
Out.
Ascension is,
therefore,
about movement –
not just up
– but OUT!
Out –
for those
who first lived this story
and for us.
How are we –
How are you –
Called OUT?

Mind blown one more time.

BODIES
FOOTPRINTS
OUT

There is so much good news in
all of this
that I cannot quite
comprehend
how I missed it
or ignored it
all these years,
probably assuming
that Ascension
is unnecessary,
or inconvenient
or that, like those earlier followers
gaping after the place
where Jesus used to be,
there is nothing to see here.

How wrong I was!
And how captivated
I now am –
by this least celebrated,
most forgotten feast day
that I never used to think about
and now
cannot seem to stop thinking about –
and wondering
and imagining
ways that
the Ascension
can come to life,
not only as a feast day,
but as we seek to
faithfully
be the Body of Christ –
in,
and through,
and with our own bodies –
leaving footprints of Divine Love
Out –
Out beyond where we are
what we know
what we understand
what we imagine
And what we comprehend
so that our lives
as Resurrection people
become lived out
as Ascension people.

If you are interested in receiving the Celebrate! Worship for Every Festival Processional Liturgy with Holy Communion for the Ascension of our Lord from Nourishing Vocation with Children at St. Olaf College, email nourishing-vocation@stolaf.edu

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