Rev. Miriam’s sermon
It doesn’t get a lot of attention, but Ascension Sunday is one of those days, that captures my imagination. Luke’s version of the Ascension story says that Jesus was lifted up to heaven and as he leaves the earth he holds his hand up in blessing. It reminds me of something Barbara Brown Taylor wrote or said in one of her sermons. She describes the statue or image of Jesus left standing after a natural disaster or war. I can’t tell you what book the sermon comes from or if I’ve even remembered the details correctly. What stays with me is the image of a one-eyed Christ holding up his hand in perpetual blessing. It’s how I imagine Jesus ascending into heaven. Holding up his hand in perpetual blessing for whatever comes next.
I think the disciples then and all of us today need that perpetual blessing. For the disciples it was a time of confusion. Jesus died and rose. And then for forty days after his resurrection, Jesus is appearing to the disciples and teaching them about the Kingdom of God. In the version from Acts Jesus tells the disciples to stay put. “Don’t leave Jerusalem. Wait for what God promised. Remember what I told you,” said Jesus. “John baptized with water. But you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Then without explanation Jesus is lifted up to heaven. Given that Luke and Acts were written by the same person, I'm going to say that Jesus holds out his hand in blessing and disappears from their sight. And then they wait. There is no plan. They don’t really know what Jesus is talking about when he says you will be baptized by the Holy Spirit. So they find themselves in a holding pattern. Then can't go back to life before when Jesus was still alive. They can't go ahead because Jesus told them to stay in Jerusalem and wait for this Holy Spirit. The disciples are in a holding pattern. So they wait. They pray and wait some more.
We too find ourselves in a holding pattern. We are waiting. Waiting for a vaccine. Waiting for the next alert level. Waiting for things to go back to normal. We are now at almost two months of sheltering in place, of staying home as much as possible. And it's hard. Each one of us finding something different challenging. There are some trends. There’s increased anxiety and depression. There is pressure on relationships. There is an increase in violence against women. There is the stress of living in this in-between time. We are all waiting for what is next, but not quite here. So we need the reassurance of that perpetual blessing Jesus offers. That reminder we are not alone in the stress of this moment. As we waiting, the questions, what now? What next? are on our minds.
The same was true for the disciples. With that blessing in hand. Jesus pointed the disciples to something new. Jesus did not point them back to a time when he was still with them. He pointed the disciples to a new kind of future without him present in the same way. The disciples keep the blessing and ask what now? Jesus says, “You will be witnesses to these things. You will be my witnesses here, and in Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” So they wait. And while they do, the disciples take the time to pray and think and hope and dream.
Jesus is asking us to pray and think and dream about what kind of future we want. We may be longing for a return to life before the Corona virus. But I don't think Jesus is pointing us to the past or to a return to what was before Covid19. The earth is getting a chance to breathe. How many news stories have you heard about the water being cleaner, coral reefs getting their colour back, the air pollution lifting? Just yesterday I read an article that said 11, 000 thousand fewer people died because of air pollution in one month. Maybe now is the time to look ahead to see what is possible. Can both the environment and business thrive?
Pre-COVID, families, children and parents people, in general, were stressed for a variety of reasons. In our house, running from one activity to the next was wearing us out. Is that normal? Do we want to carry with into the future? Or do we want to spend more time together?
The Corona virus has exposed the immense inequity that exists in our world. Pre-corona we knew there was a problem. We knew about the 1% who hold most of the world’s wealth. But I think we are more aware now that the most vulnerable in society face the highest risk during this Pandemic. People who are often only paid minimum wage are now heroes because we can go to the grocery store to buy food. Do we want to go back to a world that had many living on the edge? Or do we want to live in a world where everyone has enough?
There is a quote by Sonya Renee Taylor, “We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate, and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given an opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature."
In this waiting time, we are like the disciples. We too are called to be Jesus’ witnesses. We too can take holding time to pray and hope and think and dream about what comes next for ourselves and our world. We can hold fast to Jesus’ perpetual blessing and then pray about how we are going to be Jesus’ witnesses to the ends of the earth. Jesus is pointing us in a new direction. Now it is up to us to ask ourselves some hard questions about what comes next. Blessing in hand we too wait for the Holy Spirit to guide us. Amen.