Inward & Outward

 

The Ascension

While you were enjoying dinner, I hope you had a chance to share with others some happy memories of your family’s most cherished Ascension Day traditions.  Given this is one of the seven principle feasts in the Church Year – on par liturgically with Christmas and Easter – you would think it would have a little more going for it!  For example, today is a national holiday in Germany, where the observance of the Ascension has morphed with Father’s Day.  They celebrate the Ascension by holding parades featuring wheelbarrows and carts, going on a picnic, taking a hike, and drinking lots and lots and lots of beer. 

Here, in America, our most common, unofficial tradition seems to be multiple churches coming together (as we have) for a joint service and potluck dinner.  I do want to make an official declaration.  Clergy often refer to parishioners who show up only at Christmas and Easter as the “C and E Crowd.”  I want to dub you all as the “A and E Crowd.”  You are the folks we can count on to be here for Ascension and Epiphany services!    

Preaching on the Ascension, it seems to me, can be a tricky, offering one of two traps.  The first is literalism, like a sermon I once heard focusing on the last thing the disciples saw of Jesus – the bottom of his feet.  Back in the day when I was an energetic children’s and youth minister, I designed a lesson on the Ascension.  The plan was to have a “stuffed Jesus” hoisted up in to the air by means of a rope pulled by a volunteer on the roof of the Parish Hall.   The idea was to inspire the kids with a sense of awe and wonder.  Well, Jesus ended up looking like a floppy scarecrow and the rope around his neck made it seem as if he was being hanged.  Once Jesus began to ascend the children jumped up and started tugging at him, causing his pants to come off.  He managed to break free but got snagged at the eave.  After a strong yank the rope broke and triumphant ascension to God’s right hand ended when he came falling back to earth… to the delight of the children, who treated the effigy more like a piñata than the exulted Savior.

If literalism is one trap, the other is intellectualism.  And there is no better source for this approach than AI which generated this as “The significance of the Ascension”:

1.   Kingship of Christ: The Ascension marks the final redemptive act, conferring participation in the divine life of all who are members of Christ.

2.   End of Christ’s earthly ministry: It clearly marks the end of Christ’s earthly ministry.

3.   Success of his earthly ministry: Jesus had completed all that the Father had designed for him to accomplish.

4.   Hope of Christ’s return: Ascension Day provides believers with the hope of Christ’s return and proclaims the hope and glory held out to all who are in Christ.

If only I had access to AI in the early 80’s, I could have read this to those children who would have been as edified by these words as you are tonight.

The Lectionary offers two prayers as options for the Collect at tonight’s service.  

Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.  Amen.

Grant, we pray, Almighty God, that as we believe your only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into heaven, so we may also in heart and mind there ascend, and with him continually dwell; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Typically, one or the other is used.  I opted for both because each offers a focus which is helpful as we ponder the meaning this day holds for us.  The first Collect asks, “Mercifully give us faith to perceive that… [Jesus] abides with his Church on earth.”  The second, acknowledging Christ as ascended into heaven, asks that “we may also in heart and mind there ascend, and with him continually dwell.”  One prayer pushes us outward while the other directs us inward.  Each is vital to the Christian life and both are necessary.

We look inward toward God to find the spiritual nourishment necessary to sustain us as we seek to live into our calling.  We look outward to manifest in word and deed the good news of the Gospel.  Outward without inward leads to burnout.  Inward without outward empowers us with resources we never use.  Inward only is like a person who has multiple academic degrees but never does anything with them.  Such an individual is blessed personally by observing the rituals of the faith but has a marginal impact on the world.  Outward only is like a person who vigorously champions a cause but has little or no experience of the good it engenders.  It is akin to a non-stop talker who never pauses to think.

We can characterize congregations in much the same way.  Some focus intensely on outreach almost to the exclusion of worship.  Others invest in a high-quality worship experience but have little or no life beyond their parish doors.  Liturgists tell us the right way to celebrate the Eucharist is by putting as little as possible in the order of the service between the administration of communion and the dismissal.  The symbolism is important.  A service of Holy Eucharist needs to convey a strong connection between being fed spiritually and being sent into the world to love and serve the Lord.  Worship guides us inward, then directs us outward.

On Ash Wednesday we focus on the parts of our life which have fallen off the track.  It launches us into a season where we repent and return to the Lord.  The Ascension invites us to ponder the balance between the inward and outward aspects of our lives.  Have you become satisfied and complacent – spiritually full but inactive?  Are you running yourself ragged to the point of exhaustion – active, but drained?  How and when do you take time to ascend to heaven to be with Christ where Christ is?  How and when do you experience Christ as you tend to the requirements or your daily life while being faithful to the ministries in which you participate?  Do you need to spend more time seated where Christ is?  Or do you need to discern how Christ calls and commissions you to go forth?  Today’s collects suggest these are good Ascension Day questions. 

I suspect, when most of us think of the Ascension, we think upward and downward – Jesus goes up to heaven while his followers are left down here.  Our collects suggest we reorient our thinking this day from upward and downward to inward and outward.