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.

Anxiety, Fear, and Peace

 

John 14:23-29

Easter 6 / Year C

Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you… Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” (John 14:27)

A woman with a counselling practice had an office next to mine at the church I served when I was first ordained.  She once said to me something I have never forgotten: Strong emotions are contagious.  Think about this for a second.  We are susceptible to picking up on the emotions of another person and making them our own.  Some, like those who have what we describe as a ‘calming effect’, are helpful.  Others, like when panic spreads causing people to hoard toilet paper… not so much. 

This morning we hear Jesus talk about peace, anxiety, and fear.  I suspect the more negative an emotion, the more potent its sway will be.  The more positive the emotion, the softer it is.  Thus, anxiety and fear can be ratchetted up to a very high level in no time at all.  Peace, on the other hand, doesn’t normally barge its way into a chaotic situation.  Often it has to be invited or even cultivated before it takes root and bears fruit.

Anxiety is one of the more powerful emotions which can overtake us and dominate our existence.  I doubt there has ever been an age when the folks of that era were completely at ease, never having a worry or a care.  Anxiety, like oxygen, is ever-present.  It is woven into the very fabric of human existence.  Because we have the cognitive ability to anticipate future outcomes we worry about what is to come, even if we can (to a greater or lesser degree) shape and influence them.  In the great family of emotions, fear a close relative of anxiety.  It is what we feel when we anticipate an outcome will be detrimental and we sense we have no control over it. 

When thinking about anxiety, it is important to differentiate between responding to a typical anxiety-producing event (like waiting for the hospital to call back with your test results) and mental health conditions identified as disorders.  These fall into one of four broad categories: generalized disorder (intense worry about a lot of things), social anxiety disorder (emanating from some form of contact with other people), panic disorder (feeling trapped), and specific phobias (snakes, heights, and the like).  One in every five people suffers from an anxiety disorder and of these just a little more than a third seek professional help.  Some 50 million Americans have an anxiety disorder which is never identified or addressed. 

If you are anxious, a spouse or friend is apt to say something like, “Just calm down” or “Why do you let yourself get so stressed out” or “You need a drink.”  A well-meaning Christian is likely to tack on “You should pray about this” or “You just need to have faith” or even worse, “It is a sin to worry so much.”  In one form or another their message is you should be stronger and you should have more faith.  If you are planning an outdoor wedding and are stressed about the possibility of bad weather, this is not at all helpful.  If you suffer from an anxiety disorder, it can be downright destructive. 

Into all of this we hear Jesus say, “Peace I give to you; my own peace I leave with you… Do not let your hearts be troubled; and do not let them be afraid.” 

As with last week’s reading, the context of the passage is significant.  Jesus says this to his disciples during the Last Supper.  Before the sun rises their world will undergo a jarring change.  They will flee in fear from the scene of Jesus’ arrest.  When they gather, it will be behind locked doors.  Even the report of the empty tomb troubles them.

When Jesus offers peace to his followers, he is not separating the sheep from the goats – the goats being the ones who don’t trust enough and the sheep being those who are able to chill when times are troubling.  How do I know Jesus is not judging them for their crippling unease?  Because I read my bible and Jesus says in John 12:27: “Now my soul is troubled.”  If Jesus can be anxious about his impending arrest, torture, and death, then we can be assured we are not judged when we are anxious and fearful. 

Jesus is able to experience peace by giving his life into God’s care.  The peace he finds he offers to us as a gift to transform how we experience and react to the stresses in our lives.  Let me suggest an analogy.  Imagine you are standing outside on a day so clear the sunlight is too intense to bear.  Allow this image to stand for anxiety.  Then imagine someone hands you a pair of sunglasses which you put on.  The sun is still as severe, but wearing the sunglasses makes you better able to hold up under it.  This is what Christ’s peace offers to us as we learn to live and move and have our being in God.  Living with this peace isn’t a skill you master once and then you have it, like swimming.  It is more like learning to play a musical instrument.  It requires work, dedication, and practice in order to get better at it.   

All of this links well with today’s observance of Rogation Sunday, a name deriving from the Latin word meaning ‘to ask.’  The ritual dates back to 470 AD when Bishop Mamertus faced a crisis in his diocese.  It seems the region was inundated with plagues, earthquakes, pestilence, bad weather, and all manner of things which go bump in the night.  It was an anxious time.  So, the good bishop called the people to prayer, and not just any prayer.  He crafted a litany to address all the problems.  And the faithful were not instructed to drop to their knees in the church nave.  He led them in procession and pageantry around the bounds of village; stopping and praying as they went.  And guess what.  It worked!  Things improved dramatically.  As word spread, so did the practice.  It became popular because it imparted a certain level of peace.  The people did what they could and gave the rest to God.

There are many ways to access the peace which Jesus offers.  Some are spiritual, some are just good, common sense, and some happen as you engage mental health professionals.  There is no one path to the peace Jesus offers but know this – Jesus gives us his peace.