He suffered on a cross that we might survive. Along the way he taught, he healed, he laughed and cried. Along the way he gave us the fire of life--the spirit to rise up against ritual as art and law--and to be obedient to the law of love.

     "Be of good cheer, for Lo, I am with you always." His love is further revealed in his prayer for the disciples as recorded in John 17:22-24 & 26.

"The glory which thou hast given me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me. Father I desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which thou hast given me in thy love for me before the foundation of the world . . . I made it known to them thy name, and I will make it known to them that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and in them."

"Greater love hath no man than that he lay down is life for his friends." Thus, Jesus was crucified and was called by his Father to the Ascension--stopping for all time, the end of time--separate, forming a hypostasis, a supporting foundation of earth time and eternity, and a Unity of all that exists; and as he is, and has his being in all time: the unity of that which is to come. But what does this unity refer to and what does it embrace? What does the Ascension mean in terms of death and time and place?

     We live in Appalachia in ordinary time; except that there's one event, that when it happens and we comprehend it; we are transported by it for a short time, into that which we might call an "abbreviated beyond"--where we glimpse into a transcendence, a revelation that is so magnificent and momentous that we call it "The Ascension." Poets have said of it, "it's a rising up from the condition." Biblical scholars say, "through the resurrection death has lost its power." The Biblical Psalmist says, "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death . . . thou art always with me . . . surely, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

We live and breathe in Appalachia . . .
Poets say of it, "It begins with God, this breath I lean on." Biblical Psalmists say, "In him we live and breathe and have our being." Witnesses say, "He blew into him the breath of life and mankind became a living Soul."

We live and breathe in Appalachia, but it is in and through Christ that we can do all things. And it is in the Ascension of Christ: The Unity of Place, Death, Time, Person and Number--all concerns and identities of human being, that the Universal one--you, and I, and Christ, begin our synchronistic watchful destinies again.

     And we cannot speak about the life, death, resurrection, ascension and divine mission of Christ without speaking about our own mortality. For after all, he is our heavenly father, but also our spiritual and physical brother, having come to us in mortal dress through the Incarnation. Therefore, we believe his material being, just like ours, was subject to mortification and physical death. As followers of Christ we should know that overcoming death and forfeiting sin through the sacrifice of his blood to redeem mankind from sin, was the mission of Christ.

     "Since by man came death" depicts one stage of belief concerning the mystery and purpose of Death. Initially, the early Jews believed there was only the body (later the Greek belief that humans consist of both a soul and body that could be detached and the soul would live on) was absorbed into our Christian belief of resurrection. Also, the belief that the sin of first man and woman introduced death into creation, caused the belief that sin is the cause of death--this belief also is, we believe, part of the Divine Plan. And we need not be ashamed for Jesus, the Disciples and all Christendom believe, "Christ was he without sin who died for our salvation, that we might know eternal rest and sanctification--that is, that we might be redeemed and live again through the Christian witness and being of Almighty God in Christ."

     It is within History then, and History being within Time, that we meet and know the Man and Saviour Christ; but also within Time that we meet and know our Need for the fellowship journey with Him. (I keep telling myself over and over again that Christian witness is not for the faint hearted for many who are struggling with their faith don't want to hear about death--even the death of sin within them is fearful; and an even greater fear is dying to one's self in order to be born again in Christ.) While this might be a metaphorical death, it is also literal in the realm of the emotions and the spiritual life--scripture tells us one cannot serve two masters, therefore one must choose to be ruled by sin or God.

The poet struggling with this, "But Through a Veil," cried out . . .
What can illuminate the throng
the deaf, the deafened, and the deafening?
As what menacing uproar can destroy the freedom of the soul?

In the long days since we began the simple task
to face ourselves in civilization--
Since we began to address the incoherence of our
present image of dreamed bodies and virginal blood--
In the long days since: an old man asks of us,
"What is precious? What is crude? And what snake,
in our delusion, wants no more of us?"
We perceive that we knew like an owl. We knew not,
like a frightened child, that beyond the darkness laid
the darkest danger. Yet we did not cry out but covered
up our radiance, thinking all fertility is cold.

Oh unbearable world, whose hands rummaged
the thicket of my soul, whose hands tore my tongue
from knowledge, whose hands ripped me naked
from salvation's edge . . .
The dawn breaks a silence, no longer a thrill.
And I, beneath it, once luminous, lay disarranged.

But who can illuminate our dance, poetic voice, prophetic prophecy, our singing intelligence? What door ajar leads in a little light? What stark whisper is a stirring of beauty? What brilliant hands can sculpt a living heart?

I know no other room but through a veil and I observe that all is well. I lift myself till love is satisfied. Dear hand, dear heart, we hold to fragrant life.

As we have said there is a great yearning . . . "all creation groans," an expressed need for the fellowship of the Christian journey with Christ.

     Now Jesus was a Man, a Prophet, a Teacher, a Rabbi, who knew and understood such things. Indeed he spoke in parables. "He who has ears to hear let him hear." And speaking of John to the disbelieving masses he scolded in parables. "But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, "'We piped to you and you did not dance; we wailed and you did not mourn'" Matthew 11:17.

     And Jesus healed by miracle and faith those who believed in him. "And many followed him, and he healed them all, and ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:

"Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
And he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not wrangle or cry aloud,
nor will anyone hear his voice
in the streets;
he will not break a bruised reed
or quench a smoldering wick,
till he brings justice to victory;
And in his name will the Gentiles hope.
     Matthew 13:15-21.

And further when Jesus is questioned by the Disciples as to why he speaks in parables he answered them in part by saying: "But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it" Matthew 13:16-17. Clearly they were privileged to be on a fellowship journey with Christ.

     And such was the mysteries surrounding the Faith Journey of the Disciples from the time of their calling to the fateful events of Passover when Jesus is anointed, and holds The Last Supper. And blessing the bread and wine he said to them, "Take eat . . . [and] Drink . . . for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many . . ." Matthew 26:28. And later after these momentous events and his appearance to them two among them would say "And did not our hearts burn within us as he spoke to us on the way?" My friends Jesus came down to us to set us free.

     He is the King of our Redemption and the Ascension is the culmination of these earthly preparatory things. Our references tell us that in the Bible the earliest traditions of the Easter events are not found in stories of the "appearance" of Jesus at the end of the gospels. Yet the earliest witness of the Easter event is in 1 Cor 15:3-8. It was written by Paul around AD 55. In this particular account as retold by Paul, faith in the resurrection of Jesus was not based on the account of the empty tomb, but on the appearances of the Lord. The Greek word for "appeared" is also used for visionary experiences and today we might say, "revelatory disclosures from the transcendent realm." No distinction at this time, was made between the resurrection and the Ascension--though they are two separate events one preceding the other. In this account what is reflected is that the "appearances" are manifestations of the resurrected and already transcended Christ from heaven.

"The impact of these disclosures is:
      1. the conviction that God raised Jesus from the dead. Interestingly we are told that this language is Jewish apocalyptic and that "today we might say, 'God took Jesus into his own eternity.'
      2. the consolidation of the disciples into a community, later to be designated the church, but who then were termed Ekklesia, the end-time people of God.
      3. the inauguration of the community's mission to Israel and later to the gentile world."

     Over time we are told there was a growing desire to separate the two events; the Resurrection from the Ascension (Luke 24:51, John 20:17, and Acts 1:9-10). This was accomplished by specifying the number of days between them.

      A Time Line would appear just so:
      * They were celebrating Passover when Jesus was arrested = Day 0
      * The next day Jesus was crucified = Day 1
      * Jesus Arises (Easter) = Day 3
      * The Ascension occurs 40 days later than Passover/Easter = Day 43
      * Pentecost (the separate event of the coming of the Holy Spirit) is 50 days after the Passover/Easter event and is therefore identified as fulfilling the Proclamation of Jesus to the Apostles.

     Having accompanied Jesus to Jerusalem for the Passover, they had been told by Jesus not to leave before the coming of the Holy Spirit. We learn from our Luke account that Jesus led them out to Bethany, about half a mile from Jerusalem, on the lower Eastern slope of the Mt. of Olives. While waiting as commanded by Christ, they appointed Matathias to replace Judas (the apostle who betrayed Christ) and they lingered. A week later (for a total of 50 days as we mentioned in the Time Line) the Holy Spirit descended upon them as predicted at the Ascension. Where Luke's account ends, Paul picks it up in Acts, and John includes no statement at all about the Ascension. What is most important for us is this: In Luke, the Ascension "forms a conclusion to the earthly life of Jesus, and in Acts the Ascension inaugurates his heavenly reign." And from this event our Christian Journey of Faith, yours and mine, will be spiritual and founded on faith. Our comfort will be in his spoken words, in constant prayers, in the eucharist, and in hymns, and service and acts of faith. Our wisdom is from the Comforter whom the Father has appointed--we are the new Ekklessia, the New Disciples, The New Jerusalem.
     What causes us to say there's a unity of these elements: Time, Place, Person, Death and Number in the Ascension? Take heed, for Christ fulfills his mission of unifying our entire being (as action) in the universe in the following ways:
TIME: Christ is transcendent he's beyond us and within us
PERSON: Christ in the Trinity is Witness and Mediator--Witness to all that was, is and will be--Mediator to all that is to come--and he is not out there somewhere his spirit is in Scripture, his spirit communicates with us in prayer, and he dwells with us in the Eucharist!
DEATH: Christ came to redeem us from sin and death that one might have life more abundantly. And that he conquered death is our rite and privilege to know with him an Everlasting Life--for which we say Hallelujah, glory to the God of Time.
NUMBER: And Man/Human Kind becomes a living soul--the Mission for each one of us and taken on by Christ--giving us a personal identity an "I", a personal redemption, a responsibility for myself (through acceptance of Christ) or lasting legacy of self and soul for all of Time, Hallelujah!

     Thus in the Ascension, God's Divine Plan comes to light and fruition. Thus, in the Ascension, Jesus' earthly reign ends and his heavenly reign begins! Listen to Luke tell us in Acts in the first eleven verses:

". . . I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up after he had given commandment, through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the Kingdom of God . . . he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, 'You heard from me, for John baptized with water but behold before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit' . . ."

And when they asked him if the Kingdom would be restored to Israel he replied,

"It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth."

And here is the key passage concerning the Ascension as found in Acts that we lean on so heavily and so lovingly:

"And when he had said this; as they were looking on he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."
     Acts 1:1-15

     Thus, Jesus in his Mediating role speaks of, and to, the Father and of the Spirit--the Trinity boldly enhancing this moment, prefigured in the events and persons mentioned--and the "knowing" of the two angels in white that, "This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way [again!] as you saw him go into heaven." All these speak to Unity of the Ascension as the critical moment of our understanding of our earthly historical time and God's extraordinary time.

     Yes, our human being, and those aspects of our human being that concern us, come smack up against--and are taken into those revelation aspects of Christ in God:
PLACE: is important to us. To us it means history (a "time"), it means material and essence; place gives us a sense of geography of location, of fixedness in a continuum of space and time; place for us as humans suggests whole consciousness as in being in our "right mind." Thus, this sense of place so important to humans is absorbed into God's sphere or space: God is God of heaven and earth, God of the Universe, God of Above, God of Below, and God of inner man.
DEATH: Is important to us humans. We fear loss of identity, loss of place and when we believe, as the tracing of the biblical records show, that it is brought on by sin. And thus, we fear sin, as it would separate us from returning to God and eternal life. But what is feared by us has no longer any relevance to God, "Oh death where is thy sting, oh grave where is thy victory?" For Christ, the Mediator has overcome sin and death for all time. In John 20:17-24 "Jesus said to her, 'Do not hold me for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Further, once Mary Magdalene had told them he had appeared to her, he visited the disciples passing through the door as they huddled in fear of the Jews and said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you" . . . (and he breathed on them) . . . "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." And so in the Death, Resurrection, and Ascension, our concern for death is overcome by Jesus' conquering of it.
PERSON: And we are concerned with identity and the loss of it, and justly so. We endure great tribulation to arrive at a sense of complete personhood--a state where our character, values, and ambitions are in sync and are crystallized. We even attach status and future intentions to the role of being an earth citizen, a parent, a person--though we are at our least and most, created beings linked to the Divine by distinct souls in both the Kronos and Kyrie notions of time. But in the Ascension the essence of all being, the "I Am," God, the Christ, the Holy Spirit and Wisdom--all that we know as Divine is present in unity and tandem with us.
TIME AND PERSON: Finally, we mark and move in our lives in an orchestrated "real" time that is then remembered and marked as historical. We locate a concept of "truth" and truth which ultimately leads to God, becomes our existence. In so doing, in revelation, as God is revealed to us, we become citizens of Time Extraordinary--As God embraces us then, we are "Ekklesia," the Church in created time which we then know as eternity. And our Number our body, our soul all members and citizens of God and citizens of the world make us children of the Trinity, the All-Being God!

     As we have said, the mission for Christ is understood by us in the Ascension. God as God Creator, Father Judge and Comforter is revealed in Holy Action on our behalf. God is recognized as he who creates and rises above us that we might be new creatures in Christ, and through the counsel of the Holy Spirit. In that sense the Ascension is a grace extended to us that we might know God and know him more abundantly and more intimately. For as Hebrews (13:8) reiterates for us, and so it is, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever."

     We began this part of our message by discussing the relevance of the elements that occupy much of our consciousness: time, place, death/resurrection, person and number and their relevance to the Ascension. Now, we need to speak to how this all encompassing power of God can be symbolized, and how it is to influence us as Spiritual members of Christ's body: Spiritual Beings who have souls and as Spiritual messengers forming our own testimonies of God! For we are the new Ecclesia, The New Disciples and the New Jerusalem--We must not be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

     Imagine with me a globe. At the top are the words descending like stairs only for definition not as in hierarchy): Heaven, Ascension, The Trinity as God Head and Right Hand of the Throne. Beneath this, in an arc, where the words God of Salvation appears. At the center is a cross forming the horizontal and vertical. In the top hemisphere is Christ Above/ God/Son of God/the Divine and on the vertical again the word Christ.

     At the opposite pole of the sphere moving inward in juxtaposition are the words: Earth, Incarnation, Ekklesia the Church of Disciples and Believers, God of History, Christ Below/Son of Man (Jesus), Messiah (Christ). In each quarter of the sphere would be the words: All Knowing, All Powerful, All Loving, Almighty. The sphere would radiate the Creation and Unifying, ascending, descending, all radiating spirit of God.

     But where is our spirit you might rightly ask? The answer is simply, there can be no spirit without God, whereas God is a part of His creation; we are also permitted beings of His creation. Therefore we have spiritual kinship with each other and the entire creation of God! That kinship is engendered in Spirit, emanating from God.

     We apologize that being both freed and bound by language we must resort to static symbols to discuss the Holy. But God is not bound up in our books and sermons he can be let free to enter into our very beings--to take hold of time in us, and move in our Spirits in extraordinary ways! God is waiting for us to express our need for a Faith Journey with him.

     The Ascension says to us, "God has exalted Jesus and given him a name above all names." The late German theologian, Rudolph Bultmann in "The Synoptic Tradition" tells us the Ascension is a continuity of the Resurrection. The Ascension says God's son has been obedient to God's word. And our own exegesis of the Acts 1:1-11 text points clearly to its purpose and message to us:

     And while they were gazing into heaven . . . the two men said, "Why do you stand looking (gazing) into heaven? For I contend that while they were witnessing to the One ascending and gazing upon him, there was also a dynamic parallelism implied or symbolized therein. "Don't just gaze but engage--as I give you power to act--ACT! The Empowering of the Ascension was to witness how God acts in God's eventful time, in His Lordship over history and how it is to affect us.

     In other words we are to act according to the Commandment, "Love thy neighbor as thyself," "Love thy neighbor as I have loved you." We are to carry out the Will of God, as Jesus carried out the will of His Father. And though our acts are in "clock time," our human concept of time; nevertheless, we must respond. For we are custodians of the Unity that is made evident at the Ascension. Our actions have eternal implications for each one of us as Christians, and for the entire world. We must not simply "gaze" at, but "engage" our neighbors. We have the gift of the Ascension of both horizontal and vertical time (or universal time) in which to act--and yet the Ascension is only a dream, if it is celebrated just for today.

     In closing, I have learned that I have never had an ordinary day. But today is the most extraordinary of all for Jesus Christ, My Lord and Saviour My Redeemer and my friend has risen to his ultimate glory--and yet he sits among us here today . . .

Benediction:

     And now unto him who is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the throne, be all power, honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Poetry:

     Bones, Art and God
     But Through a Veil
          Norma Blacke Bourdeau

Hymns:

     Because He Lives
     He Lives (Christ Jesus Lives Today)

Reference:      For more information on the divisions and petitions in the Lord’s Prayer see pages 575-576:

     Harpers Bible Dictionary
     Harper & Row, Publishers, San Francisco
     General Editor Paul J. Achtemeier
     Copyright 1985, by The Society of Biblical Literature

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; . . . For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light . . . Ephesians 5: 1 and 8.

     Recently, a frustrated parent blurted out, "I want these young people to stop throwing their bodies at others demanding that they be used and abused!" On another occasion, a group of students discussing the new sexual freedom (compared to the strictness of their grandparent's days) confessed that they were confused about the so-called benefits of a sexual license that breeds such terrors as: child mothers, run away or delinquent fathers, venereal diseases, and, of course, AIDS and death. Also, a young man seeking answers confided he had had sex with a young woman knowing that neither one liked the other. Now he was worried that because it was not a satisfying experience, he might be gay. His pitiable question was, "Do I have to be able to fall in love with men to prove I'm gay, can't I just tell by whether I'm turned on to them or not?" Finally, a young woman confided her concern that sex with a "person," "might not be worth it" since she was "super satisfied" with masturbation--she felt she had solved the problems of relationships and disease or pregnancy. These people, though hurt, confused, or afraid had the courage nonetheless to articulate their concerns. Sadly, those most in need of answers were not ready to accept the most basic ones: Sex is not a synonym for love (sex is what we are); Love is not lust; Relationships and Friendships can be intimate without involving sexual intercourse; the incredible dynamic of Love is that it unites spirit, mind, and heart--without ever needing to involve the genitals; and, last but just as important, Chastity does not kill you, though yearning for true love can! Love's own discipline and our own value of it always determines what action we take when that deep desire is sufficiently aroused to beg our attention.

     It is easy to condemn the media; it has no face, no voice, no soul, no Godly disposition, or inheritance. We are therefore free to condemn it as Satan, and then walk away leaving all responsibility for the sexual conundrum to the air--to no one in particular to solve. But the dilemma we are experiencing demands more in vigilance and righteousness from us--how can we be intelligent beings and not relate to this?

     Falling in love is a mysterious ritual of the spirit. We fall in love with many different people precisely because we do not "sleep with them." Saying "I love you" simply because you have received pleasure from having had sexual intercourse with another is reducing that person to a servant or a tool. Love is free of encumbrances and when it is Holy, agape love, it is like the sighing of the whole universe from within--a brimming of splendor, a virtual hymn.

     We continue to ask ourselves, "What is the cause of this appetite for debasement among us? Why does each successive generation lose themselves and ultimately all of us, in an ardent passion for onanism, loneliness, emotional, mental, spiritual, and social decay?"

     The sigh is an emblem of our being despondent, despairing, blissful, weary--or the sign of the need for air. The sigh of our young, confused and hurting, from heresies performed as acts of love, is a sacrilege before God; and their corrupted innocence is a condemnation of our society, for which we who parent, guide, and teach them must share the blame. Must we give all for a sigh, in spite of God?

Prayer: Dear Lord we pray for the strengthening of marriage and the family. We pray for love that signifies well being and hope. We pray for the sacrifice of ourselves to higher purposes. We pray for Godly champions who will respond to the sigh of the young, edifying them as worthy members of your kingdom. Amen.