|
First
Reading
|
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Acts 1:15–17, 21–26
|
Psalm 1 |
1 John 5:9–13 |
John 17:6–19 |
Last summer, I visited Louisbourg on Nova Scotia’s beautiful Cape Breton Island. It was built as a fortress on a small windy and low land peninsula bravely jutting out into the Atlantic. The site was chosen by the King of France in the early 1700’s to be France’s remaining landmark trading center and statement of royal power. Impressive on the outside, it was easily taken by the British in 1745 and on a subsequent recapture, burned to the ground in 1760. All that remains now of the original city are excavated foundation walls, walls of where the infirmary, the storehouses, the shops, dwellings, grand and modest, barracks, and defense battlements used to be.
A lingering sign of most past civilizations seems to be their walls. That is why archeologists spend their time uncovering and defining where the walls were, for that will help them determine where to dig for artifacts.
In some sense Christianity does just the opposite. The Gospel is not about establishing, excavating, or maintaining walls. Rather it is about breaching or destroying walls. Therefore the Ascension is not about Jesus erecting another wall between us, but the fulfillment of the promise to be with us, in all circumstances and places, to the end of time.
Ascension Day was last Thursday, and because it is always 40 days after Easter it is usually over before a parish realizes it. However, the Sunday lessons after Ascension Day always signal a change, as profound as any graduation ceremony. Ascension tells us that the living Christ doesn’t ascend from us, but goes on to rise before us. The risen Christ continually goes on to meet us for God’s grace is operative in our world, and will be ever breaching the walls we build. That is why the Gospel is always waiting to be discovered and proclaimed anew.
Like the insurance commercial on TV, “life comes at us fast”. Next Sunday is the Feast of Pentecost; we will commemorate the promised gift of the Holy Spirit that entered the lives of the disciples as they gathered in Jerusalem shortly after Jesus’ Ascension. Traditionally Jesus’ Ascension has been pictured as taking place on a summit of the Mount of Olives, and the Holy Spirit of Pentecost first coming down as of tongues of fire. Today, I would like to offer you another image.
I’ve sometimes pictured the Holy Sprit as music to uplift and feed the soul, especially in difficult and hostile environments. Hence the music of The Holy Sprit struggles to be heard in the very difficult and hostile environment that we grow up in and live. Often the Spirit has to go through obstacles and filters that seek to frustrate or destroy its message. The Spirit’s notes do not come easily to our ears, and yet when they come they under-gird and support our lives.
Therefore in this brief period between Ascension Day and the gift of the Holy Spirit, I picture the risen and ascended Jesus as taking tuba lessons so that on Pentecost, as a tuba player, with a red face and large fat cheeks, he may puff away, struggling to push a large amount of air through seemingly impassable passageways that curve over and over on themselves, before it comes out as music. For when the tuba is well played with vigor and finesse, its melody lingers with us, and we sense it’s clear unmistakable presence firmly supporting all the higher sounding instruments.
In today’s Gospel Jesus sends us into the world, yet promises to share with us his joy, offering us protection against the cynicism of the world. Part of Jesus’ joy is our knowledge of being loved, valued, and forgiven. Such joy will not drive the forces of resignation, resentment, and fear away from us entirely, but it will help us fight and endure against them. Every time when we discern the presence of the Holy Spirit it is like the sound of a strong tuba in an orchestra. We know that we are not alone, and that the joy and protection of the Holy Spirit has the ability to find us, be it in Ithaca, or on a windswept peninsula full of depressions containing old walls, while on vacation miles from home. That is why the stained glass window that I’ve designed depicting Ascension Day and the promise of the Holy Spirit, may indeed show Jesus in glory seated at the right hand of God, but the right hand of God will be handing Jesus a large tuba for him to learn to play and to send the music of the Holy Spirit back to us.
And
I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
