Lectionary Reflections

Lectionary Reflections
by Various Authors

Tom Wright in his latest book Surprised by Hope discusses the Ascension. He says that "heaven is not a different location than earth in the same space-time continuum, but instead a different dimension (right now) of God's good creation. The One in heaven is simultaneously present everywhere and elsewhere. Heaven is, he suggests, the "CEO's office" or the "control room for earth" (page 122). It is not so much a place to which we go but a place from which Jesus will return for the New Heaven and New Earth".

Wright also says (as others do) "that the early Christians and their fellow first century Jews, were not, as many modern thinkers have supposed, locked into thinking of a three decker universe with heaven up in the sky and hell down beneath their feet. When they spoke of "up" and "down", they were using metaphors that were so obvious that they didn't need spelling out". (page 126)


"Not only in pastoral visits but also, and even more so, in the celebration of the sacraments, we need to be aware of the importance of a ministry of absence. This is very central in the Eucharist. What do we do there? We eat bread, but not enough to take our hunger away; we drink wine, but not enough to take our thirst away; we read from a book, but not enough to take our ignorance away. Around these "poor signs" we come together and celebrate. What then do we celebrate? The simple signs, which cannot satisfy all our desires, speak first of all of God's absence. He has not yet returned; we are still on the road, still waiting, still hoping, still expecting, still longing. We gather around the table with bread, wine, and a book to remind each other of the promise we have received and so to encourage each other to keep waiting in expectation for his return. But even as we affirm his absence we realize that he already is with us. We say to each other: "Eat and drink, this is his body and blood. The One we are waiting for is our food and drink and is more present to us than we can be to ourselves. He sustains us on the road, he nurtures us as he nurtured his people in the desert." Thus, while remembering his promise in his absence, we discover and celebrate his presence in our midst.

"The great temptation of the ministry is to celebrate only the presence of the Lord while forgetting his absence. Often the minister is most concerned to make people glad and to create an atmosphere of 'I'm OK, you're OK'. But in this way everything gets filled up and there is no empty space left for the affirmation of our basic lack of fulfillment. In this way God's presence is enforced without connection with his absence. Almost inevitably this leads to artificial joy and superficial happiness. It also leads to disillusionment because we forget that it is in memory that the Lord is present. If we deny the pain of his absence we will not be able to taste his sustaining presence either.

"Therefore, every time ministers call their people around the table, they call them to experience not only the Lord's presence but his absence as well; they call them to mourning as well as to feasting, to sadness as well as to joy, to longing as well as to satisfaction."

(by Henri Nouwen from The Living Reminder, Seabury Press, pages 45-47)


Some people never doubt the Bible's veracity. I have. In different stages of my life, I've questioned it. What brought me back to belief? One convincing proof is the Bible's internal testimony -- something within the scriptures.

Writers usually promote themselves, sometimes so discreetly others never suspect their duplicity. They slant their writing to argue their own prejudices, to gain financially, or to favor their own groups. Most newspaper editorial pages demonstrate my point. But the Bible favors no economic, social or ethnic groups. It's a religious document, yet it contains scathing criticism of religious leaders.

God's word patronizes neither kings nor commoners. The Lord held the great lawgiver and leader Moses responsible. He paid a heavy penalty for his failure to glorify the Lord; God didn't permit him to enter the promised land. David wrote exceptionally well, and governed magnificently. Yet David's disobedience cost the unity of his kingdom. Perhaps the Bible's most convincing proof is its testimony about Jesus, God's Son, and the fact that Jesus fulfilled everything written about him.


Many have scoffed at the idea of the ascension of the Lord Jesus as told about in Acts 1:1-11. I believe similar "miracles" are taking place every day for those who have eyes to see. Is there any possible way that a meal with our Lord Jesus could be shared as the first meal ever to take place on the moon?

That possibility entered the planning of Buzz Aldrin. On Sunday, July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 landed on the surface of the moon, Buzz had with him a miniature communion set. As he prepared, he sent a message back to earth asking listeners to give thanks as they thought about the events of the day. He partook during a radio blackout, having read the verse: "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit" (John 15:5).

Astronauts currently are risking their lives to do necessary repair work to the Hubble space telescope. Many prayers are offered in their behalf. How fitting to remember them and to remember Psalm 139:8: "If I ascend into heaven, you are there."


In the spring of 2005, students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology organized the world's first Time Travelers' Convention. Actually, they said, it's the only such convention the world needs, because a time traveler would be able to come there from the future.

The 22-year-old graduate student who organized the convention, Amal Dorai, posted an invitation on his website asking time travelers to bring from the future something that would be useful: a cure for cancer or AIDS, for example, or a cold fusion nuclear reactor. Mr. Dorai said he would welcome travelers from any time in the future. Anyone coming from just a few days in the future was invited to bring him some stock-market investment tips. The student-provided hospitality included a potluck meal with brownies for dessert.

A New York Times article described the arrangements: While Mr. Dorai has precisely calculated that "the odds of a time traveler showing up are between one in a million and one in a trillion," organizers have tried to make things inviting. In case their august university does not exist forever, they have posted the latitude and longitude of the East Campus Courtyard (42:21:36.025 degrees north, 71:05:16.332 degrees west). A roped-off area, including part of an improvised volleyball court, will create a landing pad so materializing time-travel machines will not crash into trees or dormitories.

(Pam Belluck, "Time Travelers to Meet in Not Too Distant Future," New York Times, May 6, 2005)

The outcome? No time travelers showed up. But then again, the organizer knew he was working against long odds.

When Jesus ascended into heaven, he moved beyond space and time. Now, he dwells in all times and in all places.


In December 1988, Chuck Close suffered a collapsed spinal artery, leaving him paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. However, using a device strapped to his wrist which holds a brush, he is able to continue his work as an artist. His style of painting, mostly portraits, involves using a grid of little two-inch squares, which he laboriously fills in, one by one, as he develops his large, nine-by-nine canvases. Even though he is on one side of the room close to the canvas, he can picture the blending of colors and light and the complete portrait without going across the room and viewing it from a distance. He says, "A composer knows how three notes will sound together. I'm doing the equivalent of a musical chord while I have in my mind the whole composition." While an ordinary person can easily see the results of his efforts from a distance, most would not appreciate the intricate plan in the artist's mind.

In the Gospel for the Ascension, Jesus shows the disciples how everything that had happened was according to a grand plan of the heavenly Father for the salvation of the world. It had been foretold in the Old Testament by Moses and the prophets, it was fulfilled by the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and it is now to be announced to the ends of the earth by his disciples. We are the last chapter in that great plan!


Terry Anderson was stationed in Beruit, Lebanon, as a journalist for the Associated Press. On March 16, 1985, after playing a leisurely game of tennis, he was kidnapped by terrorists and not released until 2,454 days later on December 4, 1991. During that time he was badly treated; being beaten, chained-up, ill-fed, ill-housed, taped up like a mummy, and constantly threatened with death. What sustains someone during such an extended period of hellish treatment? After being taken captive, Terry Anderson was on the edge of madness, of losing control, of completely breaking down. To save himself, he told his captors that he needed a Bible or he would go berserk. Amazingly, his guard secured a Bible for him and it sustained him throughout his years of torment. Terry Anderson rediscovered his dormant Christian faith while he was held hostage.


Jonathan Edwards, who in 1995 became the first man ever to jump over 18 meters (60 feet) in the triple jump, is recognized as one of the nicest people in the world of track. Previously, his rearing as the son of an Anglican vicar influenced him never to compete on Sundays. But when people began to compare him with Eric Liddell, the British sprinter and devout Congregationalist, Edwards realized that it was not really a matter of conscience with him. Instead, he showed the world his faith in other ways. He is always encouraging fellow competitors, he shows appreciation to the officials, and in every way he exhibits surpassing dignity. A former competitor who is now a member of Parliament said, "Jonathan is truly a ray of light in athletics." Before Christ ascended into heaven, he charged all Christians to strive fervently to witness to the Gospel of salvation to the world in whatever way we can.


Charles Townsend Copeland, beloved Harvard University professor of English, was well known for his excellent translations of the classics. For many years he used a couple of cramped and inconvenient rooms on the top floor of Harvard's Hollis Hall. Time and again the university administration offered, and tried, to move him to more accessible and spacious accommodations. Copeland replied that the top floor suited him wonderfully. He said, "It's the only place in Cambridge where God alone is above me. He's busy -- but he's quiet." The Ascension of Our Lord is God's announcement, and reminder, that above the turmoil and confusion of this world, the One we know and need for life and eternity is at work, busily but quietly, on our behalf.


Community Church planned a special celebration for its 150th anniversary. Several people did research, sharing information with the congregation on what life was like in the mid-19th century. Displays, complete with drawings and old pictures, were placed in the narthex as part of the yearlong celebration.

For the celebration, people were encouraged to dress as people would have at the time of the church's founding. Former pastors were invited and asked to say a few words. Members who moved away or were once part of the congregation were also invited for the grand celebration.

It was a former pastor who spoiled the event. He reminisced about the founding of the church as well as his years as pastor. He should have sat down then, but he continued. He told them that they could not rest on their history but needed to continue to reach out to people moving in the neighborhoods near the church. Looking at the gathered congregation, he asked who among them would be around in 25 years to celebrate their 175th anniversary.

He might have simply let them enjoy the moment, but what he said was true. If we fail to reach out to the next generation with the love of Jesus, the church will be in trouble.

When our Lord ascended into heaven, the believers stood gazing upward toward heaven. Two men (angels) challenged them, "Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?" In other words, why are you looking to heaven when there is work to be done! Let's be about the church's business.


It is an annual spring ritual if you own a boat. You begin by scraping off the old paint. Next comes the sanding and filling and more scraping. Finally, you move into the last step, which consists of applying layers of sealer and primer and then at least two coats of the finest marine paint.

You would think you were ready for many hours of smooth sailing by this time, but not so -- at least not so if your boat is made of wood. The last step with a wooden craft might surprise you. Before you launch a wooden vessel, you must fill it with water. During the winter, the boat has dried out so much that sometimes you can see spaces between the planks. At first the water just pours through the bottom of the boat. Slowly the planks soak up the water and begin to swell, and the flow of water slows to a trickle and finally stops. When that happens, the vessel is seaworthy.

The same is true of teaching. Sometimes the lessons have to "soak in" until all the "cracks" are filled. So it was when Jesus taught the disciples many things while he was with them, and then to give the lessons time to settle into the empty spaces of their faith and to swell their understanding, he sent them to Jerusalem to wait for the promise of the Father before launching his Church.


What goes up must come down. Dazed and confused, the disciples of the risen and now-ascended Jesus stood on a hillside staring into space. "Where did he go?" "What happened?" "Bartholomew, did you see that?" "What happened, Nathaniel?" "I don't know! He went up!" They stood on the hillside staring into space, until they were suddenly joined by two men in white. Remember the last time someone showed up dressed in white? It was at the empty tomb. Once again, a divine visitor tells the disciples what they need to know. They have a message from God. "Men of Galilee! Why do you stand there staring into space? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." And so there is juxtaposed with the Ascension the promise of a Second Coming, the promise that Jesus will come again, from heaven, in the same mysterious, spiritual way that he left us. What goes up must come down.

So the disciples of Jesus sat down on the hill and waited for him to come home. Not! Rather, they remembered how Jesus had told them not to worry about when things beyond their understanding would come to pass. Instead, they got busy witnessing to what they did understand: that God was at work in Jesus Christ, saving us from our sin and calling us to new life. The going up and the coming down of Jesus are simply bookends. In between are the chapters of our lives lived in faithful obedience and joyful praise to God.


There is a story of Jesus meeting the Archangel Gabriel up in heaven. Jesus goes on describing his experiences on Earth and Gabriel is listening to it all but when Jesus gets to the part about leaving the gift of the Spirit with the disciples, the very same guys who vanished when the going got tough and Jesus was crucified, he stopped Jesus and asked him "What was Plan B?". And Jesus replied "That’s it. There is no Plan B."


All Shall Be Well
It was Julian of Norwich who wrote those inspired words that 'all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.' They are words that are particularly poignant tonight because they sum up the transformation in the followers of Jesus that we celebrate on Ascension Day, for on this day strange, as it may seem we celebrate Christ's leaving his disciples. But his leaving them is not a somber occasion. It is full of joy and hope and reminds us how their lives had changed, of how they had come to trust in God's ultimate purpose for them and believe that all will indeed be well because Christ will always be with them. (by Matthew Peat)


Don't You Believe in Shoes?
There is a story by Hugh Price Hughes titled, "The City of Everywhere." In this story a man arrives in a city one cold morning. As he gets off the train, he sees that the station is like any other station except for one thing everyone is barefoot. No one wears shoes. He notices a barefoot cab driver. "Pardon me," he asks the driver, "I was just wondering why you don't wear shoes. Don't you believe in shoes?" "Sure we do," says the driver. "Why don't you wear them?" asks the man. "Ah, that's the question," the driver replies. "Why don't we wear shoes? Why don't we?" At the hotel it is the same. The clerk, bell boys, everybody is barefoot. In the coffee shop he notices a nice looking gentleman at a table opposite him. He says, "I notice you aren't wearing any shoes. I wonder why? Don't you know about shoes?" The man replies, "Of course I know about shoes." "Then why don't you wear them?" asks the stranger. "Ah, that's the question," says the man. "Why don't we? Why don't we?" After breakfast he walks out on the street in the snow but every person he sees is barefoot. He asks another man about it, and points out how shoes protect the feet from cold. The man says, "We know about shoes. See that building yonder? That is a shoe manufacturing plant. We are proud of that plant and every week we gather there to hear the man in charge tell about shoes and how wonderful they are." "Then why don't you wear shoes?" asks the stranger. "Ah, that's the question," says the man. Dr. Robert E. Goodrich told this story in his book, What's It All About? Then he asks, "Don't we believe in prayer? Don't we know what prayer could mean to our lives? . . . Of course we do; we know about prayer. Then, why don't we pray? Ah, that's the question. Why don't we pray? . . . Why don't we?" (by Robert E. Goodrich from What's It All About. Adapted by King Duncan)


The Joy of Living New Life Is Beginning
The feast of the Ascension reminds us of two facts: one is the resurrection means we are deprived of the physical presence of Jesus as he was known in history to his disciples; the other fact is the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of Christ, is able to make him known and present to far greater numbers at the same time than would be possible in human form. So the disciples are being told, we are being told, while this is the end of one significant experience, it is the beginning of another one. The historical Jesus is no longer present; the cosmic Christ has received all authority and will be with us until the close of time. (Matthew 28: 18-20) Our Easter celebration is coming to an end; the joy of living the new life in Christ is still just beginning. (by Kendall K McCabe and Michael L. Sherer from Path of the Phoenix, CSS Publishing Company)


What Makes Ultimate Faith Possible
I suspect that what makes ultimate entrustment possible is all the little entrustments that we learn to make all along the way. We hope wisdom is cumulative, and the more we learn to entrust in matters small, the more graceful we become in our ultimate entrustments. Our goal, I believe, is to come to that point where we can say with Walt Whitman:
  • My terminus near, The clouds already closing in upon me, The voyage balk'd -- the course disputed, lost, I yield my ships to Thee ... My hands, my limbs grow nerveless; My brain feels rack'd, bewildered; Let the old timbers part -- I will not part! I will cling fast to Thee, O God, though the waves buffet me; Thee, Thee, at least, I know.
Arguably, entrustment (or faith, if you prefer) is the most important resource we can develop. Without it, we would all hole up somewhere, with our only excursions beyond being those of absolute necessity. The obverse dimension of this is, of course, the cultivation of trust-worthiness. It is as our entrustment is vindicated that we develop the capacity for more of it. I don't know who taught you to swim, if ever you learned, but I do know that you would not have learned to survive in the water if there weren't a teacher present whom you trusted to make the learning environment a wholly safe one for you. I don't know who taught you to ride your first two-wheel bicycle, but I do know that in all likelihood you would not have learned were it not for that trustworthy other who ran alongside of you, as you wobbled from side to side, on that day when the training wheels were first removed. A child would not be able to take the first step onto a school bus and leave Mom and Dad behind were it not for the fact that, preceding the first school bus ride, there were firmly in place a series of successfully completed developmental tasks, reflective of the child's experience that others in her life have proved themselves trustworthy. Ironically, this reliance on the trustworthiness of others eventually leads to the ability to trust ourselves -- our little inside voices, senses, and intuition. We can swim. We can ride the bike. We can go off to unfamiliar territory, establish ourselves, and be successful. Louise Kaplan has written beautifully about this process: "... we manage to hold together when the world lets us down. Although we feel temporarily abandoned and vulnerable, constancy prevails. We retain enough of a sense of our personal worth and the worth of others eventually to convert disenchantment and disappointment into challenge. Constancy enables us to bend with the shifting winds and still remain rooted to the earth that nourishes us." (by Robert A. Noblett from Sermons for Sundays in Lent and Easter CSS Publishing Company)


Every Link of the Chain Idlers of a seacoast town watched the village smith day after day as he painstakingly wrought every link of a great chain he was forging. Behind his back they scoffed at such care being taken on such an ordinary thing as a chain. But the old craftsman worked on, ignoring them as if he had not heard them at all. Eventually the chain was attached to a great anchor on the deck of an ocean vessel. For months it was never put to use. But one day the vessel was disabled by a breakdown in its steering apparatus while nearing the coast in a storm. Only a secure anchorage could prevent the vessel from being driven onto the rocky coast. Thus the fate of the ship and hundreds of passengers depended on the strength of that chain. No one knew of the care and skill that had been lavished on each link of that chain by an obscure smith who was only doing his best. The chain held, and the ship, its passengers and its crew were saved. A man from a "different world" had saved the day. (by Keith Wagner from In a Different World)


A Church Is a Family
Charles E. Jefferson once described the difference between an audience and a church. He said, "An audience is a crowd. A church is a family. An audience is a gathering. A church is a fellowship. An audience is a collection. A church is an organism. An audience is a heap of stones. A church is a temple." And he concludes, "Preachers are ordained not to attract an audience, but to build a church." I hope that everyone in this room understands that critical difference. If the Lion's club or the Kiwanis club is torn with dissension, it is a shame. But when the church of Jesus Christ is in turmoil, it is a tragedy. Christ depends on us. (by King Duncan at www.Sermons.com)


In Light of His Departure
Quite often in our lives there come periods of time when we are separated from loved ones. Often just before the separation, we convey vital information to them essential for their well-being. It is because of our deep concern for them; we omit the small talk and focus on the priorities in the few final minutes of our time together. Consider what a husband would say before he departs on a two-week business trip, or a mother before she allows her child to play in the water, or a father before he drops his son off at college for the first time. Jesus is about to depart from His disciples in a physical way via the cross. He has already prepared them in the Upper Room discourse. Now as He goes before the Father in prayer in Chapter 17, He identifies six priorities that He wants for His followers. I cannot think of another portion of Scripture that better conveys the heart of our Savior. This is an intimate pipeline into the thoughts of Jesus. These are His main concerns in light of His departure. Though specifically spoken to those He was presently leaving behind, we can generally say these are the utmost desires for His church. (by Randy Smith from Jesus Prays for His Disciples)