Acts 1: 1-11 (links validated 4/16/24)

In a sense, Ascension Day is the calm before the storm; the (pregnant) pause before all (re-)creation breaks loose. After the understatement about Jesus’ departure–he simply “withdrew”- -the breathtaking implication of his final promise– his followers will be “clothed with power from on high” –will begin to unfold, starting at that first Pentecost and still reverberating.

(always good insights!)

(always good insights!)

Recently I have been reading a book by a young African American priest named Fr. Josh Johnson. In it he quotes the famous African American novelist, Toni Morrison, "There is no such thing as race. None. There is just the human race, scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct..." Then Fr. Josh goes on to say, "Just as racism is a learned construct, so is the ability to empathize. To develop empathy, we must seek to develop the skill of active listening..."

About four years ago, a high school senior accomplished something very few have ever done – he gave a memorable Valedictorian speech at his commencement. It’s an incredibly difficult feat. The graduates and their families are navigating so many feelings and emotions that much of what is said becomes background music in the memories of their minds that this day will become. For faculty and staff who have been at more of these ceremonies than they can keep track of, there’s little that will be said that hasn’t been said before. But as Kyle Martin got up and addressed the crowd, there was something genuine and sincere in his voice, with a vulnerability and honesty to his words that made his speech go viral. It has been shared hundreds of thousands of times and seen by over 8 million people. The Valedictorian speech is offered by the student with the highest grade point average, so Kyle began by explaining how he had learned the year earlier that he was in the “running” for this honor. And he said it was then and there that he decided he wanted it. He wanted the honor, he wanted the notoriety, he wanted the prestige. So he went after it. He worked harder than ever, acknowledging that he sacrificed and even stressed over it. To the extent that it came at the expense of others; he admitted to not attending to some relationships in his life. When Kyle was at his senior awards ceremony, where they finally announced that he was to be the Class Valedictorian, he said, “It felt so good when I heard my name announced for this title. It was so good – – – for 15 seconds. For 15 seconds, my heart was racing and my adrenaline pumping, 15 seconds of ‘yeah, I won!’ 15 seconds of being on the top of all my accomplishments and it felt euphoric. But there must come a 16th second. And on that 16th second, I sat down in my seat, looked at my silver stole that said ‘valedictorian,’ and I thought, ‘That’s it? What just happened? Why am I not feeling anything else?’” With wisdom beyond his years, he reflected, “I don’t even know what I was expecting. A parade of balloons to drop? Or maybe I was hoping all my problems would fade away in comparison to this amazing achievement. But none of that happened… not even in my heart. I felt nothing and I was shocked.”...

At one time in church history, Ascension was a high, holy day, equal in importance to Christmas and Easter. Ascension always falls 40 days after Easter which means that it always lands on a Thursday. Just as we gather for worship on Christmas Eve, no matter what day of the week it is, earlier Christians would have gathered to celebrate the Feast of the Ascension on that same Thursday every year. Now, most Christian traditions move the observance to Sunday, if they attend to it at all. In one Amish community even today, Ascension is more significant than Easter, but not nearly so festive. A Protestant pastor asked an Amish bishop if they celebrated the day with a worship service, with a potluck meal, with communion? “No,” he responded. “We don’t really think of the day as a celebration at all, but more like a time of mourning.” Recalling Jesus’ parable about the time when the bridegroom is taken away and the people fast, he said “It’s a time for lament because that’s when we remember that Jesus left us behind—that’s when he left us here.” There is no feasting, only fasting...

Once when Jacquelyn was visiting North Carolina, she found a beautiful small town park. The grass was green, there were flowers and benches; it was like a picture from the North Carolina Board of Tourism. Tired from walking, she could easily imagine just sitting down on the little bench and resting. Then she saw the sign: “No Loitering”. No Loitering in the park—we’ve all laughed about that sign since; after all, isn’t that the whole point of a park? You go there to loiter; you go there to slow down, stop, appreciate. Drive by appreciation doesn’t really work; you have to loiter, wait before wonder kicks in. A park where you can’t loiter? It’s like a pool where you can’t swim, ice cream you can’t lick or a church where you can’t find God...

Do you know the hymn, “Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley”? It goes like this: Jesus walked this lonesome valley; He had to walk it by himself. Oh, nobody else could walk it for him; He had to walk it by himself. And then it goes: You must go and stand your trial; You have to stand it by yourself. Oh, nobody else can stand it for you; You have to stand it by yourself. That’s right. And in doing so you’ll find the strength that you didn’t know you had. You’ll learn to rely on a power that you ever knew was there. You’ll begin to walk on your own. You’ll run, without waiting for someone else to lead the way...

Don’t you hate to have to wait for stuff? The best piece of advice I think I was ever given was: Most of life is spent waiting. So bring a book. Personally, I find a lot of meaning in the Feast of the Ascension—weird as the story seems to be. Jesus has been making some surprise visits to the faithful off and on for the last forty days. He’s hung around just long enough after his resurrection to let his posse know about this eternal life thing. Then, suddenly, he takes them on a hike to Mt. Olivet and—right in front of their eyes—he takes off like a Saturn 5 rocket and leaves them standing there staring at the clouds with their mouths hanging open. Then some mysterious guys in white show up out of nowhere and promise that he’ll be back. Someday. And now the waiting begins...

A beautiful old story tells of how Jesus, after his Ascension into Heaven, was surrounded by the Holy Angels who began to enquire about his work on earth. Jesus told them about his birth, life, preaching, death, and Resurrection, and how he had accomplished the salvation of the world. The Archangel Gabriel asked, “Well, now that you are back in Heaven, who will continue your work on earth?” Jesus said, “While I was on earth, I gathered a group of people around me who believed in me and loved me. They will continue to spread the Gospel and carry on the work of the Church.” Gabriel was perplexed. “You mean Peter, who denied you thrice and all the rest who ran away when you were crucified? You mean to tell us that you left them to carry on your work? And what will you do if this plan doesn’t work? What’s your Plan B?” Jesus said, “I have no other plan — it must work.” — Truly, Jesus has no other plan than to depend on the efforts of his followers!

Death creates a double distance. Obviously, we can no longer see the one who has died. But death also sets life itself at a distance. Only in death do we see a life completed. Individual moments take on a different hue when they are finally part of the whole. The shifting stills. Death demarcates a life. We begin to see its truth, its singularity, all its facets, the flaws and the fineness...

In the summer of 1917, President Woodrow Wilson was leading the United States into its first European war—and only the second to be fought entirely outside American borders. Then, as now, there were many in America who viewed international conflict as an instrument to enrich the already wealthy. One such group was a labor union founded in 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World, the I.W.W., though they were more commonly known as Wobblies. Adam Hochschild’s book American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis (2022) details the often quite illegal abuse the Wobblies suffered for their unwillingness to assist in the birth of what would become America’s military-industrial behemoth. If you think that America only recently became a dark and threatening place for liberty and civil rights, this book is a must-read...

In some ways, we all have music that dates us. For my mom, it was the music of Barry Manilow; for me it's a song released in June 2006 that best defined my middle school years. It was John Mayer's paramount hit, "Waiting on the World to Change" and our inability to do anything about it but wait for our time. In some ways, that song could best define the disciples and their reality today...I’ve written four books now, and every time I finish a book I think of an English teacher I had around the time “Waiting on the World to Change” was on my radio, who said I wouldn’t amount to anything. I think of her because she stands as a reminder that I know the author. I know the author of my story who equipped me and called me to write like there’s no tomorrow. It is that hope and that promise that Ascension Sunday offers. We know the story, yes. It is a marvelous story. But even more marvelous is that we know the author...

Why is it better sometimes that we go away? Any parent with grown children has heard similar words from their children, unspoken perhaps but there nonetheless. When young people leave home to go to college or to begin life on their own, what they are really saying to their parents is: “Mom and dad, it is better that I go away. You will be sad now, but your sadness will turn to joy. If I don't go, I will always be your little boy or little girl but I will be unable to give you my life as an adult. So please don't cling to the child you once had or you will never be able to receive my adulthood. I need to go away now so that our love can come to full bloom.”...

Anne LaMott was an alcoholic and in really bad shape when she started wandering in on Sunday mornings to St. Andrews Presbyterian, a kind of funky little church right by the farmer’s market she went to on Sunday mornings in San Francisco. Slowly she started getting her life on track, and the people there patiently cared for her. One Sunday at the end of the service, she got up the courage to tell the congregation she was pregnant. The people cheered. She was not married and did not expect this reaction. Even people raised in Bible-thumping homes in the Deep South clapped and clapped. The church more or less adopted her. They brought over casseroles that she could freeze and use later. And they started to slip her money. A bent-over woman on Social Security would sidle up to her and slip a 10 or 20 in her pocket. And Mary Williams always sat in the back and brought her baggies filled with dimes. Every week. Sam was brought to the church when he was 5 days old. People oohed and aahed and everybody called him “our baby.” People in that little church kept Anne LaMott going. They cared, prayed, and reached out to her and saw her through some hard days...

One of my favorite movies is The Princess Bride, a madcap fable about true love, fencing, fighting, torture, pirates, and revenge, among other things. I can quote the entire thing– and if you don’t believe me, just ask my family and former students. One of the funniest early scenes in the movie involves the kidnapping of a beautiful princess. As her kidnappers take her off in a boat through eel-infested waters, she jumps over the side in a bid to escape. The mastermind of the trio of kidnappers orders one of his assistants, Inigo, played by the talented Mandy Patinkin, to jump in after her. “I don’t swim,” he shrugs. The leader turns to the other one, Fezzik, played by former pro wrestler Andre the Giant, who mutters sheepishly, “I only dog paddle.”...

("Randy Alcorn tells about a British physician who died of AIDS. A young Christian man, he volunteered to treat patients in Zimbabwe. In the last days of his life he struggled to express himself to his wife. He only had enough strength to write the letter J. She started saying words beginning with that letter. Finally she said, 'Jesus?' He nodded...")

For some reason, as I begin to think about the Ascension, I can’t help but recall Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. In the opening paragraph of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thompson launches his epic journey by letting the reader know where the story commences and where it will end. “We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive. …”

I'm sure you remember that scene from Star Wars Episode IV, when Obi Wan, while fighting Darth Vader, turns to see young Luke Skywalker and chooses to disincorporate. He isn't dead, of course. Vader steps on the cloak, which is lying on the floor where Obi Wan once stood. Now Obi Wan is one with the Force, and his ability to assist Skywalker is enhanced. I remember a friend of my stressing the word "disincorporation" to describe what had happened. He didn't die. He didn't disappear. He became acorporal.

The year was 1772, and a Baptist preacher serving a small country church was called to pastor a large, more prestigious congregation in London, England. As the story goes, this minister delivered his farewell sermon and packed up his family’s earthly possessions, ready to go. It was the tears of his parishioners, helping them load the carts, though, that really got to him and his wife. “I cannot bear this! I know not how to go,” his wife said. “Nor I, either,” he replied “Nor will we go. Unload the wagon, and put everything in the place where it was before.” This story lies behind the hymn we sang earlier, “Bless’d be the tie that binds,” the words of which were written by that Baptist preacher, John Fawcett, the very next week (or so the story goes). What’s interesting is that “though this (hymn) text is commonly used for farewells, it was inspired by a decision to stay.”

Larry Walters was just 13 years old and he saw weather balloons hanging from the ceiling of an Army & Navy surplus store. It was then that Larry knew that some day he would be carried up to the heavens by balloons. Sure enough when he was 33 years old, on July 2nd 1982, Larry Walters tied 42 helium-filled balloons to a lawn chair in the backyard of his girlfriend’s house in San Pedro, California. With the help of his friends, Larry secured himself into the lawn chair that was anchored to the bumper of a friend’s car, by two nylon tethers. Larry packed several sandwiches and a six-pack of Miller Lite and loaded his pellet gun so that he could pop a few balloons when he was ready to come down. His goal was to sail across the desert and hopefully make it to the Rocky Mountains in a few days.

The literal historical Ascension story took place in 1982. But it the story that actually began some twenty years earlier when Larry Walters was just 13 years old and he saw weather balloons hanging from the ceiling of an Army & Navy surplus store. It was then that Larry knew that some day he would be carried up to the heavens by balloons. Sure enough when he was 33 years old, on July 2nd 1982, Larry Walters tied 42 helium-filled balloons to a lawn chair in the backyard of his girlfriend’s house in San Pedro, California.

"I was in Jordan a few weeks ago. One of the places I was privileged to visit was the Italian Hospital in Amman – the oldest medical facility in Jordan. Its patients are predominantly the poor. Many of them today are refugees who have fled Iraq or Syria. The hospital was built by Catholics nearly a century ago, and is still staffed by some hardworking Dominican Sisters. In a country that is 95 percent Muslim…the Gospel is being proclaimed in that hospital..."

If you have had much exposure to the study of the humanities, much less philosophy and theology, you have probably heard of the 20th-century Jewish thinker Martin Buber. You have encountered his famous “I-Thou” distinction. Namely, that we do and must relate to other people differently than we do to objects, which Buber called “I-It” relationships. We should, of course, use objects well, but we must revere another person, a Thou, who addresses us from within our own humanity. In his new biography, Paul Mendes-Flohr sees this as Buber’s approach to interreligious relations as well. They are akin to an “I-Thou” dialogue between groups. You claim your own tradition because it is who you are. You also admit that you cannot truly step inside another person’s religious experience, cannot personally access its truth claims. Buber suggested we treat other religions as “sacred mysteries,” beyond our judgment...

Parenthood, even before the coming of the Christ, has always been about giving, nurturing and protecting new life through the gift of one’s own life. The biological bestowal of life, especially for the father, is the easy part. The real test comes as parents continually sacrifice their own comfort and security for that of their children. This was a lesson that Laura had to learn from her own mother when she herself became, in short order, a wife and mother. On one occasion, the Wilders, suffering from cabin fever during a cold snap, decided to take Rose out to see Laura’s parents. They stowed their bundled baby behind the dashboard, out of the wind, and rode their sleigh to the Ingallses’ house, only to be greeted with dismay by Charles and Caroline, who chided them for venturing abroad with an infant when it was fifteen below zero “You’re crazy!” Laura remembered her father saying. She assured readers that she took care to check on Rose every few minutes to make sure she was warm. But she also admitted: “It seemed there was a good deal to taking care of babies.”...

The Italian composer Giacomo Puccini wrote several famous operas. During his battle with terminal cancer he began to write Turandot, now considered by many as his best work. When his sickness worsened, Puccini said to his disciples, “If I don’t finish Turandot, I want you to finish it.” When he died in 1924, they gathered all that was written of the opera, studied it in great detail, and wrote the remainder of it. Its world premiere was performed in La Scala Opera House in Milan and Toscanini, Puccini’s favorite student, conducted it. When he came to the end of the part written by Puccini, the conductor stopped the music, put down the baton, turned to the audience, and explained, “Thus far the master wrote, but he died.” There was a long pause; no one moved. Then Toscanini picked up the baton, turned to the audience and, with tears in his eyes, said, “But his disciples finished his work.”

Last Sunday we discovered that our bread oven had been tagged with blue graffiti. Graffiti happens, and the church isn’t immune, but, we’d worked hard, and it felt like a violation. We took the required pictures and prepared to let the police know. I didn’t expect that on Tuesday morning four of the students from PEASE Academy would show up in the church office to tell us who did it: a young man who’d dropped out of PEASE some months back, who is using, who is struggling…a lot. PEASE is the recovery high school that has lived here at Hope for 30 years now. The students are all in recovery. They’ve been to treatment and they come to PEASE to finish high school, and to do that in a setting where they can find support for their sobriety and mental health. Michael Durchslag, PEASE’s director, told us how in their using, students get the narrative: don’t be a nark, don’t be a snitch. But these four, in their sobriety, had changed the narrative: “This is our school. This is our place. We know who did this. How can we help?”...

For weeks now, there have been lingering, ongoing farewells to Dave Letterman, who will retire from his decades’ long reign on late night TV next week. Each night, stars and celebrities have come to wish him well, with roasts and toasts, reflecting on things that will never be the same without him. Video clips have brought back the decades in memory romps. Letterman is never to be forgotten. But he is also to be absent, now. The times, they are a’changin’...

When I was 23 years old, in the space of just three months, both my parents died. They were young, I was young, our family was young—too young, we felt, to let them go. But they died despite that and their leaving left a gaping hole in our lives. But after a time that void began to fill in and our sadness began to dissipate. It didn’t happen quickly. It took a couple of years, but eventually things changed. What was once a cold absence now became a warm presence. Our mother and father came back to us in a new way. We began to feel their presence as a warm nurturing spirit, as a permanent sustaining love. They were now present to us in a deeper way, a way devoid of tension...

("What does the Ascension mean? Among other things, that the mystery of how we touch each others's lives is strangely paradoxical in that the wondrous life-giving power of arriving, touching another's life, speaking words that nurture, doing actions that build up, and giving life for another, depends also upon eventually leaving, being silent, absorbing rather than actively doing, and giving our goodbye and death just as we once gave our presence and our life...")

I think of a friend, Amanda, who had a life-changing opportunity some years ago to spend a summer in Calcutta, India, where she worked in the homes of Mother Teresa. And when she reported for work her first day, she was placed in the kitchen, washing pots. And then the next day in the laundry, washing sheets. This went on for weeks, frustrating my friend. So she asked one of her supervisors, "Hey, I've been spending all of my time washing pots and cleaning sheets and folding bandages. I came here to work with Mother Teresa. What does Mother Teresa do when she's here?" And the supervisor said, "Well, when she's here, Mother Teresa cleans sheets, she folds bandages, and she washes pots."

Thomas Troeger, the Presbyterian preacher and homiletician, in a sermon preached on Ascension Day, recalls the frustration of the disciples and the early church in their waiting and longing for the fulfillment of the reign of God. He says we too know that frustration. After having given our lives over to Jesus Christ, we experience not triumph, but a mixture of triumph and defeat. Has anything really changed? What difference does our faith make? "When will things come together in some whole and enduring pattern?" he wonders. And then Troeger quotes Yeats’ lines to describe our world: Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, the blood dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity...

("Bob Dylan wrote a song, Gotta serve somebody. Don't worry, I won't sing it but here is the refrain: 'Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord. But you're gonna have to serve somebody'. The devil tries to convince that we are autonomous - as if we could exist completely on our own...")

("He was a young man, barely twenty-one years old, named Bartolome Blanco Marquez. Bartolome was deeply in love with a girl named Maruja. They dreamed about marriage and forming a family. Both were commited Christians and wanted Jesus to have the first place in their lives...")

("In his commentary on the ascension, Peter Gomes insists that the event has both an upward vision and a downward vision. The upward vision is heaven: 'I go to prepare a place for you'. Amidst the troubles of this world, we want to be lifted up--we need an upward vision. But...")

("Back in 1907 when the 20th century had not long come into being, Robert Hugh Benson wrote of the things to come in his book Lord of the World. In it he described many things not yet known to man – aeroplanes and airports; electric lights, smokeless zones and temperatures measured in centigrade; a European parliament and even the abolition of the House of Lords...")

("The story is told about the Ascension Day celebrations at a particular seminary. A special Ascension Day service was held and the whole seminary in robes and regalia gathered for the big celebration. It was quite an event. The service ended and the assembly processed from the chapel. Unknown to the worshippers, a group of somewhat creative lads had found a near life-size Styrofoam mannequin with extended arms. They strapped fireworks – the sky rocket type – to the arms and body of the mannequin...")

("I find wisdom in the Celtic image of the Presence, particularly as expressed by John Philip Newell in his fine book Christ of the Celts: The Healing of Creation. Newell writes of Teilhard deChardin's concept of finding our true selves outside of ourselves, in the heart of the universe, the heart of all life, and in one another...")

("Some time ago now Joseph Bayly wrote a book called the Gospel Blimp. It's about the attempt of Christian neighbours reaching out to the community for Christ. The family purchased a hot air balloon to broadcast the gospel to the community and dropped "bombs" on the town. These 'bombs' were tracts wrapped in coloured cellophane...")

("Years ago a college friend of mine, who was like me pursing a major in German, was delighted to purchase an old German fairy tale book at a local garage sale. We enjoyed putting our German to use by reading these children's stories, although we were surprised at how horrifying some of them were. Because unlike the American versions of these stories, which seem to have been sanitized and tidied up, the original German tales are brutal...")

I find wisdom in the Celtic image of the Presence, particularly as expressed by John Philip Newell in his fine book Christ of the Celts: The Healing of Creation. Newell writes of Teilhard deChardin's concept of finding our true selves outside of ourselves, in the heart of the universe, the heart of all life, and in one another...

I am also reminded of the creative work of Miriam Therese Winter, a Catholic sister and theologian. In one of her many reflections she offers this: The God of history, The God of the Bible. is One who carries us in Her arms after carrying us in Her womb, breastfeeds us, nurtures us, teaches us how to walk, teaches us how to soar upward just as the eagle teaches its young to stretch their wings and fly, makes fruitful, brings to birth, clothes the lilies of the field, clothes Eve and Adam with garments newmade, clothes you and me with skin and flesh and a whole new level of meaning with the putting on of Christ.

("There is a wonderful mystery play from the Middle Ages about the . It is said that after Jesus was lifted up from the earth and was ascending to heaven, the two men dressed in white follow after, straining to catch up with Him. These angels cry out: 'Jesus! Jesus! Wait for us!'...")

("Cucurrucucu Paloma is a Mexican serenade about a love that cannot find rest, save in the arms of the beloved. There is no heaven without her. True, this serenade ends in sorrow, and that is not the fate of our love. Yet the longing is the same...")

("When I was 23 years old, in the space of just three months, both my parents died. They were young, I was young, our family was young; too young, we felt, to let them go. But they died despite that and their leaving left a gaping hole in our lives. But after a time that void began to fill in and our sadness began to dissipate. It didn't happen quickly...")

("It's lined with cedar wood, to protect the fabrics placed inside. And there are those. Some embroidered linens, which I sent from Europe many years ago. There's also a battered ceramic statue of Saint Joseph, which belonged to my grandmother, and then to my aunt, until she also died. My grandfather's shaving mug and watch. And a lot of medals, which I won in high school. That exhausted my knowledge of the chest's contents, so I phoned my mother...")

("I was puzzling over what to write here when across my Facebook newsfeed came the story of a New Englander who has offered a burial plot for the Boston Marathon bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Three weeks after Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police, and with no cemetery willing to receive his remainss, Douglas Keene of Vermont made the offer to Tsarnaev's family on the condition that it be done 'in memory of my mother who taught Sunday School...")

("In the holy fiction of the Bible, I'm grateful for the Acts-only arrival of 'two men in white robes'. Their question was relevant 2,000 years ago and today: 'Why do you stand looking toward heaven?' Which is to say, get going, get to work. Don't waste your time judging others, but embrace each day as a time to create heaven on earth...")

When I was 23 years old, in the space of just three months, both my parents died. They were young, I was young, our family was young—too young, we felt, to let them go. But they died despite that and their leaving left a gaping hole in our lives. But after a time that void began to fill in and our sadness began to dissipate. It didn't happen quickly...

("I was watching a documentary about a team of climbers preparing to scale Everest. The film showed the elaborate preparations they had to go through before they put even one foot forward to begin their climb. They needed special clothing, oxygen tanks, tents, ropes, a communication system, maps, pinions and, of course, an experienced team of Sherpas...")

("In his new book When Christ Comes, Max Lucado tells of a time when, as a little boy, he sang in the Odessa boys Choir. In the second year of his membership in this group the choir was enlisted by a local junior college drama department to play the part of the Munchkins in their production of The Wizard of Oz..." and other quotes)

("Have you ever stopped to consider how wonderfully powerful AIR is? For example: it is common, every day AIR that makes it possible for huge planes carrying hundreds of people and tons of cargo to cruise at 30,000 feet above sea level. That same AIR in pressurized ballast tanks is what enables huge nuclear submarines to travel to tremendous depths in the world's oceans and then resurface when and where they want to...")

("in some parts of the United States Greyhound racing is still a popular betting sport. In these areas thousands of foolish gamblers fill grandstands to watch these incredibly sleek and beautiful dogs run as fast as they can around an oval-shaped track. Now, unlike race horses, greyhounds of course run without the assistance of a jockey. So, to make the dogs race-and race in the right direction, they are trained to chase a life-like but mechanical rabbit as it zips along the track in front of them...")

We may hear how this power of memory lives and works for Jesus at the end of John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath. Tom Joad takes up the life and work of old family friend and mentor in the organizing of migrant farm laborers – whose name happens to be initialed “JC,” Preacher Jim Casy. He was crucified, clubbed to death by strike-breakers. Tom says goodbye to his mother – The sat in the coal-black cave of vines. Ma said, “How’m I gonna know ‘bout you? They might kill ya an’ I wouldn’ know. They might hurt ya. How’m I gonna know?” Tom laughed uneasily, “Well, maybe like Casy says, a fella ain’t got a soul of his own, but o’ny a piece of a big one – an’ then –“ “Then what, Tom?” “Then it don’ matter. Then I’ll be around in the dark. I’ll be ever’where – wherever you look. Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. If Casy knowed, why, I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’ – I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build – why, I’ll be there. See? God, I’m talkin’ like Casy. Come of thinkin’ of him so much. Seems like I can see him sometimes.” “I don’ un’erstan’,” Ma said. “I don’t really know.” “Me neither,” said Tom. Me neither. Us neither, brothers and sisters. We don’t know...

My mother is here this morning. She is known to family as “Bird Woman” in more ways than one. Ever since her teacher, her Aunt Harriett, started a bird chart in her third-grade room, my mother never met a bird she could not spy and try to identify! Our coffee table teemed with bird books. When her kids left the nest, my mother replaced them with a nature print gallery there, featuring all her mostly local favorite bird artists.

("an Englishman, who, when a very young boy, was taken to nursery school by his mother. Attentive to his anxiety about being abandoned, the boy's mother leaned down, kissed her son, and said, 'Good bye, my love. No one is leaving.' Each day, his mother would bid him farewell with those same words...")

The year was 1945. I was fourteen years old. My father and mother and pastor were taking me, an excited young teenager to Concordia, MO, 300 miles from my home, where I was to be enrolled as a freshman in high school at St. Paul's College and High School...

("The road that links my house and Western Seminary is called College. For nineteen years now I have walked it up and down. I know where the sidewalk is cracked and where it has been repaired. I've watched cement being poured for driveways, silvery and new, and I have watched it darken as the pigment of fallen leaves bleeds into it...")

("It was June, 1989, and you probably remember it. For months there had been organized protests by students, intellectuals and labor activists in the People's Republic of China, protests calling for reform of government policies limiting freedom. Early in the morning of June 4, the People's Liberation Army sent troops and tanks into the middle of the protests, into Tianamen Square to crush protests and disperse the crowds. The massacre was heartbreaking...")

("Eddie Marderosian was a very smart young man who kept up with current events, knew a lot about astronomy and otherwise liked to shock my class and disrupt my teaching. Out of the blue, no pun intended, he asked, 'I wonder how far has Jesus traveled since the ...")

("In discussing the ascension of Christ, Joseph Campbell says it sounds like someone has just floated up in the air. Literally, that is what is being said. But the meaning is quite different. Campbell says: 'The denotation would seem to be that somebody ascended to the sky. That's literally what is being said. But if that were really the meaning of the message,then we have to throw it away, because there would have been no such place for Jesus literally to go......")

("Chuck Colson quote: 'During World War II, after Hitler blitzkrieged his way across France, demanding the unconditional surrender of the Allied forces in the European theater, thousands of British and French troops dug in along the coast of northern France in a last-ditch effort to hold off the German forces...")

("What does witnessing to the resurrection look like today, two thousand years later? I think the writer, agrarian and iconoclast Wendell Berry points us in the right direction when he suggests that we offer a powerful, radical 'witness' to Jesus when we 'live resurrection'...")

Anything by Craddock is worth a look!!

("A bombing of civilians in the town of Ennishillen, Northern Ireland in 1987, killed many civilians. The IRA claimed responsibility, leaving no doubt of the perpetrators. A 20 year old student nurse Marie Wilson, was trapped in the rubble with her father, Gordan. She asked him if he were all right...")

"A Russian psychologist by the name of Pavlov who pioneered in the techniques of conditioning did experiments with dogs - He first rang a bell, and then a second later gave them some meat. After doing this a few times - he rang the bell - but did not give them the meat. Even though the dogs did not get the meat - they salivated - their whole system was geared to receiving meat..."

("On May 19, 1780, during the anxious days of the Revolutionary War that darkness came at noon. Bats flew and chickens roosted. A meteorological phenomenon seemed to bring day to an end when the sun was at its zenith. Panic broke out, and many thought the end of the world was at hand...")

("An ancient legend tells of the return of Jesus to glory after his time on earth. Even in heaven he bore the marks of his earthly pilgrimage with its cruel cross and shameful death. The angel Gabriel approached him and said, 'Master, you suffered terribly down there. Do they know and appreciate how much you loved them and what you did for them?'...")

The year was 1772, and a Baptist preacher serving a small country church was called to pastor a large, more prestigious church in London, England. As the story goes, John Fawcett delivered his farewell sermon and packed up his family’s earthly possessions, ready to go. It was the tears of his parishioners, helping them load the carts, though, that really got to John and his wife...

("His name is Hans Rey, and he likes to ride bikes. On the roof of his house. Every once in a while, Rey goes down into the garage of his little hillside house in Laguna Beach, California, and looks over the 12 bikes he has stored there. Today, he picks out the gray GT Ruckus with the full suspension, takes it into his back yard, climbs on and then bunny-hops it up 16 stairs to a deck...")

["Every parent who has ever taken a long trip by automobile with a child knows the most common words spoken by children during those trips - sometimes within moments of departure. 'Are we __________ ?' (There yet?)...."]

Joyce Rupp, Catholic sister and spiritual writer says in her book Pieces of Light: 'I am always assured by the stories from Scripture of all those women and men who had tough times, because God continually gives two messages over and over to those in darkness: "Do not fear" and "I am with you"..." and other illustrations

("The other day I read the news that Tamar Hennessey had died. Don't be surprised if you've never heard of her. She was an obscure figure to most Catholics, but not insignificant. She was the daughter of Dorothy Day. Long after her mother had died, Tamar remained active in the causes that Dorothy Day championed. She worked tirelessly to help those who were poor, disadvantaged, outcast....")

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("Sometime back Rob Elder recalled being dropped off by his parents for his freshman year at college. He wrote, 'Just days before I had gotten myself all packed up, ready to head for school, and asked my brother if he thought I looked like a college man. "No," he said, "you look like a freshman."...")

("E. Stanley Jones, a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi, commented that after Gandhi's assassination, the radio constantly broadcast programs that eulogized the father of that great land. He noted that a Mrs. Naidu, a well-known Hindu poet, spoke on Sunday, three days after the assassination. She had been in frequent contact with the Christian community in India..." and other illustrations)

There is a lovely story told about the Member of Parliament, Ian Paisley: Matthew Paris, one time conservative member (and now broadcaster and journalist), as a newly-elected MP went to take his place in the House of Commons and was surprised to find Ian Paisley sitting on the Government benches. Sitting next to the controversial Irishman he remarked, 'I didn't expect to find you sitting here on the government benches. I thought you'd be with the Opposition...' Paisley gruffly replied (and I can't do an Ulster accent!) 'Never confuse being by your side with being on your side'...

Joseph is in love with Maria. I know this sounds strangely close to a Bible story, but it isn't one. These two young people live in a story told by Mary Gordon in her book Temporary Shelter. Joseph has loved Maria ever since the two of them were children, since the day his mother went to work for Maria's father..." and other quotes

("It is said that when Constantine called the bishops of the early church to Rome to discuss the role of the Church in the Empire, Constantine was appalled at what he saw. The men who came to Rome were a battered, beaten group. Many were missing eyes, tongues, limbs, and all were beaten, bruised and scarred...")

"In one scene from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, they discover a computer and an old video clip. The leader speaks: 'Seven and a half million years our race has waited for this Great and Hopefully Enlightening Day!—The Day of the Answer!' Hurrahs burst from the ecstatic crowd..."

I will never forget my first court room experience. I had been hired by a company as a store manager and part of my job was to represent the company in small claims court as needed. My first 'case' was a true eye-opener for me. I knew nothing about legalities. I was truly a 'fish out of water'...

("William Seymour was born in Louisiana, the son of former slaves.We was raised a Baptist and as a young man had several intensive dreams and visions.He contracted smallpox and went blind in his left eye at the age of 25.About this time, he moved to Indianapolis and worked as a railroad porter and waiter in a fashionable restaurant..." and another illustration)

("I have a friend who is moving from one city to another. He has sold his home but he is building a new home, and it is not ready to move into -- yet. So he and his family are literally living in a motel room for the next two weeks. Now understand, this man has been through a lot of trials and tribulations...")

("Larry Walters was a truck driver, but his lifelong dream was to fly. When he graduated from high school, he joined the Air Force in hopes of becoming a pilot. Unfortunately, poor eyesight disqualified him. So when he finally left the service, he had to satisfy himself with watching others fly the fighter jets that crisscrossed the skies over his backyard...")

("The title poem of Shel Silverstein's book Falling Up, is all about a child who soars and whose world is turned upside down with a disturbing result: I tripped on my shoelace And I fell up - Up to the roof tops, Up over the town, Up past the tree tops, Up over the mountains..." and other quotes)

("It reminds me of the true story told to me by a black pastor who was involved in the civil rights movement. It was back in the early fifties, and he was newly ordained, and was sent to a small town in the deep south. He had no sooner arrived there, than he was called by a family in the church - a white woman was raped, and their son was charged. Before the police got there, he had already been lynched...")

("It is a scene that has been repeated many times over in the world of movies. The famous last scene. The scene that brings the two, three or four hour adventure to a closure. You see a car pulling away from the driveway of the family home. You see a train start chugging away from the station...")

("What is so amazing about the Gospel of Judas is that the man we Christians have long-scorned as the betrayer of our Lord is presented in a completely different light. Here he is not the evil, corrupt, devil-inspired follower of Jesus who betrayed his master. He is instead Jesus' closest friend, the one who understood Jesus better than anyone else...")

("Three men die and meet St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter says to the first one, 'Let’s see, according to the report I have on you, you’ve led an outstanding life. You’ve never been in trouble with the law, you haven’t committed any major sins, and you’ve belonged to the Community Church. You can go right on into heaven.'...")

("An archaeologist was digging in the Negev Desert in Israel and came upon a casket containing a mummy. After examining it, all excited he called the curator of a prestigious natural-history museum. 'I've just discovered a 3,000 year-old mummy of a man who died of heart failure!' the excited scientist exclaimed. The curator told him to, 'Bring him in. We'll check it out.'...")

Back when the West was being settled, the major means of transportation was the stagecoach. You've seen persons riding in stagecoaches in western movies. What you might not know is that the stagecoach had three different kinds of tickets -- first class, second class, and third class. If you had a first class ticket, that meant you could remain seated during the entire trip no matter what happened...

("Two coyotes went up the river and they came to a big ledge. From there they saw people living below near the river. The two friends said to each other, 'You go ahead.' 'No, you go.' And for a long time, they argued...")

("One time Jimmy Durante, the entertainer was asked to be a part of a show for World War II veterans. He told them his schedule was very busy and he could only afford a few minutes. They asked him to do a short monologue and he said he would come. When Jimmy got on stage something interesting happened...")

("Few have illustrated this better than Kirby Puckett, for 13 years center fielder for the Minnesota Twins baseball team. He had a career batting average of .318, made the All-Star lineup ten years in a row, and won six Golden Gloves for defensive play. He was one of the most loved men ever to play the game, and a well-known Christian. Dennis Martinez, pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, once crushed the left side of Kirby's face with a pitch...")

("Carl VandeGiessen, in his horn-rimmed spectacles and red tennis shoes, remains vivid in my mind. Ten years ago he lost his wife, Ruth, after her long battle with Alzheimer's. Carl had sat at her bedside every day, even in the long years when she hadn't known him...")

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("Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb, Now leaves his welbelov'd imprisonment, There he hath made himself to his intent Weak enough, now into our world to come...")