Sunday, June 1, 2003

The Ascension of the Lord

Readings:

Acts 1: 1-11: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses”
Psalm 46
Ephesians 1: 17-23: “May the eyes of (your) hearts be enlightened”
Mark 16: 15-20: “Go forth and announce the good news to all creatures”

       Though Luke closes his Gospel with the Ascension, he uses the Ascension to begin the second part of his work (The Acts of the Apostles). If the Ascension is the last episode in the Gospel’s story of Jesus’ mission, in Acts it is the episode that announces the beginning of the church’s mission.

      Today’s text chronicles the Ascension in a way that gives more emphasis to Jesus’ instructions to his disciples than to the Ascension itself. These instructions, which are symbolically spaced over 40 days are twofold: Jesus spoke first of the Reign of God; and, “one day while they were eating together,” he told them of the gift of the Spirit which would make them able witnesses of Jesus and of Jesus’ living out of the Reign of God. Luke here suggests that the apostles had held onto their old and narrow schemes about People of God, but that the Holy Spirit was going to allow them to understand the universal nature of the reign of God. This universality would serve as the horizon of their mission as witnesses “until the ends of the earth.” (Acts locates the ends of the earth in Rome). Jesus asked his disciples that they not leave until they receive the spirit; otherwise they would be enslaved to their old narrow ways of thinking (1: 4), and would be and capable of carrying out properly their mission.

       With the Lord’s last words (1:8), Luke sets out the missionary program of the church. If the disciples allow themselves to be led by the spirit, they will then be true witnesses of Jesus and of his cause. Luke packages this counsel into a scolding to those disciples whose remain looking up into the clouds after the Ascension. True disciples of Jesus are moved by the urgency of their mission to go forth and find and confront the shadow of death.

Ephesians 1: 17-23: “so that we might experience the power of the Resurrected One”

       Paul sets out his theology of the transforming power of Christ in the context of a prayer for the Ephesian community. Paul describes Christ as Lord of the universe and Head of the Church. The references to the ascension or the exaltation of Christ are not meant to be historical or explicit. Paul is simply sharing his experience of faith.

      At this stage in the letters he wrote from captivity, Paul is striving to encourage those who have been charged with the task of evangelization to continue to grow in the their faith. Paul emphasizes the need for those who would work in evangelization to continually experience the transforming power of the resurrected Christ who has been lifted up above all other powers in the universe. The text mentions a hierarchy amongst the angels (derived from Jewish beliefs of the time about angels) who exercise authority over heaven in earth. He notes that Christ is also exalted with authority and living power over the church, so that the church might fully participate in the saving grace of the resurrection. It is this experience of the transforming power of the Lord Jesus which has fed Paul since his dramatic conversion in Damascus, and which he wishes to share with his fellow disciples.

Mark 16: 15-20

       This text forms of a part of a canonical appendix that was added to Mark's Gospel. This edition was produced around the second century. It is a recognized and authorized text which provides a coherent ending to the Gospel. After the passion of the crucified messiah the disciples were traumatized: “They were sad and continue to weep.” They didn't believe Mary Magdalene's testimony. Only when Jesus appeared at table with the 11 apostles, and challenged their lack of faith, were they able to believe. At that point Jesus sent them out “to proclaim the good news to all creatures.” This good news announced by Jesus is the news of his own resurrection. God is Abba, the God of a love that produces life, even from death. And in Jesus himself forgiveness is proclaimed and put into practice. This text also offers signs of the messianic power which Jesus promised to those who believe in him and accept baptism--signs symbolically expressed in power over all that threatens life: serpents, poison, and sickness.

For The Homily

      Today this word is fulfilled in your midst

      There is more than one message in today's readings, and it is our task to choose the message which will most help listeners understand what Jesus said in the Nazarene synagogue: “Today this word is fulfilled in your midst.”

      Today's texts offer different messages around the mission that the Lord has given to each of us who were baptized: those who are his witnesses. The mission is a universal one, consisting of announcing the good news in such a way that the daily life of each community throughout the whole world is transformed, in such a way that people , to enjoy a more human, more just, more unified world. Today's readings should sensitize us to our obligation to share the transforming power of the Lord's Ascension into our own history.

There are at least three steps that today's biblical texts suggest:

        Be free from paralysis: As the Ascension is his departure from the human limitations of his life in Galilee, it is also his arrival in the vibrant life of the Gospels triumphant in all the earth. When someone leaves, someone must stay behind--that is the thrust of the first chapter of Acts.

     There are ways of staying behind that are helpful, and ways that are not helpful. There are empowering ways and disabling ways. The Church has often, since the first Ascension events, tended to do what Jesus asked us not to do when he charged us not to depart from Jerusalem--that is from the earthly city where we find ourselves in ministry--"stay in the city", he said. Stay engaged in politics. The angels of the Ascension query us, "Why do you stand gazing into heaven?" Here in Middle Earth is where the action is. Jesus promised power and Holy Spirit for us to stay engaged here in the earth, but we have so spiritualized the struggle that we sing songs instead about "heavenly Jerusalem, of everlasting halls, thrice blessed are the people thou storest in thy walls." So Christian churches often became observation platforms for watching the heavens, and we got better at describing the life after death in heavenly realms, and booking passage thereunto, than we got at building the earthly cities where we have a mission from our Teacher Jesus to make all humankind One community, one synagogue, one gathering, and one Temple. (This from Grant Gallup, - http://www.andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/homilygrits/msg00064.html)

        Today the Lord challenges us to leave behind all forms of escapism and get to work. That is we are to stop staring at the heavens and to get on with our work of being Jesus’ witnesses. Our paralysis may be due to a lack of faith or insensitivity or laziness or even fear. Perhaps it is due to the fact it we have fallen into the trap of a certain spiritualism that never reaches the earth, one that never manages to touch the real problems in our community. The Lord sends us out to announce the good news to all creatures. To be his witnesses. To practice what he practices with the same power of the same Holy Spirit, with the same loving kindness that frees us to console, to liberate, and to be one with all who suffer. If we're faithful to this mission, he will in fact be with us, and we will be given signs of this powerful presence.

       Are we in fact frozen into “no action”? What is it that keeps us from truly following the Lord?

       Put into practice the power Jesus and the Reign of God: If we have taken upon ourselves the mission of being witnesses of Jesus, and of the reign of God, as indeed every person who's been baptized should be, then that same spirit which Jesus sends from on high will be our strength. We need to remember that this mission cannot be done a part from following the Suffering Servant -- he who suffered rejection, humiliation, and death on the cross-- these are crucial steps of faithfully carrying out the mission of the reign of God. We must never forget--and especially during the celebration of the ascension, that the “resurrected and exalted one is the crucified one.” Even as the Beloved Son, Jesus learned through suffering how to obey the historical demands of the reign of God. As far as those messianic powers go, we must remember that Jesus never used them for his own benefit. He simply used them as a part of his loving service.

        How do we put to work in our lives the transforming power of the resurrected Lord? And what signs should we be able to see the lives of those around us an especially in the lives of those who have been marginalized?

       Be witnesses empowered by the spirit of the reign of God In the first reading, Jesus instructs his disciples as to the manner of their mission. We are given three points of reference that are to be present in any missionary or pastoral action that we undertake-- Jesus and his Spirit; the Reign of God as Jesus has revealed it; and the signs of the Spirit working in our time. Only the Holy Spirit can illuminate the signs of our times for us. Only the Holy Spirit can inspire within us a living memory of Jesus, one that creates within us a particular empathy for Jesus, and for his passion for the reign of God.

The historical context in which we hear this word

       What does “ascend into heaven” mean?

       These days, everyone looks for ways to get ahead, to “ascend” above everyone else. It is our market strategy, which doesn’t worry about the overall market, but about tomorrow’s “bottom line” (which states “how far up we have gone”). It is the motivation we give to our children for education (“to get a better (as in better-paying) job”). It is the measure for all things, even spiritual: how many go to your Sunday liturgy? How much was your collection? How many people were baptized? A person’s measure is indeed her bank account, as well as the power that she wields.

     Today more than ever before, we celebrate those who achieve at the cost of others. This is an incredible contrast with the message of the ascension of the Lord. The economic message that a rising tide lifts all seas is in fact to be a cruel economic lie. It is difficult to find a single example of a powerful person who uses his post to benefit of others. That someone would rise up like Jesus in order to serve others seems like a fairytale from other times.

        The Gospel is not a fairy tale and it is not from another time. It is the living word of God amongst. Now, as in no other time, are we called to truly stand for the Gospel, which will require us to be truly countercultural, to go against the current, to take a stand on behalf of the vast majority of humanity that has been left out for so very long. Now is the time for a serious effort at true prosperity, at something different than the present form which excessively rewards a few privileged ones while casting everyone else into a bottomless pit of misery, desperation, and death. Now is a time to create a world order that will save us from destroying the very world that we depend on.

         Since January of 2001 when vast movements of poor people in their allies gathered in Porto Alegre, Brazil to protest at the summit for capitalism in Davos, the world has been made aware of the desperation of 2/3 of the world’s family. We know now that to live out the present economic and social programs that have been imposed upon us by the wealthy is to condemn our entire planet to death.

        Today the biblical word task is to understand that the Lord’s ascension is the celebration of the victory of the One named Jesus—One who was once considered defeated. A word of hope, a promise of salvation comes forth from the cross of this once condemned criminal.

        The “Good News” in our world. There’s a great market today for a “Good News Lite” version of the gospel. The best business however, is done with bad news. It seems that escapism, superficial curiosity, and morbid sensibility are very much in demand.

        The Good News of Jesus of the kingdom of God is needed now more than ever. Now, more than ever, Good News which revitalizes life is hard to find. There is, on the other hand, an enormous supply and demand for all that encourages senseless consumption. Most people who seek a religious response to this situation have settled for feelings and sentiments that those complacent religious practices most often offer. These days there’s a great demand for religious spectacle—for a Jesus without the cross, a Christ always ascending in triumph, for weekly shows filled with more and more lights and music and rhythm. This is preferable to the preaching of a Christ whose spirit changes lives and relationships and social structures. And so Sunday after Sunday there we stand staring up at the clouds, trapped in the fireworks, and the sparkle of something that is much less than what Christ preached, than what he demanded of his disciples. It is good news, not for humanity, but for business.

       This is the time for witness, in the manner of Jesus. The present crisis that we find ourselves in in fact creates a space in which we could share credible testimony about what is truly good news. For the good news of Jesus and the Reign of God are the way out of the mess that our greed and pride have gotten us into. It is, indeed, a time for urgent action, for seeking out evil and unveiling it for what it is, and for how well it has adapted itself to our baser desires and our less-than-elevating visions of ourselves. It is time to recognize that it is the Crucified One that God has exalted.

For personal reflection:

       Have I fully accepted the mission given to me in my baptism in Christ Jesus? In what way am I a true witness to Christ the Lord? In which way do I fail to live up to this standard?

        What are the things that I do that show my interest in others, that show my passion for their liberation from that which enslaves or oppresses them, from that which marginates them from others?

For the group’s reflection:

      Luke notes in Acts 1: 3 that Jesus, “after his resurrection” dedicated himself to speaking to the disciples about the Reign of God. What do we think that this meant for Jesus back then? What does “speaking about the Reign of God” mean for us today? What is “the Reign of God”? How does one speak about it?

       Mark 16: 15-18 presents Jesus’ promise to his disciples that all those who believe in the Gospel and who accept baptism will possess “messianic powers”—that they would be free of all that threatens or takes life. The text symbolizes these powers by giving these examples: “they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents (with their hands), and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." What are the “demons” that try to possess us? What are the “new languages” that we are to learn? What would ‘serpents’ or poison represent today? What, in fact, are some useful signs for today that would indicate someone with the Messianic powers of the Lord?

For the Prayer of the Faithful

        For the churches, for the Pope, bishops, priests, religious, and laypeople--that all those baptized in Jesus Christ be faithful witnesses to him and to the Reign of God, let us pray to the Lord

        For all those who preach the Gospel the Reign of God to those who suffer, to those are excluded, to those who live in war zones, that they might find the power of Christ the crucified and resurrected one, shining force in signs of liberation and in new ways of being human, we pray to the Lord.

        For our community that we may discover how to overcome unjust inequalities and hatred, that we might learn to live in true peace, we pray to the Lord.

Let Us Pray

        O God, as we celebrate the joyous exaltation of your beloved Son Jesus, who was crucified for his faithfulness to your desire that all might enjoy true dignity, we ask that you gift us with the strength and love of your Spirit, so that we might be faithful disciples in service of the your Kingdom of justice, love, and peace. We make this prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for in ever and ever. Amen.