Rise up!
We are
celebrating the feast of the Ascension, the final event in the life of Jesus
and the opening event in the life of the church. We can see three periods in
the evolution of God’s entry into human history. First, there is the OT which really
only gets going with the passage of the people of Israel from Egypt to the
Promised Land. For forty years they wandered in the desert. It was not an
aimless wandering but a time of formation. It had high moments, like the
Covenant on Sinai, and low moments, like the fashioning of the golden calf. All
the highs and lows were steps on a journey in the creation of God’s people.
The second
period was when Jesus came among us. He also went into the desert for forty
days – a clear sign of continuity and fulfilment of the promises to Israel. His
proclamation of the kingdom of God also met with highs – as when he was “filled
with joy by the Holy Spirit” (Luke10:21) – and lows as when all his companions
ran away when he was arrested in Gethsemane. All of this too was formative for
the infant church.
So it is not
surprising that there is a third period, inaugurated when Jesus showed himself
to them after his resurrection for forty (that number again) days (Acts 1:3).
In this way he confirmed his companions in their mission. When the period was
over, we are told, he “was lifted up while they looked on.” This is the final
period in the history of the Church and the world and it is the time we are
living today.
These are
the bare facts. But clearly we have to unwrap this parcel of good news which
“filled the disciples with joy.” (Luke 24:52) In the 5th chapter of
Mark we have the story of Jairos’ daughter, a little girl aged 12 who had died.
Jesus goes into the room where she is laid out and says to her in Aramaic, Talitha kum! Little girl, rise up! He is
curing the little girl and giving joy to the parents but he is doing much more
than that.
He is giving
a sign that he has come so that every human being “rises up.” The will of God
is that his people and all creation reach their fullest potential – “life to
the full.” The poet, Robert Browning, wrote, “Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a
heaven for?” In other words we cannot be
satisfied with what we can grasp. We are made to reach further than that.
We know that there is a
longing within us for more than we experience now. We may not be able to describe
it. We may even get side-tracked into searching for ephemeral things, things
that don’t last – more money than we need, power that gives us status, an
excessive concern to look beautiful and smart. But if we go deeper we discover
that the “more” we search for, the “more” that will satisfy us, is to do not
with things but with values, especially human values of love and service. These
are the things that satisfy our hearts – and prepare us for eternity.
So when
Jesus says to us, Talitha kum, he is
inviting us to rise up with him, to rejoice, as the disciples did, in the
knowledge that we are capable of more than we think. There is nothing wrong
with spending your life fishing in the Sea of Galilee but maybe you are called
to something more, something that stretches you beyond your grasp, something
that calls you to reach out to others and in doing so enables you to discover
something about yourself that you never knew.
17 May 2015 Ascension
Acts 1:1-11 Ephesians
1:17-23 Mark
16: 15-20
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