Today, the church in the west celebrates “Ascension Day,” when the resurrected Jesus left the earth, no longer appearing in physical form. You might wonder why this is something to celebrate. Wouldn’t life be easier if the resurrected Jesus still made appearances in physical form? Then no one would need to doubt the truth of everything in the Gospels. Jesus could just keep teaching directly, so we wouldn’t have to take anything second hand.
Our tradition has special prayers (called “collects”) written for every special day. The one for Ascension Day gives thanks that, “Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things.” Ascension Day is really bigger than Christmas or maybe even Easter. It’s the day that the divine love revealed in Jesus was blasted free to be on the loose, available to complete the re-creation of everyone and everything. The author of 1 Peter (one of the early Christian letters preserved in the Bible) speaks of the Spirit of Christ in all and gives a great clue about how we can receive this divine “in-filling.” “Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received” (1Peter 4:10). Don’t tell Hallmark, but Ascension Day is perfect for gift-giving. But we can’t buy the gift we need to give this day and every day. We need to give of ourselves. Happy Ascension Day!
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