Steve Dubner, from the New York Times, wrote a great little article that listed the opinions about war of 12 West Point cadets. They were all members of the Canterbury Club (an Episcopal fellowship group.) I posted the entire article as well as my reflections on my blog, but I wanted to share my reflections here as well.
As a West Point graduate, I agree with Stephen Dubner’s assessment. When I was there, and I’m sure it is still true, West Point did a very good job of creating thoughtful and critically thinking leaders. It is not a place of simple, monolithic answers. We were taught to do the honorable, ethical thing, even if it cost us personally. Even if it meant disobeying orders we believed to be illegal. It was also made clear to us that we did not get to choose when or where the military would be deployed. We were committing ourselves to submit to the will of the civilian government. This may sound crazy to some people, because it meant we would be willing to serve in wars that we might think were wrong. But the alternative would be to have a military that chose when it would fight. If this happened, then the decision to go to war would be separated from the checks and balances inherent in our democratic system of government, and you can quickly see how that is a bad idea. I can’t think of any other arena where people are asked to be as self-giving as they are in the military. And ours is an all-volunteer military.
But because these heroes who serve on our behalf do not get to choose where they are deployed, it makes it even more important for us, the civilian population, to be as careful as possible when we deploy troops. The first way we “support our troops” is to be as conservative as possible when we ask them to die, and to kill, for us.
You can find Dibner’s original article [HERE].
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Prayers for the Armed Forces
It is difficult to remain mindful of the sacrifices that have been, and are being, made by those in our armed forces. Let us pray.
O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines. This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP 839)
Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP 823)
O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines. This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP 839)
Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP 823)
Sunday, May 25, 2008
to paint the lily - and gild it too
In the name of God, source of all being, eternal Word and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Little Bear wanted to go play in the snow. But it was cold. So he asked Mama Bear, “May I have a pair of mittens to wear so that my paws will stay warm?” She gave him the mittens and helped him put them on. Little Bear began to go outside; but it was still cold. So he asked his mother, “Mama Bear, may I have a scarf to wear around my neck while I play in the snow?” “Yes,” she said, and draped a scarf around him. Then he asked for galoshes… but before he clumped away, he turned back. “May I have a cap to wear, so that my head will stay warm?” And his mother put a cap on his head. Finally, Little Bear said to his mother, “I’m still afraid I might be cold when I go outside.” And she said, “Do you think you would like to wear a warm fur coat?” “Yes!” Little Bear. “That’s just what I need.” And Mother Bear took off his cap and his galoshes and his mittens and his earmuffs and his scarf. There was Little Bear, standing before her, and she said, “There you are, Little Bear. There’s your fur coat!” And he went outside and played and was happy.
Little Bear was worried – what did he need before he went outside to play in the snow? It turned out his Mother had given him everything he needed, long before he asked. Underneath all the special garments he put on, there was the essential thing: and when he saw that, he was okay.
He thought he needed more – he thought he needed to use a phrase, “to paint the lily.” But what he had already been given was just what he needed.
Therefore, to be possess'd with double pomp,
To guard a title that was rich before,
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
(Wm. Shakespeare, King John, 4. 2. 11-18)
Like Little Bear, sometimes it takes a while for us to trust what we have been given. We want to add to it, to make it safe, make ourselves secure. Pilate wanted to be secure. Jesus throws caution to the wind, the wind of the Holy Spirit, and calls for ultimate reliance on God. The providence of God is the one true security measure. And making anything less our ultimate allegiance is idolatry.
You cannot serve two masters – God and your own security, and you cannot find shelter under two roofs at once. You are called in humble trust to rely on God for what you need. “Give us this day the bread we need.” Single-hearted devotion, service, confidence, in God’s care, are what make us safe, and keep us warm in the snows of the world – however inviting they are, however threatening they seem.
Underneath all their other vestments, priests in Roman times wore the alb – a white garment, loose fitting, gathered at the waist by a cincture or rope. It was white, alba, like the white garment worn at baptism. It shows us that, underneath all the other functions a person may have, there is the fundamental identity of a person baptized into the life and death and resurrection of Christ, and the founded hope of eternal life in God’s own dwelling.
Think of us, then, as servants of Christ, having stewardship of God’s mysteries. To be judged by any human person is a very little thing; we belong to God. Let God be the judge; don’t try to forestall him. And for yourself, keep it together, stay focused on mission, know that God provides, and move forward in Christ.
More than Solomon in all his glory – you will be clothed as you need to be clothed, with the white garment of baptism, the white robe of the martyr – if need be; you will be clothed as a child of God. In this is your safety and in him is your security.
There was a man in ancient times, in the third century or fourth after Christ, who lived in a Roman town in Britain, north of London. His name was Alban.
It was a time of persecution for the church. Under the emperor’s orders, priests were being hunted down and made martyrs, made witnesses who died for the faith. One such came to Alban’s door, seeking shelter. Though he was a pagan, at the time, Alban took the priest in, gave him hospitality, comfort, and sanctuary; in turn the priest gave Alban comfort, hospitality, and sanctuary: in Christ, in Christ’s identity of him first as a whole person, baptized into the life and death and resurrection of Christ, founded in hope of an everlasting home.
The soldiers came to the door. By then Alban had received what the priest had to give him, and he was ready to take on the white garment of the baptized, the white robe of the martyr – and so he did. When the door was opened, there stood a man in the cloak of the priest – and the soldiers took him away.
When they got to the judge, they demanded to know his name, his parentage, right away: “I am Alban,” he said, “and I worship the one true and living God, who made all things.” And so they led him away – toward the arena…
Alban made his security, his home, in his identity with Christ; in God was his refuge. And in his service he found perfect freedom. The Romans could not touch him there. What happened to him then was of consequence, surely: but with him it was a very small thing to be judged by any human court. He did not even judge himself, either to acquit or to condemn. “It is the Lord who judges me.” It is the Lord who held his fate – he had put his life in God’s hands.
From God, who alone discloses the purposes of the heart, Alban would receive his commendation. And so he could proceed, without undue anxiety, on the path before him – in the keeping of God.
We have the assurance of our Lord that we are in his keeping, too: that true security lies not in the world’s goods, however much we amass – or however strongly we assert our independence. All things rightly are free under one Heaven – because all things will be drawn together under the one Christ.
For God has put all things in subjection under his feet… so that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15: 27-28)
In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, … so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory…
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that you may know in your inmost being the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his providence, and the greatness of his power. God put this power to work in Christ and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.
And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
(Ephesians 1:17 ff., paraphrased)
There is nothing left for us to do but put ourselves in his hands, put our hands to his work, and put our feet on his way. As he taught his followers earlier in the same sermon, so the Lord teaches us to pray: Our Father...
Little Bear wanted to go play in the snow. But it was cold. So he asked Mama Bear, “May I have a pair of mittens to wear so that my paws will stay warm?” She gave him the mittens and helped him put them on. Little Bear began to go outside; but it was still cold. So he asked his mother, “Mama Bear, may I have a scarf to wear around my neck while I play in the snow?” “Yes,” she said, and draped a scarf around him. Then he asked for galoshes… but before he clumped away, he turned back. “May I have a cap to wear, so that my head will stay warm?” And his mother put a cap on his head. Finally, Little Bear said to his mother, “I’m still afraid I might be cold when I go outside.” And she said, “Do you think you would like to wear a warm fur coat?” “Yes!” Little Bear. “That’s just what I need.” And Mother Bear took off his cap and his galoshes and his mittens and his earmuffs and his scarf. There was Little Bear, standing before her, and she said, “There you are, Little Bear. There’s your fur coat!” And he went outside and played and was happy.
Little Bear was worried – what did he need before he went outside to play in the snow? It turned out his Mother had given him everything he needed, long before he asked. Underneath all the special garments he put on, there was the essential thing: and when he saw that, he was okay.
He thought he needed more – he thought he needed to use a phrase, “to paint the lily.” But what he had already been given was just what he needed.
Therefore, to be possess'd with double pomp,
To guard a title that was rich before,
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
(Wm. Shakespeare, King John, 4. 2. 11-18)
Like Little Bear, sometimes it takes a while for us to trust what we have been given. We want to add to it, to make it safe, make ourselves secure. Pilate wanted to be secure. Jesus throws caution to the wind, the wind of the Holy Spirit, and calls for ultimate reliance on God. The providence of God is the one true security measure. And making anything less our ultimate allegiance is idolatry.
You cannot serve two masters – God and your own security, and you cannot find shelter under two roofs at once. You are called in humble trust to rely on God for what you need. “Give us this day the bread we need.” Single-hearted devotion, service, confidence, in God’s care, are what make us safe, and keep us warm in the snows of the world – however inviting they are, however threatening they seem.
Underneath all their other vestments, priests in Roman times wore the alb – a white garment, loose fitting, gathered at the waist by a cincture or rope. It was white, alba, like the white garment worn at baptism. It shows us that, underneath all the other functions a person may have, there is the fundamental identity of a person baptized into the life and death and resurrection of Christ, and the founded hope of eternal life in God’s own dwelling.
Think of us, then, as servants of Christ, having stewardship of God’s mysteries. To be judged by any human person is a very little thing; we belong to God. Let God be the judge; don’t try to forestall him. And for yourself, keep it together, stay focused on mission, know that God provides, and move forward in Christ.
More than Solomon in all his glory – you will be clothed as you need to be clothed, with the white garment of baptism, the white robe of the martyr – if need be; you will be clothed as a child of God. In this is your safety and in him is your security.
There was a man in ancient times, in the third century or fourth after Christ, who lived in a Roman town in Britain, north of London. His name was Alban.
It was a time of persecution for the church. Under the emperor’s orders, priests were being hunted down and made martyrs, made witnesses who died for the faith. One such came to Alban’s door, seeking shelter. Though he was a pagan, at the time, Alban took the priest in, gave him hospitality, comfort, and sanctuary; in turn the priest gave Alban comfort, hospitality, and sanctuary: in Christ, in Christ’s identity of him first as a whole person, baptized into the life and death and resurrection of Christ, founded in hope of an everlasting home.
The soldiers came to the door. By then Alban had received what the priest had to give him, and he was ready to take on the white garment of the baptized, the white robe of the martyr – and so he did. When the door was opened, there stood a man in the cloak of the priest – and the soldiers took him away.
When they got to the judge, they demanded to know his name, his parentage, right away: “I am Alban,” he said, “and I worship the one true and living God, who made all things.” And so they led him away – toward the arena…
Alban made his security, his home, in his identity with Christ; in God was his refuge. And in his service he found perfect freedom. The Romans could not touch him there. What happened to him then was of consequence, surely: but with him it was a very small thing to be judged by any human court. He did not even judge himself, either to acquit or to condemn. “It is the Lord who judges me.” It is the Lord who held his fate – he had put his life in God’s hands.
From God, who alone discloses the purposes of the heart, Alban would receive his commendation. And so he could proceed, without undue anxiety, on the path before him – in the keeping of God.
We have the assurance of our Lord that we are in his keeping, too: that true security lies not in the world’s goods, however much we amass – or however strongly we assert our independence. All things rightly are free under one Heaven – because all things will be drawn together under the one Christ.
For God has put all things in subjection under his feet… so that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15: 27-28)
In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, … so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory…
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that you may know in your inmost being the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his providence, and the greatness of his power. God put this power to work in Christ and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.
And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
(Ephesians 1:17 ff., paraphrased)
There is nothing left for us to do but put ourselves in his hands, put our hands to his work, and put our feet on his way. As he taught his followers earlier in the same sermon, so the Lord teaches us to pray: Our Father...
Friday, May 23, 2008
New Photo Albums
Last Sunday, May 18, we had our monthly family service in the Great Hall and our annual baccalaureate service in the Cathedral. We have two photo albums of these events posted on our gallery page of Trinity's web site: http://www.trinitycathedral.org/gallery.shtml
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Marriage Equality
I am pleased by the Supreme Court's decision to overturn California's ban on same-sex marriage. I participated in the amicus brief from religious leaders encouraging the Court to overturn the ban. Now that we have marriage equality in California, I see a few priorities in front of us:
- We need to keep marriage equality by fighting the ballot initiative that would, if passed, change our state's constitution to limit "marriage" to heterosexual relationships. This is a misuse of the constitution, which should not be amended to restrict people's rights.
- We need to support couples who are deciding to get married. Unfortunately we can't host marriage ceremonies in the Cathedral nor can I "officiate" at such services. There are things we can do as a church to support our members as they take this important step. We can help couples design services using prayers from our Prayer Book or other resources. We can participate in marriage ceremonies. We can also have services in the Cathedral where we can come together and celebrate the commitments that couples are making. Here I'm thinking of the service we hold around Valentines Day where all couples are invited to renew their vows and the congregation pledges to support them in their marriage. We could follow the service with a great party.
- We need to advocate for marriage equality within the Episcopal Church. A very important national convention will be held in Anaheim in the summer of 2009. I am hoping that that convention will vote to allow dioceses across the nation to bless same-sex unions.
- We need to make sure Trinity Cathedral remains a welcoming, safe and inclusive church. That inclusion needs to embrace those who are disappointed with the Supreme Court's decision as well as those who are thrilled.
Please let me know your thoughts.
Blessings,
Brian Baker
Dean
http://blogs.deanbaker.org/
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Food and Clothes for Jed Smith School
We have started a new program where we provide clothes and food for students at our partner elementary school, Jed Smith School.
In talking with the administrators at the school we learned that the students get fed breakfast and lunch during the school week, but often go hungry over the weekends. So we now have a group of volunteers who provide backpacks of food the children can take home on Fridays. If they bring the backpacks back to school the following week, we fill them again for the next weekend. We also have a clothes closet where they can get clothes for themselves or family members for free.
It is taking off like crazy. We can only meet a small amount of the need, but we hope to expand the program. You can see some pictures here.
Brian
http://blogs.deanbaker.org/
In talking with the administrators at the school we learned that the students get fed breakfast and lunch during the school week, but often go hungry over the weekends. So we now have a group of volunteers who provide backpacks of food the children can take home on Fridays. If they bring the backpacks back to school the following week, we fill them again for the next weekend. We also have a clothes closet where they can get clothes for themselves or family members for free.
It is taking off like crazy. We can only meet a small amount of the need, but we hope to expand the program. You can see some pictures here.
Brian
http://blogs.deanbaker.org/
Pentecost: Like Christmas but Bigger
Everybody understands Christmas and Easter. These are the big feasts of the church that have become a part of our American culture and their meanings are clear. But the feast of Pentecost, which is very important to the church, is not as well understood. For me Pentecost is just like Christmas, only bigger.
In Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus who, in his being, connected the human and the Divine. In Jesus, we see God with us. Jesus was so closely connected with God’s Spirit which dwelt within him that his human nature and the Divine nature within comprised one being. God’s love for us and God’s loving sacrifice was made physical and manifest in Jesus.
After modeling this deep, inner, abiding communion with God, and after offering his life in love for the world, Jesus commissioned his followers to carry on his work. He promised that God’s spirit would dwell within them in the same way God’s spirit dwelt in himself. The feast of Pentecost (50 days after Easter) marks the birth of God’s spirit within us. It is just like Christmas in that God’s spirit is made manifest in a physical way. It is bigger that Christmas because it happens on a grand scale. Instead of God’s spirit enfleshed in one human, God’s spirit is enfleshed in many, many humans. On Pentecost we celebrate the fact that we are all bearers of God’s spirit in the world and we honor our call to embody this spirit for the love of the world. In a sense, the world becomes filled with many Jesus-es.
While we may never perfectly embody God’s spirit in the world because we keep getting in our own way, that doesn’t take away from the fact that God is dwelling in us and we have the lovely obligation to be in communion with God and with the world around us.
Pentecost, which we just celebrated, shifts the focus from God in Jesus to God in us. And it challenges us with the question, what will you do with the gift of your life filled with God’s spirit.
Blessings,
Brian
http://blogs.deanbaker.org/
In Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus who, in his being, connected the human and the Divine. In Jesus, we see God with us. Jesus was so closely connected with God’s Spirit which dwelt within him that his human nature and the Divine nature within comprised one being. God’s love for us and God’s loving sacrifice was made physical and manifest in Jesus.
After modeling this deep, inner, abiding communion with God, and after offering his life in love for the world, Jesus commissioned his followers to carry on his work. He promised that God’s spirit would dwell within them in the same way God’s spirit dwelt in himself. The feast of Pentecost (50 days after Easter) marks the birth of God’s spirit within us. It is just like Christmas in that God’s spirit is made manifest in a physical way. It is bigger that Christmas because it happens on a grand scale. Instead of God’s spirit enfleshed in one human, God’s spirit is enfleshed in many, many humans. On Pentecost we celebrate the fact that we are all bearers of God’s spirit in the world and we honor our call to embody this spirit for the love of the world. In a sense, the world becomes filled with many Jesus-es.
While we may never perfectly embody God’s spirit in the world because we keep getting in our own way, that doesn’t take away from the fact that God is dwelling in us and we have the lovely obligation to be in communion with God and with the world around us.
Pentecost, which we just celebrated, shifts the focus from God in Jesus to God in us. And it challenges us with the question, what will you do with the gift of your life filled with God’s spirit.
Blessings,
Brian
http://blogs.deanbaker.org/
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
How Shall We Worship?
For quite some time, many in the Episcopal church have wondered if we were falling behind other churches because of our style of worship. We see the wild success of mega churches which have been able to appeal to a wide audience by using popular culture translate the gospel message. It seems however that, at least for some, pop-style Christianity is wearing thin. There is growing hunger for ancient and traditional forms of worship. Here's an excerpt from an interesting article by Mark Galli in Christianity Today about evangelicals discovering liturgical worship.
You can read the whole article HERE.
We've recently featured in CT's pages a story about evangelicals who are
attracted to liturgical worship, but in the context of American youth culture,
many wonder why. The worship leaders wear medieval robes and guide the
congregation through a ritual that is anything but spontaneous; they lead music
that is hundreds of years old; they say prayers that are scripted and formal;
the homily is based on a 2,000-year-old book; and the high point of the service
is taken up with eating the flesh and drinking the blood of a Rabbi executed in
Israel when it was under Roman occupation. It doesn't sound relevant.
Yet many evangelicals are attracted to liturgical worship, and as one of
those evangelicals, I'd like to explain what the attraction is for me, and
perhaps for many others. A closer look suggests that something more profound and
paradoxical is going on in liturgy than the search for contemporary relevance.
"The liturgy begins … as a real separation from the world," writes Orthodox
theologian Alexander Schmemann. He continues by saying that in the attempt to
"make Christianity understandable to this mythical 'modern' man on the street,"
we have forgotten this necessary separation.
It is precisely the point
of the liturgy to take people out of their worlds and usher them into a strange,
new world—to show them that, despite appearances, the last thing in the world
they need is more of the world out of which they've come. The world the liturgy
reveals does not seem relevant at first glance, but it turns out that the world
it reveals is more real than the one we inhabit day by day.
You can read the whole article HERE.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Whose Feast is it Anyway?
This Tuesday, Dean Baker offered a quote from Athanasius in his post. Usually, May 2nd would be celebrated as his “feast” day (meaning a day of remembrance and celebration); but he got bumped. Ascension Day (which is celebrated 40 days after Easter) took center stage yesterday, and that bumped Saints Philip and James. Since they were apostles, that meant they had to have a day in the sun, so they bumped into today, leaving Athanasius with no feast. Who in the world thinks it’s important to monitor all this, you might ask, and why?
Well, it all has to do with what made Athanasius famous in the first place. In the fourth century, followers of Jesus began to struggle over how to capture what is important about Jesus. For one or two centuries, most Christians thought the world would end very soon, so there was no need to define an enduring tradition. That didn’t happen, so Christians began to focus on capturing core truths they wanted coming generations (including us!) to receive. Athanasius and Arius were two participants in wider discussions about how to capture who Jesus was in words. Both felt strongly that the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus were a fulcrum in human history that changed everything, that Jesus brought new possibilities for humanity into being. Sadly, they couldn’t agree about how to describe Jesus himself so as to get this across. Athanasius wanted to emphasize that Jesus was God incarnate, bringing eternal, divine power into our condition. Arius wanted to emphasize Jesus’ true humanity, to underscore that his actions inure to the benefit of all humans.
We treasure apostles like Philip and James because they were first-hand witnesses. Without first-hand witnesses, none of the later saints would have anything to argue about. That’s why the feast for Philip and James takes priority today. I have always found what Athanasius and Arius agreed upon much more significant than their disagreements. The Gospel lesson for this coming Sunday concludes with these words of prayer from Jesus, “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” (John 17:11). The spiritual feast Jesus brought to earth is for everyone, and today is a good day to remember that.
Well, it all has to do with what made Athanasius famous in the first place. In the fourth century, followers of Jesus began to struggle over how to capture what is important about Jesus. For one or two centuries, most Christians thought the world would end very soon, so there was no need to define an enduring tradition. That didn’t happen, so Christians began to focus on capturing core truths they wanted coming generations (including us!) to receive. Athanasius and Arius were two participants in wider discussions about how to capture who Jesus was in words. Both felt strongly that the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus were a fulcrum in human history that changed everything, that Jesus brought new possibilities for humanity into being. Sadly, they couldn’t agree about how to describe Jesus himself so as to get this across. Athanasius wanted to emphasize that Jesus was God incarnate, bringing eternal, divine power into our condition. Arius wanted to emphasize Jesus’ true humanity, to underscore that his actions inure to the benefit of all humans.
We treasure apostles like Philip and James because they were first-hand witnesses. Without first-hand witnesses, none of the later saints would have anything to argue about. That’s why the feast for Philip and James takes priority today. I have always found what Athanasius and Arius agreed upon much more significant than their disagreements. The Gospel lesson for this coming Sunday concludes with these words of prayer from Jesus, “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” (John 17:11). The spiritual feast Jesus brought to earth is for everyone, and today is a good day to remember that.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Happy Ascension Day
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!
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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