![]() Your calling is to spread good news and embody Jesus’ ministry of hospitality and healing in your time. “Why are you staring at the sky? Why are you abandoning my work on Earth?” the angelic messenger asks. ![]() What’s most important in the Acts passage is the promise that we will receive power from God’s Spirit and that our task is become both heavenly minded and earthly good. Heaven is for real – and it is right here as well as on the far shore of mortality. We don’t need to wait for heaven to experience God’s presence and live out God’s good news. You will receive power from the Holy Spirit! What might that mean to us on Earth? What does that promise mean to struggling persons and congregations, dealing with the challenges of a post-pandemic world and the realities rapid religious change and the appropriate antipathy toward much of Christianity by nones and seekers? As we consider Jesus’ Ascension, we are reminded that our work is here on earth. God is in us and with us and is luring us forward toward new adventures in faithful discipleship. The exit of Jesus provides an opportunity to take our place as Jesus’ companions in creative transformation, in bringing beauty and healing to the good Earth. Still, Jesus’ absence is no cause to abandon our planet or our ethical obligations. We must experience him spiritually or mediated through earthly physical and relational experiences. We can no longer encounter him physically or directly. ![]() However we understand the three story universe described in this passage, one thing is clear: Jesus is no longer on the earth. In the Acts reading, Jesus is ascending to heaven. The Ascension reading asks: Why are you looking at heaven, your work is on earth? Can we be both heavenly minded and earthly good? Can we have an eternal perspective, embracing the afterlife and also seek this worldly beauty and justice to our earthly lives? An unhistorical gospel is irrelevant and counter to the moral and spiritual arcs of history.ĪN EARTH-AFFIRMING FAITH. Yet, we are in the world, on earth, and need to join scripture and cable news and newsfeeds if we are to be relevant as preachers. We are inundated with news of mass shootings, the potential catastrophe of national default, irrational and dangerous political policies, incivility, war in Ukraine, and rising tensions with China. These days, many of us would like to experience an Ascension.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |