Hello friends.
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in docks.
Welcome to another instalment of the Sunday Series.
Today our reading comes from Luke chapter 24,
Verses 46 to 53.
As always,
I invite you to settle yourself,
Find that point of rest while remaining alert to the voice of God.
Breathe in and out.
Allow the distractions to melt away as we listen to the reading from the Gospel today.
Jesus said to them,
Thus it is written,
That the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day,
And that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations,
Beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.
And see,
I am sending upon you what my father promised.
So stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.
Then he led them out as far as Bethany,
And lifting up his hands,
He blessed them.
While he was blessing them,
He withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.
And they worshipped him,
And returned to Jerusalem with great joy.
And they were continually in the temple,
Blessing God.
Luke writes that while he was blessing them,
He withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.
It's easy to hear this story and feel a kind of loss.
The hands that healed,
The voice that called us by name,
The eyes that looked into the deepest places and did not turn away.
Gone.
Lifted beyond the horizon of sight.
And yet the disciples,
The ones who had followed so uncertainly,
So imperfectly,
Did not dissolve into sorrow.
They're not crushed by despair.
Instead,
They worship.
They rejoice.
They return to their lives,
Their city.
They're waiting.
Not with absence weighing them down,
But with a presence that is somehow even closer than before.
This is the great paradox of ascension.
That Jesus does not leave us to abandon us,
But rather leaves us to make himself even more present.
Present,
Not just beside us,
As one that we could touch and hold.
But present within us.
Present through us.
He goes away so that we might understand that the Spirit of God,
The Spirit that moved in him,
Is now moving in us.
The ascension is not a departure of distance.
It's a deepening of union.
In his earthly life,
Jesus showed us what it meant for divine love to take flesh.
And now he hands that life to us.
Not an impossible task.
Not a crushing expectation.
But as the natural continuation of the love that has been planted within us.
From now on,
We are to be the body of Christ.
Christ's compassion in our hands.
Christ's tenderness in our words.
Christ's healing in our wounds.
Christ's forgiveness in our breaking open.
See,
Friend,
The Christ's life is not somewhere else.
It is here.
It's in the marrow of our being.
It's in the breath that rises and falls in prayer and surrender.
We are called to live as flesh and blood incarnations of love.
We are called to carry the kingdom in the way we move through the world with mercy,
With justice,
With tenderness for all that is bruised and battered.
And though we are small,
And though we are imperfect,
We are never alone.
Christ has woven themselves into the very fabric of our existence.
Christ with us is not just a moment in history.
It is the ongoing reality of all creation.
And so even as Jesus is lifted beyond their sight,
The disciples are not abandoned.
Neither are we.
He's only gone to make more room to fill all things to fill us.
This is the promise of ascension.
That what was once outside of us is now within.
And what was once beside us is now our deepest,
Deepest truth.
That even in his going away,
He has come closer,
Even closer than our very breath.
So as we let these truths sink deep into our hearts and souls,
I invite you to take a deep breath in and out.
And as we close our time together with a prayer,
O Christ lifted up beyond our sight yet closer than our next breath.
Teach us to live from the union you have secured.
When we feel your absence,
Open our hearts to your deeper presence.
When we long to see you face to face,
Help us to recognize your eyes in the face of those that we are called to love.
May we be your body in the world,
Wounded?
Yes,
But also risen.
Broken?
Yes,
But also blessed.
Imperfect?
Yes,
But also infused with your endless life.
Let us carry your kingdom in our ordinary days.
Let us embody your mercy in every small act of courage and kindness.
Let us live as those who know that you have not left us.
You have only drawn nearer.
Forever.
Amen.
And as you rise from our time together today,
As always,
I pray that grace,
Peace and love go with you every step,
Every day,
Today and always.
Amen.
Until next time,
Peace be with you,
Friend.
