One Foot in Paradise and the Other in a Broken World

Today we celebrate Christ's ascension into heaven, where, as we say in our creeds, he is seated at the right hand of the Father.

But is it really a day to celebrate? Or should we be grieving because the days of God dwelling on earth as one of us have ended?

Notice that the readings from Luke and Acts give us quite different accounts of the ascension. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus ascends on Easter evening. The empty tomb, Jesus' appearance to the disciples on the road to Emmaus and in Jerusalem all happen on one day. And at the end of the day, Jesus leads the disciples to Bethany, which is a mile or so outside of Jerusalem, blesses them and is carried up to heaven. In this version, the disciples respond with great joy, and go back to Jerusalem to the Temple, where they stay, blessing God. Their joy is understandable. After all, they have seen Jesus alive after watching him die a brutal death. The fact that now he is gone for good, at least in his earthly form, may not have even registered compared with their joy and amazement at the resurrection. It all happened so fast!

Acts, on the other hand, tells the story differently. Jesus' ascension takes place 40 days after Easter-he appears to the disciples all during those 40 days, instructing and encouraging them. He gives them a final word, that they will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, and they will be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And then he is taken up in a cloud.

The disciples don't respond immediately with joy and worship. Instead they gaze upward at the place they last saw him. There is something forlorn about this scene. I imagine them feeling bereft as they watch him disappear. The holy and unfathomable mystery that we call God had come radically near them and lived among them. Which of us does not long for such a direct and intimate experience of the Divine? They ate with him, embraced him, talked and joked with him, and cried with him. And they could see the divine light shining in him. They saw him touch people and heal them, they heard him challenge injustice and violence, and they felt the power of his love to overcome evil.

And then he disappeared. Those of us who never got to meet Jesus during his time on earth feel his absence, a sense of deep and unfulfilled longing. How much more must those who knew him and touched him have felt his absence!

So what do we make of these two different accounts of the Ascension? Scholars are virtually certain that Luke and Acts were written down by the same author, so I think it is a safe bet that including the two different versions was intentional. Scripture often includes multiple versions of the same event, like the two creation stories, or the four gospels. And they are often not completely consistent. I think there is a message in this-that truth, especially truth about God-is more complex than a single consistent story could convey. Truth about God, and about our lives, is full of paradox, ambiguity and tension. It takes a diversity of voices to tell the story, and even then, words are inadequate to describe God.

The Ascension is an ambiguous moment for us and the preservation of these two versions of that day signals that ambiguity. As people living in history, we experience Christ's ascension as the end of an era-an era in which God walked this earth and lived as one of us.

But there is a part of each of us that transcends history. It is the spiritual part of us that restlessly seeks the Infinite, the Eternal, the Divine. We are born with an unquenchable desire for the transcendent which is not capable of being fully satisfied as long as we live in time. In this life, we are too limited to take in much of the infinite mystery of God.

From the perspective of this spiritual part of ourselves, Christ's ascension is a cause for joy. Christ has returned to the Divine from whence he came. His suffering, loneliness and unanswered questions have come to an end and he is completely fulfilled and happy in a way that we can never be in this life.

And his destiny is also ours. We too will die someday, and be reborn to eternal life. Part of us is already there, with Jesus, in the presence of the Divine. When Jesus took on our humanity, he took it with him when he returned to God. His ascension is also our ascension, so that even now, as we live out our time in history, we are also living in God's realm, which is outside time.

That realm is the future toward which we are moving. In that realm, the outcome of history has already been determined. God's love has already triumphed over every evil as Christ's resurrection and ascension reveals. Violence, cruelty, domination and injustice have come to an end-divine Love has even conquered death. As the letter to the Ephesians puts it, Christ has put all things under his feet, and reigns far above every rule, power, authority and dominion. Christ's ascension is our hope, not just for our individual lives, but for the whole world.

We are dual citizens-part of our life is here, and part is hidden with Christ, in God's embrace. To put it another way, we live in the tension between "already" and "not yet." God has already redeemed the world, but on the level of history, redemption is not yet complete.

So the ambiguity of these two accounts of the Ascension turns out to mirror of the ambiguity of our own lives. God is both present and absent. We are healed and forgiven, and yet we still struggle with sin. God has redeemed the world, but injustice and suffering are still present realities. We are God's beloved and yet we are consumed with longing for God.

How do we live in this tension? How do we face the struggles of the present age without losing hope? How do we remain engaged in the problems of this life, while keeping our hearts fixed on God, and God's dream?

God is no longer present to us as a human being, living in history. But God is present to us through the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that when he left this life, he would not leave us orphaned but would send his Spirit. In his farewell discourse in John's gospel, Jesus says, "In a little while, the world will no longer see me, but you will see me…the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you…do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid."

Next week is the feast of Pentecost when we celebrate the gift of the Spirit, that mysterious third member of the Blessed Trinity. Somehow, the Holy Spirit enables us to live with one foot in paradise and one foot in a broken world, waiting in hope for our redemption to be complete. This week, we pause to acknowledge that Jesus has departed this life, but even more, we rejoice that he has blazed a path for us to follow to the future that God has in store. And the Holy Spirit continually gives us glimpses of that future, as well as the power to work, pray and give to bring it about. But more on that next week. To be continued…

And we wait with hope, with the Holy Spirit as our guide. The Holy Spirit will provide a guide, so stay tuned… next week… to be continued…