Pastor John Beck presided as our visiting pastor. His sermon was partly a Mother's Day recognition and he focused on the Gospel text for the Ascension (officially May 9th this year) Luke 24:44-53.
He recognized how celebration of mothers were easy for some and not so easy for others.
I have never been comfortable with the Ascension. I fancied it to be a supernatural reason to explain what happened
to Jesus' body. Imagining Ascension as a physical event is awkward and questions naturally arise. Is the physical body of Jesus really
going to heaven as physical as earth? Do I have faith in that kind of
heaven? I shied away from contemplating the Ascension, from picturing
Jesus as depicted below, and from all those uncomfortable questions.
Years ago Pastor
Amanda Llewellyn presented in a podcast a different and powerful view of the Ascension's
importance to us in today's world. After the Ascension God's mission, that Jesus
continued in the world, moved from a resurrected one to a collective and
mutually accountable body of Christ.
She pointed out the Ascension tends to be downplayed because it is far
easier for people to "star gaze". A new insight for me that rung true. We like our stars and prefer looking to one savior
rather than looking to the body of Christ as it exists today to bring
about the kingdom of God.
This was uncomfortable in another way. I recognized myself at the end as mostly being a star
gazer. My vision of the Ascension, as just described, attests to my star
gazing. My mind's eye attempted to look only to the physical body of
Jesus in the sky and not to the body of Christ on earth.
A strong message in Pastor John's sermon fit in nicely with this idea and summarized the Lutheran theology that you do not get to heaven due to your own efforts and good works. He preached how often we think if we are good, or do something or avoid temptation then it will lead to something better spiritually. He gave another paradigm which he had the congregation to repeat, that I will modify with the translation of the First Nations Version of the New Testament:
The Great Spirit loves this world of human beings so deeply he gave us his Son—the only Son who fully represents him. All who trust in him and his way will not come to a bad end, but will have the life of the world to come that never fades—full of beauty and harmony. Creator did not send his Son to decide against the people of this world, but to set them free from the worthless ways of the world.
John 3:16-17
Because God loves the world therefore we will have the life of the world to come that never fades—full of beauty and harmony.
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