ascension

 After the Ascension we await the coming of the Spirit, the fulfillment of his promise. “I will not leave you orphaned.” He is gone and the Other has not come. Not yet. We wait in ambiguity - not with our customary pride in dwelling in ambiguity - in anxiety, in wondering, and waiting. Confident as we are in his promises, where is this promised Advocate and when shall our Comforter come? The disciples’ dilemma is much like our own, or much like that of anybody waiting in the in-between time between dream, promise, and fulfillment. They are, however, doubly bereft. ‘They have taken away my Lord and I do not know where to find him.’ Then he returns - joyfully, improbably, impossibly. A miracle. And it is said that for forty days he teaches them, in a new way, all that they did not realize that they knew. For it is the resurrected Jesus following the historical Christ who reveals what this is all about. Perhaps just by his presence, by the grasp that death has lost its sting. At least for a moment, at least where they’re concerned - for now. Later the persecution will come. Later they will die, naturally, or under torture, or whatever fate follows a follower of the resurrected one. They come to know all this. And still they follow him. There is nowhere else to go. Peter called it, long since. ‘Where could we go? You, Lord, hold the secret of eternal life.’ All else is not that. 

Jesus has ascended, but he has not left us bereft of comfort or of the power of the Spirit.

And so in obedience to that risen Lord, and in the hope of the resurrection and the promise of the Spirit, we still seek to follow the Lord, and his commandments, to love - to love God, to love one another, to love all of creation. It may mean witness, it may mean action, it certainly implies work… but not only work, but dwelling in the peace of the Spirit. We know that our redeemer lives, and on the last day, we will be raised: the promise will be fulfilled.

So in our lives we balance work and rest, prayer and work, peace and action. Yes we can. For in the Spirit, the Spirit promised to the first disciples and bestowed on the Church, we experience the power of God, in ourselves and in our world.

Job 19:25,26b-27a : For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: ...in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another...