Up, Up, and Away...

This Sunday we will celebrate the ascension of Jesus.  This has never been a big deal in the Presbyterian Church, even though Calvin was really into it. I think we have stayed away from it because it is just too weird.  I mean really, Jesus floating up, up, higher and higher and disappearing in the clouds.  That is simply bizarre.

What really makes the ascension unique is that it seems to be the event in Jesus' life that we care about the least.  Why is that?  What does the ascension mean for your faith?  Is it important?

The ascension was considered so important by the early church folks that it is included in all our creeds.  They saw it as a foretaste of the great resurrection promised to us all.  It reminds me of an episode of Six Feet Under.  A couple of guys were moving a net filled with blow-up human dolls filled with helium.  The net broke and all the human forms began floating up into the sky.  A devout woman driving her car on the next street saw the bodies being called to heaven and thought it was the second coming.  She caused a crash and died.

In his most striking commentary on the Ascension Calvin says: "Since (Christ) entered heaven in our flesh, as if in our name, it follows, as the apostle says, that in a sense we already sit with God in the heavenly places in him (Christ). At the Ascension, our humanity, our "flesh," has been "taken" (Acts 1:11) by God's Beloved One into the very heart of God. This is profound good news for us as Christians and for our whole world. It means that we are more deeply valued, loved and held by God than we may have known before.

Does that do anything for you?