Ascension Day
There's a six-year old budding comedian who imitates the Ascension moment and with arms extended he says, "Fffft, first floor clouds, Fffft, last stop heaven." I like that; we miss the real message with any preoccupation with elevation, similarly we do the same with a fascination about the importance of hierarchy in the Church.
It wasn't the manner of his leaving--or the amount of time committed to his appearances--but what the disciples would do next that was important. As the two white-robed men said to the disciples staring at Jesus as he disappeared into the stratosphere, "Men of Galilee why do you stand gazing into heaven?" We treat this scene as if we are in the bleachers watching a Cape Canaveral lift-off but it is the earlier Acts 1: 8 that is precious, "...you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses..."
This feast day commemorates the risen Christ's ascending as he is "restored" into heaven. With Jesus's 40 days of Easter appearances completed there was room for the Holy Spirit to enter with the thrill and wonder Jesus had promised. To have it otherwise would have reduced Christianity to endless seances in search of his latest apparition.
It was up to us since the Son had so significantly changed the equation. All these episodes--even Easter--have to be seen from the perspective of that verse in Acts through Chapter 2 and Pentecost. When Jesus gestures toward a future moment and an awakening to the Holy Spirit (the Christ in each of us) we feel his embrace and are not left defenseless. When he speaks of "the Kingdom of God is at hand" we have the opportunity to take that seriously, look around, and awaken to his call.
I had a brush with episcopal mortality the other day when someone showed me some survey questions intended as information for my successor. One said, "How often have you been with the Bishop?" I agree with that desire, indeed, we struggled to whittle down responsibilities to enable more pastoral availability by handing disaster response over to Episcopal Relief and Development, local prison ministry to social justice, Micronesia to Hawaii, and diocesan chaplaincies to the Mission Leadership Center as we prepared the office's move to Washington, DC.
Still, considering there are 18,000+ Episcopalians in federal service worldwide I wonder even with a slimmed down portfolio if it's naive to focus on maximum face time as a criteria for success. The message of Ascension-Pentecost is primarily right and hierarchy secondarily so. We may have discovered something during the past decade while this episcopacy was hobbled by important distractions: it's better to share the bishop's presence than to be in it. +gep
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Perhaps a better question would be, "How responsive to your needs do you find the Bishop/Office of Federal Chaplaincies?"
As for the question "How often have you been with the Bishop?" - is that a question that is asked in the search process for a diocesan bishop? It's not particularly "fair" considering the nature of Federal Chaplaincies and their constituents.
Is this question asked of bishops with geographical dioceses? In the diocese where I work, the quip among clergy is "If the bishop calls you and it's not your birthday, don't answer the phone because it's bad news."
Post a Comment