Ascension Day
Whitegate, Little Budworth, 9/5/2013
Austwick, 10/5/2018
Settle, Parish Church of the Holy Ascension, 30/5/2019 (Evening)
Have you ever wondered why, when the time came for him to leave his people on earth to return to his Father in heaven, Jesus chose to go up?
He could have gone forwards, he could have gone backwards, he could have gone sideways, he could have gone downwards; but he chose to go up.
He could have gone forwards. Like Alice through the looking glass or the children entering Narnia through the wardrobe, Jesus could have stepped through a gap in space-time, his disciples watching the air in front of them ripple like liquid as Jesus stepped ahead into it and through it, and in the next instant when all was normal again, finding him gone.
He could have gone backwards, simply pulling away gently from the group of friends as they walked and talked together, until they realised he was not with them, and as they looked back, finding that he was not there.
He could have gone sideways, launching himself from the mountainside like a freefall parachutist, arms wide open in a gesture like the crucifixion but now floating, freely, gracefully away out of sight.
Or he could have gone downwards; down into Galilee’s waters, in an act recalling his baptism, this time the waters gently closing over his head as he surfaced no more.
But Jesus chose to go up. As we say in our creed, ‘he ascended into heaven’. The direction he chose is significant. Why go up? Well, let’s briefly consider the meaning of ‘up’. [1]
Up is positive - ‘things are looking up’ we say, when starting to emerge into better times. ‘The Only Way is Up’, we might sing, when we’re really at rock bottom. If we’re in a positive frame of mind then we are ‘upbeat’. Feeling ‘up’ means we’re not feeling ‘down’.
Looking up is aspirational. ‘I look up to him (or her)’, we say, a person who we admire greatly, who is a positive influence on our lives, who we seek to emulate. Looking up is inspirational. ‘I lift up my eyes to the hills,’ says the Psalmist, ‘From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.’
Now I realise that ‘up’ is not always a good thing - ‘I see that petrol’s up again’, for instance. But more often than not when we look up, our heads and our hearts are optimistically inclined - confident, forward-looking, cheerful, assured.
We think of heaven as being ‘up there’ - knowing that heaven must really be quite a different sort of place than all the other places we have ever seen, but regarding it as an ultimately positive place, that’s why people throughout history have imagined it as ‘up’.
But this is why Jesus left for heaven in an upwards direction: because he wanted his disciples, from then on in, to be people who look up.
Jesus wanted to leave his people aspirational, looking up to him who is such a good influence on us, who we seek to emulate. Jesus wanted to leave his people inspired, like the Psalmist, to lift up their eyes to the hills, to find their help coming from the Lord, their creator.
Jesus didn’t want to leave his people searching anxiously, and forever, for the disappearing man. He wanted to leave his people knowing what direction he had taken, and taking their own direction from him, from then on in. He wanted his followers to look up in anticipation of the Holy Spirit coming to them, ‘clothed with power from on high’ so that they could be always upward-looking.
Jesus longs for us to look up. To lift our eyes from the pavement and search the stars, where he shines brightly and benevolently on us.
To lift our eyes from our iPads and search the scriptures, where he enlightens and inspires us. To lift our hearts from the anxieties of family life and the tensions of village life and find him loving us, unconditionally, accepting us absolutely.
It is an act of will, looking up. You have to want to do it. But if you are in any way interested in finding God in the world, then take on board the message of Ascension Day - that you have to look up to see him.
Now I close this talk with a health warning. Christians, beware - if you look up all the time then you are likely to have accidents, bump into things. If we all did this then every day A&E would be full of believers with bloody noses. Be careful with your looking.
You’ll have realised by now that looking up is as much a state of mind as a physical gesture, and attitude of your heart. Looking up to Jesus means putting him above all things in your life; looking up to Jesus means taking your lead from him in all you choose to do, looking up means asking the Holy Spirit’s help and guidance, day by day - hour by hour.
When we lift up our eyes to scripture, or close them to meet Jesus in prayer, then we’re looking up.
Notes
[1] I owe the inspiration for this sermon to Andrew Davison, The theology of up, Church Times, 3 May 2013, whose article is in turn influenced by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s treatment of ‘Upwards’ in Metaphors We Live By.
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