Illustrations For May 1 -4, 2008 From The Immediate Word
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
In our space age mentality, when talking about the ascension, it is important to pay attention to the text. "He was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight." The cloud in biblical language is a symbol for the presence of God. Exodus 16:10 suggests God's presence as a cloud. It was also a cloud that led them by day through the wilderness. This same cloud representing the presence of the invisible God was present at the transfiguration (Luke 9:34). So we could paraphrase that while they were still looking, God came and took him out of their sight.
* * *
When I was a boy, I used to love to read comic books about Superman. In those comics, it told how Superman had come to Earth in a spaceship as a baby and he was found and reared by a human family. Then we had the stories of Superboy that are again illustrated by the recent series called Smallville on TV. Of course, it was all leading up to the story of Superman. But there the story stopped. There were never any stories about ancient Superman as an old man. The stories of Jesus tell the same series of events but the story couldn't just stop. He was a historical figure. If he stayed, he would grow old. The ascension is the completion of the story. It is the moment when the human Jesus was taken up into the godhead and was not constrained by the passage of time. Jesus, who lived within the confines of time, was now part of eternity.
* * *
It is important to also realize that, by the ascension, Jesus also transcended the particular finite space that his human body had exercised. Early on in the first experiences of going into space, some of the astronauts would report the amazing vision of seeing the Earth and noting that there were no lines dividing one country from another. All of these lines were the invention of humans and only had reality in the human imagination. The truth was that we were one world. Jesus, in being lifted up, became the Christ of the whole world and transcended the divisions of religion and race that were separating the world. "For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us" (Ephesians 2:14).
* * *
There is a powerful song by Eric Clapton, written after his young son died. It's called "Tears in Heaven." It asks the questions that only a grieving parent can ask, longing to see his son once again. What is heaven like? Is it a place where we will know one another, where I can touch your hand, know your name? Here are some of the words…
Tears In Heaven
Would you know my name
If I saw you in heaven?
Would it be the same
If I saw you in heaven?
Would you hold my hand
If I saw you in heaven?
Would you help me stand
If I saw you in heaven?
Beyond the door,
There's peace I'm sure,
And I know there'll be no more
Tears in heaven.
Would you know my name
If I saw you in heaven?
Would it be the same
If I saw you in heaven?
-- by Eric Clapton and Will Jennings. For further information regarding the inspiration for this song, see:
http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/tears.asp
* * *
I remember once reading a short story about a young pastor called into the room of a 12-year-old girl in his congregation, dying of cancer. The girl asked for her pastor to come. She wanted to talk to him alone, without her parents, behind closed doors. When her pastor arrived and sat down, he began with small talk, but the 12-year-old had no time. She cut him off, looked him in the eye and said, "Tell me what heaven is like because I don't have much time. And you had better be telling me the truth!" In other words, she didn't want to hear about a mansion up there in the sky. She didn't want to hear about angels and streets paved with gold. She wanted the truth. Where would you begin?
* * *
There is a great ABC News article by Barbara Walters that talks about how different cultures view heaven and the afterlife. The link is
http://abcnews.go.com/International/Beliefs/story?id=1374010
Like our talk about separating fact from fiction in our cosmology, we understand from this article that such beliefs run deeply.
* * *
In thinking about the ascension of Jesus, we can fall victim to a simplistic cosmology where heaven is "up there" and hell is "down there"… as if one can locate the holy and the profane geographically. Shakespeare also challenges the notion of a then-prevalent cosmology… particularly astrological notions of the influence of stars, constellations, moons, and suns over human behavior. Thus, these words find their way into the mouth of Edmond, the "out-of-wedlock" son of Gloucester. He asks rather convincingly whether we are responsible for our own behaviors or whether some kind of spherical influences have power to direct our lives:
This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,
when we are sick in fortune, -- often the surfeit
of our own behavior, -- we make guilty of our
disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as
if we were villains by necessity; fools by
heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and
treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards,
liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of
planetary influence; and all that we are evil in,
by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion
of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish
disposition to the charge of a star! My
father compounded with my mother under the
dragon's tail; and my nativity was under Ursa
major; so that it follows, I am rough and
lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am,
had the maidenliest star in the firmament
twinkled on my bastardizing.
-- King Lear, Act 1, Scene 2
To be sure, you will find a horoscope in every newspaper, and lots of us "check it" just for fun… but do we really believe that the stars have such influences. Is the ascension of Jesus merely some kind of geographical event… or is the Bible pointing to something much deeper than that?
* * *
In the biblical tradition, God's nature is revealed always in relationship… in community, as it were. It comes then as no surprise that Jesus would ascend to the right hand of God to judge the living and the dead. God is community… a dynamic community creating, saving, and sanctifying -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is not a doctrine called the Trinity; God is a dynamic community intimately involved with the world he loves and gave his Son for. Thus, "no man is an island" as John Donne would say; every one of us is a parent, a child, a sister or brother, a colleague… we are all a community of people inextricably woven one to another for good or ill. With the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God, a decisive challenge has been issued to make that community good!
* * *
It has been said that the more godlike God becomes, the more genuinely human God is; and conversely the more genuinely human we are, the more godlike we too become. Thus, in the wondrous work of the likes of Michelangelo, these kinds of words become possible:
My soul can find no staircase to heaven unless it be through earth's loveliness.
-- Michelangelo
As we mark the ascension of Jesus let us keep in mind the ineffable quality of both heaven and earth and resist the temptation to trivialize either.
* * *
When I was a boy, I used to love to read comic books about Superman. In those comics, it told how Superman had come to Earth in a spaceship as a baby and he was found and reared by a human family. Then we had the stories of Superboy that are again illustrated by the recent series called Smallville on TV. Of course, it was all leading up to the story of Superman. But there the story stopped. There were never any stories about ancient Superman as an old man. The stories of Jesus tell the same series of events but the story couldn't just stop. He was a historical figure. If he stayed, he would grow old. The ascension is the completion of the story. It is the moment when the human Jesus was taken up into the godhead and was not constrained by the passage of time. Jesus, who lived within the confines of time, was now part of eternity.
* * *
It is important to also realize that, by the ascension, Jesus also transcended the particular finite space that his human body had exercised. Early on in the first experiences of going into space, some of the astronauts would report the amazing vision of seeing the Earth and noting that there were no lines dividing one country from another. All of these lines were the invention of humans and only had reality in the human imagination. The truth was that we were one world. Jesus, in being lifted up, became the Christ of the whole world and transcended the divisions of religion and race that were separating the world. "For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us" (Ephesians 2:14).
* * *
There is a powerful song by Eric Clapton, written after his young son died. It's called "Tears in Heaven." It asks the questions that only a grieving parent can ask, longing to see his son once again. What is heaven like? Is it a place where we will know one another, where I can touch your hand, know your name? Here are some of the words…
Tears In Heaven
Would you know my name
If I saw you in heaven?
Would it be the same
If I saw you in heaven?
Would you hold my hand
If I saw you in heaven?
Would you help me stand
If I saw you in heaven?
Beyond the door,
There's peace I'm sure,
And I know there'll be no more
Tears in heaven.
Would you know my name
If I saw you in heaven?
Would it be the same
If I saw you in heaven?
-- by Eric Clapton and Will Jennings. For further information regarding the inspiration for this song, see:
http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/tears.asp
* * *
I remember once reading a short story about a young pastor called into the room of a 12-year-old girl in his congregation, dying of cancer. The girl asked for her pastor to come. She wanted to talk to him alone, without her parents, behind closed doors. When her pastor arrived and sat down, he began with small talk, but the 12-year-old had no time. She cut him off, looked him in the eye and said, "Tell me what heaven is like because I don't have much time. And you had better be telling me the truth!" In other words, she didn't want to hear about a mansion up there in the sky. She didn't want to hear about angels and streets paved with gold. She wanted the truth. Where would you begin?
* * *
There is a great ABC News article by Barbara Walters that talks about how different cultures view heaven and the afterlife. The link is
http://abcnews.go.com/International/Beliefs/story?id=1374010
Like our talk about separating fact from fiction in our cosmology, we understand from this article that such beliefs run deeply.
* * *
In thinking about the ascension of Jesus, we can fall victim to a simplistic cosmology where heaven is "up there" and hell is "down there"… as if one can locate the holy and the profane geographically. Shakespeare also challenges the notion of a then-prevalent cosmology… particularly astrological notions of the influence of stars, constellations, moons, and suns over human behavior. Thus, these words find their way into the mouth of Edmond, the "out-of-wedlock" son of Gloucester. He asks rather convincingly whether we are responsible for our own behaviors or whether some kind of spherical influences have power to direct our lives:
This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,
when we are sick in fortune, -- often the surfeit
of our own behavior, -- we make guilty of our
disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as
if we were villains by necessity; fools by
heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and
treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards,
liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of
planetary influence; and all that we are evil in,
by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion
of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish
disposition to the charge of a star! My
father compounded with my mother under the
dragon's tail; and my nativity was under Ursa
major; so that it follows, I am rough and
lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am,
had the maidenliest star in the firmament
twinkled on my bastardizing.
-- King Lear, Act 1, Scene 2
To be sure, you will find a horoscope in every newspaper, and lots of us "check it" just for fun… but do we really believe that the stars have such influences. Is the ascension of Jesus merely some kind of geographical event… or is the Bible pointing to something much deeper than that?
* * *
In the biblical tradition, God's nature is revealed always in relationship… in community, as it were. It comes then as no surprise that Jesus would ascend to the right hand of God to judge the living and the dead. God is community… a dynamic community creating, saving, and sanctifying -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is not a doctrine called the Trinity; God is a dynamic community intimately involved with the world he loves and gave his Son for. Thus, "no man is an island" as John Donne would say; every one of us is a parent, a child, a sister or brother, a colleague… we are all a community of people inextricably woven one to another for good or ill. With the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God, a decisive challenge has been issued to make that community good!
* * *
It has been said that the more godlike God becomes, the more genuinely human God is; and conversely the more genuinely human we are, the more godlike we too become. Thus, in the wondrous work of the likes of Michelangelo, these kinds of words become possible:
My soul can find no staircase to heaven unless it be through earth's loveliness.
-- Michelangelo
As we mark the ascension of Jesus let us keep in mind the ineffable quality of both heaven and earth and resist the temptation to trivialize either.
