The Outer Limits
Stories
Object:
Contents
"The Outer Limits" by C. David McKirachan
"Better than Flying" by Frank Ramirez
* * * * * * *
The Outer Limits
by C. David McKirachan
Ephesians 1:15-23
When I was a kid, I had passed beyond any sort of cuteness and entered the age of gawk, I liked to feel the hair on my neck rise. Blood and gore never did it for me. But weird got me every time. There was a show that started with some announcer telling me that I had lost control of my television set, and I had no choice but to experience the Outer Limits. There under the control of the Outer Limits I dependably felt the hair rise. It brought me back to that time and that channel with a regularity that irritated my mother. She tolerated it by leaving the room.
The plots took me to edges that made the linear pathways of life curve and kink. The stories made me consider "What ifs" that had a tendency to show up in the dark shadows of the night or in the dreams of the day.
I was in college the first time I noticed this passage, "... having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you...." It stopped me. I remember thinking that I had just lost control of my television set again. All I could see was a beating heart with eyes, two or maybe three, staring out of my chest. What would they see? Would they take over my sense of sight? Or would the images show up in a different part of my brain? Yeah, I was a weird kid.
I was taking a course on the New Testament. I considered it basket weaving because biblical interpretation had been dinner conversation most of my childhood. I knew that the heart was the seat of courage and loyalty. I knew C.S. Lewis' quote that what we needed were people with chests, where their analytical and passionate natures intersected. I knew this was probably a disciple of Paul writing in a much too organized fashion to be the wild and crazy maniac who'd been knocked off his donkey and into the ministry. Yeah, yeah... But this, I'd never run into this. The hair came up on my neck. It was cool. I brought it up in class and the place dissolved, the prof was not amused, but I was serious. Read it! This is about getting enlightened in a different way! This is about seeing in a new way! This is about sensing a different patch of reality and hooking into it, realizing that this is where our identity and reality was based. This is about communing with a guy who broke death and hung out with his friends. He had a barbecue! Of course this is weird! If it's not weird we're not getting it. This is the outer limits if there were any.
I found out then, and I'm afraid not for the last time, that people didn't enjoy being told that these folks who were close to God spoke of dimension-shaking truths. That if we expected to read the Bible and find nice logical constructions that would help us put our lives together and help us inherit the American dream, we just weren't listening. I found out over the years that the hope to which he has called you may not even look like hope unless we see it with the eyes of our hearts that have been enlightened by the horror and triumph of the place of the skull and the empty tomb.
This past Sunday we commissioned a missionary in our Sunday worship. He's a kid. He's going into the jaws of poverty, violence, prejudice, AIDS, orphaned children, and the darkness of paganism in Africa. I told the congregation to pray for him. But not to pray for his safety. I told them to pray for his courage, so that he might represent the crucified and risen Lord whom he follows. And to pray that we might have the courage to follow in that same Lord's footsteps. That's nuts. Yup. It sounds like I'm channeled into the wrong signal, like I wasn't in control of my television set. I guess we're all called to the outer limits. He is risen! Buckle up! Here come the children of God! There goes that hair again.
C. David McKirachan is pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury in central New Jersey. He also teaches at Monmouth University. McKirachan is the author of I Happened Upon a Miracle and A Year of Wonder (Westminster John Knox).
Better Than Flying
by Frank Ramirez
Luke 24:44-53
While (Jesus) was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.
-- Luke 24:51
It would be a rare person who has not dreamt that she or he suddenly possessed the power to fly. How many of you have dreamt of flying, unaided, without an airplane, in the air?
Certainly we're all familiar with the character of Peter Pan, the boy who never grows up. He first appeared in a novel by J.M. Barrie in 1902 and in a stage play by the same author in 1904. One of the distinguishing characteristics of Peter Pan is that he can fly!
The late Douglas Adams, who wrote the five books that comprise the famed Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, noted in the novel So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, that "There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Pick a nice day, it suggests, and try it.
"The first part is easy. All it requires is simply the ability to throw yourself forward with all your weight, and the willingness not to mind that it's going to hurt.
"That is, it's going to hurt if you fail to miss the ground. Most people fail to miss the ground, and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard.
"Clearly, it is the second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties."
But ascending, as described in today's scripture about the ascension of Jesus, is different than flying, and that's what the great poet Dante (1265-1321) was trying to get at in his poem The Paradiso. Dante wrote what is now known as The Divine Comedy over a period of several years. He tells us elsewhere that on two occasions in his life he saw briefly, but never spoke to, a young woman named Beatrice. He made her the hero of his epic poem so that having been guided by the ancient poet Virgil through hell and purgatory, she becomes his guide in the earthly paradise as they stand poised to ascend into heaven for the final part of his tour through the eternal realms.
Dante is a little nervous about the waiting ascent, so Beatrice tells him that he will find that when he is in the proper relationship with God he will not think it at all strange to ascend from the earthly paradise into heaven. It will be the most natural thing in the world.
You should not, as I see it, marvel more
at your ascent than at a river's fall
from a high mountain to the valley floor
If you, free as you are of every dross,
had settled and had come to rest below,
that would have indeed have been as marvelous....
(Paradiso, Canto I, ll 136-141, John Ciardi translation)
In other words, having been fitted for heaven, it would be a whole lot stranger if he had fallen, instead of flown.
And, while she is explaining the matter, Dante suddenly realizes his feet are no longer on the earth. He has begun to ascend into heaven as if it were, well, as I said the most natural thing in the world. And now, for the poet, it is.
One senses too that although the apostles gaze in wonder in the ascending Jesus, who returns to heaven at the end of the gospel of Luke and the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, it also seems as the most normal thing in the world.
Frank Ramirez has served as a pastor for nearly 30 years in Church of the Brethren congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. A graduate of LaVerne College and Bethany Theological Seminary, Ramirez is the author of numerous books, articles, and short stories. His CSS titles include Partners in Healing, He Took a Towel, The Bee Attitudes, three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids, and Breakdown on Bethlehem Street.
*****************************************
StoryShare, May 29, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"The Outer Limits" by C. David McKirachan
"Better than Flying" by Frank Ramirez
* * * * * * *
The Outer Limits
by C. David McKirachan
Ephesians 1:15-23
When I was a kid, I had passed beyond any sort of cuteness and entered the age of gawk, I liked to feel the hair on my neck rise. Blood and gore never did it for me. But weird got me every time. There was a show that started with some announcer telling me that I had lost control of my television set, and I had no choice but to experience the Outer Limits. There under the control of the Outer Limits I dependably felt the hair rise. It brought me back to that time and that channel with a regularity that irritated my mother. She tolerated it by leaving the room.
The plots took me to edges that made the linear pathways of life curve and kink. The stories made me consider "What ifs" that had a tendency to show up in the dark shadows of the night or in the dreams of the day.
I was in college the first time I noticed this passage, "... having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you...." It stopped me. I remember thinking that I had just lost control of my television set again. All I could see was a beating heart with eyes, two or maybe three, staring out of my chest. What would they see? Would they take over my sense of sight? Or would the images show up in a different part of my brain? Yeah, I was a weird kid.
I was taking a course on the New Testament. I considered it basket weaving because biblical interpretation had been dinner conversation most of my childhood. I knew that the heart was the seat of courage and loyalty. I knew C.S. Lewis' quote that what we needed were people with chests, where their analytical and passionate natures intersected. I knew this was probably a disciple of Paul writing in a much too organized fashion to be the wild and crazy maniac who'd been knocked off his donkey and into the ministry. Yeah, yeah... But this, I'd never run into this. The hair came up on my neck. It was cool. I brought it up in class and the place dissolved, the prof was not amused, but I was serious. Read it! This is about getting enlightened in a different way! This is about seeing in a new way! This is about sensing a different patch of reality and hooking into it, realizing that this is where our identity and reality was based. This is about communing with a guy who broke death and hung out with his friends. He had a barbecue! Of course this is weird! If it's not weird we're not getting it. This is the outer limits if there were any.
I found out then, and I'm afraid not for the last time, that people didn't enjoy being told that these folks who were close to God spoke of dimension-shaking truths. That if we expected to read the Bible and find nice logical constructions that would help us put our lives together and help us inherit the American dream, we just weren't listening. I found out over the years that the hope to which he has called you may not even look like hope unless we see it with the eyes of our hearts that have been enlightened by the horror and triumph of the place of the skull and the empty tomb.
This past Sunday we commissioned a missionary in our Sunday worship. He's a kid. He's going into the jaws of poverty, violence, prejudice, AIDS, orphaned children, and the darkness of paganism in Africa. I told the congregation to pray for him. But not to pray for his safety. I told them to pray for his courage, so that he might represent the crucified and risen Lord whom he follows. And to pray that we might have the courage to follow in that same Lord's footsteps. That's nuts. Yup. It sounds like I'm channeled into the wrong signal, like I wasn't in control of my television set. I guess we're all called to the outer limits. He is risen! Buckle up! Here come the children of God! There goes that hair again.
C. David McKirachan is pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury in central New Jersey. He also teaches at Monmouth University. McKirachan is the author of I Happened Upon a Miracle and A Year of Wonder (Westminster John Knox).
Better Than Flying
by Frank Ramirez
Luke 24:44-53
While (Jesus) was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.
-- Luke 24:51
It would be a rare person who has not dreamt that she or he suddenly possessed the power to fly. How many of you have dreamt of flying, unaided, without an airplane, in the air?
Certainly we're all familiar with the character of Peter Pan, the boy who never grows up. He first appeared in a novel by J.M. Barrie in 1902 and in a stage play by the same author in 1904. One of the distinguishing characteristics of Peter Pan is that he can fly!
The late Douglas Adams, who wrote the five books that comprise the famed Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, noted in the novel So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, that "There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Pick a nice day, it suggests, and try it.
"The first part is easy. All it requires is simply the ability to throw yourself forward with all your weight, and the willingness not to mind that it's going to hurt.
"That is, it's going to hurt if you fail to miss the ground. Most people fail to miss the ground, and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard.
"Clearly, it is the second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties."
But ascending, as described in today's scripture about the ascension of Jesus, is different than flying, and that's what the great poet Dante (1265-1321) was trying to get at in his poem The Paradiso. Dante wrote what is now known as The Divine Comedy over a period of several years. He tells us elsewhere that on two occasions in his life he saw briefly, but never spoke to, a young woman named Beatrice. He made her the hero of his epic poem so that having been guided by the ancient poet Virgil through hell and purgatory, she becomes his guide in the earthly paradise as they stand poised to ascend into heaven for the final part of his tour through the eternal realms.
Dante is a little nervous about the waiting ascent, so Beatrice tells him that he will find that when he is in the proper relationship with God he will not think it at all strange to ascend from the earthly paradise into heaven. It will be the most natural thing in the world.
You should not, as I see it, marvel more
at your ascent than at a river's fall
from a high mountain to the valley floor
If you, free as you are of every dross,
had settled and had come to rest below,
that would have indeed have been as marvelous....
(Paradiso, Canto I, ll 136-141, John Ciardi translation)
In other words, having been fitted for heaven, it would be a whole lot stranger if he had fallen, instead of flown.
And, while she is explaining the matter, Dante suddenly realizes his feet are no longer on the earth. He has begun to ascend into heaven as if it were, well, as I said the most natural thing in the world. And now, for the poet, it is.
One senses too that although the apostles gaze in wonder in the ascending Jesus, who returns to heaven at the end of the gospel of Luke and the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, it also seems as the most normal thing in the world.
Frank Ramirez has served as a pastor for nearly 30 years in Church of the Brethren congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. A graduate of LaVerne College and Bethany Theological Seminary, Ramirez is the author of numerous books, articles, and short stories. His CSS titles include Partners in Healing, He Took a Towel, The Bee Attitudes, three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids, and Breakdown on Bethlehem Street.
*****************************************
StoryShare, May 29, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
