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Tomorrow the Chrisian church celebrates the Feast of Ascension. This is the day the church remembers Jesus ascending back to heaven after the Resurrection. Sometimes Christians tend to think that Christ returning to heaven means the spiritual is more important than the physical, and that we should be more focused on heaven than earth.
Rev. Bosco Peters has a different view of The Ascension:
God did not dress up in a human body and then discard this at death, returning to some preferable spiritual state.... Christ retains his full, created, creaturely, humanity in the resurrection. Including his body. The Ascension proclaims and celebrates Christ take[ing] this creation into the full presence of God. The metaphorical language of “up” must never allow for an escapist spirituality. If we do not find God in our everyday life of work, sport, friends, food, music, nature, bodies,… we do not find God at all.
We should never allow the ascension of Christ to become an excuse for not doing good in our own world. The body of Christ, the church, is the hands and feet of Jesus in this world. Today is a good day to remember these words of Jesus:
Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?" And the king will answer them, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:37-40, NRSV).
As we remember the ascension today, we need to also remember that Jesus has entrusted us with building the kingdom of God right here and right now.
Most churches will observe Ascension this Sunday, but there are two churches observing The Ascencion Liturgy on May 13:
Church of Our Savior Episcopal Church at 530 W. Fullerton Parkway, 6:30 p.m.
Church of the Ascencion Episcopal Church at 1133 N. La Salle Blvd, sung mass beginnning at 6:20 p.m. with a reception following.
If you know of other Chicago churches observing The Ascension tomorrow, please leave the information in the comments.
Photo by rose pink man/PhotoXpress
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