Ascension Day
Thursday 10th May 2018
Ascension Day
Acts 1.1-11
Luke 24. 44-53
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
“Love you to the moon and back!” … How many of us have used this expression as a term of endearment and reassurance to our loved ones? You will see it on cards, and balloons and plaques in fashionable gift shops.
Well God goes one better than that today – He loves us to Heaven and down to Hell – and back.
A few years ago there was a rather endearing animated cartoon called Up! How many people saw it? It centred on a grumpy old man called Carl.
But Carl hadn’t always been that way. When he was young he had idolized an explorer who travelled in search of a place called Paradise Falls in South America and who had disappeared on one of his trips, never to be seen again.
Carl’s wife – who starts as his childhood sweetheart – made him promise before her death, that one day he himself would travel in search of the missing explorer. Time passes, and – when he is about to be forcibly moved to a retirement home as his neighbourhood is being “redeveloped” – he gets very depressed. But then he hits on the idea of buying thousands of inflated toy balloons, and tying them to his house, turning it into a sort of airship.
Then a new character enters the story – Russell – a particularly inept and annoying Boy Scout, hoping to gain points for his badge by doing good deeds for the elderly. Carl resents Russell’s interference, but somehow they are both in the house when it floats into the air and sails off towards Paradise Falls.
After many adventures they eventually become friends. The story is a kind of metaphor about how, when people are feeling down, they can rise above their troubles with the help of good friends and think on higher things.
Our speech – not to mention sermons! – would be greatly impoverished without the use of metaphors. In fact we can hardly say anything memorable without using them – they aren’t add-ons, but go to the very heart of our communication. And references to UP and DOWN are very common among them.
We speak of being “down in the dumps” as opposed to “having our spirits uplifted”.
We “Wake up” and talk of being “early to rise” – inferring that in the daytime wakefulness is better than sleep.
“S/He has people working under them” and “getting on top of the situation” suggest that being in control is something to aim for.
And contrast “a low trick”, “that is beneath me”, and “underhand” as opposed to “upstanding”, “high standards” and “high minded” to suggest that virtue is better.
The Bible too makes much use of metaphor – and many suggest that going up is better than going down. “God is gone up with a merry noise”; ”let God arise and let his enemies be scattered”; “mine horn shall be exalted like the horn of the unicorn.”
Which all goes to explain why the high point of Jesus’ time on earth is called the Ascension, and which we celebrate today. That doesn’t mean that heaven has to be physically situated so many thousand feet up in the sky; it is a metaphor, implying that Jesus has gone to a higher form of existence.
It is right that we should identify with him in his suffering and death, but we must also be one with him in his triumphant passing into God’s kingdom. Christianity is a religion of joy – (though you might never guess it at times!)
And this has much to teach us about our attitude to pain. We are not like the Christian Scientists who say that pain does not exist. Yes, it does, we have plenty of evidence, sadly, for that, and it is very serious. But if we remember that Jesus shared our pain, so that we may be raised with him to eternal joy and happiness, we shall endure pain with a more positive attitude and trust in God’s loving presence with us, to support us through the pain and either heal us, or take us to a life of eternal happiness. And a positive attitude in the brain can definitely speed up the process of healing in other body parts.
Christ came down to earth at Christmas. In doing so, he became human – fully and completely. And he has been through hell and back for our sakes; but because he identified with us, we must identify with him also in his triumph and exaltation. Remember that Jesus has raised us with him to the very presence of God, who is above all things. We do not need to tie any balloons to our houses to “rise up” in the metaphorical sense. Only believe. Amen.