Back to the BCP

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As I mentioned in a post on my Corybanter blog the other day, I’m going to attempt to get back to a slightly more liturgical life, after failing to do so back in Lent. (Has it really been over two months since Lent began? Time flies.) As usual, my guide(s) will be The Book of Common Prayer (in its many iterations), and probably the Revised Common Lectionary. While I’m not attending a very liturgical church, I feel the need to at least find the structure the liturgy provides in my personal life.

Of course, I’m not off to a very promising start yet, as I kind of skipped over The Ascension of Our Lord yesterday, May 14. But, oh well, even a slow start is better than no start at all, right? So I’d like to look at a couple of the Lectionary readings from Ascension Day below, and share some thoughts.

The first reading is from the very beginning of Acts, 1:1–11. This is, naturally, the story of the Ascension.

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

As a modern reader, and a reader who has certainly had a bit of a struggle lately with the more “supernatural” elements of the Christian faith, I have to ask myself, how much of this story is simply made up? I mean, the idea of Jesus flying into the air until he disappears in the clouds seems pretty unlikely as a matter of fact. I realize there’s more going on here than just a description of human flight; I’m not a biblical literalist, so I think there may still be value in continuing to tell a story that didn’t happen “in real life.” But honestly, I’m not at all sure what the meaning is!

It just occurred to me that, without the Ascension, the story of the Resurrection becomes even stranger than it already is. Can we imagine a version of the story where Jesus is raised from the dead, and then just hangs out with his disciples until they all grow old and die, like something out of the film Highlander? I know I can’t.

So, the disciples experience Jesus as still living and then moving on to a different kind of existence that is…cue dramatic music…not of this earth. And, of course, there are these promises that the followers of Jesus will continue to be his witnesses across the land, and that Jesus will return in much the same way as they see him leave. It’s really all very strange, when I begin to think about it.

It’s so easy to recite the Apostles’ Creed, and say, “He will come again to judge the quick and the dead.” I say it on many Sundays and when I’m reading the Daily Office. But do I mean it? I honestly can’t answer that question at the moment. I know, it’s difficult to consider oneself a Christian if one can’t honestly believe in the Resurrection. So I continue to struggle with those words.

The other reading from Ascension that I want to look at is the slightly different version of events from the end of Luke’s Gospel.

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you — that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised, so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple blessing God. (Luke 24:44–53)

This seems to be describing the same event as the story at the beginning of Acts, but it is different, isn’t it? Instead of just saying that the disciples will be his witnesses, he talks about repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name. He doesn’t mention the Holy Spirit specifically (at least, not by that title), but rather talks about them being “clothed with power from on high.” And, maybe most significantly, in this version of the story, “he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.” This description seems quite different from “as they were watching, he was lifted up…” Did the disciples watch Jesus ascend, or did it happen somewhere else? Or was it a matter of “stand back, fellas, I need some space to take off”?

I don’t pretend to have any sort of “true” understanding of what the Ascension means, but it seems to be tied into the Resurrection, and have something to do with believing that death is not the end. In my heart of hearts, I do believe that death is the end, despite everything I’ve been taught in my several decades as a practicing Christian. I do think we live on, in a sense, in people’s memories and the legacy we leave our descendants. But frankly, I’m having trouble believing in any sort of afterlife or heaven/hell. I suspect, if any of my friends or any strangers end up reading this, that they might take issue with my doubt, but that’s fine. At this point in my life, I won’t try to make myself believe something I don’t believe, and neither should anyone else.

Meanwhile, even though I don’t have any sort of literal belief in the Ascension, I would like to close with the 1662 Collect for the Ascension of Our Lord.

GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

Thanks for reading.