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Day 40 of the Great Fifty Days of Easter—Ascension Day

We interrupt our series of Easter Letters to celebrate this great Feast in the Church Year.

 

The Collect for the Feast of the Ascension

Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

 

A Reading from the Acts of the Apostles

"In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning 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."

 

A few preliminary notes:

"In the first book"— this "first book" is the book we call "The Gospel According to St. Luke."

This second book, which we call the Acts of the Apostles, was also written by Luke.

"Theophilus"— a name which means "lover of God," or perhaps "beloved of God"— is the person for whom Luke wrote these two volumes (see also Luke 1:1-4).

Theophilus may have commissioned and published Luke's recollections.

"appearing to them during forty days"— which is why we celebrate the Ascension on Day 40 of the Great Fifty Days of Easter.

"the promise of the Father" is, as Jesus explains in the next sentence, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

 

Reflection:

The very first verse of the Acts of the Apostles refers to the Holy Spirit, and so too the third and fourth verses— and in fact the Holy Spirit is so prominent that a better title for this book might be the Acts of the Holy Spirit!

The Holy Spirit is also prominent in Luke's Gospel.

After Jesus is baptized in the River Jordan, while he is praying, the Holy Spirit descends on him.

Then the Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for forty days.

And when his temptations are over, Luke tells us that Jesus, "filled with the power of the Holy Spirit," returns to Nazareth, goes to the synagogue, and purposefully finds the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and reads it as applying to himself:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

For the rest of the Gospel, Jesus proclaims the kingdom of God by preaching, teaching, and healing, and Luke reminds us again and again that Jesus does it all in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And now in today's reading, Jesus promises his apostles that the same Spirit that empowered his ministry will empower theirs.

"So when [the apostles] 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.'"

The question the apostles ask, "Lord, is this the time. . . ?" is a surprisingly modern one— like children asking: "Are we there yet?" or adults complaining, "What's taking so long?"

It's the wrong question, says Jesus. Timing is up to the Father.

But Jesus makes two promises:

First: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you."

The Greek word for power is "dynamis," from which we get the English word "dynamite."

That's the kind of explosive power the apostles will receive.

But for what? That's the second promise Jesus makes:

"You will be my witnesses."

"When [Jesus] 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.'"

Before the Ascension, the apostles had asked the wrong question; now they're looking in the wrong direction!

Rather than looking toward heaven, they should be preparing for the Holy Spirit to empower their witness on earth.

 

Here's what Luke writes next (Acts 1:12-14

"Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day's journey away.

"When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.

"All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers."

 

If you are waiting for the Holy Spirit, the best thing to do is wait by praying.

And Mary the mother of Jesus fits right in with Luke's emphasis on the Holy Spirit, because when the angel Gabriel visited Mary at the beginning of Luke's Gospel, he says to Mary:

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power— the dynamite— of the Most High will overshadow you" (Luke 1:35).

 

When we were baptized, whether as infants, children, or adults, we became members of the Church for which Jesus prays.

Second, we received eternal life.

And third, we received the power— the dynamite— of the Holy Spirit to be witnesses to Jesus.

Like the apostles before Jesus' ascension, are we anxious Christians, demanding instant spiritual gratification?

Are we passive Christians, gazing toward heaven while ignoring human needs on earth?

Or are we witnessing Christians, bringing good news to the poor, freedom to captives, sight to the blind, and liberty to the oppressed— in short, are we the kind of active Christians who make the kingdom of God a reality in our lives and in the lives we touch?

 

Day 39 of The Great Fifty Days of Easter

The third in a series of Easter Letters— meditations for Easter People

 

Easter 2003

 

Jesus said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die" (John 11:25-26).

 

Jesus' great words of comfort to Martha give hope to all of us, not least in this time of war when

we are brought literally face to face with young soldiers whose lives have so recently been lost on the battlefield.

Nothing can match Jesus' promise that he is Resurrection and he is Life.

But his promise has inspired the poetic imagination to give voice to the hope and comfort he embodies as our Risen Lord.

Here is a quartet of such voices:

 

"Nothing worth doing is completed in our life time; therefore we must be saved by hope.

"Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.

"Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love.

"No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our standpoint. Therefore, we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness."

 

Reinhold Niebuhr

 

"And to die,

            which is the letting go of the ground we stand on and cling to every day,

is like the swan,

            when he nervously lets himself down into the water,

which receives him gaily

            and which flows joyfully under and after him,

wave after wave,

            while the swan,

unmoving and marvelously calm,

            is pleased to be carried,

each moment more fully grown,

            more like a king,

further and further on."

 

Ranier Maria Rilke

 

"I thought that my voyage had come to its end at the last limit of my power—

            that the path before me was closed,

                        that provisions were exhausted and the time had come to

                                    take shelter in silent obscurity.

 

"But I find that thy will knows no end in me.

 

"And when the words die out on the tongue, new melodies break forth from the heart;

            and where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders."

 

Rabindranath Tagore

 

"We shall rest!

"We shall hear the angels, we shall see the whole sky all diamonds, we shall see how all earthly evil, all our sufferings are drowned in the mercy that will fill the whole world.

"And our life will grow peaceful, tender, sweet as a caress."         

Anton Chekhov

 

Day 38 of The Great Fifty Days of Easter

The second in a series of Easter Letters— meditations for Easter People

 

Easter 2002

 

In 2000, Ingrid and I visited Wales.

St. Cybi's Well, named for a sixth century monastic, has been known since pagan times as a place of healing.

At Eglwys y Drindod Sanctaidd (Church of the Holy Trinity) in Llandudno, I discovered a wonderful blessing I still use sometimes for the final Blessing at celebrations of the Eucharist, and every morning when during my prayers for those in need:

"May the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ, the healing of his Word, and the fruit of his Spirit, be with you always."

 

In March 2000, Y Drych (The Mirror), "The Oldest Welsh Newspaper in America" (since 1851), published an article by Tecwyn Vaughan Jones in his Welsh Folklore column. This is a synopsis:

 

In pre-Industrial Revolution Wales, communities were isolated and there were few opportunities for young people to meet and court.

A peculiar custom associated with Easter Day and referred to as "the Lifting" offered one solution.

On Easter Monday the bachelors "lifted" the maidens; on Easter Tuesday the maidens "lifted" the bachelors.

Those who did the lifting went around the parish in a small group, often accompanied by a fiddler decked with ribbons.

They would carry a brightly decorated chair.

This group would call at houses where they knew a young unmarried person lived.

The bachelor or maiden would be placed on the chair and then lifted into the air to loud cheers.

The sitter would then be asked to kiss the lifters and give them a small gift, in return for the favor of being lifted and thereby recognized as eligible for marriage.

The origins of this custom are lost in the mists of antiquity, but when the Gospel came to Wales many such customs were given a Christian meaning.

The Lifting was identified with the lifting of Christ onto the Cross:

"And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself" [John 12:32].

 

In St. John's Gospel, Jesus' being "lifted up from the earth" is more than his being lifted up onto the Cross; it is also his being lifted up from the earth by his resurrection and ascension to where he is "seated at the right hand of the Father" (in the words of the Nicene Creed).

Of course this quaint Welsh custom is long past, but let us revivify it this Easter by lifting one another on brightly decorated chairs of loving-kindness to loud cheers of

"Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Or perhaps to loud cheers of

"Alleluia! Christ is lifted up! The Lord is lifted up indeed! Alleluia!

 

Day 37 of The Great Fifty Days of Easter

Today we begin a series of Easter Letters— meditations for Easter People

Easter 2000

 

A Reading from the Revelation to St. John:

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I saw one like the Son of Man. His head and his hair were white as white wool; his eyes were like a flame of fire, and his face was like the sun shining with full force.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying,

"Do not be afraid; I am the living one.

I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever."

 

Throughout the Old Testament, God is "the living God."

In Deuteronomy, the People of Israel plead with Moses to go alone to God:

"For who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and remained alive?"

But for the Psalmists, dread of the living God becomes desire for the living God:

Psalm 42: "As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God."

Psalm 84: "My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.

 

This longing for the living God was fulfilled unexpectedly and marvelously when the Word became flesh.

St. John writes:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . In him was life."

And why was the Word made flesh?

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."

And some years later, St. John encourages the members of his church with these words:

"God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

"Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life."

 

May the Living One make us fully alive to our eternal life this Easter!

 

Day 36 of The Great Fifty Days of Easter

 

From today's Gospel, John 14:23-29

 

Jesus said to Judas (not Iscariot),

"Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

"Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

"I have said these things to you while I am still with you.

"But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.

"Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

"You heard me say to you, `I am going away, and I am coming to you.'

"If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.

"And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe."

 

The April 22, 2008, New York Times "Science" section featured an interview with a social psychologist named Daniel Gilbert.

Within a short period of time, his mentor died, his mother died, his marriage died, and his teenage son started having problems in school.

About a year later he was having lunch with a friend who had also gone through difficult times.

Daniel Gilbert told him: "If you'd have asked me a year ago how I'd deal with all this, I'd have predicted that I couldn't get out of bed in the morning."

His friend agreed, and asked, "Are we the only people who could be so wrong in predicting how we'd respond to extreme stress?"

So Daniel Gilbert decided to figure out how people deal with stress in their lives, and here are some of the things he's discovered:

"The truth is, bad things don't affect us as profoundly as we expect them to.

"That's true of good things, too.

"We adapt very quickly to either.

"So the good news is that going blind is not going to make you as unhappy as you think it will.

"The bad news is that winning the lottery will not make you as happy as you expect.

"As a species, we tend to be moderately happy with whatever we get.

"We certainly fear the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, a serious challenge to our health.

"But when those things happen, most of us will return to our emotional baselines more quickly than we'd predict. Humans are wildly resilient."

So then, what makes people "wildly resilient"— in other words, what makes people happy even after devastating events?

Here's Daniel Gilbert's answer:

"We know that the best predictor of human happiness is human relationships and the amount of time that people spend with family and friends. We know that it's significantly more important than money. . . .

"Another thing we know is that people tend to take more pleasure in experiences than in things.

So if you have "x" amount of dollars to spend on a vacation or a good meal or movies, it will get you more happiness than a durable good or an object.

"One reason for this is that experiences tend to be shared with other people and objects usually aren't."

So, the two most important factors that make us wildly resilient and happy? Relationships and experiences.

Keeping that in mind, let's return to this verse in today's Gospel:

"Those who love me [relationship], will keep my word [experience]."

One of Jesus' most important word is this: "Love one another, as I have loved you" (13:34; 15:12,17).

In other words, we could translate today's verse this way:

"Those who love me, will love one another."

William Temple, the great Archbishop of Canterbury during the Second World War, brings an added dimension to this verse.

He notes that the word "keep" in the phrase "keep my word" has the primary meaning of "watch" or "observe."

So another way we could translate this verse is:

"Those who love me, watch— watch how your love for me overflows into love for each other."

Jesus continues, "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever."

The word translated "Advocate" is from a Greek word that means, literally, "someone called alongside."

An advocate in the lawyerly sense is an attorney "called alongside" a defendant.

Some versions of the New Testament translate the word as "Comforter" and "Helper," because an advocate in a spiritual sense is someone who comforts and helps us.

Jesus reminds his disciples that they already have a relationship with him and with the Father, and then assures them that they will soon have another relationship:

"This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.

"You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you."

If human relationships and the amount of time we spend with family and friends can make us "wildly resilient," then imagine how "wildly resilient" we can be by spending time with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and with our brothers and sisters in Christ?

 

 

Taken at Church of Our Lady, Bruges, 4/13/2016

Photograph 1: Supper at Emmaus; for more information, click here.

Taken at a Belgian Waffle Restaurant with friends, Antwerp, 4/14/2016

Photographs 2-3

Taken at The Rubens House, Antwerp, 4/14/2016

Photograph 4: The Feast of St. Martin; for more information, click here.

 

Day 34 of The Great Fifty Days of Easter

In honor of National Poetry Month, here is the first of two poems on Prayer by George Herbert, Priest and Poet, 1593-1633.

 

Each phrase is its own poem on prayer, fit for savoring and appreciation.

 

Prayer I

 

Prayer is the Church's banquet, Angels' age,

    God's breath in man returning to his birth,

    The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,

The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth;

 

Engine against th'Almighty, sinners tower,

    Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,

    The six-days world transposing in an hour,

A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;

 

Softness and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,

    Exalted Manna, gladness of the best,

    Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,

The milky way, the bird of Paradise,

 

   Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,

    The land of spices; something understood.

 

 

Taken at The Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp, 4/14/2016

Photograph 2 Information: click here.

Photographs 3-6: Great War Reredos and details of the Altar Piece

Photograph 7:

 

 

Day 33 of The Great Fifty Days of Easter

In honor of National Poetry Month, here is the last of three Easter poems by George Herbert, Priest and Poet, 1593-1633.

 

Easter Wings:

 

Lord, who created man in wealth and store,

Though foolishly he lost the same,

Decaying more and more,

Till he became

Most poor:

With thee

Oh let me rise

As larks, harmoniously,

And sing this day thy victories:

Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

 

My tender age in sorrow did begin:

And still with sicknesses and shame

Thou didst so punish sin,

That I became

Most thin.

With thee

Let me combine,

And feel this day thy victory:

For if I imp my wing on thine,

Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

 

 

 

 

 

Taken on the plaza next to the Maritime Museum, Rotterdam, 4/11/2016

This statue is known by two names:

De Verwoeste Stad ("The Destroyed City") and

Stad zonder hart ("City without a heart"— because the Nazis destroyed the heart of the city on May 14, 1940).

Artist: Russian sculptor Ossip Zadkine (1951; unveiled 1953).

Day 32 of The Great Fifty Days of Easter

In honor of National Poetry Month, here is the second of three Easter poems by George Herbert, Priest and Poet, 1593-1633.

 

Easter II:

 

I got me flowers to straw thy way;

I got me boughs off many a tree:

But thou wast up by break of day,

And brought'st thy sweets along with thee.

 

The Sun arising in the East,

Though he give light, and th' East perfume;

If they should offer to contest

With thy arising, they presume.

 

Can there be any day but this,

Though many suns to shine endeavor?

We count three hundred, but we miss:

there is but one, and the one ever.

 

Taken at The Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp, 4/14/2016

The Resurrection of Christ, by Peter Paul Rubens, 1611-1612

For more information, click here and here.

 

Day 31 of The Great Fifty Days of Easter

In honor of National Poetry Month, here is the first of three Easter poems by George Herbert, Priest and Poet, 1593-1633.

 

Easter I:

 

Rise heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise

        Without delays,

Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise

        With him mayst rise:

That, as his death calcined thee to dust,

His life may make thee gold, and much more just.

 

Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part

        With all thy art.

The cross taught all wood to resound his name,

        Who bore the same.

His stretched sinews taught all strings, what key

Is best to celebrate that most high day.

 

Consort both heart and lute, and twist a song

        Pleasant and long:

Or since all music is but three parts vied

        And multiplied;

Oh let thy blessed Spirit bear a part,

And make up our defects with his sweet art.

 

 

Taken at the Rijksmuseum 4/9/2016

Merry Company, Isack Elyas, 1629

"The figures around the table allude to the Five Senses. The woman with the lapdog represents Smell; the man with the piece of paper is Sight; the singing couple are Touch; the red-coated man with the glass of wine is Taste; and the lute-player is Hearing. On the wall behind them hangs a painting of The Deluge. That is a warning: there is more to life than pure sensual pleasure."

Quotation from the Rijksmuseum website, which you can access here.

 

Day 30 of The Great Fifty Days of Easter

In honor of National Poetry Month, here is the first of three Easter poems by George Herbert, Priest and Poet, 1593-1633.

 

Easter I:

Rise heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise

        Without delays,

Who takes thee by the hand, that thou

BREAKING NEWS!

WE INTERRUPT THIS POST WITH ANOTHER RESURRECTION EVENT!

St. Mark's Episcopal Church's Website has just emerged with a glorious new body, glowing with new features and exciting new information and links to ministries within and without the Parish!

To see its dazzling new raiment, please click here.

 

We will return to our previously scheduled posts tomorrow!