+Time+ + TGBC




EASTER, IT'S EASTER. VERY EARLY, LONG BEFORE DAWN ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, EVEN BEFORE THE WOMEN CAME TO THE TOMB WITH SPICES ... . UP FOR REASONS THAT ONLY A HUMAN BEING KNOWS, AND OUT ON 7H PORCH TO ADMIRE NATURE'S MOON HIGH OVER ST. ANDREWS BAY, CREATION'S LESSER LIGHT THAT RULES THE NIGHT. CALLED A BLUE MOON BECAUSE IT WAS OUR SECOND FULL MOON IN THE CALENDAR MONTH. AND NOW APRIL IS HERE. MY INTENT FOR THIS MONTH AND NEXT, AND IT HOLDS, IS TO WRITE MY DAILY BLOGPOST ALONG WITH PARTICIPATING IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH'S TGBC READING ACTS; TO PASTE THE DAILY READING HERE, ADD ANY COMMENT THAT I WISH; AND ALSO POST ANY PERSONAL MUSING AS USUAL THESE PAST SEVEN YEARS. SO, I BEGIN: ACTS 1:1-11, CALLED THE ASCENSION. 

Acts 1:1-11 

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 over the course of 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 towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards 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.’


Comments. For TGBC reading the Gospel according to Luke, I invested what turned out to be significant time in printing out the daily readings, selecting accompanying art, writing my thoughts and comments as a Bible student, in drafting a set of emails to be sent out daily each week for the seven weeks both from my parish and on my daily blog, and in preparing and publishing a weekly set of books with the readings, art, and comments. By my fault, by my own fault, by my own grievous fault, it worked into a full time undertaking with self-imposed deadlines, pressures and strain; with interest somewhat comparable to the satirical Babylon Bee piece about the pastor who spent several days writing a blogpost that four people read! We have completed Luke. For our Easter shift to the Acts of the Apostles, I am simplifying - -  

- - like America's shift From every car on the road being a huge outlandish creation with a powerful V8 engine,


To compact sufficiency with a 4 cylinder, electric motor, or foot-pedals. 



Our church office will this morning email out to the parish list, one time plus publish on the parish website, the entire schedule of Acts readings, which go through April and May. On my own, as I want to and spiritually need to and am so intrigued, I will publish the readings on my blog, with art from time to time as the reading moves me to search for, and whatever comments I may wish to add from time to time. What of TGBC I publish here may or may not also be my daily blogpost.    

This morning's Acts reading is Luke's second account of the Ascension of Christ, which, instead of the evening of Easter Day as in Luke's gospel, in his Acts is forty days after Easter and somewhat different from his account at Luke 24, our reading for yesterday; go back and compare if you wish. I'll not comment from a semi-scientific viewpoint about going bodily to heaven beyond the clouds, which may have been literally credible at the beginning of the Apostolic Age in the First Century but now seems more metaphorical. Or about any need Luke may have felt for the ultimate prophet, as he understands Jesus, to accomplish as spectacular as Elijah. And anyway, the Ascension of Christ is Heilsgeschichte, holy history, a faith event that closes Jesus' earthly ministry, completes the Easter story, and opens the story of the Christian church.

 What intrigues me about it every year at this time is the immense collection of art about the Ascension. The link below should take you to a sizable representation. I'm especially taken with artists' visions of what many scholars and others have called, not disrespectfully, "the disappearing feet," several of which are reproduced, online source, on this morning's blogpost.

 In this and other Christian art, if you see a figure who appears to be a woman dressed in blue, the artist likely means her to be Jesus' mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. I hope you enjoy, and I invite you to take a moment and scan the art that the below weblink opens.

DThos+

Top pic: https://www.dalipaintings.com/the-ascension-of-christ.jsp work out the rest yourself.