Goes To Prepare
“Oh God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding” - begins our Collect for today. So then, What? What “good things”? Hopeful, promising theology, the Collect dates to the third century, has been prayed in Christian worship since the two-hundreds AD: what did early Christians have in mind?
Well, standing on the promises of God: the bishop nailed it when he was here two Sundays ago and again last Wednesday evening: Heaven, the promise of Eternal Life. Making us, as the closing prayer in Rite One Holy Communion has it, “heirs, through hope, of thy everlasting kingdom”.
Why is this Timely? ONE, because it’s Easter Season, Christ has died, Christ is risen glorified and comes straight back to us because God loves us no matter how we treat God; and TWO because this coming Thursday commemorates the Ascension of Christ. Ascension: where does He go? A favorite psalm for the Ascension says “God has gone with a shout!” I love that acclamation! God has gone up with a shout: gone where?
It’s a mystery, but the Bible gives hints.
In Matthew 28, Jesus meets the disciples on a mountain in Galilee, sends them out to proclaim the gospel, and he’s gone again.
At Gospel John 14, Jesus says “In my Father’s house are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for you! And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.”
In Luke 24 as he is blessing his disciples, the risen Jesus is taken up into heaven.
In Acts 1 as he is promising the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hides him from their sight.
Takes him where? Heaven. WHY so dramatic about it? I dare not be so forthright from the pulpit, for fear of offending your sensibilities and rattling your certainties, but if this were our adult Sunday School class where nothing is off the table, we would remember that, for Luke, Jesus God’s Son is God’s ultimate prophet, tied to Jerusalem from birth to death, and that for Luke, Jesus can by no means be outshone by ANYONE, neither Moses with the tablets of the Law, nor the prophet Elijah, who was carried up into heaven in a chariot of fire drawn by horses of fire. So the Ascension is sensational (but credible for Luke’s readers), and artists have painted it for two thousand years, Jesus’ feet disappearing into the clouds as disciples fall to the ground in astonishment and fear.
But still: heaven: Where and What?
“Where” crosses the line from earth, beyond the veil of death, into the mystery of everlasting life, from Time into Eternity, which, as we pray, is a basic Christian hope. For the Faithful two thousand years ago, Heaven was somewhere beyond the clouds, through the blue firmament and beyond the waters that the firmament holds back, into the dwelling place of God. We’ll stand and say it in a few minutes:
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
As we move toward Ascension, there are visions going on: Paul has a vision of God calling him to change his plans and go across the sea to proclaim the gospel in Macedonia. Revelation John: in his vision, an angel carries him away to a high place and gives him a glimpse of heaven, the New Jerusalem.
Visions of God intersecting human life are common throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation; and visions are entirely credible to me these years since February 1984, my own completely wide awake vision of God assuring me in a Time of personal chaos, “I AM speaking to you, Tom Weller”. It will never leave my consciousness, because even my evolving Faith still clings to my confidence that visions are real.
So, Easter and Ascension are about Eternal Life, that our Collect hopes for, and that Revelation describes, and where Jesus himself Ascends. What’s it like? Again, Revelation John gives us a glimpse, though, as today’s Collect says, it surpasses our understanding. Revelation John is the Word of the Lord assuring early Christians who are in a Time of chaos and persecution: a great story of an apocalyptic war of God’s victory for them over the satanic evil that is tormenting them: Hope, Blessed Assurance - -
God is real, God loves you, God will bring you through victorious (the message of all apocalyptic writing as a literary genre). God speaks assuringly into chaos, to people who are suffering: Blessed Assurance that God loves us, that God is with us through life’s nightmares, that God will see us safely out the other side no matter what.
As it has for Christians in every age of chaos, even in every personal crisis, Revelation is the Word of God precisely for God’s people: this too shall pass, God will see you through, even beyond the grave, with such good things as surpass our understanding. That’s what Revelation is all about, and it’s where Jesus is ascending to keep God’s promises to us, “I go to prepare a place for you”. What will it be like?
Heavens!!
... such good things as surpass our understanding.
++++++++++++
Homiletic endeavor by the Rev Tom Weller in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida on Easter 6, May 22, 2022, the Sunday before the Ascension.
Art: Salvador Dali, "The Ascension" 1958
Texts:
The Collect for the Day
O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Acts 16:9-15
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
John 14:23-29
Psalm 67