[Propertalk] Part 2 - Sermon for Ascension Day, "Up is Good", based on Acts 1:1-11 and Luke 24:44-53

Fri May 15 00:31:54 EDT 2015

Part 2:

           I’ve been working through an interesting book about aging and how society – including medical practitioners – relate to those who find their loves changing. A 1908 book by a Harvard philosopher dealt with the issue why simply existing, having housing, food, drink and a degree of safety, was empty and meaningless to most of us. “What more is it that we need in order to feel that life is worthwhile.” 2

            This is a question that must have impacted the first disciples, both when they were with Jesus and when He left their sight. This is a question that I know has been in the front of the minds of people in Nepal. This, I’d guess, was a question raised during the train wreck in Philadelphia and, I pray, perhaps more importantly, in the aftermath of the earthquake and the wreck. What makes us human? What makes us happy, productive humans? What makes us feel that life is worthwhile?

            I don’t think Royce refers directly to religion or to Jesus, I haven’t read his book. But the “answer, he believed, is that we all seek a cause beyond ourselves. This was, to him, an intrinsic human need. The cause could be large (family, country, principle) or small (a building project, the care of a pet). The important thing was that, in ascribing value to the cause and seeing it as worth making sacrifices for, we give our lives meaning.”

            Not only do we “seek answers to life’s persistent questions”, to quote Garrison Keillor, in places that are beyond us, but we seek answers, we seek compassion, we discover meaning, we experience the joy of love in community with another or others.

            The disciples discovered this, certainly after the crucifixion and resurrection but, in reflection, I’m sure they found that this is what was at the heart of their ability to come together, even in fear.

            This is what we crave, too. We seek the Other, with a capital “O”. We long for not just one, but multiple encounters with God our Creator. We would see Jesus, especially as we go to the hospital, or get in a jam, or either deliver or receive bad news; but we would see Jesus as we spread peanut butter on bread, and put the dishes away, and iron or fold the laundry after it’s been washed.

            We seek Jesus, we seek the way that His calm voice and gentle breath was so reassuring. THAT’S why the Ascension and this “in-between Sunday” can be so disconcerting.

            I’m not just talking about the religious calendar here. I’m talking about those feelings we have when a friend, a confidante, is absent either permanently or temporarily. It doesn’t seem to matter for how long. We can be hit so hard; we can find it difficult to make decisions; we may discover that it’s difficult to crack a smile when we feel that the One we call our Saviour seems to have left us. Every single one of us needs to hear the words, “You’re not alone.” And we need to hear them frequently, the more often the better. Because when we’re accustomed to hearing them, to being lifted up by them, on a daily basis, no matter where we are, then we can discover hope, even in a Philadelphia train yard, or the countryside of Nepal, both strewn with the wreckage of life.

            Some anonymous person wrote, under the heading “Humans of New York”, “God sends me little moments all day long to say: ‘You’re not alone, brother.’ Just a little while ago, (the writer told a listener,) an old hunched-over Chinese lady smiled at me with the greatest warmth in her eyes.”

            The listener asked, “And you think that was a message from God?”

            To which the first person said, “I think that WAS God.” 3

            This, then, works both ways. Sometimes we long to be the one receiving the smile and the words. At other times, we need to be the one giving the smile and the words.

            Either way, it’s a blessing from God.

            We are NOT, NONE of us; we are not alone, even in the darkened, dust and smoke-filled atmosphere of life’s disastrous encounters.

NOTES:

[1]           Folquet de Marseille, a monk from Provence of the XIIIth century, via Lee Allison Crawford, VT.

3           Humans of New York 12th May, 2015 https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork/photos/a.102107073196735.4429.102099916530784/970693593004741/?type=1&fref=nf  emphasis added.

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 Robert P Morrison St. Alban's Episcopal Church PO Box 1556 Albany, OR 97321 541-921-1076
robertpmorrison at charter.net, 
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