June 1, 2014 Sunday of the Ascension
Today we celebrate Sunday of the Ascension, when Jesus 40 days after rising from the dead, is lifted up to heaven and leaves his disciples He gathers them in Mt. Olivet for the last time and one big question they ask him is: Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?
This was also a big question in the early Christian communities who were mostly Jews—the hope for the restoration of the kingdom of David. Filled with visions of power against the Roman empire that ruled over them, they ask: “Is this the moment? The time?”
But Jesus changes the topic.
Then he rises up before their eyes. They spend a lot of time up, even after he disappears, bewildered and not understanding, till two angels, Luke tells us, appear and ask them:
“Men of Galilee, why do you look up at the clouds?” Ashamed, they go back to join the community in the upper room.
It took some time for the early church to learn the contradictions of Christian living, that we live in the in between times, when the kingdom is already but not yet.
“Did you not know, Jesus asked, “that I must be about my Father’s business?”Also our business, seeing that we live in the empire’s sway and we have to struggle against the principalities and powers, against racism and the other isms and work together to take care of the earth and all the creatures living there with whom we share God’s creation. One day at a time, as the song goes.
“People of Galilee, the angels ask, why are you looking up at the sky?” Look down at our earth and open your eyes.
I have been reading this week a book of prison memoirs of a friend who was with me in prison in the Philippines. His book is titled: How long? How long till we are free and reach the promised land, he wrote, poignantly expressing the emotions of political prisoners in the Marcos prison.
Like them we ask: “How long?”
So, we pray everyday: “May your kingdom come on earth.” Peace be with you all.