He's Up
Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility Church had a new, young assistant priest who, like many young, assistant priests, was in charge of the youth group and an Easter morning sunrise service. So (of course!) he had T-shirts made for the occasion, showing Jesus on water skis. Underneath were the words: “He’s Up!”
It’s corny, yes, but not, I think, irreligious.
Easter’s been going on for forty days now, for about the two thousandth time commemorating an event that occurred once and only once. Long ago yet oft remembered, Jesus’ resurrection can seem like a moment caught in history, something unexpected and yet understood, like that World Series which the Cubs won—an event no one ever expected to happen. Yet even the Cubs had won the Series before, and every year there’s another. (Does it count if you win during Covid?) That’s how we understand historical events: by memory and by association.
But Jesus’ resurrection should not be sticky in history that way. So to shake up the ruts of memory and remind us of the complete strangeness of the resurrection, why not put him on water skis? Indeed, there is excitement on the water! And life!
He’s up!
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There is another sense in which Jesus is up: he has ascended into heaven.
The feast of the Ascension is the poor sister of Easter Day. Easter gets lots of attention: eggs, chocolate, bonnets, even a non-parade “parade” on Fifth Avenue. But the Ascension is just as important. Jesus did not merely rise from the dead, he ascended in his body to take up his authoritative place at the right hand of the Father, where he sits as supreme judge over all earthly judgment even today.
Read that last sentence again, and then try to say that the Ascension has trivial importance!
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He is not here. He is, as theologian Douglas Farrow says, really absent. It is important to avoid sacramental sentimentality. The Real Presence of the Eucharist is not the whole story about Jesus and us today. We need also to reckon with the fact that we cannot see him, touch him, or hear him speak to us as an embodied human being. For that, we await his coming again at the end of all things.
This is good news, even though every one of us would love to see Jesus in the flesh! It is good news that he has assumed his seat of authority; good that from heaven he has dispatched to us his Holy Spirit; and good that he will come again.
All these good things come from that wonderful reality: He’s up!
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Out & About. Trinity Sunday, May 30, I am to preach at St. Anne Episcopal Church in DeSoto, Texas, at both the 8 and 10 a.m. services.
My sermon on John 15 was another opportunity for me to carry on about friendship. You can find it here (the sermon begins about 14 minutes in): https://www.facebook.com/StMatthewsCathedralDallas/videos/827108787895874