ASCENSION
In our Gospel reading for the Ascension Jesus tells the disciples to “wait for the promise of the Father”. They cannot go off spreading the news of his resurrection on their own. They are a small, fearful community that has no power. As the Gospels showed, they had a tendency to get Jesus’ message wrong. What’s more, they flee when things get tough. At the Ascension, Jesus was taken up to heaven so that the apostles and everyone since would receive “the promise of the Father”, the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel reading Jesus told the apostles to “go into the whole world and preach the gospel to ends of the earth.” The gospel writer also reported that the apostles did that “while the Lord worked through them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs. He tells them of several signs by which the world will know they are sent. All those signs have an individual and a corporate application In so many nations and affiliations to political parties or whatever there is a rise in authoritarianism, popularism and nationalism. Those movements seek to suppress individual dignity and worth. It is noteworthy that Jesus tells his disciples that believers will drive out demons.
If we give this some thought, we come to realize there are many demons that inhabit our hearts and minds and the hearts and minds of so many people. There is the demon of racism. There is the demon of self-seeking power. There is the demon that reduces us to the pursuit of wealth as the ultimate value. There is the demon that insists we must be worshipped in order to have worth and dignity when we already have worth and dignity as a son or daughter of God. There is the demon that seeks to enslave by unjust wages there is the crushing demon of poverty. How do we get rid of these demons? The answer lies in the way we live out the good news of Jesus in our daily lives that other people can see and take as an example of a better way of living. It also means that a different set of values where we care for and share with one another. This set of values springs from the revelation of God the Creator. That revelation comes to us in the living out of the Gospel, in the Good News. It is a difficult message to proclaim these days as it runs contrary to our world and our experience of living within it. The words are simple the living out requires much practice, must self-examination, and much changing of our hearts and minds.
In that effort and action, we experience the presence and the love of the God who is source of all life, happiness, meaning and purpose. The challenge for us as followers of Jesus as we celebrate the Ascension is are we prepared to get rid of our demons so that we will be an example of faith and love in all we do and say. As a result of being people of faith and love the people out there will see how we live our lives and they will want to know where we are going as followers of Jesus and go with us to that place..
Fullerton T 