Have you stopped to marvel at the spectacular, huge rhododendron bush on the corner of E. Howell Street and 37th Avenue, just to the south of the Great Hall? Every year seems to trump the previous year in the splendor of those blossoms! Each year I think: it can't possibly get any better than this. And, lo and behold, each year it is more glorious than in the previous year. This year I took a digital picture of the bush and now I have it twice. I see it outside the window of my office and I have it as a screensaver on my computer. It is truly glorious. Its glory surely reflects some of God's very own glory ~ when we behold it with the eyes of faith.

"Glorious" is the adjective, dear friends, most often linked to the Ascension of Christ which we commemorate today. The resurrection is called "mighty," but the ascension is called "glorious." Resurrection and Ascension are commemorated separately in time, but they both refer to a single reality. We celebrate Easter for seven full weeks, savoring it as it were, allowing time for its meaning to unfold for us and in us. The Ascension concludes our seven-week reflection on what God does for us in the divine child, Jesus. The Ascension confronts us also with the same question the angels ask the disciples at Jesus' celestial departure: "Why do you stand looking up towards heaven?"

Indeed: Why do we stand looking up towards heaven? And what makes us think that heaven is "up" anyway? Even science tells us that there is no "up" and no "down" in the universe, no center and no boundary. Heaven is a place in our poetic imagination and in that imagination it is "up." Out there, beyond the sky, that place which is no-place in the universe, but is the "space" and the "time" we call God's glorious eternity. In celebrating the Ascension of Christ we concentrate on one sentence in the Nicene Creed: "he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father." Dear friends, our faith is clothed in poetic imagery, the imagery of a heaven which is "up" there, of a God who sits on a heavenly throne, of the risen Jesus seated at his right hand, at the place of highest honor in the celestial throne room. This imagery is truly glorious, glorious like the splendor of that rhododendron bush on the corner of E. Howell and 37th. And, begging the angel's pardon, we enjoy looking up towards heaven, as we enjoy beholding God's splendor in creation. We look up towards heaven because the sublime beauty of it all overwhelms us. Give us a break, you angels who ask why we look up towards heaven! We are dumbfounded by the utter mystery of God, by the awesome power of the divine radiance, by the enthronement of our own humanity in Jesus being "lifted up" to the highest heaven and given the place of honor at the very right hand of God. Is this not the day on which a celestial banner is unrolled, proclaiming "Mission Accomplished?" Jesus, risen from the dead, ascended to the right hand of God. What more could anyone want?

Those pesky angels again ask us: "Why do you stand looking up towards heaven?" Those insistent angels remind us that the mission is not yet accomplished. Those down- to-earth angels will not allow us to remain in a kind of aesthetic coma, forgetting the world around us and possibly sinking into a pervasive denial of all the things not yet accomplished by fact of the enthronement of Jesus at the divine right hand. And what is it that is not yet accomplished? What is it that we are to direct our gaze towards? In what ways are we now called to continue what Jesus started?

Walter Brueggemann, one of my favorite biblical scholars, has this to say about the Ascension:

"Imagine on this Ascension Day in poetic idiom, the ascended Lord Jesus, riding on a cloud of glory, keeping the world under caring surveillance. Image that the cloud is the throne room where sits the Father of all mercy. Imagine the governance of Father-Son sending out edicts, directives, and policies concerning the earth:

Here is a press release that says: 'The newly ascended power has decreed that there is more than enough, and greed is inappropriate in this world of God's generosity.'

Here is a new act of legislation from the government of God that says, 'Perfect love casts out hate, that we are not free for vengeance but must leave such matters to the wise Father.'

Here is an edict from the government that says, 'Do not fear for I am with you and the world will hold (together).'

My urge to you this day is that you go deep into the biblical vision of a new governance, a new heaven, and a new earth. And then you can decide day by day - as your lifelong vocation - to bring your life and our common life more fully in response to this regime. The claim that Jesus ascended into heaven is not an abstract theological formula. It is rather (simply this): an act of praise that asserts that the gospel is true. The world is under new management." (End quote)

Indeed: the world is under new management. The government of Father-Son seated in heavenly splendor is counting on us take on the mission not yet accomplished: to see the divine image in the face of every person who suffers, to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, to visit prisoners, to be advocates for the vulnerable, and then to be glad, to be obedient, to be joyous, to pray and sing and give thanks. May we do so. Amen.