Dear Faith Family,
The days after a major holiday can feel a bit aimless. Especially if we've put a lot of energy into preparation and anticipation for the "big day." Think about how you feel after Christmas morning when all your Advent devotionals are spent. Rising in you is both a sense of accomplishment of what you've completed and a sense of uncertainty for what to do now. Granted, you might not consider this until the haze of overeating and overspending has begun to clear!
While Easter may not have the same societal build-up (or overindulgence) as Christmas, it nevertheless has garnered much of our attention these last several weeks. For many Jesus followers, their participation in the Lenten season (including our faith family's invitation to weekly fasting) along with the focus of "holy week" with its Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday; means this week might lack the spirit and clarity of the weeks prior. And much like the days following Christmas morning, we are left wondering where to focus our energy now?
Well, in the church calendar, the next "big day" is the Day of Ascension. Thirty-nine days after Easter morning (May 13th this year), the church recounts the day Jesus alive ascended from earth to the right hand of the throne of our Father (see Lk 24:50-53 & Acts 1:6-11). Between resurrection and ascension is nearly six weeks of Jesus alive again with his friends and followers, connecting the dots of his witness and his work to their lives in God's kingdom. And then, he was gone. Gone and yet never leaving nor forsaking those who now partner in his witness and his working still to come (see Matt. 28:16-20).
This connects the dots from Jesus' life to our lives with Jesus alive again that becomes the Church's focus after Easter. After Easter's joy comes everyday life with Jesus alive, ordinary life lived in the extraordinary power of our ascended King.
Malcolm Guite's sonnet, Ascension Day, helps us make the after Easter transition. As you reflect on the ascension stories (especially in Acts), may Guite's words bring our focus onto the life we know live because Jesus lives.
We saw his light break through the cloud of glory
Whilst we were rooted still in time and place,
As earth became a part of heaven's story
And heaven opened to his human face.
We saw him go and yet we were not parted,
He took us with him to the heart of things,
The heart that broke for all the broken-hearted
Is whole and heaven-centered now, and sings;
Sings in the strength that rises out of weakness,
Sings through the clouds that veil him from our sight,
Whilst we ourselves become his clouds of witness
And sing the waning darkness into light;
His light in us, and ours in him concealed,
Which all creation waits to see revealed.
Love you, faith family! Praying our Father's blessing, the Spirit's filling, and the Son's calling over you this week.