Is ascension solely the prerogative of Christ?

 Christ ascends into the heavens at the end of the Gospel and in Acts. Two very different stories both ending with Christ ascending. How do we relate to this ascension knowing as we do that there is little way up there that we can point to as being heaven? In Ephesians the writer talks about Christ being set above everything (Eph. 1:21) perhaps a style of thinking that leads us towards seeing a person or somebody so far above us that he/they rule everything. A concept of a world view that is plagued by emperors and empires, kings and kingdoms, etc. Yet if we examine the Gospel we do not see anything about lordship but rather about love and understanding which has more akin to a certain amount of equal integration as opposed to lordship. In this case is ascension as simple as it is made out o be or is there something deeper to take away for us today.

It would be perhaps of use to think about ascending and what that means for us. Do or can we, at some stage, come to a time when we too can ascend? If we were to think in Buddhist terms perhaps we would be thinking of the concept of samsara or enlightenment, an understanding that is beyond us but is attainable with a lot of hard work. Or is ascension only the preserve of the Christ and if so what does it imply for our daily lives? In the modern genres of fiction and fantasy there are a number of what are known as cultivation progression series were the proponent of the story struggles through innumerable challenges and slowly becomes better as time progresses until they ascend to towards godhood or perfection. In the end Christ comes close to God or rather sits at God's right hand following the struggles of life which sort of fits the progression novels' premise as the proponent struggles to become as close to perfection as possible.

So for us perhaps the question that should arise is: what is our end goal here? What do we see for ourselves as being the epitome of the Christian journey and the end point, be it at the end of our lives or during our lifetime? Christ shows us the way, Christ dies for us showing us the way, Christ lives again to show us the way, Christ ascends to show us the way towards God. As followers of Christ I would suggest that we are doing a poor job as we appear not to have got beyond trying to follow the way as Christ showed us in his life let alone the love that was demonstrated as he died. Christ's way is the way of change of ourselves from selfishness to selflessness. It is not an easy road to travel as it means consistent sacrifice of ones self for the good of the other. It means ascending beyond the pettiness that is in built in our reactions within our ordinary lives. Christ's life, death and rising again tell us in the reality of the world we need to live and die before we can attain new life. These things must occur before we can even think of ascending beyond that which we believe is normal and finding ourselves close to God or rather finding ourselves as Christ to those around us.

Are we ready to follow the ascended Christ?

We are so scared of death in the current age that we forget the reality that death is a part of life. This then holds us back from becoming aware of how important death is to our lives. However we feel about the characters of the Lion King perhaps the most important understanding is the circle of life. Change in our circumstances implies the death of something as we have to change to grow in faith, in life, in our own understanding of our circumstances. Christ shows us the way through death into newness of life but beyond that he also shows that in accepting these things we grow so much more as we grow and come closer to God's presence. However, it all starts from within ourselves as we accept the challenge of changing towards being more Christlike and for some this will mean dying to our present and rising to the glory of God's presence.

Say Hello and form community

 We honour it every week in our traditional and non-traditional services; we acknowledge it, we affirm it, we say that this is what we do, but do we actually manifest this commandment to love in the world? I reckon that if every Christian actually did undertake the words of Christ in John 15.17 (to love one another) the world would be a different place. This is fully at the heart of the Gospel and yet for all we proclaim it we do not and I repeat, we do not obey this one commandment that follows from the love of God. I can already hear every Christian that reads this saying "But we do". Yes, we love those in our 'clique' but I am saying no we do not, at least not with the intent that the commandment has. How do I know this because of the state the world. It is in fact irrespective of what faith anyone holds, as there is a consistency of thought throughout every faith that the world would be better if we got over ourselves and loved each other.  This does not happen and I do not have to go through reams of examples to show the bigotry of the world and its people whether it is Australia, UK or USA it is all the same.

Why? It is perhaps simply the fact that we are to involved with our selves and our own needs that we are unconcerned about the needs of others. We only wish to be associated with those we can get on with rather than those we cannot. Once we start this we begin to create our own little enclaves and cliques of those who belong and those who do not. In a way that division starts even with the writer of 1 John as  the lines of acceptance are drawn in the sand (1 John 5.12). Once we begin we cannot and dare not stop creating the divisions that we are comfortable with, within the societies that we belong to because if we do we begin to fulfil the commandment given to us which takes work. Once we have the society we want than all others are non-members and are to be shunned as they are not us. The wall has been formed and it becomes increasingly impossible to breach the barrier and reach the individual, group, society on the other side.

We are called from our baptism to form community and to enable others to come to God through Christ. However, we begin to baulk at this because it means that we actually have to do so much. We immediately take it that it is an onerous and thankless task, so we designated a person who can do it for us. They will present ways to do this and direct us so that our ability to undertake that which we need to do is enabled. We follow the directions encoded on the box, just like an instant meal  If it brings success then we will continue and re-iterate the process irrespective what else is going on around us. Perhaps we can put a programme in for young people, perhaps we can undertake home groups, perhaps we can prepare to undertake some form of outreach service and bring "GOD" into it. We need to manage the situation so that we can deliver God's love or so it would seem. A really good programme or mission is all that is required and if it is managed properly then we will have people pouring in the doors, a full church.  Great ideas and great things to undertake but is that what Christ set his disciples to do? Did he send them out to gather the crowds so that they could become part of the "Church" or did he send them out to bring God closer to the people so that they would realise that God was with them and a part of them? That God's love was manifest in their love of the other and not just the comfortable community that they belonged to.

At the end of the day does it really matter if the "Church" grows, (sacrilege) that really is not what God is about. Surely our job, or rather our calling as this is what it should be (a significant difference), is to live as Christ and bring God close to those who are unable to come close to God. It is God's love that matters not whether the Church grows. As someone else has said the Church exists to glorify God after that, whether it grows or not is up to God. Our "job" is to follow Christ in the costly calling of God's love not to ensure that the numbers in the pew are increasing, that is nowhere near the top of the list of commandments, in fact I cannot recall its presence in the scriptures.  What is clearly enunciated, is to love God and love our neighbour and the first thing to be done there is to break down the walls that have arisen around our own enclaves, to open the doors to all so that we can share God's love with all.  How do we do that? Well if we are not doing it at present perhaps now is the time to start by saying "Hello", "Ciao!", "Kaya", "Jingari" and any other number of greetings to those you do not know as you walk the malls and streets of your everyday life.

Hello, Ciao!, Kaya, Jingeri, Salut or whatever you want to break the divisions between our cultures