Dear Friends in Christ,
What in your life feels ready for heaven?
Next Thursday, May 18, is the feast of the Ascension, one of the major feasts of the church year. One of the collects for the day prays that “as we believe your only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into heaven, so we may also in heart and mind there ascend.”
As I look around at my messy life, it doesn’t feel like a lot is ready for ascension. For families with kids in school, this month is sometimes referred to as “Maycember,” because of the chaotic swirl of events. In my own house, we are cleaning up from the spring musical and trying to make sure we have bathing suits for camp, all while trying to lay down mulch before the weeds take over. I keep putting loose objects in piles, true cleanup deferred to the summer.
It’s not heavenly, to say the least.
But Ascension Day is not a call to perfection. It is a call to our availability, which is a very different thing.
In the Incarnation, God came to earth and made this world sacred in a new way. The Ascension is really the completion of that work, drawing all that which has been on earth towards God. Because it happened to Jesus, it can happen, too, with us. And our lives are made sacred by the process—not for the process. They do not have to be sacred for the Ascension to begin working in our hearts and souls.
In classical theological terms, this experience is sometimes referred to as “sanctification”—the way in which God makes us holy enough to be close to him, to fit in with the rest of the saints and the angels.
I hope that rather than judging your life, you might offer it up to the God who desires your company—
Yours in Christ,
Anne+
P.S. I also hope you might come to the Ascension Day service, which is at 7:30 p.m. on May 18th. Young adults are especially invited to a reception afterwards.