Tags
apostles, Ascension, by heart, salvation history, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, upper room, waiting, words of Jesus
I’m thinking again today about that upper room that housed the apostles in their time of waiting after the Ascension, the departure of Christ from physical presence on the earth. (See blog post of 5/30.) I don’t know that I have ever considered it in such a visceral way but I have so many questions now that will only be answered in my imaginings. Where else could I go for information? There is so little specificity in most of the gospel stories that it’s difficult to get a good sense of what happened in what was only meagerly presented. I’m not interested in theological treatises for answers.
Here’s what I mean. If I consider the “upper room” as the same or similar to what was mentioned at the time of the Last Supper, I see a long table as the focal point of the room. What happens then if the apostles want to sleep during their nine days of waiting? And how did they pass the time up there? I trust that prayer was their major occupation but when did they eat? And where did they get food? Should the gospel writers be talking about upper rooms instead of one room?
This may sound like silliness and I don’t mean to be irreverent but sometimes – for some of us who are concrete thinkers – it’s helpful to know all we can about the events of our “salvation history.” As I type that sentence I hear the often repeated adage: “Just take it on faith.” In reality, I guess that is what we’re always called to do. There are lots of places to go for the research of scholars through the ages who have written theological tracts and spiritual writers who have delved into the words of Jesus. Ultimately, however, it is a question of letting go of the need for certainly about facts and giving ourselves over to the acceptance of the love that we have come to know “by heart.”
Today is a good day to take a break and place myself in the silence of that upper room for awhile, waiting with the others for the outpouring of the Spirit that will surely come when we have made ourselves ready – perhaps in a week’s time…or maybe even today! And then who will I be? What will the fire of God ignite in me? I guess I’ll wait and expect/accept whatever comes…in God’s time, not mine.
On most days I have occasion to say something like: “My mother used to say…” or “My father had a saying for that.” There is no specific incident or situation that brings them to mind with just the right advice – or, in the case of my father, some humorous retort! They are, however, present and at the ready to urge me on. And there are others who have passed from this life whose spirit remains here on earth in vibrant ways that guide me in a moment of need.
The lectionary readings for this seventh Sunday of Easter find us between an ending and a new beginning and we, in the same manner as the disciples, need to be willing to sit in this empty space, reflecting on what has been and waiting for the movement of the Spirit to call us once again to a courageous future.
Today Christians celebrate the feast of the Ascension, remembering the day when Christ left the earth after commissioning his apostles to “go into the whole world and tell the good news.” The gospels vary in their descriptions of the event and the book following these accounts, the Acts of the Apostles, opens with its own variation of the fact that “he was lifted up” and disappeared from their sight. It’s one of those events that I think “you had to be there” because it seems like something that has to be seen to be believed. Yet, for over 2,000 years, people the world over have heard and believed and followed the instructions that Jesus gave at that time. That is, perhaps, the best testimony to the truth of what Jesus was all about here on earth – the fact that those he commissioned did what he asked so effectively that the message has endured through all this time.
