Rising Above

“Rising Above”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

May 12, 2013

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Texts:

Acts 1:1-11

Luke 24:49-53

“What’s up?” … I know I use this phrase a lot. The response I usually get is either, “Not much.” or the more smart-aleck response, “The sky.” People since the beginning of time have defined their surroundings by “up,” “down” or “around.” Humans have always observed that the earth is down and the sky is up. But the understanding of what is “around” has changed with the modern age. In ancient times, the earth was thought to be flat, there was thought to be a firmament in the sky that held it up, like a ceiling. The stars were thought to be holes in the sky that showed through to the bright heavens beyond it. They also thought there was an ocean above the sky and that is where rain came from.

They also thought of the ground as another firmament that divided the land of the living and the land of the dead. The Greeks called the god of the underworld “Hades”. The Jews called the underworld “She’ol,” a place where all souls went to sleep after a life of struggle and labor. The Zoroastrians thought of the underworld as a place of judgment where a soul has to cross a bridge from life to death. If the person makes it safely over, she gets to enjoy paradise. If the bridge narrows, he falls into a fiery hell. Much of Christianity took on a close version of this myth, except paradise was in the sky where God lives and hell was under the earth.

The ancient worldview also included the idea that there was an “end of the earth” which you could fall off of if you went too far. This idea kept many from sailing too far into the ocean. This is probably why people of the Old World didn’t sail to the Americas until the 1400s. There were said to be great pillars there that held up the firmament in the sky, just as the pillars of a Greek or Roman temple hold up the ceiling. This all made perfect sense to them. And they told stories like that of the traveler Odysseus to affirm their worldview.

But in the modern age, we know that none of these things are facts. We know that the earth is spherical and that the sky is a mix of gasses in the atmosphere before outer space. We know that the stars are enormous flaming balls of gas light-years away. We still can’t fully understand the Universe, but we learn more and more about how it works over time.

This new understanding has informed the way we think about God and the claims of the Bible. We heard in today’s readings about the event that the church calls “Jesus’ Ascension.” The gospels tell us that after Jesus dies, he rises from the dead and is transfigured into the Risen Christ. He then appears to the disciples on many occasions to confirm to them that they must continue his work. And then the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts tell us that Jesus was “carried up into heaven.” When Luke wrote these words decades after Jesus’ death, it made sense to tell it this way. They knew of the story in the Hebrew Scriptures about Elijah who had been carried up into heaven to be with God. So to say that Jesus was carried into heaven was to confirm that all Jesus had said about having been the Chosen One of God was true.

In our modern mind, the Ascension makes no sense. It seems like something out of science fiction. The characters on Star Trek would say, “Beam me up, Scotty!” and they would be lifted up back to their spacecraft. Whenever I read this text, I think of Jesus saying, “Beam me up, YHWH!” People have created fictional characters like Superman and Wonder Woman who can push off of the ground and fly into the atmosphere. But they always come back. If we believe that Jesus literally flew off like this, we must ask, “Where did he go?”

The Mormons believe that Jesus went to the Americas to preach the gospel. A group of Christians in Kashmir, India believe that Jesus didn’t ascend at all but rather traveled to their town in India to live the rest of his life teaching spiritual principles. They guard a temple where they claim the body of Jesus is buried. One show on the History Channel talks about the possibility of Jesus having been an alien that came to teach people how to get along and then was literally “beamed up” back to a space ship. (Can you tell I really don’t take that channel seriously?)

No matter what happened to Jesus’ body, we know from personal experience what happened to Jesus’ Spirit. Next week, we will celebrate what we call the Day of Pentecost, remembering when the disciples were gathered together and had a communal experience of the Holy Spirit falling down on them. But before we spoil next week’s lesson, let’s stick to the meaning behind ascension.

In the Apostle’s Creed, it says that Jesus “ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God.” In ancient times, the right hand was considered the “good hand” and the left hand the “bad hand.” That ideology continued even into 20^th century America through shaming of those who are left-handed. Thankfully, even our President is now unashamedly left-handed.

Since we know that God isn’t a longhaired old man sitting on a cloud, what is the spiritual meaning behind this? The meaning that Post-Colonial theology gives us is that Christ has ascended above the powers of the world that rule by force instead of by love. Christ also ascends above all categories that characterized him as a man. Jesus was a man in the flesh. Christ is now the Cosmic Christ who is ever-present as Holy Wisdom. Christ has no particular gender, sexuality, ethnicity, or class. Christ is the Universal Rabbi who guides us on our journey. And this Cosmic Christ does not leave us stuck in the muck of life, but leads us to ascend as well.

Saint Wynonna Judd sings a song about ascending called “Rock Bottom”. She sings

“When you hit rock bottom
You've got two ways to go:
Straight up
And sideways
I have seen my share of hard times
And I'm letting you know
Straight up
Is my way

Things are tough all over
But I've got good news
When you get down to nothing
You've got nothing to lose
I was born naked
But I'm glory bound
And a dead end street
Is just a place to turn around

[Chorus]

When the sky is the limit
Up on easy street
Rock bottom
Ain't no place to be
Rock bottom
Ain't no place for me…

         I don’t know about you, but I know I feel like I’ve hit “rock bottom” a few times in my life. You feel like you’re trapped. You feel like there’s no way out. You feel like you might as well stay there because at least you have something to stand on. But the problem with that logic is that when you’ve sunk to the bottom of the lake, you can only hold your breath so long! But staying at the bottom of the lake is not good news! That’s not the abundant life Jesus was talking about.

         The Good News is that we always have the ability to ascend above whatever’s keeping you down. The hard truth is that it’s rarely someone else doing it to us. We hold ourselves under water. It feels nice at first to hide down there. But I don’t know about you, but I don’t have gills! You can’t breathe down there. Your only way to life is up.

         I know that I am saying this as a white man in the United States who enjoys most of the privileges that come with that identity I was born with. (I say “most” because my queer identity keeps me from many rights and privileges.) But my faith leads me to be a feminist. The Jesus I know and love preached and lived equality. I know that women and people of color face what is called “the glass ceiling,” even in 2013. According to the Center for American Progress (www.AmericanProgress.org), women in the U.S. make 9% less than men who hold positions on the same level. Women work just as hard and are just as intelligent as men, but are still treated differently just because of their gender. I say this without any hesitation: Shattering the glass ceiling is a Christian priority. Jesus did it as much as he could 2,000 years ago and we need to follow in his footsteps in doing it today.

         Especially since today is Mother’s Day, I think of all the mothers who have worked hard, both in the workforce and in the home to raise children to be good people as adults. Today, let’s meditate together on the great love of mothers. I know that some people never grew up with a mother or had a mother that did not treat them well. But there are always women in our lives who show us that tender care, that warm embrace that I know reflects the grace of God. Think of who those women have been for you. It may be a grandmother, an aunt, or a member of your chosen family. Maybe you called her Nana, Auntie, Abuela, Grandma, Mommy, or Mummy. I know I have so many Mamas, I can hardly keep track of them all. I would go broke buying Hallmark cards! At this time, whether your mothers or mother figures are still living or if they have passed on, I invite you to join in a Great Litany of Mothers. Feel free to say their names aloud and feel free to say several if you like. …

         We give thanks to our Mother God who has gifted us with all of these beautiful women in our lives. We offer a prayer of gratitude in knowing that all mothers who have passed on to the arms of the Divine Mother continue to lift us up and lead us on, giving us strength through their spirits that remain in our hearts.

         The concept of a Mother God is not a new one. The Hebrew Bible describes God many times as a mother bird, as Sophia Wisdom, and as the one who has birthed creation. Jesus described himself as the Mother Hen who has called out to Jerusalem to gather her chicks under her wings. In the 1300s, Christian mystic Julian of Norwich (c.1342-1416) was the very first woman to write a book in English. And in this book, Revelations of Divine Love (Chapter 59), she wrote this,

“So Jesus Christ who sets good against evil is our real Mother. We owe our being to him--and this is the essence of motherhood! --and all the delightful, loving protection which ever follows. God is as really our Mother as he is our Father.“ …

“So Jesus is our true Mother by nature at our first creation, and he is our true Mother in grace by taking on our created nature.”

        Even though Jesus of Nazareth had a Y Chromosome, Julian of Norwich recognized that Christ transcends gender. It was a comforting image for her to see Christ as Mother. And outside of the so-called Abrahamic Religions, we know that the Divine has been worshipped as Goddess around the world. Oftentimes the Goddess was worshipped as the highest form of divinity because it is woman who gives birth. Even in ancient Israel, Jews hid statues of fertility goddesses in their homes because they desired a relationship with a God whose essence is feminine.

         There is no sin in worshipping God as Mother. In my prayers, I often call God “Mama.” In MCC, we practice what we call Inclusive Language, which recognizes that males, females, and everything in-between and beyond gender are all reflections of God. We are ALL made in the image and likeness of God. God isn’t confined by gender norms and we don’t have to be either.

         I hope that today, you can embrace with an open heart and an open mind the beautiful diversity that is motherhood. Whether you have had your own biological children, adopted children, or taken someone under your wing, you are a nurturer. And this is the innate quality that we celebrate today.

         I don’t think Jesus ever floated up into the sky like Mary Poppins or floated away in a big bubble like Glinda the Good Witch in the Wizard of Oz (remember her waving to Munchkin Land saying, “Goodbye! Goodbye!). But I do know that as Mother Christ, he called each one of us to rise above our circumstances to a life of abundance where nothing can touch our spirits. The character Elphaba sings in the Broadway musical Wicked,

Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I'm through with playing by the rules
Of someone else's game
Too late for second-guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It's time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes: and leap!
It's time to try
Defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
And you can't pull me down!

I'm through accepting limits
''cause someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try, I'll never know!
Too long I've been afraid of
Losing love I guess I've lost
Well, if that's love
It comes at much too high a cost!
I'd sooner die
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I'm defying gravity
And you can't pull me down”

         Saints, never ever let the negative keep you down. And so it is! Amen.