5-20-20 - Forward and Back

You can listen to this reflection here.

This Thursday is Ascension Day, a major church feast day - and ignored by most churches, unless they are named Ascension. We will spend the rest of this week on this story.

The Gospels tell us that Jesus hung out for forty days after his resurrection, instructing and inspiring his followers to believe the impossible, and to live as though they believed it. It’s hard to convince the world all things are possible with God, while holed up in a room for fear of your life. So Jesus kept showing up when least expected, and going through the lessons again. Once more, with feeling…

Jesus said to his disciples, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you – that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem."

This time he does more than tell them where they’ve been – he tells them where they’re going: to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations, starting from where they are. In the Acts version of the Ascension story, Jesus gives a fuller itinerary: “… you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The book of Acts shows us how closely the spreading of the Good News followed that trajectory.

God always asks us to start from where we are, not where we'd like to be. And to know where we've been; Jesus reminds his followers of their history. That's why we read the Hebrew Bible - it reminds us where we stand in the big picture of God’s courtship of an alienated humanity. We may not always like the way those ancient people spoke of God, or the words or motives they attributed to God, but the overarching story is one of love. We need to know our story.

Yet God calls us forward, not back. The Spirit is moving, all around us, often in places and people we didn’t think to look. Part of our growth as apostles is learning to discern the activity of God, to note it, celebrate it, and join it. Where have you seen evidence of God’s action lately? In whom? Did you read about something, or see something on the street, or have a conversation that struck a spark in you? Tell that story; write it, so it joins the record of ancient encounters.

The bible is an anchor as we grow in faith and in the love of God. It tethers us to a rich tradition and a vast and diverse community of faith, living and gone before. Consider it the rearview mirror of faith – if we want to go forward in God’s mission, we have to keep our eyes on the road and at the same time be aware of what’s behind us. It’s called driving.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.