the upper room with an open door

Shalom Mennonite Church

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Easter 7 - “Commissioned and Waiting”

Texts: John 17:1-11 and Acts 1:6-14

Eric Massanari

“the upper room with an open door”

Jesus' birth into the world

may have been humble,

but his exit from the world seems fantastic.

His death may have been that of a criminal,

but his departure is that of an angel.

His resurrection from a dark tomb had no witnesses,

but his ascension is a glowing, main-stage event

with all of his disciples bearing witness.

For as much as we celebrate Jesus' birth,

and remember his death,

and confess his resurrection,

we don't tend to say much about

this moment when Jesus makes one final rising

up into the glorious, sunlit clouds.

Jesus goes up . . . up . . . and away!

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!

Going . . . going . . . gone!

The temptation may be to interpret this as

a final parting of the ways—Jesus bound for

his home in a heaven high beyond the clouds,

while the disciples and the rest of us are left earthbound.

The temptation may be

to interpret the ascension of Jesus as a

final moment of separation.

And, in fact, it has largely been viewed

this way in traditional theologies.

Which is unfortunate because to read the story this way

may be to miss one of the deepest and

most transforming messages of the gospel.

There is another stream of Christian wisdom

that invites us to see something

quite different in the story of the ascension.

Rather than interpreting this as a moment of separation,

we might understand it as a revelation of profound union.

This stream of theology suggests

that Jesus is not ascending to some place apart from the world;

Jesus is in fact returning to the very place

where Christ has always lived:

fully immersed in the world

and in the fullness of all life.

Thomas Keating describes the ascension of Jesus in this way:

This is the invitation to enter into the cosmic Christ—into his divine person, the Word of God, who has always been present in the world...This is the Christ who disappeared in his Ascension beyond the clouds, not into some geographical location, but into the heart of all creation. In particular, he has penetrated the very depths of our being, our separate-self sense has melted into his divine Person, and now we can act under the direct influence of his Spirit. Thus, even if we drink a cup of soup or walk down the street, it is Christ living and acting in us, transforming the world from within...The Ascension is Christ's return to the heart of all creation where he dwells now in his glorified humanity.

Keating, Thomas, The Mystery of Christ

The “Cosmic Christ.”

That is a term not often heard in church.

Usually when we speak of Christ

we speak solely, even exclusively, of Jesus as Christ.

And when we do this we sometimes neglect

the strong scriptural witness

which suggests that Christ

not only describes Jesus of Nazareth,

it also describes the Living Word of God

as a reality that transcends

the historical person of Jesus.

The Cosmic Christ is the glory of God

that permeates the whole of life.

The world is charged with it, filled with it!

At the beginning of John's gospel

it is described in this way:

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through him,

and without him not one thing came into being.

What has come into being in him was life,

and the life was the light of all people. (John 1:1-4)

In the first chapter of the letter to the Colossians

Christ is described with these words:

Christ is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn of all creation;

for in Christ all things in heaven and on earth

were created, things visible and invisible . . .

all things have been created through and for Christ.

Christ is before all things,

and in Christ all things hold together. (Col. 1:15-17)

Later in the letter to the Colossians,

as Paul describes what it means

to be “clothed” in the love of Christ,

He writes:

Christ is all and in all! (Col. 3:11)

This reflects a far more expansive

understanding of who and what and where Christ is.

This is the wisdom that understands

all of creation as bearing the Christ presence.

From its beginning in a Big Bang,

or whatever dream or movement sent

the expanse and evolution of the universe into motion,

Christ has been the power of being

at the heart of all life—the Cosmic Christ

is an extension of the very heart of God.

For a particular window of time

this power of being was expressed

in a profound way, in human form,

in the person of Jesus.

The special gift of Jesus is that through him

we come to see what it means to live a human life

fully immersed and fully surrendered

to the glory of God's love—what it means to live in Christ.

In Jesus we are invited

to live in this same manner—

we are invited to allow the Christ-presence

that is in each of us to be fully revealed.

We keep wanting to make Jesus someone wholly different from us,

and Jesus wants to make us wholly one with him.

When we build bonds and bridges with others

instead of boundaries and dividing walls

we are participating in the life of Christ

that ascends within our own being;

we are revealing the Christ in us,

and we are recognizing the Christ in our sister and brother.

When we follow self-centered patterns

or wallow in self-pity,

when we speak of Christ as having

having been present exclusively

in the historical Jesus,

then we deny the Glory of God

that is written in all life, in our neighbor,

and in our own flesh and bone.

We must choose with our lives, each day,

whether we will join in the revealing of the glory of God,

or whether we will shroud it and deny it.

Will we live this day, this moment,

in awareness and in union with

the Cosmic Christ, who is all and in all?

Will we direct our intentions and actions

to the path of Christ-like love?

Or, will our choices deny

that this world and our own lives

are the revealing place for God.

I look at the disciples in this story from Acts,

and at what they do after they have witnessed

the ascension of their teacher.

They go back to their upper room,

their gathering place in Jerusalem

that has for a time been their hideout

in the days following Jesus' death.

We might remember some of the Easter stories

in which they are described as gathering in

this place with the doors locked

“for fear of the Jews.”

I notice that this time nothing is said here

about the doors of the upper room

being locked or closed,

and nothing is said about the disciples being afraid.

I imagine that now the doors are unlocked,

and I imagine the doors standing wide open.

Because now the disciples have seen

that there is no where they can go

where Christ is not already alive and dwelling.

They have seen what has always been true,

and what will forever be true:

there is nothing that can separate us

from the love that is God.

So, they need not fear.

They need not fight or defend.

They are free to love.

They are free to receive God's Spirit.

They are free to join in the ascending of Christ.

And so are we.