BELOVED BRANCH,

Thursday, May 9 is Ascension Day. The day we celebrate or fail to celebrate Jesus’ ascension into heaven. In Jerusalem, Ascension Day is not forgotten. In fact we went to see the holy site where Jesus’ foot print was left in stone. The last place his foot is thought to have touched the ground before returning to his Father. And of course there is a chapel built around it and large grounds for the gathering of many Christians who come together to celebrate.

As you ponder the branch, vine and vinedresser relationship we have with God, include this portion of Rev. Dr. Char Rachuy Cox reflection on Ascension Day.

Every includes
this least celebrated,
most forgotten feast day
(thank you for those words,

Barbara Brown Taylor)
That always comes
40 days after
the great exit from the tomb
and 10 days before
the holy winds
and tongue-loosing fire
that made the Word that became flesh
become words once again.

This odd juxtaposition
of the Great and Holy Week
and the lifting up
of the raised-up One
opened up the mystery
of the Ascension
for me
in ways that have felt akin
to the tomb bursting open anew.

Here is where my Holy Week-Ascension-ponderings have led.

First,
It is the Enfleshed Word that ascends.
That may seem obvious,
but bear with me.
The Word –
enfleshed in the earthly stuff
of blood and bones,
Risen –
still wounded and scarred –
that same, yet made-new-yet-same body
is
who and what that ascends.
The stuff of earth becomes
a part of not just heaven,
but of the Divine.
It is the Ascension,
therefore,
not the Resurrection,
that completes
the Incarnation.
The Word becomes flesh
and the enfleshed-One –
takes the stuff of earth,
our own flesh,
into the unity that is the Trinity.
That has to say
something
about the goodness
of BODIES.

For me –
mind blown.

Second, and for this,

I have the artist Albrecht Durer
to thank.
In his depiction of the Ascension,
most eyes are looking upward
at the disappearing Christ,
yet one figure
is clearly looking
at the ground that had been under

Jesus’ feet –
where it is marked
by the footprints of Jesus.
The Enfleshed Word has left –
AND his footprints are left behind –
Footprints, it seems
that are not
simply scars in the sand
to dissipate on the winds
of that holy hilltop,
but FOOTPRINTS
that we
who are called to be witnesses,
we who are now the Body of Christ on earth -
           not metaphorically,
           but literally –
          as in, we really are Christ’s body,
          Enfleshing Jesus -

Enfleshing
        Love Divine
        In the world today –
we are called to continue to make
the footprints –
         and dare I say
         hand prints
         and heart prints
of Christ on earth.
Begging the question,
of course,
what kind of footprints
        and hand prints
        and heart prints

are we leaving?
Are we –
Are you –
imprinting the world
With DIVINE LOVE?

Mind blown again.

And finally,
Luke tells us
that Jesus led them out –
Out of the city,
Out of their comfort zones
Out beyond
where they were
what they knew
what they understood
what they imagined
what they comprehended.
Out.
Ascension is,
therefore,
about movement –
not just up
– but OUT!
Out –
for those
who first lived this story
and for us.
How are we –
How are you –
Called OUT?

Mind blown one more time.

BODIES
FOOTPRINTS
OUT

There is so much good news in
all of this
that I cannot quite
comprehend
how I missed it
or ignored it
all these years,
probably assuming
that Ascension
is unnecessary,
or inconvenient
or that, like those earlier followers
gaping after the place
where Jesus used to be,
there is nothing to see here.

How wrong I was!
And how captivated
I now am –
by this least celebrated,
most forgotten feast day
that I never used to think about
and now
cannot seem to stop thinking about –
and wondering
and imagining
ways that
the Ascension
can come to life,
not only as a feast day,
but as we seek to
faithfully
be the Body of Christ –
in,
and through,
and with our own bodies –
leaving footprints of Divine Love
Out –
Out beyond where we are
what we know
what we understand
what we imagine
And what we comprehend
so that our lives
as Resurrection people
become lived out
as Ascension people.

More to add to the mix, Ascension people. Enjoy your time abiding with Jesus.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack