From Pastor Jess:

Ascension

He was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

—Acts 1.9

Heaven is not up, but in. It’s the heart of things. That’s where God is.

Jesus was pure love,

the love of God made flesh.

He was resurrected not as an individual, but as a community. We’re his risen body.

The angels at his tomb said “He is not here.” He is not in any “here;”

he is in us, each of us, and all of us together. When Jesus was raised and came to the disciples

it was not to prove a point, but to give them his spirit,

so we could be the living body of the risen Christ.

When he “ascended”

it doesn’t mean he literally floated up into the sky.

It means he dissolved into us,

like salt dissolving into the soup. Christ, the love of God made flesh, is now in us.

We are witnesses—we are the evidence— of resurrection.

Go.

Steve Garnaas-Holmes Unfolding Light www.unfoldinglight.net

This Sunday, June 1st, we will celebrate the feast of the Ascension, as told in both Acts and Luke’s Gospel. If you have ever wondered why the Ascension matters, the poem above may help. That Jesus was resurrected as a community, and we are that community in this time and place, and that he ascended in and not up, means everything. How do you see our congregation being a witness to resurrection? Where do you see or sense the Holy Spirit dwelling among us and leading us?

Join our small but mighty group as we Shine the Light on Thursdays from 7-7:30pm, carrying signs of hope and calls for justice. We do this in solidarity with hundreds of others around the country as part of The Beacon project.

My Office Hours for the week of 6/2 are: Tuesday, 6/3 and Thursday, 6/5, 8:30-3.

 Rev. Jess Lambert