Ascension Sunday

We’re celebrating Ascension today.   Today we commemorate and remember Jesus being raised up to heaven in bodily form.  

The Gospel writers, the orthodox tellers of the story- say that Jesus was real!  He healed people, he wept, he did things!    In the upper room, after Jesus was killed, and the disciples were scared, and didn’t know what to do… Jesus came to them.   The text says he just appeared there.   The first time he shows up like this, Thomas wasn’t there and when he was told he didn’t believe it.   He said in order for him to believe it, he’d have to put his fingers in the holes in Jesus’ hand, and put his hand in the wound in his side.   He has to “see it to believe it”.    Next time Jesus shows up, Thomas is there… and Jesus holds out his hands inviting Thomas to touch and feel.  Then he sits down with them to eat some fish for dinner.    He’s very real!  

It’s important to the story – at least in these four Gospels – that Jesus be real!   People saw him do things, they saw him interacting with people.  His compassion moved people (Zachaeus), his words moved people.   He’s very Human indeed.

Here in his final visible act, he ascends to heaven – in bodily form.   The story tellers say people actually see him go up.   Making this last claim that he was real

The idea of Jesus being human has appealed to me more and more over the years.  

You know that expression – and I’ve said this a few time here – “I’m only human.”   Basically its used to lower the bar on what it means to be human.   It’s used as an excuse for thoughts/actions/behaviors that may not be the most mature and/or honorable.

In certain countries, there is a custom for women to be covered.   Whether it’s their hair or heads or their whole bodies, they cover up.   If it’s a symbol of religious piety, or modesty…. I might get it.   But I heard a man say – as part of a larger context – that women need to do this, otherwise would see this and be tempted to do things.   Basically he was saying that men would no longer be responsible for their actions!   You know… “we’re only human!”

REALLY????   You mean you would have so little control of yourselves that someone else would have to make sure you don’t behave like some animal?   It would be someone else’s fault if you don’t behave like a mature and functional human being?????

Remember Flip Wilson:   “The Devil made me do it”?  It’s not my fault… I’m only human!

Jesus was born a human being, he lived a human life, he experienced human emotions and interactions, feelings.   He taught what it means to really engage with the world!   He taught what it really means to engage with people!   He taught what it means to express human love in a deeper way.   He taught what it means to be moved by God’s love.

He taught what it means to turn beliefs about God, and life, and the greater human experience into a way of living!

Isn’t this being human too!?

Gandhi was “only human”!  

Mother Teresa was “only human”!

Everyone who has risen to the challenge of addressing the issue of human suffering in a troubled world… in ANY WAY… is “only human” too! 

                        And as hard as it may be… as difficult as it can be to address – even in a small way…    isn’t that holy in some way?

One Sunday after church, my mother said, “I liked what you said, but you never used the word God or Jesus.”   I remember thinking- do I have to?   I was talking about the human experience.  Would saying God or Jesus have made it any more sacred?

Really being human calls us to look at humans, and the human experience… and touch the Holy

I’ve said it before – when you were born, someone held you… and they looked at you… and they touched your face, your ears… and they touched your hands and fingers, and they said what they were perceiving: What a miracle you are!

Saying that is enough!  We don’t have to wrap that in doctrine, or theology.    You’re a miracle… that’s enough!   Nothing more needs to be said about that!

In theory we can all agree that we have to honor humanity, or that we must love our neighbors.   Who can disagree with this?    It all sounds great when the sun is shining, and the birds are chirping.   But what if our beliefs are pushed to the edges?     (and your beliefs do have edges – just so you know)

In 1990-1991 during the first Gulf War I was at the Army Intelligence School in Arizona.    During the part about interrogations, we learned that the United States doesn’t torture it’s prisoners.  We don’t do this for a few reasons:

1 – information coming from torture is almost always unreliable!   People will tell you anything they think they want you to hear so the pain will stop.

And 2 – we don’t torture because we’re Americans… and Americans don’t do that!   We adhere to a higher standard!

Yet last few years, we’ve heard representatives from our government saying that in certain ways and under certain conditions, torture is okay.    If it can save one life… if it can help others… then it is okay!

Are there exigent circumstances?   Or are our beliefs about human life valid across the board?

If we say we value human life, are there exceptions for capital punishment?

Does a person forfeit their right to be treated in particular ways if they have committed a grievous crime?  

The older brother of the Boston Bomber duo was just recently buried.   For the longest time, no one wanted to claim his body for burial.  The leaders of the local mosques in the Boston area would not agree to perform burial rites for this dead man.    Finally I heard a Christian woman ended up finding a Muslim cemetery in Virginia to accept his body for burial. 

Considering what he did… was it wrong to reject his body for burial?

Considering what he did… was it wrong to accept his body for burial?

Or should what he did not be considered at all?

We all have a line… I have a line I draw.   Even if we believe in the Sacredness of human life… we all have a line.  

But I think the point is to raise the bar

… on what it means to live as a human

            … on what it means to treat others as humans

            … on what it means to express human stuff

… knowing we won’t be perfect.

There’s a part in the book “To Life” by Rabbi Harold Kushner, where he says… “The law does not make us sinners.  The law tries to make us strong enough to resist the many temptations to sin to which the human being is subject daily.   Whereas Christianity might say that the effort is futile, that we can never become strong enough to resist sin (including the sin of taking pride in our own moral strength, like the body builder who can’t stop admiring himself in the mirror), Judaism would insist that we owe it to God to at least have the moral seriousness at least to try.”

To be really human means to look more deeply at -- who we are

                                                                                                -- what we say we believe

                                                                                                -- why we believe what we do

I think Jesus’ challenge for us is the challenge of being human… fully human! 

Can we really get into the word of human interactions – running the gamut of expressions… can we delve into the world of human diversity in all its forms… the sunny days of the human experience as well as the dark and cloudy days of the human experience…

…and STILL see the world as Sacred?