Don't know where I got this from - an Ascension story.

I heard the story from someone who’d read it in the works of Abba Sayah …He admits that it’s a pretty shaky story when it comes to reality but there is no doubt whatsoever that it’s true.
As the gospels tell us, after forty days of resurrection appearances, Jesus knew it was time to leave his disciples – his mother, his brothers and sisters, all his companions in the Way. It was hard to say goodbye, but he knew that the time had come. After all, he was the Truth and we humans can only take so much of that.
So Jesus called them all together on the mountain top, and made his farewells. It was a tearful moment. Mary was crying. John was crying. Jesus was crying. Even Peter, the immovable rock, was reaching for his handkerchief.
They knew that Jesus had said he would always be with them. But they also knew it wasn't going to be the same. There would be no more breakfasts by the seashore, no more late night discussions around the campfire, no more unexpected jugs of wine…and so they wept.
Jesus was sad too, but he was glad to be returning to his Father, and he knew it was all part of the plan. And so he began to ascend.
As Abba Sayah told the story, as Jesus began to rise, slowly and gracefully into the air, John just couldn't bear it. He grabbed hold of Jesus' right leg, and refused to let go.
"John?" said Jesus “What are you doing?”
And John shouted back,
"If you won't stay with us, then I'm coming too."
Jesus calmly continued to rise, hoping that John would let go. But he didn’t. And then, to make matters worse, Mary suddenly jumped up and grabbed hold of Jesus' other leg.
"I'm coming too," she shouted.
By now, Jesus’ big exit had obviously been ruined, but he looked up into heaven, and called out:
"Okay, Father... what do I do now?" And a voice came out of the clouds, deep and loud like the rumbling of thunder in the distance.
"Ascend!" the voice said.
"Ascend?" Jesus asked
"Ascend!" the voice replied.
So Jesus continued to rise through the air, with John and Mary holding on until they too were lifted off the ground. But the other disciples couldn't bear to be left behind either, so they too jumped on board…and within moments there was this pyramid of people hanging in the middle of the sky. Jesus at the top. John and Mary next. The other apostles hanging on below. Quite a sight, if anyone had been watching...
And then - what was this? Suddenly all kinds of people were appearing out of nowhere…friends and neighbors from around Galilee, people who’d heard Jesus’ stories, people whom he had healed, people who just knew that he was something special…Young and old,- men, women, children, Jews and Gentiles…a huge crowd – and they too refused to be left behind…So, they made a grab for the last pair of ankles and hung on for dear life. One way and another there was quite a kerfuffle -people squealing “Wait for me” -then startled yelps as they felt themselves seized by the ankle -and above it all the voice of God calling out, “Ascend!"
But all of a sudden, from the bottom of the pyramid, there came the voice of a small child.
"Wait!” he shrilled, “I've lost my dog! Wait for me”
"I can't wait," Jesus called back, "I don't know how this thing works."
But the little boy wasn't going to be left behind, and he was determined his dog was coming with him. So, still holding on with one hand, he grabbed hold of a tree with the other, and held on with all his might.
For a moment, the whole pyramid stopped dead in the air - Jesus pulling upwards, and the little boy holding on to the tree, scanning the horizon for his lost dog. But Jesus couldn't stop. The ascension had begun, and God was pulling him back up to heaven.
At first it looked as if the tree would uproot itself. But then the tree held on, and it started to pull the ground up with it. Sort of like when you pull a rug up in the middle, the soil itself started moving up into the sky. And hundreds of miles away, where the soil met the oceans, the oceans held on. And where the oceans met the shores, the shores held on. All of it held on, like there was no tomorrow.
Jesus DID ascend to heaven, He went back to his natural habitat, living permanently in the presence of God’s endless love and care and wholeness and laughter. But, as Abba Sayah tells it, he pulled all of creation – the whole kit and caboodle – everything that ever was or is or ever will be – he pulled it all up into heaven with him.
There's a sense in which we can think about the Ascension as “Christmas backwards”. At Christmas, we concentrate on Jesus coming to earth to transform us with the presence of God. At Ascension, we focus instead on Jesus taking earth back with him into heaven…
Whichever way you look at it, the work of Jesus was to transform us and the world we live in by infusing everything with the presence of God. Heaven meets earth; earth is drawn into heaven.
And, as Abba Saya said. that's where we've been ever since.
If you have a source for this let me know and I'll be glad to credit it. I have no idea where I got it.

Joy

John 15: 9-17

Last week we thought about what it means to abide, or dwell, in Jesus. the passage we heard today follows on from the image of the vine and the branches, and continues on with the theme of being in relationship with Jesus, and of Jesus being in relationship with ‘his Father’.

Today we read this passage which mentions ‘love’ so many times, I wonder if John was in a contest to see how many he could use the word in a paragraph. 9 times in this section of text, including 5 times in the first 2 verses. So we could say this passage is about love. Love is a word that gets used lots these days, but I wonder what we mean when we speak of love.  I doubt it is the same love that Jesus was talking about. I love your new haircut, car, dog, whatever; I doubt that is what Jesus is talking about here with his disciples. Jesus is talking with the disciples after the last supper, before the betrayal in the garden. 

Jesus knows that the world was not an easy place for his disciples, nor would it be easy for them after his death. The idea of crucifixion was that the ring leader would die in this very public way, then everyone else would return home and be ‘good’ citizens, and not cause the Roman or Jewish leaders any more trouble.  There are still places around the world where this method of control is still in use.

Jesus is telling the disciples to remain in his love, to abide in him as he abides in God; to love as he loves; and he calls them friends, not servants; tells them to go and bear fruit; and a final love one another, just in case they haven’t got the message.

Love one another as Jesus has loved you. If this is the standard we need to reach, I am doomed, and I am guessing you are all doomed as well. It is a standard we cannot possibly reach, it is not possible for us to love as Jesus loved, as purely, as unselfishly, as courageously, as honestly, as perfectly as Jesus loved. So we might as well just give up and go home, because of that is the standard we have no hope.

But what if Jesus is not giving a standard, an absolute so impossible for us to even think about ever reaching; what if Jesus is telling the disciples, and us, that life is about relationship, relationship with Jesus, with God, with each other. And yes our relationships with God and each other should be characterised by those qualities I mentioned, courage, honesty and purity; but maybe this is saying that when we abide in Jesus, when we our lives are saturated by Jesus and his love, our loving will be like that. We won’t be perfect, and we will not always be loving, but when we stay in relationship with Jesus, we live out the life he gives us, and we bear fruit for the kingdom.

Imagine your life saturated by Jesus. Wouldn’t that be amazing!

Now I said the theme today is Joy -  and that comes from one of the verses in this reading: I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

Our joy may be complete – after being told to love another as Jesus has loved us, it is so our joy may be complete. When are people joyful – when their team wins, when they do well in a test, get a job, buy their dream house – such joy is short lived.  Looking up the word joy on my computer’s dictionary, it means happiness or delight.

What brings us joy, what might this joy be. Again I think it has to do with relationship with Jesus. by living this closely with Jesus, by abiding in, dwelling in his love and life, our lives will be full of joy. Joy that comes from knowing we are loved by God, joy that comes from being in relationship with God through Jesus Christ, joy that comes from living deeply with Jesus.  Now that isn’t to say that life will be all smooth sailing.

The next part of this chapter of John talks of persecution, the disciples will be persecuted just as Jesus was, now how is that for a message of hope.  Yet I think it is. If we live as Jesus lived, love as Jesus loves, if we feel his joy, are his friends, bear kingdom fruit, why should we expect to be treated any differently to the way he was treated.

Jesus said: I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

Joy to me is deep within me, it is an awareness and acceptance that I am loved by God, valued by Jesus, that I abide in the vine, that I have been chosen, called and sent. Jesus came that we might have life, abundant, overflowing life.

Is the joy of Jesus part of your life?

vine of love

1 John 4: 7-21

John 15:1-8

This reading reminds us of our dependence on Jesus, the vine, as the source of life, but also how interconnected we are. From the biology I learnt many years ago, I remember something about sap moving through plants, as part of the way they live, sounds to me a bit like blood running through our bodies. Plants have sap. Looking at the image of the vine, and the reading from the first letter of John, I wonder if love is the sap in the vine that Jesus is talking about. I wonder if love is the life force that keeps the church alive and growing. I wonder if love is the life force that keeps us alive and growing.

Jesus tells the disciples : ‘abide in me as I abide in you’

We live in a time when we are judged by what we produce or how much money or status we have. We are valued for our busyness. Here we are reminded that what matters most in life is relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  In the paper yesterday there was an article about the things that worry people the most, and 3 of the top five were future career, achievement and the future. These are amongst the issues that worry people enough to affect their quality of life and their health. The message of the gospels is that relationships matter more than anything, and our most important relationship is with God.

Jesus says : ‘abide in me as I abide in you’

How do we abide in Jesus? Abide is a word we don’t use all that often these days, it means to dwell in, so Jesus is saying we should dwell in him, as he dwells in us – it is an intimate relationship, and one which is in every fibre of our being. This isn’t some God who is miles away. This is a god who wants a close relationship with each one of us; a close, personal, profound, relationship. and Just thinking about it is amazing, and as you can tell I am struggling to put this into words.

So how do we abide in Jesus? or maybe the first question is do we abide in Jesus – is the love of Jesus what runs through our veins?

…

Thinking back to the image of the vine for a few moments, when the sap stops flowing through a branch, it dies, gets pruned off and burnt. And sometimes you need to prune the plant where it is still growing to get the best out of the plant. When the love of Jesus isn’t flowing through our lives, we become ‘dead’, even though we may still be breathing and eating and talking, we are no longer living in Christ, we are no longer connected to the vine that is the source of life.

So how do we abide in Jesus? a few ways I think of are: prayer, scripture, sacraments, worshipping together; and some people will have others, for me drawing is helpful, for some I know gardening or bushwalking. I encourage you to find those things that keep you in close relationship with Jesus. again I say I think for all Christians, prayer, scripture, sacraments and worshipping together are important in being part of the vine.

This image of a vine also reminds us that we do not produce fruit by our own efforts, by trying harder, fruit is a by-product of staying connected to the vine. ‘Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing’.

I am surprised how often we get caught up in negative, pessimistic talk about the church. Yes, fewer people attend worship than fifty years ago; and prioritising budgets, at all levels of the church is difficult; and it seems that the church has less influence in the community. But, looking at the readings in John’s gospel, back in chapter 13, the Passover meal is eaten and Jesus washes the disciples feet, then comes about 3 chapters of teaching – Jesus was a long- winded after dinner speaker if this all in one go – here John has included sections on loving one another, dwelling in the house of God, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the vine and the branches, offering peace and Jesus praying for the disciples. For me it is like a long ‘last words’ to prepare the disciples for the time when Jesus isn’t around. Jesus is reminding them of the basis of his teaching, relationship and love.

Being part of the vine means we are not isolated individuals, nor are we isolated congregations, we are all connected to the one true vine, Jesus. Which means we are in relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and we are called to abide, to dwell, in Jesus. That isn’t the end of the story, because when we abide in Jesus, when we are in relationship with God through Jesus Christ, then we have the love of God flowing through us, we have the Spirit as part of us, and that means we will bear fruit, we will be part of the kingdom of God here on earth. That is what happens.

And Without Jesus we can do nothing.

Just as no matter how hard it tries, a branch on its own cannot bear fruit, to bear fruit it needs to be connected to the vine; so we cannot try harder to bring the kingdom into being, we can only stay true to our relationship with Jesus.

Jesus says : ‘abide in me as I abide in you’

Take some time now to abide in Jesus.