Lutheran Ping!
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
Posted on 05/21/2009 10:58:02 AM PDT by lightman
One Ascension Day I was making final preparations for the Service in the upstairs workroom when I heard some fluent Pennsylvania Dutch coming from the Narthex. Knowing that the few of our members who “speachen zie deutsch” were not likely to arrive so early, I supposed that the Dutch was being spoken by a stranger. My supposition proved correct, for there, in the Narthex, was an Amishman complete with straw hat and chinwhiskers along with an “English” companion--his driver, I presumed. Steven Miller (an Amish convert) had returned to his family homestead and was showing his professor friend the churches of the area.
Steven was very impressed that we were about to have a worship service, for the Amish regard Ascension Day as a great Holy-day on which none but the most necessary of work should be done. Perhaps this is motivated by fear, for the Ascension Gospel tells us that ‘this Jesus, who has been taken from you, will return in the same manner.” (Luke); which, when juxtaposed with the warning that “on that day two men will be working in the field, one will be taken, and one will be left?” (Matthew) could give rise to the notion that those working on Ascension Day were risking their own personal parousia. Irrespective, it is faithful.
But Steven also had many questions about how we were worshiping that night, for, of course, the Nave was filled with helium balloons. The questions were sincere and curious, not sarcastic and critical. The questions were good because they caused me to reflect on ‘why we do what we do.”
The balloons, on one level, are simply a play on the word Ascension. A balloon ascension is appropriate for Ascension Day. The releasing of the balloons is all the more appropriate because the very action causes the worshiper to gaze into the heavens, until the balloon vanishes from sight’ becoming like the Eleven who stood watching their Lord ascend until He was no longer visible.
This is in contrast to the beginning of the Lent-Easter-Pentecost cycle, the Paschal journey, for, on Ash Wednesday, our eyes are cast down and our heads are bowed. Forty days prior to Easter we are confronted by the dust of the earth--forty days after Easter we look with joy to the heavens. Or, as expressed fourth century hymn by John of Damascus:
From death to life eternal, from this world to the sky
Our Lord has brought us over with songs of victory .
There is a progression from the solid state of ashes, through the liquid of Baptismal water at Easter, to the buoyant gas that propels the message-bearing balloons.
Paradoxically, the Paschal journey begins with the substance of a chemical reaction: Ashes are produced by the burning, or rapid oxidation, of plant material (mostly carbon--which chemistry students will know to be one of most reactive of elements.. The journey ends with balloons filled with a chemical that is “inert” and entirely non-reactive.
The fact that the balloons carry with them a message of Christian hope makes this custom all the more fitting, as the farewell words of Jesus are that “repentance and forgiveness of sins {are} to be preached to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.’ (Another name for Jerusalem is Zion). How wonderful then, that the prophecy of Isaiah finds a fulfillment by our gathering “the word of the Lord shall go forth from Zion” (Isaiah 2:2)
The message borne by the balloons is simply the blessed hope that is the Epistle for Ascension Day:
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you... God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.
The message carried by the balloons has been found by persons as far away as Brooklyn, New York; Delaware; Chambersburg; the outer banks of North Carolina and Smithburg, Maryland. The dispersion of the message calls to mind another couplet from the ancient hymn:
The day of resurrection, earth tell it out abroad
The Passover of gladness, the Passover of God.
The message has found persons who are gladdened and encouraged that at least one congregation still keeps Holy-day and remembers her Lord’s Ascension. Perhaps, in that way, we are not all that different from our Amish visitor.
May you be among those who keep Holy-day, giving thanks for the hope to which God has called you.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
Ping.
For Shelley and his parishoners, they understand the symbolism.
To outsiders, they appear as slack-jawed automatons whose saviour looks like a balloon.
A pox and curse on the “symbolists” among God’s Church.
Thank you, lightman, for that prayer. Until that glorious day when we will know Him, we are always merely "com[ing] to know Him."
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