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Greetings, SBT Readers:
In recent days, I have pulled up hundreds of stalks of wild garlic mustard -- an invasive plant that takes over forests and woodland areas. While we were focusing on removing tons of lava rock -- three dumpsters so far-- we failed to notice how the garlic mustard had literally taken over the woods to the side of our house. Standing 3-4 feet high, it created an unsightly wall of tangled plants. Now, there are those who forage for garlic mustard and consider it a delicacy, but in addition to taking over the landscape, it chokes fragile native plants like trillium, Jacob's Ladder, and wild geraniums. Pulling up the garlic mustard, then, became an exercise in conservation, not just a gardening task; I found myself marveling at the wild array of native plants that had been deprived of light and space to grow. Like the farm hands in Matthew's Parable of the Weeds (Mt 13:24-30, 36-43), I found myself wondering, "Where did all the weeds come from?" In the parable, the householder decides to let wheat and weeds grow together to avoid uprooting the good plants; in the case of the garlic mustard, however, the native plants would soon become endangered species. My own spin on the parable is that given the state of today's world, we cannot afford to leave native plants (our youth) at the mercy of invasive plants (the criminal element in society) any more than we can afford to let trillium be choked by garlic mustard. Had Jesus been familiar with garlic mustard, I think he would have come to the same conclusion!
Many Blessings!
Elizabeth
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION
Link to the Sunday Readings
When they had gathered they asked him,
“Lord, are you now going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He answered, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons
that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
After he had spoken, while they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going,
suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
Acts 1:1-11
Decades ago, as I was driving from A to B (no memory of the itinerary!) there was a loud wail from the back seat, followed by the tragic words, "All gone!" Peering into the rear view mirror, I could see my one year old son, strapped in his car seat; he was staring up at the open sunroof, eyes tracking the ascent of a bright red helium balloon, a long string trailing behind it. "All gone!" he repeated dolefully, showing me his empty hands. I don't remember how I responded but I do recall feeling devasted at his loss, especially as I had to keep my eyes on the road and couldn't pull over to comfort him. Perhaps I told him there would be other red balloons. Or perhaps I told him a story about the balloon and all the adventures it was going to have now that it was floating above the clouds. Or perhaps I distracted him in some other way so that he wouldn't have to keep craning his neck to look up at the sky...
The Feast of the Ascension reminds me of that red balloon from so very long ago. For forty days, the apostles had enjoyed Jesus' company but now, just when they had become accustomed to "the new post-Resurrection normal," Jesus was lifted up from plain view and they were left scanning the skies for his presence. On a symbolic level, the narrative from Acts 1:1-11 addresses the loss the apostles must have felt when they could no longer experience Jesus directly. It was as though he had been spirited away, hidden in a cloud, raised to the heavenly realm. And, symbolically speaking, it took the appearance of two angels to bring them back to earth: “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?" The question sounds like a mild rebuke, perhaps serving as a reminder that Jesus had already taught his friends that he would have to leave them so that the Holy Spirit could empower them to be his witnesses across the Earth. In contrast, Matthew's Gospel ends with the commissioning of the eleven apostles; there are no supernatural events but Jesus does instruct his disciples to baptize "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit," promising to be with them always, "until the end of the age."
The Ascension, then, is not so much about clouds and angels but about the birth of the church. The task of the apostles is not to seek out Jesus of Nazareth, but to encounter the Risen Christ by continuing his work of spiritual transformation and healing. Empowered by his presence and by the Holy Spirit, they are to be teachers and witnesses. But this mandate is not merely for the eleven; as Christians, we are not to get lost in the clouds but to serve a broken world desperately in need of the Good News. Of course, there is always a need for contemplative prayer, but we are also called to be people of action, who -- through the power of the Holy Spirit-- can accomplish the impossible, setting the world on fire with the love of God.
QUESTIONS
FOR REFLECTION
* To what extent are YOU lost in the clouds and what are you seeking?
* In what ways do you live out the apostolic mandate to teach and baptize?
* What does the Feast of the Ascension mean to you?
* How do you experience the presence of the Risen Christ in your life?
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