Tomorrow is Ascension Day, forty days after Easter, ten days before Pentecost. It is one of those major mysterious feasts that goes by almost unnoticed.
Today is the Eve of Ascension, a day on the edge. The daily morning readings follow the course of Leviticus 26 with the lesson that living in hostility leads to being consumed by hostility, and the importance of letting things rest, to not do so is to be consumed by hostility as well.
Then the readings shift as the evening approaches, from the daily themes to the theme of Ascension. Ephesians 1 with Christ gathering up all things in him, and Matthew 22 with Jesus being seated at the right hand of the Lord.
The readings tonight remind us of the Ascension of Elijah in 2 Kings chapter 2, in the fiery chariot. Elisha inherits the mantle of Elijah as well as his spirit. He parts the waters and crosses over to begin his ministry. The day ends with Revelation 5 and the festive, rowdy vision of a Universe consumed with praise as the Lamb that was slain comes to the throne and opens the seal that brings the new world, that turns the page.
Today we are on the edge of the Ascension. The edge where the mantle is passed along, of the Spirit arriving that parts the waters.
We are on the edge of things these days, the edge of opening things up, on the edge with those consumed by hostility, the edge of not knowing where infections will spike. Will we part the waters and cross over? Or will we stay in the land of the hostile who consume all those around them?
The wonder and hope of the Ascension is that it parts the waters, lifting all things up, to be all that we were created and called to be. We are being lifted and upheld, the mantle is being laid across our shoulders. There is the way of the Spirit, parting the waters to set the captives free, with the Universe consumed by praise. Then there is the land of the hostile who consume the futures of their own children. We are on the edge of these things. With Elisha may we cross over.
Fr. Jack