paravanes:meditations

Ascension Sunday has fallen into obscurity and neglect in many denominations. I’ve posted about this previously, but I am still saddened by the trend. I am beginning to create a small, at-home worship ritual celebrating the Ascension and based on meditative readings of Acts chapter one and Revelation chapters one and twenty-two. The Ascension is important because it answers an important question: what happened to Jesus after his resurrection? The answer matters. The passage from Acts explains many things. One of them is this: Jesus is a supernatural person who arrived in an extraordinary manner and left in an extraordinary manner. Jesus will return in the same, extraordinary manner in which he left. Also, Jesus told his disciples to wait before rushing off into “the next great thing.” He told them some things were not for them to know at that moment. Jesus did, however, give them a glimpse of their futures. Jesus told his disciples they would receive po...

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.. –Acts 2:1-4 (NIV) Many doubters of God’s existence have said, or written, “If there is a God, why isn’t the existence of such a Being obvious to everyone? Why isn’t God’s existence and presence completely obvious and beyond question or dispute? Why is there so much mystery and uncertainly about whether or not there is a God? Why does God make humanity struggle in order to know Him?” One day, many, many years ago in a temple in Jerusalem (a temple visited by people of different languages from throughout that region), God’s presence was visible and obvious to everyone present. Th...