Ascension 2011, Infinite Wishes

Ascension

John 16: 24-33

Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name. Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart, that your joy may be fulfilled.

All this I have given to your souls in imagery. But the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in pictures, but will tell you openly and unveiled about my Father, so that you can grasp it in full, knowing consciousness. Thus will I proclaim to you the being of the Father. On that day you will ask out of my power and in my name. And no longer will I ask the Father on your behalf. For the Father himself will love you because you have loved me, and have known in your hearts that I have come forth from the Father. I have come forth from the Father and I have come into this world.

I leave the sense world again and return to the world of the Father, of which you say that it is the world of death.”

Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking in clear thought and without imagery. Now we know that all things are revealed to you and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

Jesus answered, “Do you now feel my power in your heart? Behold, the time is coming, and has already come, when you will be scattered, each to his own loneliness. You will then also leave me alone. But I am not alone, for the Father is eternally united with me.

All this I have spoken to you so that in me you may find peace. In this world you will have great fear and hardship. But take courage. I have overcome the world.”

Ascension Sunday

June 5, 2011

John 16: 24-33

Often in fairytales, someone is granted three wishes. How these wishes are granted depends on the character of the person wishing. In one tale, a husband and wife are granted three wishes; but the two exist in such disharmony that they squander their wishes on nonsense. In another tale, a fisherman has to ask for more and more for his prideful wife who wants more and more power and status; at last the bubble bursts and they find themselves back where they started.

At a certain point it usually occurs to older children that their third wish would be to have every subsequent wish come true. Yet we know that a child has not yet the wisdom to handle that kind of power.

Christ says to us: Pray, ask from the heart and it will be given to your heart, that your joy may be fulfilled….Ask out of my power and in my name. John 16: 24, 26.  Here we are being granted infinite wishes! But there is the caveat of wisdom—we must ask out of Christ’s bestowing love and in accordance with the Father’s lawfulness. We must align our wishes with the laws that lead toward the future of the universe.

We ask: lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from the evil. Not my will, but Thine be done.  Luke 22:42  In so doing, we are asking from a place of wisdom. We are asking from the place where all the red threads of human destinies join together. We are asking from the center of Christ’s heart, from the central place in the universe. We may ask where that place is; the poet answers:

Your kingdom of heaven, oh Man, is where you believe and love.

The ascension happens the more you practice love….

You seek Jesus Christ—he thrones not high and far;

He makes the earthly realm into His Love’s Star.[1]

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[1] Rudolf Meyer

www.thechristiancommunity.org