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.”
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.”
June 5,
2011
Ascension Sunday
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]
