The Ascension of the Lord – May 21, 2023
Today’s Gospel is filled with “in-betweens.” The disciples worshipped and doubted; Jesus stands between heaven and earth; the disciples are ordered to come to this mountain and go to the ends of the earth.
Liminality is never comfortable. We want to know whose side we’re on, which path to choose, and eliminate any gray areas. Sometimes we approach our faith and the faith of others in a similar way, leaving no room for doubt. Yet it is to such dithering disciples, masters of uncertain belief, that Jesus gives the great commission.
In this we can be certain: God embraces our worship and our doubt and meets us in Christ, wherever we are. Click To TweetWhen the entire mission of making disciples is placed in the hands of fickle followers, only Jesus, to whom “all power in heaven and on earth has been given,” can keep the entire Christian endeavor from failing. Jesus is the door into which we enter and from which are sent, whose incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension mends heaven and earth. Jesus is the Lord of betwixt and between as he transforms every liminal space into luminous assurance in the Spirit.
In this we can be certain: God embraces our worship and our doubt and meets us in Christ, wherever we are. Whether we’re up in the air or on the fence, burning hot with faith one day and cold the next, Jesus in the Spirit is with us always until the end of the age.
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