How long is your Hyphen?
Mark 16: 9-15
May 12, 1991
The late Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri used to complain of a disease found among his constituents. He called it, The Simples. This means they expected him to take problems that were inherently complex and find answers that could be written on a postcard.
I can understand the frustration of those who have this simples. They want the kind of answers you would give to a child when asking the kind of questions you would put to Solomon or Einstein. At the same time, I can identify with those constituents in Missouri. I too long to eliminate complexity, and wish to return to simple answers.
The same feeling is true for theology, the talk about God. Home for the simples. We will do almost anything to avoid looking at a difficult doctrine. And so in most pulpits today, the Sunday after Ascension, you won’t hear a word about this complex doctrine. Instead, there will be lots of talk about a secular holiday, Mother’s Day.
But let’s move in where fools often blunder and say something about the doctrine of the ascension, for it is important as far as Christians are concerned. Basically, the ascension is the day on which Jesus left his disciples. But if we are to go deeper than the simples, we must ask, what is the truth behind the myth? What is the learning behind the incident? What is the revelation behind the doctrine?
Most people either reject the story of the ascension out of hand as a fairy tale, or they become literalists or fundamentalists and begin to think of Jesus as the first astronaut. But that’s the simples taking over. A more complex answer is to see this as a story containing, describing, and illuminating an essential truth in our relationship with the Lord. The ascension as a doctrine never concerned itself with the body of Christ’s leaving; it only focused on the why. The ascension is a story of separation for a wider, deeper, more inclusive relationship. The ascension is a doctrine that enables us to go beyond the Jesus of history to proclaim a cosmic Christ
. Several years ago, I had the rare privilege of spending four days sitting at the feet of Bishop John Robinson of England. It was his last American appearance before his untimely death. Bishop Robinson was one of the most exciting theologians of the century. He constantly questioned, searched, and looked at every angle of those truths we tend to take for granted.
In one of his lectures he talked about how we get caught into thinking that God is up there, particularly when we failed to understand the ascension. Jesus left his disciples not to go up there but to be universally present to everyone.
The ascension reminds us that we have a universal Christ, a Christ seen in the face of Buddha, of Christ found in the acts of Abraham, a Christ for the new age as well as the old age. And the message from that story is that God does not confine it to Palestine of the 1st century, or to any particular place. He separates himself so he can be more closer, more present, in a more universal way.
Now some of you are saying, That’s interesting, but let’s face it. It is still Mother’s Day, and we certainly hope the preacher will say something about this holiday period and so, I will attempt to do something never done before in the annals of Christian preaching. Make a connection between the doctrine of the ascension and Mother’s Day.
This Mother’s Day, is a celebration of mothers, but it is also a celebration of the relationship we have to mothers, or might I say to parents in general. Therefore, as we think for a moment about this holiday, I would ask you to think about that relationship.
Doctor Harold Halperin has written a very helpful Cutting Loose. The subtitle is an adult guide for dealing with one’s parents. The challenge of the book is in perceiving our parents more realistically, and then being able to deal with them in an adult fashion. The book suggests the more fully we can see them and ourselves as adults interrelated with all other adults, the easier it will be to interact with them. We need to distance ourselves, yet at the same time feel a meaningful connection to our mother and father figures. Carlyle Marni, the great southern preacher, calls this process establishing a-so between you and significant others. This particular punctuation mark is something of a paradox. A- denotes both a connection and a separation, a certain distance and yet a certain relatedness as well. Bonnie says the question, how long has your-? It is really crucial when it comes to relating to other human beings. There is nothing guaranteed or automatic in this area. For example, I know some people who have never managed to establish any- at all, either they never get loose and remain embedded in their parents, or they go to the opposite extreme and rebel so completely that there is no-, just a long blank between their parents and themselves. These are two extremes where the basic relational tasks never get done.
Let me suggest that Jesus realized his disciples also needed to develop a hyphen. They needed to go through the same process as we do with our parents. And let me suggest that the story of the ascension is actually a story about why Jesus needed to act like a parent. The disciples, the followers past and present, as a result of this act, could then perceive him in a more realistic way
. Dare we say that Jesus made mistakes? Yes, because the ascension helps us to see Jesus in the cold light of reality. Dare we say that Jesus grew in his understanding? Yes, because the ascension enables us to look realistically and see how he changed. Dare we say that Jesus is the Christ for all time? Yes, because the ascension separates our dependence and leads us into seeing him as a universal figure.
I hope I haven’t been guilty of the samples for the ascension, like apparent food, is neither easy to understand, nor is it a child’s play to preach about. Yet on this day when we simultaneously celebrate Mother’s Day and the ascension, I invite you to look at your hyphen, for the hyphen Is a delicate balance between parents and children, and between this Jesus we meet in the gospel and the believers in the pews.
There, I did it. Both of these days may be different, but they both have hyphens, opportunities to understand our relationships.
Amen