SALVATION: 7th Sunday of Eastertide (Ascension Sunday)

Part 6 of Eastertide

Luke 24:44-53; John 17:1-11; Acts 1:1-14
Ephesians 1:15-23; 1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11;
Psalm 47; Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35; Psalm 93

Ascension Sunday: The day for prayers for unity on the part of followers, and glorification by God for Jesus, as he takes off for Antares, promising to return in the same way he left on a day pre-determined by God, but not to be known by humanity. The roll is called among the remaining followers, who are reminded that everything written about Jesus in the Jewish scriptures and psalms must be fulfilled, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in Jesus’s name to all nations, beginning with Jerusalem. John’s Jesus claims his own glorification, while Luke’s Jesus confers “power from on high” upon the followers. Pseudo-Paul declares Christ the head of the church, which is his body, and the preacher using Peter’s name reminds the rest of us that our job is to be glad for our own oppression, and to watch out for Satan, who “prowls around looking for someone to devour. . .”

Having defended the legitimacy – if not the message – of the writers of Luke/Acts, John, and even the 1st Letter of “Peter” for seven weeks, enough is enough. Even though these writings undoubtedly served the purpose of providing a new “Genesis” for the new diversion from Judaism, there is no more reason to take any of it as relevant to the 21st Century than it is to believe the original 6th Century BCE creation story that kept the remnant of Judaism alive in Babylon. Repentance and salvation are the recurring themes of Luke/Acts, but “Repentance” as turning away from wrong or unwise action seems to be in short supply in the 21st Century.

The Planet continues its slide into the black hole of food and energy shortages, brought on by 1) a collective unwillingness to be concerned about anyone or anything beyond immediate and personal gratification; 2) an unjustified war of revenge perpetrated by a right-wing zealot determined to bring about the “end-times” that will precipitate the aforementioned return from Antares by the “risen Lord” and the immediate conversion of all those “sinners” still holding out in Jerusalem; 3) environmental conditions that may or may not be part of the natural course of global weather patterns, but which certainly appear to be directly related to human mis-use. The wealth of nations is flowing more and more into and through the deep pockets of the rich, who speculate on commodities futures, food futures, housing futures, as poverty rises steadily upwards through the economic strata, devastating the lower, middle, and upper-middle classes world-wide. Two percent of the population of the United States controls 95% of the wealth.

Even though the Elves divide 2nd Samuel Chapters 11 and 12 between Years B and C, the saga of the Great King David and his affair with Bathsheba is the story for today.

This time of the year is Beltane, in the old Northern European/Celtic/Pagan tradition. It is the end of winter, and the beginning of summer, just as its opposite six months later (Samhain/Halloween) is the end of summer and the beginning of winter. Spring is the time when kings go forth to war. In the saga of the great king David, the springtime surge in military action allowed David the opportunity to also engage in the worst excesses of imperial power. He seduced the wife of his loyal commander, Uriah the Hittite, then arranged for Uriah to be killed in battle. Nathan the prophet then tells King David a story about a rich man with many flocks and herds who slaughtered the poor man’s beloved lamb, which was all he owned. David is outraged at this gross injustice, and says that the man who would do such a thing deserves to die. Nathan says, “You are the man.”

This parable of telling truth to power has been applied to many situations of injustice for thousands of years. It is an archetypal tale of the mindlessness of imperial power, and the traps that participants in imperial systems can easily find themselves in. But in today’s climate in the United States, where injustice runs rampant among the poor and disenfranchised, where an unjust war continues, perpetrated and supported by lies that have long been uncovered and even refuted, prophetic voices that are raised in parable and protest are denounced and repudiated. When the story is told over and over again, instead of recognizing their complicity with unjust systems, the supporters of the empire scream “Bigotry! Racism!” From the Supreme Court to the bastions of journalistic righteousness, the guardians of democracy and liberation, freedom of speech, thought, and association, have sold out to the imperial theology:

Piety: “Faith” as “belief” in premodern cosmology; “faith” as “belief” in a resuscitated corpse; “faith” as the certainty that one religion (or political system) is the only true and legitimate one; “faith” as following the drumbeat of political expediency into

War. Ostensibly the war in Iraq is a war of liberation, but in actuality it is a war like all wars, of acquisition. It is a war that only affects the poor and disenfranchised, who have no other means of acquiring education, employment, and meaning for limited lives. It is a war that brings wealth to the suppliers of war materiel, but leaves the veterans of that war bereft of medical care, shelter, and the means of survival. War is not only military war. It is the war against those who would work for distributive justice-compassion: who would not just bail out the billion-dollar financial institutions, but would provide the greatest good to the greatest number with universal single-payer health care, affordable housing, relevant education, job-training, in short, equal justice for all. In these wars, there can be no

Victory. Instead there is only the prospect of continuing war, as “enemy” populations are devastated, and rise up again in desperate violence.

Peace – like Victory, is promised but never comes. There can be no peace where free thought and speech are prohibited through intimidation and deliberate misinterpretation. There can be no peace when peace depends on the politically correct and expedient answers to lies that have been told in order to justify war – whether foreign or domestic.

This imperial theology is a corporate sin that seems to be so much a part of the body of post-modern civilization that it cannot be treated or removed except by radical redemption.

The final choice from the Four Questions for the Apocalypse in this Easter series is the meaning of deliverance: salvation from hell? or liberation from injustice? And what are the radical acts that will ultimately redeem us – meaning buy us back – from the powers and principalities of Empire and restore us to God’s realm of distributive justice-compassion? To choose liberation is to turn away from reactionary retribution. To choose liberation is to radically abandon self-interest and love enemies. Loving enemies means interacting, negotiating, listening, accommodating to the extent possible without losing integrity. To choose liberation is to speak truth to power no matter where it is. To choose liberation is to acknowledge our complicity with injustice, which is nearly impossible to avoid.

The struggle is to learn to let go of the fear that keeps us trapped in the particular human hells of war, famine, disease and death; to trust in the kingdom that is available whenever we enter the silence outside of the theology of Empire: Piety, War, Victory, which brings only an uneasy, ephemeral peace.

Why is “the church” still standing around looking skyward?