Lady’s Slippers

Some of you will remember that when I came to Maine and St. Patrick’s a few years back, it was spring time. I remember that first spring I went hiking one day down in Acadia with Mary Ann Perry and Pete and a friend of Mary Ann’s. As we were hiking I saw a couple of pink lady’s slippers nestled under a pine tree along the trail. I wasn’t completely sure at first what they were. It was my first Maine spring, but just looking at them I knew they were special flowers. They almost seemed to have their own personality, subdued but beautiful, delicate but strong. It was Memorial Day weekend. I know exactly what trail we were on, and I can pinpoint fairly closely where we were along the trail. I have been back. To that trail. To those pine trees. On Memorial Day weekend. And, taking climactic variations into account, I’ve even gone back a week or two earlier or later. I have never seen those particular lady’s slippers again.

But maybe I’ll try again this year. The draw is powerful. I know that they must be there, and if I go back surely I will see them again. I will see that indomitable beacon of pink amid the darkness of the forest floor.

Imagine what it was like for Jesus’ disciples after his death. Jesus had died on the cross. It is hard for me to imagine what that must have been like for those who had walked with Jesus, eaten with him, spoken with him, touched him. Jesus had died. Jesus was dead and gone. But after what must have been three days of indescribable, paralyzing loss and hopelessness and confusion, they had seen him again. Alive. Alive and back present with them. Mary had seen him in the garden. The others had seen him, spoken with him, touched him as they gathered, frightened, in a room in Jerusalem. And Peter, Nathanael, Thomas, James and John Zebedee, and two other disciples encountered Jesus by the Sea of Galilee. While they were fishing. At dawn. He ate breakfast with them, fish cooked over a fire on the shore. He spoke to Peter. "Feed my sheep", he said.

In all of these cases, imagine the wonder and joy of the disciples. Imagine their feelings at having Jesus back with them. Imagine how powerfully they must have felt drawn to linger in those particular places, to recreate those particular circumstances in which they had encountered the risen Lord. Imagine their eager hope that in those same places, those same times, those same circumstances, Jesus would be with them again. And perhaps again and again and again, and they could experience the wonder, love and peace that Jesus’ presence brought to them. The garden, the room, the shore—in those particular places their beloved Lord, risen from the dead, had come back to be with them.

Had it not been for Ascension Day, Mary might still be haunting the garden waiting for another glimpse of her Lord. Peter might still be drifting the Sea of Galilee in his fishing boat trying to find just the right place at just the right time, straining his eyes towards shore looking for the familiar figure of his Lord. The disciples might still be huddled in that room in Jerusalem, staring blankly at the closed door Jesus had come through that first Easter day.

We commemorated Ascension Day this past Thursday, forty days after Easter. This morning’s lesson from Acts tells us that after his resurrection Jesus appeared alive on earth for forty days. And then, "as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight."

"As they were watching." It is important that the disciples saw Jesus ascend. They saw him leave the earth. Maybe you’ve seen some of the many paintings artists have done of the ascension. They often depict just Jesus’ feet disappearing up into the clouds. Although these pictures may seem absurdly literal, they do depict the point of the ascension. The ascension is all about Jesus physically leaving the earth. When the disciples saw him go they knew that they would not see him again in the flesh. Not in the garden, nor in that shuttered room, nor even by the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

And if this seems a very odd thing to celebrate—Jesus’ departure—listen to the collect that we, as Jesus’ disciples today, say on Ascension Day. "Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things; Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages…" Jesus ascended above all heavens so that he might fill all things. That is something to celebrate.

This Sunday’s gospel gives us another way to think about what the ascension means. In the Ascensiontide passage from John that we just heard Jesus prays that his followers may be one, as Jesus and the Father are one. Elsewhere in John’s gospel Jesus elaborates even further. "As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us… The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one…"

One scholar has written about these passages in John’s gospel: "The whole of the discourse has been exploring the manner in which Jesus would continue to be present with his disciples after the crucifixion and resurrection. Something of heaven, Jesus has been saying, would attend their life on earth. But one could put it the other way round. It was not only that life in this world would be transformed by something external, by influences from another world. Even more, Jesus says, human beings, while still in this world, could have an experience of heaven." Human beings may be one, united with Jesus, in the same way that Jesus and the Father are united as one, inextricably linked beyond all time and space. Jesus physically ascended above all heavens so that his heavenly presence might abide eternally on earth.

"Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things…"

All things. Not just one particular room in Jerusalem. Not just the garden of Gethsemane on one particular morning. Not just a fishing expedition along the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. All things. All places. All times. All people… may experience the presence of Christ.

We should not grieve that we were not there by the Sea of Galilee when Jesus spoke to Peter and the other disciples. We should not long to somehow go back to that time. We should not cling to those times and places in our own past where Jesus has been known to us. We may cherish them, but we should not strive to return to those past days or struggle to drag them into the future. Jesus was there, but he is here. Now. The brightness of Jesus’ light, the richness of Jesus’ love, the immensity of Jesus’ peace. They fill our lives now. "Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things…" All things. Today. Tomorrow. Everywhere. All things.

Maybe I have never found exactly the right tree when I have sought to go back to the same place where I once saw the lady’s slippers. I cannot believe they are no longer there. But over the years I have seen others. In many new places.  And I know I will find some this spring. Somewhere in the forest, I will find them.

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