“The rule of the Son of Adam” (Ascension Sunday, 24 May 20: Doubletree-Hilton Hotel)

     Who’s in charge of Canada?  There are many possible answers to that question, but one answer is to be found on our 20 $ bill – Elizabeth II, the Queen of Canada.  When we enrolled as members of the CAF, we swore allegiance to Elizabeth and her successors.  Printing the image of the monarch on currency is an ancient practice – coins were the first mass media.  How do you know who’s in charge of a given empire – just show me the money!  In Genesis 1, human beings are created in the image of God, the Creator.  According to Genesis, we are the Creator’s currency – we are the evidence of who created and who governs the world, as well as how God rules his creation.  Today’s Psalm proclaims that God is the great King over all the earth.  This reality is described elsewhere in the Bible as the “kingdom of God”, i.e. the Creator’s rule over all he has created.  In Genesis, God delegates his royal authority to his human creatures – he mandates men and women to “have dominion” over his creation.  Humans are called to nurture the creation with God’s love and wisdom.  That’s the Creator’s intent and mission – to have his creation flourish and explode with life and vitality.

     That’s the divine chain of command: God – humans – rest of creation.  Of course, when the chain of command is not respected, problems happen.  When people don’t trust those above them in the chain, chaos erupts and no one knows what’s going on or who to listen to or what to do.  It didn’t take long before the divine chain of command was disrupted – the first humans decided to usurp the Creator’s place at the top of the chain and as a result, the entire creation became out of whack, disjointed, chaotic.  Paradoxically, in attempting to replace the Creator at the top of the chain, women and men exchanged the wise and loving rule of God for the wicked reign of tyrannical human rulers.  When authority is not legitimized by God, it becomes legitimized by naked power – “might is right”.  The entire creation has been suffering the effects of this disordered command structure since the dawn of time.  In his book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis captured this concept by describing the world of Narnia as being in an endless winter under the rule of the White Witch.  In order for Narnia to flourish once again, “sons of Adam & daughters of Eve” must ascend to the thrones of the land.  This is biblical theology – creation can only flourish when wise and loving humans who reflect the wisdom and love of the Creator rule over the world and enable it to fulfill its potential.  This vision of the cosmic chain of command places humans at the center – humans who worship and serve the Creator.  Biblical faith is pro-human.  In the Bible, there is no competition between God and humanity – God’s plan was always for human beings to have the place of prominence in his creation.

     This plan never changed.  Once humanity rebelled against him, God devised a strategy to get humanity back on track.  He chose one family to become his people – the family of Abraham which would become the ancient Israelites.  God’s plan was for his chosen people to become the start of a new humanity – a humanity that everyone was welcome to join – and thus bring the human race back in line with the divine command structure – all with the goal of the full flourishing of creation, the accomplishing of the Creator’s mission.  Once ancient Israel became a monarchy, God “adopted” the king of Israel as his “son” and promised that a descendant of King David would always reign over Israel and the world. 

So the divine chain of command became: God – Israel’s king – Israel – rest of creation.  Well, that was the plan.  As so often happens, God’s human partners let him down and don’t follow the plan.  Instead of bringing the solution to the world, God’s people Israel became part of the problem.  Now, Israel needed rescuing as well as the rest of humanity.  What was the answer?

     In a word – Jesus.  The Gospels present Jesus as the true descendant of David, the true king of Israel, i.e. the “Messiah”.  This brings us to today’s first reading.  St. Luke tells us that during a 40-day period following his resurrection from the dead, Jesus appeared to his apostles and spoke to them of the “kingdom of God”, i.e. the Creator’s rule over his creation.  (On Thursday, it was the Feast of the Ascension, marking 40 days from Easter Sunday.)  So, the apostles ask Jesus the logical question: “Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” 

At the time of Jesus, the nation of Israel had been under foreign domination for centuries.  Surely, if Israel was God’s means of getting his plan for humanity back on track, Israel had to be free and governed by a descendant of David, as the prophecies had foretold.  Jesus give the apostles a bit of an ambiguous answer, but the meaning is actually pretty clear.  Jesus says that the apostles will be witnesses to his resurrection – to the fact that he is alive – in Jerusalem and Israel, yes, and also to the farthest corners of the earth.  In other words – “No, there will be no kingdom-as-usual with the headquarters in Jersusalem, with Israel being the most powerful nation in the world.  Yes, there will be a worldwide kingdom of love, justice and peace encompassing all of  humanity – and you are the representatives of the new Israel which recognizes me as its King.  Through your testifying to the fact that I am alive, all nations will be included in the new humanity which will serve me, I who am the true human, the true image of the Creator, the true king of Israel and the true Lord of the entire created order.  Through your witnessing to me, the entire creation will be renewed.” 

The divine chain of command thus becomes: God/Jesus – those who believe in Jesus – rest of creation.  As our second reading says, God has shared his throne with Jesus.  This is the meaning of the Ascension – Jesus has taken his place “at the right hand of God”, the place of ultimate authority in the universe.  We can’t think of God without thinking of Jesus – Jesus is the incarnation of the Word of God who is God.  Jesus is God-become-human.  Since the ascension, Jesus is in “God’s space”, i.e. “heaven”.  Heaven is not far away up in the sky.  In Narnian terms, heaven is to be found through the wardrobe, on the other side of an invisible curtain.  From heaven, Jesus reigns over God’s creation, and we, those of us who believe in him, are called to make his reign become a reality “on the ground”.  If Jesus is our Commander, then we are the troops tasked with making his plans happen – his plans of love, of forgiveness, peace and justice.  Today, we remember what our calling is – to be agents of the rule of Jesus over all of God’s creation.  A “son of Adam” is on the throne of the universe, and we are his servants, entrusted with the mission of letting people know that Jesus is alive and that He is Lord, that he who rules over the world loves the world – gave his life for the world – and that he longs for the world to be healed and to flourish once again.  Amen.