6 Easter, Year One
[Go to Mission St Clare for an online version of the Daily Office including today’s scripture readings.]
Today’s Readings for the Daily Office:
Psalms 119:97-120 (morning) // 68:1-20 (evening)
Baruch 3:24-37
James 5:13-18
Luke 12:22-31
Our first reading today invites us to ponder the path between earth and heaven. All of the lessons prepare us for the Feast of the Ascension tomorrow. The first reading asks, “Who has gone up into heaven, and taken her, and brought her down from the clouds? Who has gone over the sea, and found her . . . ? No one knows the way to her, or is concerned about the path to her. But the one who knows all things knows her, he found her by his understanding.”
The answer to this question, “Who has gone up into heaven . . . and brought her down from the clouds?”, is, for us, Jesus Christ, the one who moved back and forth between this world and heaven until he gathered us all into the kingdom of God. Jesus moved between these realms not only in dramatic events such as the Incarnation, Resurrection, or Ascension. Throughout his life, he fully inhabited this world of suffering and beauty, and he transported all human beings into a realm of justice and peace.
Jesus Christ brings the concerns of earth to heaven, and the ideals of heaven to earth, until these realms are so enmeshed that we know God’s presence in every state of our being. Today, let us welcome into our hearts an expansive sense of the universe and a profound sense of worship for the one whose mission was to bring heaven down from the clouds and lay it at our feet.
Lora Walsh blogs about taking risks and seeking grace at A Daily Scandal. She serves as curate of Grace Episcopal Church in Siloam Springs and as director of the Ark Fellows, an Episcopal Service Corps program sponsored by St. Paul’s in Fayetteville, Arkansas.