Church of the Ascension

The Story at Home

No body now but yours…

The Story
Feast of the Ascension
(transferred)
May 16, 2021

Acts 1:6-14

So when they had come together, the apostles asked Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.

Something to Do

Proclaim in word and deed the good news of Jesus Christ

This is one of our baptismal promises – committing us to speak up and act out in response to our faith. This promise is about giving witness to the love and freedom we know in God through Jesus but it is also about being the Body of Christ. Jesus’ ascension requires us to be the hands and feet and voice of Jesus in the world.

How will you fulfil this promise this week? What acts of love can you offer to the world? What words of hope and truth?

As you think about it, listen to this beautiful version of Christ has not body now but yours, attributed to a poem by Teresa of Avila.

a cloud took him out of their sight

Growing up on the prairies, I have always known that scenery is not only what happens on the ground. Whether you are going out for walks or sitting in your backyard or gazing out an open window, spend some time directing your sight upwards. Pay attention to the colours of the sky and the shapes of the clouds. What do you see? What do you find yourself thinking about?

Something to Wonder

Lord, is this the time…?

Do you consider yourself a patient person? Has your capacity for patience changed over the course of the pandemic? I know that many people are finding this latest “wave” particularly difficult because it feels like it should be time for all of this to be over and the sense of hope deferred is exhausting. How are you feeling? Are you able to release the desire to know the time or do you find that an impossible suggestion?

Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?

On the one hand, this is a ridiculous question. They are looking up toward heaven because they just watched Jesus disappear into the sky! On the other hand, perhaps it is not so ridiculous – how often do we look for God where we last saw God instead of paying attention to where God is going?

Where are you looking for God these days? Why are you looking there? Might you be looking in the wrong direction? Where else could you look?

Something to Learn

Teresa of Avila

The song referenced above is based on poem attributed to Teresa of Avila, a 16th century Catholic theologian, reformer, and mystic. Her gifts of spiritual direction continue to nurture people seeking to deepen their prayer lives and grow towards union with God even today. Unlike some of her contemporaries, Teresa did not teach a life of withdrawn contemplation but rather saw life in the world as connected to fullness of life in God.

Read more about Teresa of Avila:
Teresa of Avila: Carmelite mystic and feisty administrator
Teresa of Avila – on wikipedia

Read about Teresa’s great work on spiritual development: The Interior Castle
Read a brief excerpt from the most recent translation (2004), by Mirabai Starr, here.

“If you want to make progress on the path and ascend to the places you have longed for, the important thing is not to think too much, and so to do whatever best awakens your love. If you fall sometimes, do not lose heart. Keep striving to walk your path with integrity. God will draw out the good even from your fall.”

Something to Pray

Holy God, we do not always understand your word or your ways. 
Give us wisdom and imagination and courage as we learn and grow. 

The story this week has made me wonder about…
         (what questions are still on your heart?)
Receive my questions and help me hear your answers.

The story this week has filled me with…
         (how are you feeling?)
Accept my praise, heal my hurt, ease my worry.

The story this week has reminded me of…
         (are there situations or people you are thinking of?)
Be with all who are in need of you.

In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen.

Joy, Fruit, & Friendship

The Story for the
Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 9 , 2021

prepared by the Rev’d Rhonda Waters

John 15:9-17

Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.” 

Something to Do

so that your joy may be complete

This activity has two, equally important parts.
Part 1: do something or talk to someone that brings you joy.
Part 2: do something to bring someone else joy.

Delicious, Delicious Fruit

Pay attention to the fruit you eat this week. If you have the opportunity, eat fruit you’ve never eaten before or fruit prepared in a way you’ve never eaten before. Describe the way it tastes. Describe the way it makes you feel.

Something to Wonder

so that your joy may be complete

How would you explain or describe the joy that Jesus is talking about?
Do you have (or have you had) this joy? Do you know others who you think have this joy?

Go and bear fruit

What fruit have you been chosen to bear? Do you feel you are bearing that fruit? If not, what might be in your way?

Something to Learn

You are my friends

Friendship is a central relationship in the life and teaching of Jesus. What can we learn of the nature of God and of abundant life from the idea and experience of friendship?

These three articles are dense but readable:
Bonhoeffer and the Politics of Friendship – from Political Theology
I Have Called You Friends by Gail R. O’Day, from the Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University
Friendship as a Theological Model: Bonhoeffer, Moltmann and the Trinity by Manitza Kotze and Carike Noeth


Something to Pray

Holy God, we do not always understand your word or your ways. 
Give us wisdom and imagination and courage as we learn and grow. 

The story this week has made me wonder about…
         (what questions are still on your heart?)
Receive my questions and help me hear your answers.

The story this week has filled me with…
         (how are you feeling?)
Accept my praise, heal my hurt, ease my worry.

The story this week has reminded me of…
         (are there situations or people you are thinking of?)
Be with all who are in need of you.

In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen.

Crossing Boundaries and Embracing the Spirit

The Story for the
Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 2 , 2021

prepared by the Rev’d Rhonda Waters

Acts 8:26-40

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went.

Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.

Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.

As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. 

Something to Do

Look – here is water!

In my imagination, the water that the Ethiopian eunuch saw was nothing more than a roadside puddle although the text doesn’t actually give us that detail. Go for a walk this week and find water – whether in puddles, ponds, canals, or rivers. Read the story next to the water and rejoice that you and Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch are part of one great family.

Surprise!

From the perspective of the Ethiopian, Philip was like a surprise gift from the Spirit – showing up unexpectedly and bringing great joy. Can you send a surprise gift to someone this week? Drop a card in the mail or leave a box of cookies on the doorstep or have flowers delivered and imagine the delight on your friend’s face.


Something to Wonder

So he got up and went

Philip heard the angel of the Lord tell him what to do and “so he got up and went”.

Have you ever had such clear instructions from God?
If you have – did you follow them? Why or why not? How did it feel?
If you have not – how does that make you feel? Do you want them? Why or why not?

Do you experience God’s direction in your life? If so, how? If not, why do you think that is the case?

Ethiopian; Eunuch; Court Official; Inquirer

What a wonderfully complex character is given to us in this story. He seems designed to blur boundaries: an Ethiopian but a Jew (the first Gentile convert is identified as Cornelius in Acts 11); a man but not exactly; powerful but seeking guidance from a stranger.

What does his presence reveal to you about the nature of God? The church? Yourself?
Do aspects of his character make you uncomfortable? Do aspects bring you joy or comfort?

Something to Learn

The Ethiopian Church

The presence of an Ethiopian official in the areas around Jerusalem is in keeping with the record of the Hebrew Bible as well as non-Biblical evidence of relationships between the various countries and regions of ancient Afro-Asiatica. Given the realities of trade, political alliances, and family relationships, it is not surprising that religious beliefs and practices were shared. The western bias towards Rome has distorted our imagination of the region and the history of Christianity. Dip your toe into other waters:

Christianity in Ethiopia
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (one of few pre-colonial (way, way, way pre-colonial) churches in sub-Saharan Africa)
Church Unearthed in Ethiopia Rewrites the History of Christianity in Africa (from the Smithsonian Magazine)

Queer Theology

The Ethiopian eunuch’s joyful inclusion into the Body of Christ reveals the spaciousness of that Body and is often a textual touchpoint for people working to articulate not only a theology that allows for diverse sexual and gender identities but that is informed by them. Linked below is a sermon preached on Pride Sunday 2015 at Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal by my beloved friend, the Rev’d Dr. Donald Boisvert, in which he names and celebrates the queerness at the heart of Christian faith.

Such a Queer Thing
Queer: strange, odd, curious, unusual, peculiar, transgressive, subversive. Christianity is such a queer thing. Consider the evidence. A god takes on human flesh. A virgin gives birth. A saviour triumphs by being humiliated and made to die like a common criminal. A dead man rises from the dead. Turn the other cheek. Love your enemies. And then, in today’s gospel from John, my flesh and my blood will nourish you. No wonder Jesus’ listeners asked how he could give them his flesh to eat. It’s all so odd, and strange, and very queer indeed. Anyone for a little Trinitarian tango in drag?

Something to Pray

Holy God, we do not always understand your word or your ways. 
Give us wisdom and imagination and courage as we learn and grow. 

The story this week has made me wonder about…
         (what questions are still on your heart?)
Receive my questions and help me hear your answers.

The story this week has filled me with…
         (how are you feeling?)
Accept my praise, heal my hurt, ease my worry.

The story this week has reminded me of…
         (are there situations or people you are thinking of?)
Be with all who are in need of you.

In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen.

One Flock, One Shepherd

The Story for the
Fourth Sunday in Easter
April 18, 2021

prepared by the Rev’d Rhonda Waters

John 10:11-18

Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.” 

Something to Do

First – just enjoy some sheep

Take a look at the livecam from the Farm Sanctuary sheep barn and pasture. These sheep probably don’t bear much resemblance to the ones Jesus and his friends were familiar with but it’s as close as many of us are going to get to any sheep at all, especially these days! And it is a wonderfully soothing way to spend a few minutes.

Knowing and being known

The relationship the good shepherd has to the sheep is one of mutual knowing – as is the relationship between Jesus and his Father. Try this exercise of self-knowing and hold yourself up in prayer so that you might experience this relationship.

Make a list of 10 nouns that describe you (such as student, artist, gardener, man, Christian, book lover, daughter). When you have finished, decide which 5 are most important to your sense of self. Cross of the other 5.
When you have finished that, decide which of the 5 remaining are most important to your sense of self. Can you get your list down to 3 nouns? 2? 1?

Now do the same exercise but for God.

Something to Wonder

The hired hand runs away

The sheep should have been able to trust the protection of the hired hand – it was his job to protect them, after all. As it turned out, they were not his priority.

Have you ever placed your trust in the wrong person or the wrong thing? How did you realize that?
Where do you place your trust now? How do you decide?

What does it mean to place your trust in Jesus, the Good Shepherd?

I must bring them also

Our usual translation, combined with our self-centredness, often leads us to understand Jesus as saying he will bring those other sheep to our sheepfold, our home. After all, our sheepfold is the right sheepfold, is Jesus’ sheepfold.

But what if we are also being brought to another place, along with those other sheep? What if we are all being led, by Jesus, from wherever we are to someplace new?

How does it feel to de-centre ourselves in this way? What possibilities does it open up? What does it cost? How might it change how we live and how we interact with the world around us?

Something to Learn

Interfaith Dialogue

The Anglican Church of Canada and the Anglican Communion are both involved in a variety of formal dialogues with other religious groups, building relationships and seeking common ground as people of faith for the flourishing of the world.

Ecumenical Dialogue

Sometimes, it can seem easier to have conversation with people of other faiths than Christians of other denominations. After all, who can squabble quite like siblings? Here again, the Anglican Church of Canada and the Anglican Communion engage in deliberate conversations to deepen mutual respect and understanding, increase the effectiveness of our ministry in the world, and – sometimes – build formal partnerships of full communion.

Something to Pray

Holy God, we do not always understand your word or your ways. 
Give us wisdom and imagination and courage as we learn and grow. 

The story this week has made me wonder about…
         (what questions are still on your heart?)
Receive my questions and help me hear your answers.

The story this week has filled me with…
         (how are you feeling?)
Accept my praise, heal my hurt, ease my worry.

The story this week has reminded me of…
         (are there situations or people you are thinking of?)
Be with all who are in need of you.

In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen.

Risen & Embodied

The Story for the
Third Sunday in Easter
April 18, 2021

prepared by the Rev’d Rhonda Waters

Luke 24:36b-48

Jesus himself stood among the disciples and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you – that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” 

Something to Do

Hands & Feet; Mouths & Bellies

The Risen Jesus is adamantly physical – he touches and is touched; he hungers and eats. Pay attention to your own body this week. Stretch and move. Notice what things feels like. Notice what things taste like. Rejoice in your body.

Have you anything here to eat?

Some day, we are going to be able to have friends over for dinner again. Plan the menu for your first party. Make a version just for yourself – you know, for practice!

Something to Wonder

In their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering

Faith and doubt; joy and uncertainty – these things can co-exist. Where do they co-exist in your life and faith? How does their co-existence make you feel?

Risen and Embodied

Jesus’ incarnation extends past his death to his resurrection. Why is this such an important point for the Gospels? What does it tell us about the nature of Jesus? About the nature of God? About the nature of humanity?
Does it matter to you?

Something to Learn

Easter – 50 Days for Resurrection

This “Something to Learn” is a bit of a stretch but the video is worth it. Primate Linda Nicholls participated in a program called Pew and Beyond to discuss the year that has been and where she sees signs of resurrection even in the midst of the pandemic.

Something to Pray

Holy God, we do not always understand your word or your ways. 
Give us wisdom and imagination and courage as we learn and grow. 

The story this week has made me wonder about…
         (what questions are still on your heart?)
Receive my questions and help me hear your answers.

The story this week has filled me with…
         (how are you feeling?)
Accept my praise, heal my hurt, ease my worry.

The story this week has reminded me of…
         (are there situations or people you are thinking of?)
Be with all who are in need of you.

In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen.