Ascension Day for Modern People - the Overview Effect

May 8, 2016

Ascension Day

The Ascension of Jesus into heaven is a tricky story for us modern people.  We imagine, maybe, the medieval religious art that shows Jesus wearing his white robe floating up into the sky above the astonished disciples, emerging above the clouds.  

Or, maybe instead, we imagine it more like a scene from Star Trek: “Beam me up, God!”  

In the early Church’s world view, this story would have made more sense.  Back when people understand the world to be flat and hadn’t yet explored the heavens with space shuttles and satellites and telescopes.  It’s harder now to take this story seriously.  We’ve been above the clouds - we know what’s up there. 

Luckily for the modern Church, the Feast of the Ascension falls 10 days before the Feast of Pentecost, which means it’s always on a weekday and is pretty easy to skip.  We can go straight from Easter and the post-resurrection stories to Pentecost and never have to worry about Jesus floating overhead.  But I’ve been thinking lately that maybe we miss something that way.  And so, like it or not, here we are today, celebrating the Ascension a few days late, sitting with these stories as Jesus’ feet dangle overhead.

Because I think maybe this story could be important in changing the way we see things, just like it was for the disciples.  

Maybe we can take our cue from the astronauts.

I learned recently about the Overview Effect, something that happens to astronauts when they go up into space.  Instead of being part of this planet, surrounded by particular people and geographical markers, suddenly astronauts see the Earth from the outside, as something distant and other.  And what they see is this beautiful, small, fragile marble of life, hanging in the void of space, shielded and nourished by a paper thin atmosphere.  

They can see the effects of human power and greed and strife and disconnection on the earth — erosion, clear cutting, melting ice sheets.  But the boundaries that seemed so important with their feet on the ground — separation and competition between nations and peoples — no longer have the same meaning.  Astronauts report being shocked to see the earth like that and feeling overwhelmed by the dynamic and glowing beauty of the earth.  A vulnerable oasis in the middle of infinity.  And when the astronauts return from space, they find that their perspective of the planet and humankind's place on it has been altered for good.  They have an uncanny sense of feeling connected to everyone and everything on earth and a renewed sense of responsibility for the planet and those who share it.

Maybe it’s that sort of whole-scale perspective change that happens to the disciples at Jesus’ Ascension.

The post-Easter stories have show n the disciples to be fairly discombobulated.  They’d pretty much given their life and livelihood over to following Jesus, and then he died.  That wasn’t at all what they were expecting and they had no idea how to go on without him.  They weren’t sure what they were supposed to be doing, and so we see them hiding out a lot, returning back to places and pursuits that feel safe and comfortable.  But then Jesus keeps appearing to them.  Surprising them by showing up unexpected in locked rooms, by the seashore, walking along the road.  And he’s different somehow; it always takes them a while to recognize him.  Every time, they figure it out, and they’re excited to see him, but they still aren’t really sure what it all means.  And they still seem just as surprised the next time.

And then comes this story.  Jesus, we are told “opens their minds to understand the scriptures,” blesses them, and is carried up into heaven.

And suddenly everything shifts for them.  During the weeks after his resurrection, the disciples have been getting little glimpses of a new reality, but today they experience their own kind of Overview Effect.

Now there are lots of ideas about what Jesus’ ascension means. 

Some use the ascension story to emphasize Jesus’ divinity.  Jesus ascends to sit at the right hand of God, to be the ruler of the Church and the Earth.  The true Lord of all, in contrast with the Caesars of the world.

Still others promise that the ascension means that heaven is open to us.  Jesus is the first fruit, going to prepare a place for us with the Father.

Others point to this story to show Jesus’ availability.  No longer confined to one time and space, Jesus can be experienced anywhere, anytime.

Or maybe the ascension symbolizes the redemption of all humanity, as Jesus’ physical body, scars and all, is taken up into the person of God, forever removing any separation between God and God’s people. 

Or — spoiler alert for Pentecost next week — perhaps Jesus’ ascension was necessary in order to make room for the Holy Spirit that would enable Jesus’ followers to become Christ in the world.

The possible meaning that speaks most to me this week is that perhaps the lightness of Jesus is a reminder that we don’t need to grasp so tightly to this world - to the boxes we build for God, to the plans we have for our lives, to the expectations we have for those around us, to the stuff we amass.  And that we have someone to share the weight of all that lies heavy upon us — our battered souls and our shattered dreams.

I don’t know what the disciples understood theologically as they experienced this moment with Jesus.  Maybe it was some combination of all of that.  Maybe something else entirely.  But what we do know is that this felt like enough of a pinnacle of experience that the writer of Luke ended his Gospel with it and also began his sequel with it (the Acts of the Apostles).  And it was important enough that the disciples stopped living in fear and uncertainty and returned to Jerusalem.  Stopped mourning the loss of Jesus and wishing for the good old days and began living in joy and sharing that joy with others.  This experience changed their lives.  

Now they saw Jesus differently.  He was about something bigger than being their leader and teacher.  His importance transcended just their little community of believers or their geographical area or their particular place in history.  

And they saw themselves and the world differently.  Like the earth viewed by the astronauts, the disciples could see their humanity as beloved in its vulnerability.  They could see themselves as included in the dream of God.  And they began to know themselves as called to be part of actively working to bring that dream to fruition. 

I think this kind of Overview Effect can strike in lots of different ways.  For some of us, it might take some life-changing event to make us reevaluate everything.  For others of us, it might be about making space in our lives for the presence of the seemingly insignificant natural wonder of existence.  It might be an explicitly religious experience or it might look to outsiders as if it is entirely mundane.  It might happen here, in this very room.  Or it might happen when you are least expecting it.  But when it happens, once everything we think we know has been shaken up and turned on its head, once we realize that our eyes haven’t been fully open and our vision has been too small, then we can be carried up with Jesus to glimpse a God’s eye view.  And once we’re in that place, with our feet dangling overhead, then we’re ready for Pentecost next Sunday.