The Mystery of the Ascension

The Mystery of the Ascension
Ascension Day: Acts 1:1-11, Luke 24:44-53
There on the mountain top they find him gone –
gone up, gone out, drawn in beyond our sight.
Some doubt, some worship, hide and wait, move on;
some wish to stay forever on the height.

Was incarnation nothing but a play?
Is God restored to God’s transcendent state
where human flesh no longer has a say?
Some judge God dead or tardy as they wait.

Is God now absent, or so deep within
our world, that we can live Christ’s way?
Are we abandoned, or made more akin?
Do we become Christ’s body in our day?

No techno-marvel, nor a magic wand,
transported Jesus to some other place:
whatever happened draws this world beyond
the bounds of finite life and time and space.

How limited our skies and straining eyes!
We peer beyond this day and night of earth;
beyond the cloud we guess at God’s surprise:
Christ’s Second Coming, New Creation’s birth.
	Barbara Messner (2005?)