See The Son Rising!

See The Son Rising

“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief

“There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief

Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth

None of them along the line know what any of it is worth”

I recall vividly, sitting in the basement of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in a small, darkened theater, Kirk Alan Jr sitting beside me. I looked around at the handful of people watching and listening to the film-loop of Jimi Hendrix singing and playing these words of the Nobel Laureate. All the faces were white. I mused as to whether Hendrix ever imagined a roomful of white people sitting in a basement on the shore of Lake Erie in Cleveland, OH  spending their Saturday morning watching him play this one song over and over and over again. And then I try to imagine while looking up at the screen, listening to the soaring guitar riffs, wondering, wishing, hoping with the poet Dylan if there is indeed some way out of here, when suddenly two men in white appear beside us asking what is perhaps an equally good and important question, “Why do you stand looking into heaven?” Yes, why do we? When it’s all right here all around us, and still none of us know what any of it is worth.

The power of music and poetry always fascinates and surprises me. The importance of asking the right questions also fascinates and surprises me. For instance, Eric Bazilian penned these words to impress his girlfriend:

If God had a name, what would it be?

And would you call it to His face?

If you were faced with Him in all His glory

What would you ask if you had just one question?

And yeah, yeah God is great

Yeah, yeah, God is good

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

What if God was one of us

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Trying to make His way home?

Just trying to make his way home, back up to heaven all alone.

Nobody calling on the phone,

'cept for the Pope maybe in Rome.

It worked, by the way. She married him. The power of poetry and questions. So, according to the Gospel of Luke, dedicated to Theophilus, Jesus tried to make his way home sometime late Easter Day or evening, while the book of Acts, also dedicated to Theophilus, says it was forty days later. Scholars have no idea who Theophilus might have been, but the Koine Greek translates roughly, God Lover, Friend of God, of Beloved of God. It may be a stretch, but I like to think it is therefore addressed to anyone who is or would like to be a friend of God, be he or she up there, out there, or right here. These books are dedicated to us – all of us, because, of course, he was and is and always will be one of us.

The end of Matthew’s Gospel places God-Jesus right here, always, to the end of the age. So, which is it? Did he lift-off on a cloud leaving the disciples intently watching, wondering, What do we do now! Or, as Matthew contends, is he wherever two or three gather in his Name, here and now till the end of the age? Does he say, Stay here in the city until further instructions from the Spirit? Or, does he say, “You will be my witnesses starting here in Jerusalem, all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth!”

Thanks to the power of poetry and questions, it is all of this and more! Faith is nothing if not shot through and through with paradox and irony! I can almost hear my beloved liturgics professor, The Reverend Thomas Talley cackling, “Of course, sillies! He is here AND he is up there – this is not a problem for a God who wants to love us and seeks nothing more than our love in return – which means a love for all that he has created – seen and unseen -  including loving  the earth and all its resources, our neighbor, all neighbors, and our enemies, here and now.”

No need to find a way out of here. Here is where we are meant to be. It’s not meant to be easy. Loving one’s neighbor is one thing. Loving our enemies is quite another. Yet, the God who was, is and always will be one of us believes we can do it. Still, pondering his Ascension often leaves us feeling alone and not up to the task of such love. Early followers obviously felt the same way. Why else would the final words of the whole Bible be, “Come, Lord Jesus, come.” We want him back. To show us how once again Even though he promises he is with us always in the bread and the wine. He is with us always as we find ways to love our neighbors AND our enemies. He is here with those who struggle in our cities. He is here in our singing and in the people we meet.

We watch the Son rising, trying to make his way home, on up to heaven all alone. Even he does not want to be alone. Which is why, I imagine, he is still here to the end of the age. The power of poetry and music makes it all possible all at once.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come

See the Son Rising

See the Son Rising

See the Son Rising

He is here

He is here in the city

He is here in the streets

He is here in our singing

He is here in the people that we meet

Alleluia

Alleluia Alleluia he is here

Alleluia

Alleluia Alleluia he is here

https://youtu.be/sCB1Uawl65s