Taking Highway _

Feast of the Ascension, Year C
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​Grant us, O Lord, the spirit of wisdom and revelation as we seek to know you, so that with the eyes of our hearts enlightened, we may know of the hope, inheritance, and immeasurable greatness of your power… Amen… 

    If you’ve ever stayed up late on a Saturday night before, flipping through the channels on your tv, odds are you’ve come across Saturday Night Live. 

    The comedy sketch show, now 50 years old, is so famous that even if you haven’t watched it, I’d be shocked if you hadn’t heard of it. 

    SNL was a major part of my teenage years, and one of my favourite sketches was a series featuring Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, and many others called The Californians. 

    It follows the internal drama of a comically stereotypical California family, complete with bleach blond hair, thick surfer accents, and exaggerated facial expressions. 

    In the midst of all their hilarious, soap-opera like feuds, the characters seem to approach life with ‘positive vibes’… very California indeed. 

    Perhaps the most notable running joke of the show is the way in which they talk about traveling - they always are giving directions, or telling people to get lost, based on highways - you just take the 1 to the 101, then hang a right on Sunset… 

    I recently spent a week in California, the Bay Area to be specific, when we went back to the place we once called home to celebrate Grace’s seminary graduation. 

    It was delightful to see friends and colleagues in ministry again.  It was also wonderful to get away from all this rain and dreary PA weather and bask in the sun. 

    The first day we were there we did in fact take the 101 to the 1, visiting the famous redwood forest, Muir Woods, and then stopping at Stinson Beach. 

    The road between the two, Highway 1, or ‘the 1’ as the locals call it, follows the winding and jagged California coastline. 

    The speed limit is rarely more than 25 MPH, and there are frequent places for cars to turn off, either to take in the beautiful ocean view, or to give their hands a break from white-knuckling the steering wheel. 

    The beaches were dotted with surfer dudes and kids just out of school, families on vacation and those quieter folks searching the sand for seashells. 

    It was a gorgeous day in a gorgeous place, with a drive full of exciting and daunting twists and turns.

    It was quite the journey, to be sure, a journey metaphorically similar to that of the disciples in our Biblical narrative. 

    The Ascension, which the Church commemorates 40 days after Easter (so this past Thursday) marks a moment in the post-Easter story of Jesus and His disciples. 

    They’ve been on a long journey, wandering the Galilean countryside hoping for healing, longing for liberation, manifesting miracles, and dedicating new disciples. 
    That long, winding road to Jerusalem took many twists and turns, though, as the powers of temptation and betrayal tried to change their course. 

    And the ultimate switch-back in the road came when Jesus Himself was arrested, beaten, crucified and died on the cross… 
    Their journey, so the disciples thought, was no longer of ascent up the mountain, no longer one of beautiful vistas, but was one that took a dramatic turn through the valley of the shadow of death… 

    In the post-Easter story, laid out for us in the Book of Acts, we’re told how the journey of the Church gets going again. 

    Jesus meets folks on the shoreline, around a fire, at a table, and bids them to carry on. 

    In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus sets His disciples back on course, opening their minds to understand the Scriptures. 

    God didn’t take them off-course, He took them directly where they were meant to go. 

    ‘Thus it is written…’ Jesus says, ‘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’… 

    Jesus puts them on the road again, leading them to Bethany, which is about 2 miles from Jerusalem, on the other side of the Mount of Olives. 

    It’s there that He ascends into heaven after lifting up His hands and blessing them…

    ‘And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God’… 

    The way we move about the great journeys of our lives, physically and spiritually, is a lot like following a winding road, a lot like taking the 1 down the northern California coast. 

    There are switch-backs that have to be handled carefully, because the jagged cliffs loom right over the edge. 

    There are moments of great excitement and joy, vast vistas and white sandy beaches that remind us of the majesty of God that is all around us. 

    But this last verse from Luke tells us something important, too. 

    The disciples, set once again on their path, but also awaiting the commission to go forth that will come on Pentecost, go and centre themselves in worship in the Jerusalem Temple. 

    If you follow the 1 south into San Francisco, and if you navigate a few blocks through the downtown, you’ll eventually find yourself going uphill again, to Nob Hill. 

    Atop Nob Hill sits Grace Cathedral, the mother church for the Episcopal Diocese of California, and a church that is one of many spiritual homes in my life of faith. 

    I had worked there when I lived in the Bay Area, and last Sunday I was blessed to be able to serve in the liturgy again. 

    In the midst of the busyness of our trip, of all the sightseeing and the people and places to see, we took time to stop, to pray and to worship, and to serve God in His holy house. 

    The response of the disciples to Jesus’s ascent into heaven is one that should inform us in our own spiritual journeys. 

    Yes, as Christians we are on great pilgrimages of faith - together and individually. 

    Yes, we are commissioned to go forth and make disciples of all nations. 

    But the primary obligation of the Christian is not to get caught up in the act of journeying itself, but to pull off the metaphorical highway, and to worship God. 

    One need not traverse the California coast to realise this. 

    We see the relevance of this metaphor all around us. 

    If you take the 522, or the 35, or the 11/15, you’ll come across amazing views, bends in the road, and more churches than I think anyone could count! 

    How often do we take note of the beauty that is around us in our daily commutes? 

    How often do we invite God to be present to us when our journeys take unexpected and dramatic turns? 

    And how often do we prioritise stopping to worship God in His house? 

    As we hope and pray for the Holy Spirit to come and be among us, we would do well to spend our time doing exactly what those earliest disciples did - continually blessing God in the Temple. 
    See, worship isn’t about entertainment. 

    Worship isn’t something to be fit into a schedule. 

    Worship is what the God of the Bible asks of us. 

    When we worship, when we pull off the busy and ever winding highway of life, we can receive in its fullness the spirit of wisdom and revelation, open and clear eyes of the heart, the riches of the glorious inheritance of the saints, and the immeasurable greatness of God’s power. 

    And when we have those things, we can go forth on our way with a new appreciation for the way God in the Holy Spirit moves in our lives and in the world around us. 

    Today, and everyday, I invite you to consider how the road you travel can be made a little easier, a little more breathtaking, by putting the worship of God at the centre of all you do. 

    May we all be so blessed to feel His Holy Spirit upon us, as the risen and ascended Christ bids us to go forth, loving and serving all in His name… 

        In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… Amen.