Humans Desire to Ascend…But To What?

 It amazes me how much of the truth of our faith, the truth of God’s Plan, finds echoes, misleading and often tragic, in the world around us. 

There is a historic painting (there are a lot of historic paintings) of the Ascension of Jesus.  He is rising up into the sky.  I wish I could cite the artist in the one that has been converted into the post-modern 'artform' (Gen X snob here) of the meme.  Jesus is ascending and the caption reads “Help me you deleted for good taste...I am being kidnapped by aliens!”

I did try to track the meme down on Google, only to find that there are a lot of historic paintings of the Ascension that have been turned into a LOT of memes.  One had the caption and the soundtrack of NSYNC’s “Bye, Bye, Bye.”

There is a dark side to ‘ascending’.  In 1997, 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult were found dead in New Mexico, apparently seeking to ascend in conjunction with aliens at the approach of comet Hale-Bopp. 

I do not know how many times I have heard the expression in various media forms of someone making the observation “That is some next level deleted for good taste.”  Ascending being the rising up to the next level (however that might be defined).

There is so much fuss about what makes us human in discussions about our DNA, the biological building blocks of how we were created.  Apparently, there is talk of being able to ascend, rise up, gain some superior level, potentially, if we were to properly “activate” certain apparently inactive parts of our DNA.  So...a lot of ways 'up' apparently.

Maybe we can tweak the language a little, maybe speak of a spiritual DNA?  Common traits or aspirations of being human beings?  One of them is to ‘ascend’ (however that might be defined).  It might be defined as ‘transcending’, isn’t that what a lot of illicit drugs promise?  A ‘transcendent’ experience?  Or we seek to 'raise our station' ascend by the accumulation of 'wealth', be that stuff or prestige or honor or something.  Which leads how often to those in a self-defined 'ascended' station using their wealth and power in attempting to keep others from 'rising above their station’?

There are religious practices that are said to allow someone to ‘ascend’ to a higher level.  There is the cliché of pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.  There have been eugenic programs that have sought to create Uber-people (people who are bred to be superior to others, this is not the creation of ride-share drivers).  It has been the subtext of some of my favorite comic books, mutants with ‘super-powers’ versus those without who fear them.

Even in a sinful world, the truths of our faith are present, though changed and twisted by sin. 

The truth is that ascension finds its basis in Our Story.  Jesus prepares the way for us.  In His death and resurrection, He has borne the punishment for our sins, opened the way to forgiveness and renewal with the gift of salvation for all who call upon His name.  This Sunday, we remember that He has ascended for us.  But His work goes on, through all of us.  He continues with us, in the Spirit.  In His time, He will descend once again, to walk among us once more.  On that day, God will gather we who are God’s children and we too shall ascend.  In His time, Jesus will come to lead us home.