"Hail the day that sees Him rise, ALLELUIA!"
If we're not careful, we run into that mindset that plagued even the first disciples: if only Jesus were here among us, if only we could look into His eyes, see His wounds, hear His voice, belief would be so much easier. But now we know, with the help of the Holy Spirit, that God's plan was best, that the ascended Christ is ruling at the right hand of the Father and through the Spirit can be with each one of us, no matter where we are.
Philippians 2: 5-11:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (ESV)
We caravaned out to the Pate sculpture, "The Ascending Christ," (at the St. Francis Cancer Treatment Center), where we completed our service as our pastor admonished us with these words from Paul and said our benediction.
In moments like these we are reminded of the importance of artists in our lives and especially in the life of the Church. Gordon T. Smith , president of Ambrose University, explains how artists remind us that all we see around us is not all there is. Artists lead us in worship when they create works of beauty that become the means by which the Spirit is revealed to us. The sense of the transcendence that artists like Charles and Charlie evoke remind us of how dependent we are on them to help our gaze to be fixed on the hope we have in Christ and not to get bogged down in the things of this world.
