Going Up

As I approached the church where I was covering an Ascension Day communion today I heard voices in the churchyard but couldn't see anyone. People of a nervous disposition should be assured that this will not be a ghost story.

Arriving at the church door I could still hear the voices loud and clear but still no sign of life. Then I thought to look up. Two guys were hanging from the tower by ropes working on the clock. I filed this under 'normal churchyard behaviour' although lead thieves are becoming more and more audacious.

Communion progressed without great incident until my sermon. Then, as I delivered a line about this being an anti-gravity sermon because on Ascension Day we learn that what came down must go up, one of the abseilers appeared at the back of church. He hadn't fallen; merely prusiked (I think that is the term) back up the rope and come down the tower stairs.

It's just that I could see him and nobody else could, except the choir. So the congregation wondered why the choir and I were chuckling.

And I had to admit that to have guys working on the tower on Ascension Day and to have one of them appear as a visual aid with high vis clothes, coiled rope and hard hat gave a bit of oomph to the laboured 'don't stand there looking into space' line.

Post Ascension, you won't find Jesus by climbing up anything. He's more risen than that.

Thought for the Day - Thursday August 8th

Delivered this today on the occasion of the outbreak of the Balloon Fiesta weekend.

 

Have you seen the Disney animated film simply called 'Up'? It's the adventures of an old man who, due to the demands of life, never got round to his ambitions.

 

But circumstances conspire to make him desperate and, rather than have his home repossessed, he attaches balloons to it and floats off on an incredible journey.

 

It's fun, it's moving and it's full of talking points. I defy you not to be tearful after ten minutes.

 

I loved the film but I'm afraid I don't do up. I don't like heights. If someone bought me a trip in a balloon as a gift I'd give it away. I get nervous on the kerb. I content myself with photographing the balloons as they drift over my house at Fiesta Time.

 

People have always been fascinated by up. In biblical times this was because the most up anyone had ever done was hill or tree. It left us with a body of writing that identified God with mountains, clouds and sky. Jesus ascended into heaven. Going up.

 

Today we still find people looking up to the heavens. Those goal-scoring footballers of faith. Noticed where they look?

 

Famously the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin announced that God was not there when he went into orbit. Yet moon-walking astronauts detected a creator in the cosmos. Up proved nothing. England and Australia seek it in opposite directions. Wouldn't out be better?

 

And, from time to time, things go wrong and remind us that up is still dangerous. We are not in total control. We fall.

 

The heavens declare the glory of God

The skies proclaim the work of his hands

 

What do you see?

Anti-gravity

This would have been cooler if I'd posted it on Ascension Day (that was yesterday, non-church's year-following readers).

Sir Isaac Newton told us why
An apple comes down from the sky
And so to me it's very plain
That other objects do the same
A ball, a brick, a bat, a spanner
All fall down in a similar manner
It is then very clear you see
That he discovered gravity.

I thought I'd let the congregation at the Local Ministry Group Ascension Day evening communion hear it first.

It had been on my mind all day with the juxtaposition of Ascension Day with Melvyn doing Newtonian physics on In Our Time.

Primary school teachers have a lot to answer for. Are there any further verses? Did I remember it right?

Still, what came down had to go up; and goes up must come down.