And to get to the root of these questions, we have to talk more about ducks. At this time of year, you're going to see a whole bunch of cute, newly hatched ducklings, waddling around being cute. Aren't they adorable? Yes they are. And you know they're adorable, too. You may say to me 'I don't really care about ducklings,' but I would consider that you're fibbing. I know you're fibbing, mainly because of the phenomenon of the mammatus clouds. Remember that day in Regina when the mammatus clouds showed up? Remember that day that we all went outside, and all took pictures of the same thing?
But nobody snaps pictures of full grown Canada Geese and goes 'awwww.' They have an adorable phase when they're tiny and yellow and fluffy and sweet, and then that goes away, and they become full grown monsters. They get big, they get loud, and they get mean. This is what the geese do, and how they mature. And we say of them like we say of puppies, kittens, ducks, that we wish they would stay small forever. We say that of puppies, kittens, ducklings, and gosh, human beings too. Why can't they just stay small and sweet forever?
But they don't and they don't for good reason. If a duckling, or a human being, was to stay small and cute forever, they would stay small and helpless forever. They would require their mothers to do everything for them perpetually, forever. That's the tradeoff. Think of dogs, because that's always a good place to start. People love puppies, but those puppies grow up eventually, don't they? And when those puppies grow up, they become less cute. You might love them all the same, but they're not as cute. So what we've done is to make the dogs small and cute forever. They remain tiny and small and purse-sized for all time. And we want that for all our stuff. This is why we have dogs like chihuahuas, which are companion dogs, toy dogs, dogs not designed for work, not designed for productivity, but just designed to hang out and be cute. That's what puppies are for with us, not designed to work, designed to hang out and be cute and adorable. And we've managed to do that with certain dog breeds for eternity. So when we ask ourselves what is the purpose for us being here, well, what's the purpose for these dogs being here? What's the purpose of ducklings? For Goslings?
The puppies are there to grow into dogs, to be shepherds, to be guards, to be guide dogs, or hunting dogs, to get to work. The ducklings are there to grow into ducks, the goslings are there to grow into geese, they're all there to get to work. They're there to be productive, to work, to get down to business. They do that when they grow, when they mature, and when they get kicked out of the nest.
When we think about ascension Sunday, it's the day when Jesus ascended to the heavens, and left his disciples there, still probably half covered with metaphorical yellow down, wondering what to do next. They were so used to being with Jesus, so used to him doing everything, so used to him doing all the healing, all the preaching, all the evangelism, all of the everything, that like ducklings, like puppies, they had no idea what to do next.
But the disciples weren't there just to follow around after Jesus like ducklings after mama duck forever. The great thing about ascension Sunday is that the readings stem from the end of the Gospel of Luke, but also the beginning of the book of Acts. And they speak about the exact same event, the ascension of Jesus. But in Luke, that's the end of the story, whereas in Acts, it's the beginning. It's the start of it all.
When the disciples are standing there at the ascension of Jesus, it's both the end of one story and the beginning of another. It's the conclusion of the chapter of Jesus being present here on earth, and the beginning of the chapter of the disciples getting to work, shedding the down, and moving out into the world to accomplish the work that they had been placed on earth to do. Not being puppies anymore, but becoming the workers that they were designed to be.
We are God's workmanship, says the scriptures, created by him to do good works which he has prepared in advance for us to do. We were made by God to get to work, to do his work in the world, to spread his gospel and to do the work that he has given us to do. And this is the same with us today. God has not given you a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of self-discipline. He has placed us here to do his work, and to carry the weight that he has given us to carry. And we weren't going to do any of this if we still had in mind that Jesus was there, mama duck style, to do it all for us. Then we were going to be moribund, weak, and disinterested in getting anything done at all.
So Jesus ascended into heaven, but gave his disciples a promise. Because it wasn't just that he was leaving, but that he was actually going to be more present than he was before. If you think about this, he told them that where two or three were gathered in his name, there he would be in the midst of them. So not only does Jesus make it possible for us to get to work without becoming moribund, but he has also promised to be present with us all. Whenever we gather together for worship, whenever we gather as Christians for devotional time, whenever we assemble together, Christ is there with us. So his ascension comes with two benefits. It gets us to work by kicking us out of the nest, and it means he can be in all places at all times, to be with his people whenever they gather.
So yes, why on earth are we here? We are God's workmanship, created by him to do good works which he has prepared in advance for us to do. How are we going to do this? Getting kicked out of the nest, shaking off the downy fluff, and becoming wise as serpents, and gentle as doves. Going out as lambs among wolves.
PJ.
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