The Reverend Judith Sweetman writes:

May 2010

May is a favourite month of mine. It’s not just the wonderful May blossom, the greenly leafing trees, and the slightly warmer weather (hopefully!), but also that May is the month in which Rufus and I were married. I will always have that happy association, remembering how we stepped out, one May day, into our new life together.  

May is a time of great rejoicing, for Christians too, with two important, interrelated festivals which celebrate the beginning of new spiritual life. Ascension, on 13th May, celebrates Jesus being “taken up” after his resurrection, into a new life with God, and Pentecost, on the 23rd May, celebrates the giving of new life to Jesus’ followers, as the Holy Spirit descends on them, in the form of tongues of flame.  

There are many paintings and sculptures which attempt to depict these mysterious events and convey their meaning, and a favourite of mine can be found in one of the many small chapels set within the Anglican Shrine at Walsingham in Norfolk.  As you enter, the chapel seems like any other, with an altar and a painting depicting a scene from the Bible set behind. Out of the corner of your eye (as fans of the “new” Dr Who might say…), you suddenly notice something that is different. Looking up, you realise what it is – there is a pair of plaster feet protruding from the ceiling, surrounded by a plaster cloud! A very literal depiction of something that our human minds struggle to grasp. 

But, though it might make us smile gently, this depiction hints at the heart of what the Ascension means. The feet, with the wounds of the nails of crucifixion still clearly visible, remind us that Jesus is fully human, that he experienced all that human life could throw at him. The clouds remind us that, whilst fully human, Jesus is also fully divine, “the exact imprint of God’s very being”. Put the two parts of the sculpture together and you reveal the powerful message of the Ascension. That when his time on earth had ended, Jesus took his humanity - our humanity - right into the heart of the divine understanding, into the very heart of God – to be there forever.  

What does this mean for us? It means that God is not remote from our daily lives, our struggles and sufferings – and our joys - but feels them with us; that Jesus is one who “sympathizes with our weaknesses” having been “in every respect tested as we are.” And it is because God, in Jesus, knows our human condition, our human needs, from the inside, that he knows we need his help, to find, and make, our way through life. So it is, then, that we come to Pentecost, when God gives to Jesus’ followers the gift of the Holy Spirit. This was not just a one off “spiritual high”, a once in a lifetime experience, limited to Jesus’ first followers, but the pledge and promise of Jesus’ own faithful presence with us, and within us, forever – our eternal Comforter and Advocate – to support, strengthen – and to lead us ever closer to the One who loves us so much that he laid down his life for us.

The Reverend Judith Sweetman		  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Judith pictured with the Bishop, archdeacon and Father Philip, on her ordination to the diaconate, Chelmsford Cathedral, in June 2007.