Yet the Church is Jesus

    What I have just longed for, nonetheless, is not only impossible; it is unscriptural. Jesus planned from the beginning to die so that we his church could take his place. ("Once again," as Robert Farrar Capon reminds us, "God was--and still is--throwing sinkers.") He stayed just long enough to gather around him followers who could carry the message to others. Killing Jesus, says Walter Wink, was like trying to destroy a dandelion seed-head by blowing on it.
     The church is where God lives. What Jesus brought to a few --healing grace, the good-news message of God's love--the church can now bring to all. "Unless a kernal of wheat falls to the ground and dies," he explained, "it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds"(John 12:24).
     As I worked through the Gospels I concluded that the Ascension represents my greatest struggle of faith--not whether it happened, but why. It challenges me more than belief in the Resurrection and other miracles.
     It seems odd to admit such a notion--I have never read a book or article designed to answer doubts about Ascension--yet for me what has happened since Jesus' departure strikes at the core of my faith. Would it not have been better if Jesus had stayed on earth to direct us?
     "It is for your good that I am going away," Jesus told his disciples, who had the same question. "Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you"(John 16:7). I find it much easier to accept the fact of God incarnating in Jesus of Nazareth than in the people who attend my local church and in me. Yet that is what we are asked to believe; that is how we are asked to live. Jesus played his part and then left. Now it is up to us, the body of Christ.