Ascenscion Day, Scripture reading and Winner

Today is the day many churches who follow more closely liturgical calendars are celebrating Ascension day. I have finished reading about Lauren Winner's experience in an Episcopal church (author of Girl Meets God. I recommend this book, which is a very engaging spiritual autobiography of an orthodox Jew who became Christian in her twenties...she might be still twenty-something, so it is a very recent account. I might blog about it more later).


I know I am possibly romanticizing another Christian tradition/heritage. It is easy to do for me, I am very dramatic and prone to daydreaming. However, the idea of a more set, disciplined form worship both on Sundays, and everyday with the reading of the Book of Common Prayer, something so ancient, so time tested, is intriguing. In some ways what intrigued me was what Winner wrote in one particular chapter about why she chose the Episcopal Church, or Anglicanism. She said that a lot had to do with the way they read Scripture, they just didn't ditch all Christian authorities and writings, century old commentaries on scripture and other writings. they read scripture like the Jews read the Torah. This most intrigued me simply because my heritage is that of reading the Bible and coming to understand it for yourself. (and it is possible, sometime I'll write about a beautiful, fun story of the California surfer guy who found a Bible on the beach)
Obviously growing up others taught me Bible lessons and told me the stories (and what to believe or not) but once you are somewhat more mature and able to read and comprehend more on your own, you are expected to just 'know' what the Bible says. Well I can read the Bible, and I can tell you what it says, but I am often confused exactly what it means. There is the literal meaning, which is important to take down first, but then there is more, the allegorical and something else. Lauren Winner explains all this much better, for she is far more of an accademic intellectual than I am (bit of a snob, but I know she wont' take any offense! I think she is lot like my mom in the fact that she reads all the time and reads almost anything and I think my mom is the best!). Now, I think it is great that I can read the Bible on my own, and I should stop typing and do that very thing since I don't do it much at all. What I am saying is that this is very interesting way of putting things, something I have never thought of before. Aren't 'study' Bibles designed to enlighten us since there are thousand of years that separate us from the time the Bible was written and our own mindset and culture and understanding? Furthermore, they used much more allegory than we do nowdays as well. Don't we need help in reading these passages? It's hard to know exactly, I don't think we should be extreme as in some Christian traditions who believe only the Priest can explain things for you, reading the Bible wouldn't do you any good (The Bible, one of the 'banned' Books of the Pope for centuries). But then again, I don't think I can expect to understand EVERYTHING (esp. not the OT).

Sooooooo...................going back to Ascension Day. I guess those churches are gathering together to read about Jesus' return to Heaven to be with His Father. I think the idea of celebrating every year these important marks of the gospel story is very meaningful in the way we keep 'reminding ourselves', and for me, a very disorganized person and undisciplined in all things, it is a way to keep feeding me the food I need the most. The Story. And even on those days I don't feel an once of faith or 'spiritual' savoir faire, the tradition, the discipline of going to church, sitting, kneeling, standing, repeating, listening, singing certain hymns, reading certain verses...maybe I won't 'feel' God, the Spirit, but I will be blessed by know, yes HE still is here. Even when I can't see or feel or want, I will...because it is about bending the will "not mine but thy".
Thinking this way has made me see my own traditions at Church in a much better light. Reading about another and how interested it made me in them, I realized I can do the same with my own small ones, they are downplayed in my heritage (although very present and imporant to some), however I can take them in and let them help me in being more 'present', disciplined in my worship approach, bending my will, telling myself "M. I know you want to think about that movie and what you would have the President say and how you would conduct the sermon this morning, but focus: this is about GOD, not you. You made a promise to Him. Worship Him. Give Him honor. Think, talk, let it be about Him. Give your sacrifice of praise."

The best part of a day like today...I can look up into Heaven, imagine Him going home, and then daydream about Him coming back down. Every time I see rays of sunshine flowing from Heaven, through big cotton like clouds, I think...maybe today...maybe this is the day He'll come back, just like He went up.

Happy Ascension Day!