Memorial of Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Lectionary: 439

If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.

When I was a boy a neighbor kid told me that Heaven was inside the moon. It made sense to me. Heaven was supposed to be up in the sky and the moon was up in the sky; ergo, the moon is heaven.

    Not long after that a Russian cosmonaut reported that he was high in the sky and he saw nothing resembling heaven. When American astronauts looked down they saw a place that was unutterably beautiful but they hesitated to call it heaven.

    Saint Paul used traditional images to describe Christ seated at God's right hand; it was up there above the heavens. Ezekiel, among other prophets, had seen the Lord God Almighty roaring around the heavens in an angelic chariot. Daniel saw one like a son of man approach the One Seated on a Throne in the sky.

    When the highest human structures were stone towers and the heights were mountain tops it made sense that God should be up there in the highest places. The author of Genesis mocked human arrogance when he described God's coming down from his high place to get a look at the Tower of Babel, and further down to confuse their language. No one had ever seen the Earth from above before the inventions of hot air balloons, airplanes and spacecraft.

    Now that we have been there, that air travel has become commonplace, it's more difficult to imagine exactly where Christ is seated at God's right hand.

    Most of us handle that shift pretty well; the more difficult one is to understand Saint Paul's exhortation, "Think of what is above, not of what is of earth."

    Saint Augustine apparently considered hunger, thirst, cold, weariness, fear, anger, sexual desire and desires in general as things of earth. The Christian ascetic, like the Greek stoic, should rise above such things.

    In many ways that neo-Platonic attitude denied the mystery of the Incarnation. Christians supposed that Jesus had not suffered those weaknesses; or he had certainly not let them overcome him. Even sadness seemed a betrayal of faith as graveside mourners urged each other not to weep or cry. "Be strong!" they said.

    In Vietnam, when soldiers died their comrades would say, "It doesn't matter," as they suppressed their grief and horror.

    In recent years we have seen a change of heart about human emotion. Philosophers have moved beyond stoicism and idealism as psychology discovered the cost of repressed feelings. Like the proverbial whack-a-mole, suppressed anger reappears as fear, hate or lust.

    Even Christian ministers have begun to recognize human feelings first in themselves, then in Jesus, and finally among their disciples. We finally notice that Jesus wept, Jesus got angry, Jesus could flirt with women, and Jesus could feel despair. He is, after all, one of us, a chip off the old block!

    In the face of irrepressible human feelings, what does it mean to, "Think of what is above, not of what is on earth?"

    I suppose it begins with the assurance that the Lord God of Heaven and Earth has looked upon you and me with the human eyes of Jesus. He has loved us with the affection of a son or brother, nephew or neighbor. As a child he has looked up at us and admired our courage and generosity in the face of adversity.

    And he has recognized our fearfulness, anger and sadness because he has felt them too; he cannot condemn those who feel as he felt. He has been caught by surprise, as when a centurion asked for his favor and a pagan woman demanded a cure. He has laughed at what was funny -- the Pharisees who strutted about town with their fat bellies and their arrogant manners -- and assured us we can be irreverent at times. He has withdrawn in the face of danger, as when he heard that John the Baptist had been murdered.

    In the Gospel of John, Jesus says that those who are born of the Spirit are born from above.

The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes...

Christians are impelled by the spirit as a sailboat is impelled by the wind. We may not know where it is leading us but we're sure it comes from God. The Spirit of Jesus teaches us to trust our natural feelings of compassion for others, courage in the face of fear, and generosity in the face of need.