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Sermons
“Imprint in the Plaster”
Sunday, June 5, 2011
The Rev. Peter Faass, Rector
Easter VII: Acts 1:6-14; John 17:1-11
Back in 1960 when I was in the first grade I recall doing an art project in our class. It actually was a project to make gifts for Mother’s Day. The gift we were crafting involved a disposable foil pie plate into which we poured plaster of Paris. We then quickly took both of our out-stretched hands and plunged then into the plaster leaving impressions of those little six year-old hands. These days I would need two extra large deep-dish pie plates to get imprints of these paws.
After we made our impressions each child took a Popsicle stick and wrote his or her name in the plaster below the handprints.
As we gazed on those prints with our names, I know that in our young minds, we were immortalized. To complete the project we were given a choice of paint colors; I remember selecting a royal blue.
Like any six year-old I was immensely proud of my creation. On Mother’s Day when Mom unwrapped the pie plate she, like any good mother, acted as if I had just presented her with an original Monet! That pie plate held a place of honor in our china cabinet for years.
I can only imagine what a mother or father thinks when their young child gives them a homemade gift like my handprints in the pie plate. I do suspect though, that a lot of emotions and hopes get imbued into that object. In some ways the homemade gift is a talisman of the child’s future, at least in their parents’ eyes.
Good parents imagine a life better than their own for their children. For some that means a life that is materially rich and vocationally successful. For others it means a life where the balance tips away from hardship and toward joy, self-fulfillment, health and happiness. Ultimately I think every parent desires that their child’s life have purpose and to be lived with integrity; in other words to be a life well-lived.
All of this is to say that all good parents want their children to ascend above the dross, turmoil and pain that life invariably presents.
I believe parents think all of these things as they stare at two, little six year-old hand impressions set in blue plaster in a foil pie plate.
Not long before she died between my second and third year of seminary, my mother gave me this little wallet card. On it is a poem by a man named Bruce Wilmer. It is titled “I’m Proud of You.”
“In many ways I’m proud of you-
You’ve come a long, long way.
The growth in your abilities
Has struck me every day.
Each person has a goal to reach.
A place they’d like to be,
A standard they aspire for,
Results they’d like to see.
Some contests are for glory.
Putting trophies on the shelf.
Others are the ones we wage
For bettering the self.
It’s not the stakes that count, but rather
How we sense our movement;
And you are on a steady course
Of rapid self-improvement.
The progress you are showing,
Makes me want to say aloud:
I’m happy where you are going.
And you make me very proud.”
I think in the months before she died, my mother saw in me, her son, a fruition of the emotions and hopes she experienced when she received my Mother’s Day gift. This wallet card was a way of expressing her joy in that fulfillment.
This past Thursday was the feast of the Ascension. One of our scripture readings this morning speaks of the Ascension event as well.
In the Book of Acts we hear about the metaphysical act of the Ascension event. [On the Mount called Olivet Jesus] “was taken up before [the Apostles] very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." - Acts 1:9-11
Mount Olivet is the highest point in the holy city of Jerusalem. Near its peak is the Chapel of the Ascension, which was built around the year 390 by Poimenia, a pious Roman woman. The Chapel marks the traditional site where Jesus ascended into heaven. In the center of the main dome of the chapel is a stone that purportedly holds the imprint of a footprint of Jesus as he made his ascent into Heaven.
That footprint of Jesus in the rock– the last bit of evidence of his earthly presence – reminds me of my little hand imprints in the plaster.
I know there is much skepticism surrounding Jesus’ footprint. But frankly it doesn’t matter if Jesus factually did a pole vault into heaven, leaving his footprint at this particular spot or not. It does not matter if the footprint is materially real or not. What does matter is that regardless of the authenticity of that footprint, there is a profound truth that is imbued within it.
Just like my mother saw in my plaster hand prints the possibilities and hopes for me and my future life, I see in the purported footprint of Jesus all the possibilities and hopes for my life that God in Jesus has for me.
Jesus’ resurrection and ascension symbolize his over-coming all the dross, turmoil and pain that he experienced in life. In turn that footprint becomes symbolic of Jesus’ gospel message to me that the same ability to ascend beyond all those things in my life is possible for me as well. They are possible because Jesus gives that ability to me through his life, ministry and most importantly his resurrection from the grave.
The theology of the Ascension tells me that God passionately desires for me the same things that all good parents desire for their children. God in Jesus wants me to have a life where the balance tips away from hardship toward joy, self-fulfillment, health and happiness. God in Jesus desires my life to have purpose and to be lived with integrity and ultimately to be a life well-lived.
During those hard times and challenging events that befall me, when I think that God’s desire for me is just an impossible goal to ascend to, God gives me hope that appears in one way of another. It may be a footprint in the rock or a pair of little hands in the plaster or whatever. God is not limited in sending us hope. It is there, I just need to be attentive to how it shows up.
Reflect on what those “How God Shows Up” objects are for you. The one’s that symbolize the hope of God calling you to ascend beyond life’s most difficult circumstances. Ponder on how God in Jesus continuously gives you symbols that imbue the possibility to ascend to a better life and to a life well-lived. The truth imprinted in these objects is both powerful and holy.
That truth strengthens us, helps us persevere in al things and sustains us for the journey ahead, regardless if we are a six years old boy or a woman in the last months of her life. Listen carefully as you observe those holy objects. Through them you can hear God’s voice saying, “The progress you are showing, makes me want to say aloud: I’m happy where you are going. You make me very proud.”
Amen.
