A May Update

It is the end of May and my PhD thesis is progressing at a good
pace. I finished a draft of the ninth chapter, the last one, near-
ly two weeks ago. Just the other day I met with my supervi-
sor to go over the chapter. He was pleased with my progress
and identified some things for me to work on.

During the past two weeks I have been preparing to give a
fairly good draft of nine chapters and the introduction to my
supervisor in the first week of June. Both my supervisor and
I need to read the whole thing through (minus the conclusion)
in order to see how the argument flows.

Depending on his observations and suggestions I plan to spend
most of June and all of July (while my supervisor is on vacation)
preparing the thesis for submission sometime in August. We
have set September 1 as the latest date for submitting my thesis.
At this point we both don't see any major problems with my work.

The oral defense of my thesis has been set for some time in No-
vember. It is composed of one professor from the university and
another professor from outside St. Andrews. The latter profes-
or, Andrew Kirk from Birmingham, is not available until then. I
had hoped for an earlier date, but that was not possible.

I will be narrowly focused on my thesis until I submit. I don't
spend all day working on my thesis, but it does seem that I
spend the whole day thinking about it. I can imagine that
other people see me as being being rather boring. There still
is a considerable amount of hard work to be done in order to
make the thesis flow smoothly and make sense. I have been
like this since last February, and I expect I will be this way for
three more months. But the end is now in sight.

I would appreciate you remembering me in your thoughts and
prayers.

The Ascension of the Lord Jesus

Today, Thursday, May 17, is Ascension Day. It is a public holi-
day in the Scandanavian countries, Germany, and the Nether-
lands. But it is hardly noticed in Britain and North America ex-
cept by Roman Catholics and Episcopalians.

But Ascension Day is as important as Christmas, Good Friday,
Resurrection Sunday, and Pentecost because on each of those
days we remember that God did something marvelous and a-
mazing. On Ascension Day we remember that the resurrected
Jesus, in the presence of His apostles and disciples, ascended
bodily into Heaven.

Jesus' Ascension took place forty days after He was resurrect-
ed. During those days He preached, taught, and was among His
disciples and apostles. You can read biblical accounts of Christ's
Ascension in Acts 1:6-11, Mark 16:19, Luke 24:50-51, and Eph-
esians 4:7-13. We also affirm His Ascension whenever we con-
fess our faith as expressed in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds.

We believe that Jesus ascended into Heaven in order to sit at
the right hand of the Father. This means that He rules over
all of creation with majesty and power as King of Kings and
Lord of Lords. He intercedes to the Father on our behalf, pre-
pares to return to take us home, and has sent His Spirit as He
had promised.

In the Act's account, Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would
come upon the Church so that we would be empowered to be
His witnesses to all the world. So we look forward to Pentecost
in ten day's time. Two angels declared that Jesus would one
day return to us just as He had ascended into Heaven. And so
we look forward to Jesus Christ coming again as King of Kings
and Lord of Lords.

Come, Lord Jesus!

Lingering Resurrection Glory

Here it is, the fourth week of Easter, and I am still soaking in
the lingering glory of Resurrection Sunday. All during Holy
Week (the seven days beginning on Palm Sunday and running
through to Easter Sunday) God's people heard, saw, tasted,
sang, spoke, confessed, viewed dramatizations, imagined, re-
flected, meditated, and heard heart-stirring music about the
person and work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. I feel like I had
feasted at a seven course royal banguet and since then haven't
had the desire to eat.

Late on the night before Easter a small, intimate group of us met
in an historic Presbyterian church in town. We sang an ancient
Christian hymn of Christ's resurrection and greeted the Risen
Christ at midnight. On Easter Sunday I joined with others at
my home church to praise God for what God had done in Jesus
Christ. Later that day I enjoyed a wonderful nap in the after-
noon before joining dear friends for an Easter dinner and relax-
ation. Sadly, earlier that afternoon I learned that a special cous-
in had passed away the day before. As another special cousin
explained it, as a believer he experienced his first full day in
Heaven on Easter!

But for me the highpoint of Easter Day and of Holy Week was
the sunrise Easter service held on a promontory overlooking
the North Sea. Over two hundred of us from various churches
in town gathered on the site of an ancient church where Chris-
tians have met to worship God for over twelve hundred years.
We sang songs of praise, prayed, and heard proclaimed the
Good News of the Risen Christ. Then we made are way to the
nearby grounds of the 'younger' Cathedral raised up nearly
nine hundred years ago, but reduced to ruins in the sixteenth
century. The bread and the cup of the Lord's Supper were wait-
ing for us on the foundation of the high altar of the ancient cathe-
dral, once a great pilgrimage destination in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries. Then we passed the cup and the bread from
hand to hand, to everyone in the group.

I couldn't help but sense the sacredness of the time and space.
Truly we were on holy ground. As I stood there I reflected on
women and men of centuries past who had stood in the same
spots where we were standing: disciples of Colomba from Iona,
medieval serfs and monks, pilgrims from near and afar, fiery
and fired-up reformers, worn out fishermen and their famil-
ies, hard working and hardly working students and towns peo-
ple, and even golfers. Indeed, I sensed the communion of the
saints. I also had a deep sense of being in communion with peo-
ple all over the world who were meeting that very day to wor-
ship the Living Christ.

After the services people gathered for bacon rolls and warm
drinks. I took my time joining them and slowly worked my way
along the bluffs, pondering Christ's resurrection. I soaked up the
warmth of the rising sun and I felt the gentle touch of the sea
breeze upon my skin. There was something magical about the
light: it seemed to radiate a golden glow upon the earth that
heightened the colors of things. The sea and sky were a majes-
tic blue, and there were dazzling yellow flowers clinging to
green-covered bluffs. The sea was gentle, and waves gently lap-
ped up upon the beach below. Birds glided on air currents above
me and made their own kind of music. I will never forget that.

In it all I pondered the mystery of the faith: Christ has died,
Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

Blessings to you and yours.