Nobody
likes goodbyes…
That’s
something I acknowledge whenever I stand with mourners at a funeral.
Goodbyes
hurt, even when you understand exactly what is going on.
How
much more so for the disciples who have had the roller coaster
experience of losing Jesus, in his death on the cross, finding him
again as he walked beside them in his resurrection life, and
then…..oh no…..losing him once more with no date set for his
return to them.
They
had his promise, true enough…but whatever they may have hoped,
there was no certainty that God’s timing would match their
lifetimes
So
this feast is a strange celebration.
We
celebrate the loss of Jesus from the Earth – the end of his earthly
bodily ministry.
BUT
– if we read the Gospel for this evening again it doesn't seem that
the disciples were particularly glum! In fact the reading we had
from Luke’s Gospel, chapter 24 ends with these verses (V 51-53)
“While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried
up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem
with great joy, and they were continually in the temple blessing
God.”
That
sounds OK, actually.
Light
years away from a family returning home to deal with a newly empty
place at the table.
They
returned to Jerusalem WITH GREAT JOY.
What
had happened?
It
seems that, as they obeyed the angels and turned their gaze back from
the clouds to engage with the world once more, something shifted
inside them.
They
were now people of purpose.
They
had been disciples, - students learning from the Master.
Now
they were apostles – people sent by him, people who knew their
calling, their God given task in the world and trusted that God would
indeed equip them to fulfil it.
Before
being taken to be with God (however that was accomplished) Jesus
charged the Apostles to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.
Witnesses
– those who had seen and who were to proclaim the good news that
Jesus himself had proclaimed, those who were to live and act as Jesus
had, those who were to be Christ-like in the world.
Ascension
day is, if you like, the moment when the baton passes from Jesus to
the twelve.
And
because they were in no way up to the task, Jesus made them another
promise the promise of ‘power from on high’ – the gift of God’s
Holy Spirit, the comforter, the advocate, the helper. The Spirit was
to be poured out in a new way, to give authority and power to their
message and equip them for all they were to do.
That
is why they weren’t torn by this parting – Jesus was leaving, but
he was staying.The Spirit would bring that sense of Christ into every
moment, to hallow each second of every day.
The
last thing that Jesus did before he ascended was to bless that little
group huddled on the hillside.
He
blessed them, not to remain there but to go and do his work in the
world
That
was their mission.
That
is our mission.
We
are to get on with letting the world know who Jesus is, what God has
done in Him, in the amazing power of the Holy Spirit.
The
baton has passed to us
To
the congregations of our Stroud Ministry Team -with all our anxieties
and shortcomings, all our lost opportunities and our dreams and
visions of a new kind of tomorrow.
WE
are the ones charged with building the Kingdom in our community –
starting from now.
We
probably don't feel adequate...and by most yardsticks we probably
aren't.
But
God has given us all the gifts that we need in order to BE his Church
in this place...We can do more together than we would ever have
managed alone...for the whole is most definitely greater than the sum
of its parts.
We
won't always appreciate or value one another's contributions. Change
is hard, and there will be compromise and sacrifice ahead. We may
sometimes wish we could just go it alone and there may be times, too,
when we would love to go back to that hillside in Galilee......to
fix our eyes on the middle distance and strain to catch a glimpse of
our ascending Lord....but that's not what we're about!
We
have to wrest our gaze from the heavens and focus on the task before
us here on earth...the real, challenging task of so living that
Stroud – with all its needs and opportunities – begins to grasp
just how much it is a community LOVED BY GOD.
There's
a great story about how, on the first Ascension Day, Jesus was
greeted in heaven by whole squadrons of rejoicing angels....but after
the celebrations were over Gabriel took him to one side.
“Lord...”
he said
“I
know you've won the victory over sin and grief and death.
I
know you've done all that is needed to restore creation and bring in
the kingdom – but in the meantime, what's your strategy for making
it real in the world today”
Jesus
pointed down through the clouds at that rag taggle group clustered on
the hillside, scratching their heads and rubbing their eyes and
generally looking completely bewildered.
“That's
my strategy......”
Gabriel
peered down...
“and
Lord -what's Plan B?”
“There
IS no Plan B”
NO
PLAN B. We are it! The agents of God's mission in the world.
On
Tuesday in this church Archdeacon Jackie gave her charge to the new
Wardens of our Deanery...a simple but transformational charge
“Receive
the Holy Spirit”.
Tonight
I invite you to pray most fervently for that Spirit to come down
afresh on us and on our churches...to kindle again the fire of God's
love within our hearts and within our communities.
Ascension
marks the departure of Christ in human form from our world – but
the inauguration of his reign on high. Lets live as signs that his
Kingdom has come and celebrate with great joy Christ's eternal
victory.
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