Up, out and forward
Acts 1.6-11
Today is Ascension Day.
This often-ignored feast of the church, tucked away as it is on a Thursday, is both problematic and powerful. I have worked with two groups that tend to be quite literal in their thinking – Deaf people, with whom communication is visual and where subtleties are often missed, and children (and we all know that they can be brutally honest in their questions and in their assessments). Try to explain the Ascension in a clear and visual way and it is, to the scientific mind, confusing. That’s the problem.
But the power is in recognising that the Ascension encourages us to look up, to look out and to look forward. And we need this message at the moment. We need to look up, to the heavenly realm, where God’s powerful rule is fully established and where Jesus now sits with his Father in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. And, yes, the Trinity is another problematic picture that is also a powerful symbol of all that God is, and has been, and will be. Look up, and see the completeness of God, and the fullness of heaven, and change your perspective.
When Jesus left his disciples, he gave them a task – to be his witnesses (Acts 1.7). The Christian faith was never intended as a hobby, a personal spirituality for the encouragement of an individual. It has always been a community faith, lived in the company of others and constantly drawing others in. It is an outward looking faith – and the story of the Ascension reminds us that looking out into the world (rather than looking in at ourselves) is our first calling.
And in a moment of gentle comedy that I have always loved, the disciples are chided on Ascension Day, “why do you stand looking up towards heaven?” (Acts 1.11) The picture is of them standing, open-mouthed, as Jesus disappears from their view (however you picture that). They are frozen in time, rather like our world at the moment, locked down. And the angels say to them, ‘move on’. They have been told by Jesus to return to Jerusalem and to wait for the power that (we know) will come at Pentecost. There is much for them to look forward to.
Planning anything outside our daily routine is almost impossible at the moment, but the message of Ascension Day broadens our vision – as we look up, look out and look forward. I pray you have the opportunity to pause today and to be inspired by Christ’s Ascension.