Word to the Wise
Sunday, May 12, 2013 - Ascension of the Lord - C
[Acts 1:1-11; opt: Heb 9:24-28; 10:19-23; Luke 24:46-53]"Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven."
If the Holy Spirit is to come, Jesus has to go until it is time for him to "return." The apostles who witness his departure are "Men of Galilee" where the ministry began. They are all now in Jerusalem where Jesus' earthly ministry ended, but where the ministry of the Holy Spirit will begin with the Pentecost event (next Sunday!). It will spread throughout the known Mediterranean world, which is what Luke will show in the Acts of the Apostles. The rapid spread of Christianity over the next two centuries remains a testimony to the impact of the Holy Spirit on these "Men of Galilee."
We are living, as it were, between two parentheses - the first and second "comings" of Jesus. Another way I've heard it expressed is: "between the tick and the tock of God's time." We are not meant to be staring up into the heavens trying to figure out how Jesus "departed," but to proclaim the gospel with the help of the Holy Spirit which our baptism has bestowed on us. Nor is it our task to determine when that second parenthesis (or the "tock") will be written or sounded. Our task is to preach "repentance, for the forgiveness of sins...in his name to all the nations..." We are "witnesses of these things..." AMEN