VII.
As we return to this passage, I invite you to notice Jesus has been with the disciples “during forty days” after the resurrection; he tells them to “wait … for the promise of the Father … the Holy Spirit;” and he leaves the disciples after they question him about “the kingdom,” and they are left “gazing upward.”

VIII.
Acts 1:1-11 (NRSVue)

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

IX.
What has always captured my attention on Ascension Day is that Jesus is “leaving” his disciples once again.

Oh, it is certainly not like when he died on the cross and was buried.

They spend an evening, a night, a day, and until sunrise the next day before any hope returned to them.

Maybe I overstate the case by saying “any hope.” They had hope, at least some of them did, I suspect, but it was hope while the time was still filled with his death in a very real sense.

And here we see he has spent 40 days with them, “appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” And, “While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father…. [and said] ‘you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’”

Then he is gone again.

I have to wonder about how they felt. How did they experience his “leaving” them again?

He did leave them with a promise. Maybe they understood something about the being “baptized with the Holy Spirit” or maybe not.

Then what about “not many days from now”?

What is it like for you to wait? Does waiting come easy for you or does impatience come easier?

As we try to experience, with these disciples, these 10 days of waiting – from Ascension Day to the Day of Pentecost – maybe we can think about what it might be to wait with grace and with confidence in what God promises.

What do you think?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}