Ascension Sunday

This Sunday is Ascension Sunday, when we observe Jesus’s departure from his disciples, returning to where he came from. Jesus’s departure might have left the disciples wondering what was going to happen to them and their message, but Jesus promises them that they would receive a baptism from the Holy Spirit. Those disciples weren’t quite sure what that meant, so they fell back on ideas and expectations that Jesus had spent time trying to dispel. And then, once Jesus is lifted up to heaven, the disciples look up at the sky until they’re told to move along. That baptism Jesus promises is what we call Pentecost, the birth of the church. Jesus tells them they’ll be witnesses to the ends of the earth after that day. But no one who saw Jesus ascend that day could have imagined that. The work God calls us to tends to be things more wonderful and more significant than we can imagine. In that time in between promise and fulfillment, we find ourselves clinging to the former things, the things we will need to release to grasp that new thing God is doing. We’ve been over the rainbow, we’ve collected the gifts of our head, our heart, and our hands. Having done that, what new thing can God be calling us to? Let’s talk about that together this Sunday.