The most picturesque part of the story of the Ascension of Jesus as St. Luke tells it in the Acts of the Apostles consists of him being “lifted up and a cloud took him from their sight.” However, the point of Luke telling the story is not about what happened to Jesus but what happened to the apostles. Two angels addressed them as they “were looking intently at the sky.” “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?” Luke was aware of the danger of pining after the “good, old days.” You can imagine the Twelve swapping stories about Jesus as they ate supper. But God is not a God of nostalgia but of the present tense. The angels were reminding the disciples to get on with it, to continue the mission that Jesus had begun. Looking up at the sky, remembering how things used to be, does not honor who Jesus was or what he was about. Get on with it.
We can be tempted by fond memories of some imagined past as well. “Those were the days,” sang Archie and Edith Bunker. The angelic messenger thinks otherwise. Today is the day to bring God’s grace and love and mercy and forgiveness into the world. These are the good, old days.
