“Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up at the skies?” Peter, Andrew, James, John and the rest knew how things had been. They knew what it was like to walk the dusty roads with Jesus. They knew what it was like to listen to the instructions of the Master. They knew what it was like to rely on him for guidance and leadership. There had been hard times. They hadn’t always measured up. They had been through Good Friday and rejoiced at Easter Sunday. But through it all Jesus had been there. “Lord, are you going to restore the rule to Israel Now?” Are we going to be able to keep on keeping on as we have in the past? Can we count on you to make it all better? I’m going to stand here and look up at the sky until you do. Today, as we remember the Ascension, we recall that a change occurred in their lives, a change that frightened them. Jesus was lifted up before their eyes. A cloud took Jesus from their sight. So they stand there looking up at the skies, hoping, praying that things will go back to the way they were before. But after the ascension they could never go back. Things would never be the same. From now on all was different. And yet, the Lord assures them this is as it should be. The new thing God had in store for them was better than they imagined. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes down on you,” Jesus says. You will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth.
This Ascension something similar is going on in each one of us. The way things have been is changing. We’re not sure what the future has in store. So we are tempted to stand here gazing up into the heavens. Come back to us Jesus in the way you were before. The Church looks different. The City looks different. The way I minister looks different. My body can’t do things it once could. People I used to rely on are no longer around. How come things can’t be like they were before? We want to hold onto, to snatch after, to grasp something. In that we are children of our great-great-grandparents: Adam and Eve. Remember their story? They wanted to hold onto something which was “good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom” (Gen 3:6). So they plucked that fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden, they grasped it, they ate it because they thought they had to have it. “You will be like gods,” the tempter said. You will know what is good and what is bad. You will determine what should and shouldn’t be. Just snatch this fruit, hold onto it. Why should you have to give something up? Ever since then we imitate the first parents in our tendency to hold onto things. We decide what is good and what is bad instead of trusting where God is leading us.
Men and Women of Chicago, the angels say to us, why do you stand here looking up at the skies? Why are you snatching after what you have decided is important. Why can’t you trust that God’s new thing might be better. For example, we tend to cling to our churches. After all, they are places where our families met God. Whenever I feel threatened that our church is being taken from me I feel anger and resentment. What was a good thing, a church home, can become inappropriate if I snatch after, if I hold onto it. The example of St. James is that even if they tear your Church down you still have a community that leads you to God. Or maybe, we cling to our health. We start to think, of course, God wants me healthy so that I can continue to do productive toil! But by snatching after health as an absolute value I inflate my own importance and stifle the ability of God to use all things, even my weakness for good. What was a good thing, health, can become inappropriate if I cling to it. Or again, take being respected and valued. Affirmation helps to grease the wheels of human interaction in a beautiful way. We all need to feel appreciated. But if I snatch after honor, if I lust after esteem I can lose sight of the abandoned Christ on Calvary. What was a good thing can be a source of sin if I cling to it. Clinging after, trying to hold onto Jesus on the Mount of Ascension kept the apostles from experiencing the new thing God was doing in them. Whenever we snatch after, cling to, hold onto even the good things of life we can miss how God is calling us to be surprised at the plan of God unfolding in the world.
We can have hope no matter how things seem to be going since God has put every principality, power, virtue, domination, and every name that can be given in this age or the age to come under Christ’s feet. We need have no fear about the future since the Jesus who has been take from us will return. We are free to hear the Lord Jesus says to us, “Go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always.”
