"Time to Go"

So…

Some of you may remember when Sue and I and the kids would head off upstate to see our families for vacation. My family lived in the Buffalo suburbs, and Sue’s between Rochester and Batavia New Yor.

The opportunity to set aside all of the responsibilities of ministry and for Sue - teaching - for a few days after Christmas and in the summer was so refreshing.

Of course, we had to say goodbye to our Otisville family for a couple of days, maybe even a couple of weeks. For the most part it wasn’t that hard, because we knew we were coming back. 

The details of life were a pain, all that stuff that has to happen when you are away, like feeding the cat, getting the mail, taking out the garbage and recycling, and cutting the lawn.

Going wasn’t that hard, because we knew on return we would jump right back into life almost exactly as we left it.

But leaving Rochester and then Buffalo, was a very different experience!

We would get there and try to see everyone and catch up as best we could, because after those few days at Christmas and maybe a week or two in the summer, we would not see each other for six month or more.

And in that time so much could change!

Illnesses, changes in jobs, new babies born, loved ones in the hospital, and even the death of folks we couldn’t be with in their final days.

It was so hard to be separated!

Although being honest, sometimes we don’t mind the separation. Distance sometimes does make the heart grow fonder!

Today we live in a world that has been transformed by technology!

In the Apostle’s day, writing a letter delivered by hand was the only way to communicate. Notes from Paul, Peter, James, and John were hand delivered to communities all over the Mediterranean world. 

They opened up to new followers of Jesus a way of understanding the gospel without the Apostles traveling all the way to be with them!

Then came mail delivery and the Pony Express, and then crazy as it seems, the telephone, movies and television. 

Now we can facetime with people all over the world, take videos and send them in seconds, and send emails or imessage folks. 

We can be hundreds of miles apart and yet right there with others we love.

But that doesn’t really change the angst of separation. It just, in some cases, makes it more bearable.

So, we can relate to the disciple’s confusion, wonder, and even fear when they were with Jesus when he ascended. 
They must have been asking themselves, “What now”?

Now I am aware I am not Jesus! 

Sue and the kids do a pretty good job of pointing that out, as do our dearest friends. I have no plans for an ascension at the end of today’s worship service, though I gotta say that would be a smash finale’.

But, yeah, no, that’s not happening.

But the feeling can be similar! Big change is afoot and now what?

Which is why, as I said last week, I love the angel’s response to the disciples all standing around and looking at the sky as if to see where Jesus had gone!

For those who may be curious, up and into the clouds is a generic way in scripture to talk about going to God’s place. 

Positionally, God throne is not up, or in the clouds per se. Scripture is talking not concretely but abstractly about heaven, God’s eternal realm.

It is in the home of God beyond this one and in scripture it is always characterized as the theophany, that is, the holy presence.

The glory cloud of God! 

Jesus has stepped from this dimension as it were, into God’s and the characterization of it as “up” has everything to do with God’s realm being ethereal and cloud like.

They were looking into the glory cloud to see where Jesus had gone!

So, the angels gave them a nudge!

I suggested last week that the way to understand what the angels were saying last week was like “Yo guys, take off the sunglasses and get ye hither to Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit is on the way!”

Perhaps that is a bit more than what the bible says, but it is pretty much what the angels meant!
Now Luke, who wrote both the Acts of the Apostles, as well as the Gospel According to Luke, says in that writing, “Jesus led his disciples out to Bethany, where he raised his hands and blessed them. 
“As he was doing this, he left and was taken up to heaven. After his disciples had worshiped him, they returned to Jerusalem and were very happy. They spent their time in the temple, praising God.”
For whatever reason, Luke’s Gospel doesn’t say anything about the two cool dudes – angels - who ranked on the disciples who were standing around string up into space.
Instead, he notes they were happy! They felt blessed! 
They understood that the baton as it were had been passed and now it was their time to make the Kingdom of God come alive in even greater ways than it was when Jesus was with them!
Yes, Jesus was gone!
But for all of his disciples, it was get up and go time!
It is exactly what we are being asked to do.
Don’t worry about Jeff and Sue and the family, God’s says, I got them!
And I have got all of you too!
Only one thing you need to do!
Gather together! Pray! Sing! Eat!
And listen for my leading!
It has been an amazing forty years. May the next forty be just as blessed.
Amen