Acts 1:1-11 Ascension Day - by Don Neuendorf
This year we'll be moving the Ascension Day texts over to the following Sunday. Ascension Thursday services have gotten smaller and smaller over the years. Why is that?
Why does the Ascension of Jesus seem less important, perhaps less relevant than Christmas or Easter or even Pentecost?...
Jesus' ascension to heaven is probably his most anti-climactic miracle, don't you think? After he multiplied bread and fish there were all the baskets full of left-overs to deal with, and a crowd of thousands to tell the story. After he raised to Lazarus from the dead, there was the former dead man to tell about it. After his healings the newly healed people could run and dance about and praise God, telling others what had happened, and everyone could come see Jesus to see what he'd do next.
But after the Ascension what was there? Literally, there was nothing there - no one there. Jesus was gone. If a magician makes a person disappear, he always rounds out the trick by making the person appear again. If the magician ended his show by disappearing, then there would be no one to clap for, would there? It would feel flat.
I suspect that's how the disciples felt. Jesus spoke to them. Then he rose into the air and disappeared in the clouds. And they kept looking to see what would happen next.
Well?...
But nothing happened. Jesus did not reappear. They had their instructions, but they did not have Jesus.
So we have no Ascension cards or gifts. No Ascension decorations. And Ascension songs are not very popular. It feels like an unfinished story.
In fact, it is. It is unfinished. And we ought to be in a perpetual state of expectation, waiting for the end of the act. Jesus will come again, the angel said. Just as he said he would. Now this is our part of the scene.