Endings create beginnings. That’s what’s
happened in Scotland this week with the change of First Minister. It goes on all the time and we are grateful
for it.
Yet I’m struck by just how joyful the Ascension seems to have been for those
involved. Maybe that’s because in Acts
it happens forty days after Easter and Jesus has had time to fully say goodbye
to his disciples. However, that isn’t
strictly true in Luke, when this seminal moment appears to happen on the evening
of Easter Day.
Whatever it’s timings, this myth narrative has much to teach us.
I’m particularly drawn by two things.
Firstly, it was as he was blessing them that he was taken up to
heaven. Secondly, once they had seen him
depart, they returned to Jerusalem full of joy.
So, it seems that this part of the ‘birthing’ of the Church was an occasion
full of hope and optimism, lived in the glow of Christ’s departing
blessing. And I find that encouraging. Whatever challenging tasks were before them,
it seems the Ascension gave these disciples a great sense of hope and a deep
sense of joy. Pentecost would, in a way,
complete the picture with its gift of energy and strength.
My prayer, on this Ascension Day, is that we too can live with that same sense
of joy. Joy in the continuing task of living
out the life of Jesus Christ for the here and now. The baton has been passed on from generation
to another, it started on that first Ascension Day as Jesus blessed his
disciples even as he was taken from them.
We are now the ones running with this baton of hope, joy and peace – God
grant us the strength not to drop it!
May the blessing of Jesus still be ours this Ascension Thursday 2024.
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