Ascension Day

“Why do you stand looking into heaven?” ask two men dressed in white robes to the disciples staring up into space. Indeed, why do we stand looking into heaven? And where should we be looking? Whenever a comet flies by, whenever there is a total or partial eclipse, people in record number are out looking…

The commemoration of the Ascension passes us by in this country. In places where the Eastern Church is prevalent it’s an important feast day, up there in importance with Christmas and Pentecost. In many places, it’s a work holiday. Always falling on a Thursday, the word “Ascension” passes through lips casually, but it is doubtful…

They say that the sequel is never the equal. The movie that comes after the original to expand the story never lives up to the first one. And it is even worse in movies that come in threes; trilogies are the worst. Take the “Star Wars” movies, for example – the original “Star Wars” movies,…

Did you ever wish you were a bit thinner? Or maybe taller? Or had a little bit more hair on your head? Or maybe it’s something more serious, such as an addiction you wished you didn’t have. Or maybe you have had some trauma or grief in your past that you wish wasn’t so present…

Now is the turning of the tide. In our readings for this Ascension Day, we encounter an important shift for those who follow Jesus from being turned inward, focusing on their common life and learning at Jesus’ feet, to that same group looking outward to the needs of the world. In this way, the Gospel…

“He came singing love, and He lived singing loveHe died…singing loveHe arose in silenceFor the love to go on, we must make it our songYou and I be the singers!” So begins a song from the New Zealand Hymnal. What was promised is removed for a time, so it can be more fully given. This…

In the rural county of Norfolk, England, there is a town known as Little Walsingham. Inside the town’s church, there are a number of altars — one of them dedicated to the Feast of the Ascension. It’s an unremarkable shrine, just a small table and few candles, but above it is a sculpture of clouds,…

“While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.” What a difference a few weeks can make. Here we see the disciples reacting to Jesus’ Ascension with celebration and joy, whereas after the crucifixion, they had scattered in…

“Why do you stand looking into heaven?” ask two men dressed in white robes. Indeed, why do we stand looking into heaven? And where should we be looking? A few years ago with the fly-by of Comet Hale-Bopp, and the recent last eclipse of the millenium, people in record numbers were out looking into heaven….

Collect:Grant we pray, Almighty God, that as we believe your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into heaven, so we may also with heart and mind there ascend, and with him continually dwell; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. “Wait in…

…as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight… ACTS 1:9 It’s always a little surprising, the kinds of questions people ask. You know, there’s something I’ve always wondered about and you’re the one who can tell me the answer: Does it say in the Bible that…

Where did he go, the broken body, the strapping thirty year-old, where did he go, my love, the crucified, the friend who ate with us at dawn by the lake? Peer into the clouds, scan the stratosphere; you must find him and bring him back, we cannot live without this glorious body. For in him…