Circuit Thoughts

This coming Thursday will be exactly 40 days after Easter. For many of our churches, this will be celebrated as Ascension of the Lord Day. This is the day we remember as the day Christ went back up to heaven and made a promise that His comforter would soon come. You can read all about it in Acts 1:1-11.

Now for me, (and I like to think that I have a bit of a different slant on things), the verse that really makes it real is verse 11. In that verse we read, “They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?...” This was the angels speaking to the disciples. I can’t help but imagine these guys standing around looking up to see where Christ has gone. They must have been standing around for quite a while.

This would have been the equivalent of ”It’s time to go and do what you were told to do”. The disciples were just standing there, no one was moving. They were kind of at a loss. The problem was, Christ told them what they needed to do, and it wasn’t to stand around and look up.

There are times that I have had people come and ask me what the right thing is to do. The problem is, all of them already knew what was expected, they just needed confirmation. The disciples knew they needed to get back to town and wait for the Paraclete, (that’s a fancy word for Holy Spirit). But, like many of us, they didn’t want to leave, you know in case Christ had an encore planned. The thing is, Christ needed them in the city, not on the mountain. They needed to be ready for the next phase, not trying to hold on to the past.

To be honest, this makes the Gospel even more real. The reaction of the disciples is exactly the reaction we would have today. How often have we watched the hero go off in the sunset and the people watching until they cannot see him/her? How many times have we stood in the driveway until we could not see the car carrying our loved one’s home? It was natural.

But that isn’t what Christ told them, and thus the angels did a bit of chastisement. They basically told the boys to stop looking up, for soon enough Christ will return.

We need to stop looking up. The end has not happened yet, and there are many people who need the word of God. This is not the time to stand around and look to heaven. This is the time to move around and point to Christ. We are called to get off the mountain and get into the city to change the hearts of all who will hear.

Christ will return, and He will return the way He left. Don’t worry, you won’t miss it. But if you keep looking at the sky, you are going to miss the opportunities to share Christ with people on the earth.

Shalom my friends.

See you in church.