Ascension Day

Dear Friends,

This day is one of the biggest feasts of the church year. Today is the Feast of the Ascension, commemorating the day the resurrected Christ took his disciples to the top of a mountain and, before their very eyes, rose into heaven.

This is why we have a festal worship service tonight at 7 pm.

The scriptures say the Ascension took place forty days after Easter — forty days being Biblical language for “a long time.” I, for one, hardly feel like it’s been a long time since Easter. How have forty days already flown by!?

I imagine the forty days feels longer when you’re stuck on a boat in the middle of a seemingly interminable rainstorm (Noah) than it does when you’re spending time with the resurrected Jesus (the disciples after Easter). To God maybe the length of time feels similar: it’s long enough for a good reset, and the beginning of something new.

You may be experiencing time more like Noah — maybe these seven and a half weeks have been long and drawn out and hard. Hang in there; the flood waters will recede. Or maybe like the disciples, these days are flying by and you can scarce remember where they have gone. Either way, I hope you’ll stop at least for a minute (or come to church for 45 minutes!) to ponder today how our Lord’s going up to heaven leaves space for the Holy Spirit to come to us. God is not leaving us comfortless. He’s empowering us to comfort the world.

In Christ,
Fr. Andrew