Brief synopsis of the readings: We begin with the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles. We believe that Luke wrote both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Here he recalls how Jesus rose from the dead and appeared several times to his apostles in the course of 40 days. Here he is at table with them and reminded them that while John baptized them with water they will soon be baptized by the Holy Spirit. When asked if it was time to restore the kingdom of Israel he answered that they will not know the time or the day. At this he was lifted up and a cloud took him away. While they were looking up two men in white told them one day Jesus will return. Matthew’s Gospel ends with the resurrected Jesus commanding his followers to go and make disciples of all nations. They are to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

I’ve spoken a few times about how we can sometimes feel caught between “here he is/there he goes.” First he appears, then is killed, then rises from the dead, then ascends to the sky. I can imagine his followers feeling like a ping pong ball in a match that never ends. But while Jesus’ public ministry likely lasted about 3 years and the events from his death to his ascension lasted about 43 days, nothing that big has happened in the 2000 years since.

That’s puzzling because in the reading from Acts Jesus told his followers at table to remain in Jerusalem and wait for “the promise of the Father” just before he disappeared. Servers at restaurants have a name for diners who stay at the table after the meal has been completed: campers. We can only imagine a table where a large group has been camping for 2000 years.

Interestingly enough one of the twelve, perhaps thinking they just needed to wait for something to happen, asked if the time had come. This happens frequently with Jesus: he didn’t answer the question directly but spoke instead to a larger truth.

He told them they would receive the power of the Holy Spirit and they would be witnesses not only there but everywhere. This continues in our Gospel when the resurrected Jesus instructed those gathered to go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This passages lays the foundation for our belief in the Trinity (more about that in a few weeks) but also gives us a larger context to understand the last 2000 years and the future.

Jesus’ ascension, though it may have looked like abandonment, reveals not only how much God loves us, but also how much God trusts us.

A few years ago I speaking with a friend who is a single dad of 2 sons. They were getting to an age where my friend was beginning the discussion of leaving them alone in the house for a few hours after school. He explained to them that he felt they were ready (and hoped they wouldn’t prove him wrong). I don’t know how they reacted but I imagine they felt good at that acknowledgement and wanted to prove their father right.

I don’t wish to repeat what I talked about last week but it bears repeating: Jesus’ departure from our sight does not mean we should camp at the table with our eyes glued to the sky. And in the last 2000 years we’ve basically followed Jesus’ directions. When Jesus told them to move beyond Jerusalem to all of Judea and Samaria it was basically all the world they knew. Since then we’ve brought Jesus’ teachings and ministry to all the ends of the earth. We’ve shared God’s teachings and the Eucharist all over the world. But we’ve also built schools and hospitals. We’ve brought medicine to the sick and comfort to the broken hearted. We’ve encouraged people to use the gifts that others told them they didn’t have or deserve. With some obvious exceptions we’ve taught liberation to slaves and equality to the poor. We’ve used the gifts of the Holy Spirit to people who don’t look like us, think like us, or speak like us. And we continue to do so.

It also means we should not betray his trust. Jesus’ call did not, alas, call an end to evil. Not long after these events the Romans destroyed the Temple and, as far as we know, nearly everyone who watched Jesus ascend later died a martyr’s death for their faith. And candidly many who professed themselves as Jesus’ disciples have committed horrible sins. Labeling Jews as “Christ killers” set the table for pogroms and the Holocaust. I’ve long ago lost count of the number of people who have told me that they aren’t Christian because they’ve been victimized by someone who identifies as a disciple.

Let’s face it: Jesus’ trust in us hasn’t always panned out. But that should not discourage us or keep us from our call. At the time of Jesus nobody questioned the morality of slavery and women were often seen as “incomplete men.” We’ve witnessed the horrors of the Crusades and clergy abuse. But the fact that we are horrified shows that we have made progress, albeit incomplete.

The road ahead continues to challenge as well as inspire us and it reminds us that we still have work to do. When I worked for hospice I had a patient who had become saturated with TV programming that insisted that our world was fast becoming beyond God’s power. He believed that we had become so godless and perverse that God was on the verge of abandoning us. But I reminded him that every sunrise, and indeed the birth of every child, proved that we need never fear being orphaned. I don’t think I convinced him that our future was as bright as I saw but I liked to think he was less discouraged.

Of course he’s in Heaven now and I suspect he’s smiling at us.