"Separation Anxiety." Unpreached Ramble for Ascension, 9 May 2024
Ramble for Ascension, 9 May 2024.
Acts 1:1-11
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.”
Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
+In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
When I go out without Maudie the miracle mutt, I always tell her “Won’t be long, promise”, or “I’ll be a couple of hours, back by half past three, promise.” I don’t think that I’m the only besotted dog person to offer this assurance, in fact I know I’m not. “Separation anxiety” causes real psychological pain to some dogs. It did for Maudie when we first acquired her. Now, she just metaphorically shrugs her shoulders and gives a look which says “Whatever. Just bring a treat back. Better still, give me one before you go out.”
Jesus had tackled separation anxiety in what St John records as the farewell discourse (Chs 14-17). “I will not leave you comfortless.” It was a promise, like mine to Maudie. And it went over their heads at the time. They would not be left alone. They had already lost him once and were already grieving losing him again. There had been so many amazing moments. So many miraculous things, so many people healed, so many conversations with the Master, and so many opportunities to learn from Him. There was an amazing set of weeks when they had gone two by two to rehearse Jesus’ work (Mark 6, Luke 9). The disciples returned filled with joy at what they had seen, at the ways that God had used them to bring the kingdom to those that needed it most. There had also been the sadness of their friend, teacher, and Lord taken into custody and then crucified. And the bitter disappointment of their own actions caused by their lack of faith and their fear. Then he showed up, like he said he would. He encountered two disciples as they went to Emmaus, then he met the twelve. Thomas could not believe it until he saw it, all were comforted that Thomas had spoken what many of them felt. This time though was all about passing on the work, about giving final pointers, and about reminding them that they would have what they needed to continue the work started. This work was the kingdom, the visible rehearsal of what would be permanent at the end of time. What could be better than the presence of the resurrected Jesus? They were about to find out.
I’ve just mentioned their disappointment with themselves, their guilt about deserting and denying and disbelieving Jesus. But how does Jesus address them in this final pre-ascension encounter? Does he declare them to be a bunch of faithless traitors? No, Jesus is all about restoration for service. “ … you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Restored and redefined, not by what they had been, but what they would be when they’d experienced Pentecost’s power surge.
But still they had questions. The same old questions which they had been asking for three years, demonstrating that they hadn’t taken in what Jesus had so patiently taught them about the nature of his rule. “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” So Jesus answers them as he answers us when we get tied up with the esotera of timetables and dispensationalism instead of getting on with the commission to be witnesses to the redemption of the created order which Christ’s death and resurrection has secured and is securing. “It’s not for you to know the times or dates which the Father has set …” The disciples had heard Jesus tell them the Father cared for sparrows, how much more does He care for them. That the father counted the hairs on their head. Instead of asking the questions, live the answers. Here’s the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke: “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
Where does RMR’s challenge fit into the Acts narrative? “They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’” What does this remind you of? Luke 24: ‘While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!’ The disciples were looking in the wrong place, whether at the tomb or at the ascension. We declare at communion, Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. But He’ll come where the people who need Him are. The homeless, the marginalised, the outcasts, the immigrants, the neuro-divergent. Any and all who don’t “fit”. And that, unanswered questions and all, is to what we witness. He’ll be back, saving the unsaveable this time round for all time.
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