In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
 There is an ancient story about Jesus’ arrival in heaven following the Ascension. The angel’s were gathered to welcome Christ and to hear about his ministry on earth. Filled with the questions the angelic host asked Jesus,
“Lord, now that you are no longer physically on earth who will continue to share the good news?”

Christ responded “There are 11 who were especially close to me and I have given them the responsibility of getting the word out.”
“O Lord, these 11 must be incredible people-the best the brightest that creation has to offer.”
“Well actually no,” the Lord responds,” These are average folks with ordinary gifts and abilities. Not the best and the brightest by any means.”

“But Lord, if these are only average people with ordinary abilities, how can you be sure that they will get the job done?”
“Well to be honest,” the Lord answers, “I can’t be sure.”
“What if they fail to do the job? what is your backup plan?”
Quietly Christ answers, “I have no backup plan”

Now I wonder if the handful of disciples standing there on the Mount of Olives, having just watched Christ being “Lifted up” knew that there was no back up plan.
In fact they were the only game in town for sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Probably they were not thinking of anything at all. After all the past three years had been quite an experience.

They had seen Jesus teaching, preaching and healing. They had scattered when Jesus was arrested and crucified and they had witnessed his resurrection. And now they had spent the past 40 days since the resurrection in close communion with the resurrected Lord. And he they are standing on the side of the Mount of Olives saying goodbye to their teacher and Lord, receiving his final instructions.

Certainly at first glance the scene seems ridiculous. The fact that Jesus is placing the success of his continuing ministry in the hands of approximately twenty ordinary people. A small pitiful number, almost laughable in their size and their abilities. And yet this handful of people has been instructed to “witness in all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”

Now accounts of the ascension of Jesus are found in Matthew, Luke and Acts, two of which we just heard and once again we encounter the strange world of the Bible. For many of us who live our lives in this 21st century the passage from Acts strikes us as strange with the vision of Jesus being “taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”

It strikes us as strange, perhaps even bizarre, because we no longer live in a “birthday cake universe” with heaven on top, earth in the middle and hell at the bottom. The scientist Carl Sagan once commented on this passage and he said, “that even if Jesus was traveling at the speed of light, he wouldn’t even have left our galaxy yet.”

So setting the spatial imagery aside, the story of Jesus ascension speaks to the authority of Christ and the tension that exists between our past, our present moment, and the future that lies ahead of us as we seek to carry on the mission that Christ has given us. 

Looking at our text from Acts one of the disciples asks Jesus; “is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” What the disciple is asking for is a return to the good old days, “Lord we miss the good old days will you bring them back.” And there is some of this longing even here within this congregation.

It often feels safer for us in the church to look backward rather than forward. To look back to a time in the life of the church when the closeness and love of God seemed most real. A longing for the “good old days” when life was simpler, when people came to church, when people visited with each other.

I am sure that each of us have memories of a better day, perhaps it is of a relationship with a spouse, family member or friend now separated from you. Maybe it is a sense of purpose or meaning in the midst of life now absent. And you want to hold on to those memories, hold on to them and not let them go.
Now these longings are not bad but looking at Jesus response to the question, he doesn’t answer it directly.

Jesus begins talking about the Holy Spirit and shifts the disciples focus to their present mission in the world. He shifted the emphasis from the restoration of the past to the transformation of the present. Because what was can never be again, life moves forward even when we look backward.

Jesus draws our focus on the present moment and our mission in this moment. Like the disciples in Jerusalem we are called to share the gospel story here and now through both word and deed. We are not alone in our mission for the power of the holy Spirit is present with us, and this means that Christ is present with us.

We are called to sometimes struggle in our mission, to discern how our witness can be most effective, but Christ never calls us to just stand in one spot gazing up at the heavens like deer mesmerized by the headlights of a car. “Why do you stand here looking into the sky?”

The angels softly rebuked the disciples for lingering on the hillside after Jesus vanished. Beyond clinging to the past at the expense of the present and the future, there is the danger of simply standing still and staring at the sky.
The Cowboy philosopher Will Rogers once said “Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just stand there.” 

For in standing still and being fixated on one spot in the sky above, on the earth below, or on our own perspective of who Christ is, it is impossible for us to see the presence of Christ in one another. It is impossible to see the presence of Christ Spirit all around us in the midst of a world. The poor being cared for, the hungry fed, the naked clothed, those mourning who are comforted.

Those first disciples were commanded to go somewhere, into Jerusalem. They were told to do something, to be witnesses to the ends of the earth. 
Christ calls us to be his witnesses here and now, not to stand still gazing into heaven but share his good news with the world.

And we might wonder why were we chosen for this important task. Certainly it is not because we are religiously wiser, or more courageous or morally better than any other collection of people on earth. Rather, each one embodies those same flaws and fragilities that are found in the rest of humanity. But through Christ, we have been touched, grasped, grabbed by the grace of God.

The simplest person who is able to stammer “Jesus loves me” can only do so because of the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. And for that reason only we are privileged to share in Christ’s mission, to carry the word Of God’s grace to the ends of the earth. We are simply, as Living Faith puts it, “one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.

May God give us obedient hearts and hands that we may do what our Lord has called us to do.
THANKS BE TO GOD AMEN