Can you celebrate being left behind?

“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking upward to heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1.11)

Can you celebrate that we have been left behind? I cannot help but reflect the words of those men dressed in white and how they encouraged those Men of Galilee to move forward again now that Jesus had departed; but forward into what though? Here they are after spend three years with the man they thought was going to restore the mighty kingdom of Israel and now he’s gone and they are left standing there, gawking in awe and wonder and what has been. The men in white encourage the Men from Galilee to look around them now and to begin to move back to a point where they will be bless and will be sent to take up the proclaiming of the coming kingdom, caring for the poor and the sick, clothing the naked, releasing the captives proclaiming sight to the blind and declaring the year of the Lord’s freedom and salvation from debt and slavery.

Lest we think they did nothing until that moment when the Spirit came on that morning of the Feast of Pentecost, let’s keep in mind that they weren’t just twiddling thumbs. They were praising God for all that had happened, worshipping in the Temple and actively praying. So what did they have to pray about? They needed to pray about what’s next: what is it that God wanted them to do. In prayer they decided to have someone take Judas Iscariot’s place among the Twelve.  They reminded each other of the things that Jesus did and said. They began to see that they could be together and be with one another as Jesus had commanded them to. They read and considered the scriptures together. They told stories and laughed together. They made meals and celebrated their fellowship together. They strengthened the bond of affections with one another.

And when the Spirit came, he did not just come to bless a group of individuals, he came to the community of Jesus whom he not only blessed but empowered for what was next – to proclaim, and restore and heal as Jesus had done and to do so together in Jesus’ name. The Spirit came to move the Church into what it needed to do: draw the world to Christ so that the world could declare Christ as Lord. It does mean that there were struggles and hardships, attacks made by wild animals and angered people. It does not mean that there weren’t things that needed to be overcome or shipwrecks to be survived. This doesn’t mean that there weren’t trials and stonings, whippings and beatings that had to be endured. There was all that and more! We can celebrate that we have been left here so that we can actively proclaim the good news that God has acted through Christ to make all things new and bring them to perfection in Christ, through who all things were made. Our challenge in this moment and through the warm days of Spring and into the summer is to remember who has given us life and be ready when he sends, to go with him wherever he leads. Welcome to the party that is the kingdom of God and welcome to the long, green season!