Where are we looking?

I’ve written before about the story of Jesus’ ascension and certainly preached about it. In this time of uncertainty and sad news cycles it seems even more relevant.

This past week I’ve heard about our Synod camp canceling their summer season, something that has never happened in its lengthy history. The Snowbirds aerobatics team while doing an across Canada flyover to encourage us in this time of lock-down had one of their planes crash on the weekend. An aviation journalist from Nova Scotia died (another blow to that province) and the pilot is in hospital. Two more members in my congregation lost family last week. The hits just seem to keep coming.

We may have moved on from the question of “Where is God?” by recognizing that the risen Christ is showing up in the helpers and in those who are walking with us. We may now be asking “How long Lord?” How long before You come back and/or a vaccine is developed so we can go back to normal and/or it will be safe to be together again? We’ve tried to honour the rules and guidelines and to be faithful and develop creative ways of connecting with our church families. But really, it’s been over two months now and we’re climbing the walls. How long?

The disciples had been given forty days of appearances by the resurrected Jesus, with some believing and trusting in His care and presence more easily than others. That number forty crops up many times in the Bible, often pointing to a time of testing or endurance. The disciples were shell-shocked by the turn of events at Passover and afraid that the authorities might come for them next, and they had been holed up in Jerusalem waiting for further instructions. After not giving a specific timeline about when He would restore the Kingdom to Israel. Jesus says that they are supposed to wait in the holy city a while longer rather than going home. They are to wait for the pouring out of the Spirit. And then He is lifted up into the sky.

I can understand their confusion and concern. The One who had led them, died for them and then come back for them is now gone from their sight again. They had flimsy seeming instructions of what to do next and they are anxious. They are looking up toward heaven, frozen, trying to see where Jesus has gone and hoping the scene will re-wind. Finally, two men in robes of white pull their attention back to the here and now. Jesus wasn’t coming back for a while. There was no point in looking at an empty sky. There was work to do.

Like them we are challenged. We are challenged to not keep looking back at how church was pre-Covid. With gradual re-opening of public services accompanied by the threat of a second wave of the virus reversing that progress, we can’t look too far into the future. Work situations, schools, air travel, sports - all of these have huge question marks and those question marks generate a lot of anxiety.

Looking backwards reminds us of what we have lost - the stability and predictability of life as we knew it and being able to be together. Looking too far ahead is impossible. Long-term consequences can’t be nailed down right now. What we have is what is around us today and maybe this week. We are waiting, in a holding pattern in isolation similar to the disciples. We are holding on to the hope of the restoration of Christ and the promise of the Holy Spirit being poured out as things are turned back to how God intended.

Perhaps if we look around us right now we will notice that some of that healing and restoration is happening already. Perhaps we will see creation rebounding with less pollution to contend with and fewer people driving and outdoors. Perhaps we will see people making their priorities more in line with God’s, and praying more and recognizing that they aren’t in control while learning to trust that God is. Perhaps we’re willing to make sacrifices as Christ did for us and to go the extra mile in kindness, deeds of love and grace, and donations, even as we protect our health and the health of others. Perhaps we are seeing the face of Christ in everyone we meet as we move through this in solidarity together.

We wait. But we wait with hope that we are not forgotten by our God and that even if we can’t see Christ’s resurrected body He is still with us. We wait with hope that Jesus is coming back for us, and in the meantime God pours out the Spirit to sustain us and give us resilience so that we can carry on with love and power to do good.

Keep looking around you, where you are right now, because this is how we best witness to Jesus - not by predicting the future, or looking in the rear-view mirror,. but in embracing today with all it’s challenges and saying that our God is trustworthy and faithful even in the storm.

Go and be witnesses today and tomorrow, trusting the future to God.