The Feast of the Ascension – go outside and look up

Look up.

I end up preaching the Sunday before Ascension almost every year, and it’s usually a mash-up of Mother’s Day and anticipating Pentecost and hey, this is where we are as a church right now – on that cusp between Luke and Acts, in this liminal time between Jesus’ ascension and his return.

But really, I think all we need to remember on this Feast of the Ascension is this – Look up.

Gospel: Luke 24:44-53

⁴⁴Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, ⁴⁶and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

⁵⁰Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. ⁵¹While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. ⁵²And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; ⁵³and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

We’re in this great feast of Eastertide, and the Sunday anchors are Easter and then Pentecost. I google every year, and I can never find an Ascension church service near me – even though it’s a Principal Feast of the church. A Thursday Feast in the midst of Feasting is hard to muster energy for, I guess.

So. Look up.

Whether you’re bogged down in the day-to-day, or still in the Alleluia of Easter – look up. Pause and see what’s around you.

The tradition I’ve tried to instill for my family on this Feast Day is to eat our Feast (either snack or dinner) *outside*. Something jarring from the usual. A chance to have our senses assaulted with something different. Let the wind shake the cobwebs loose.

I know that seems like weak sauce mindful meal planning around a Principal Feast Day, but a. it’s hard to think of a food/drink/treat that works for Ascension and b. I think Anglican spirituality is, at heart, a practical one – how we do what we do is as important as what we’re doing. So – going outside, looking up, breathing in the new thing coming? That works for me.