The Waiting

ASCENSION

Ascension is the story of Jesus’ good-bye. Jesus is drawn up from the earth and carried to heaven in a cloud.

When I  lived in Israel, I visited the Chapel of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives. It is a religious site important to both Moslems and Christians. The most treasured relic on the site is a stone in which there is an imprint of the right foot of Jesus believed to be from the Day of Ascension. 

It is the strange story  of Jesus’ lifting off from earth like a slow moving rocket and disappearing into the clouds …

And yet, there is a profound mystery here that is deeply comforting in a time of uncertainty or waiting.

Ascension marks an in-between time, the beginning of ten thin days before Pentecost. Jesus is gone to be One with God leaving behind a Goodbye promise.

The word Goodbye in Old English means “God be with ye.” In olden days, when people parted they issued a goodbye as a sincere send-off, asking God to be with them until they met again.

Jesus says … goodbye ….
“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.”

Here we are — living between realms,
Here we are — between the past and the future,
between the old and the new,
between history and tomorrow..

Here we are, waiting; waiting to be clothed with power from on high.

We all know something about waiting:
waiting for the results of an exam or a medical test; for a message or a phone-call;
waiting for someone to arrive… or to leave;
waiting for a train, or a bus; a birthday or summer vacation;
waiting for a birth…or a death;
or just waiting, not sure for what.

Waiting… is both a personal and planetary ache.

• Waiting for rain in a drought-stricken region… when the land cracks and farmers watch crops fail.
• Waiting for the wildfire season to end… breathing smoke-filled air, praying the winds shift.
• Waiting beside the ocean… as the tides rise higher each year and storms gain strength.
• Waiting for clean water… in communities where pollution and neglect have turned rivers toxic.
• Waiting for healing… in ecosystems scarred by oil spills, deforestation, or mining.
• Waiting for justice … waiting for peace … 
• Waiting with grief… for the world we once knew, the world repaired.

Here we are… waiting.

Waiting… like the early disciples, standing in that strange, tender space between Jesus’ leaving and the Spirit’s coming—
living in the not yet, but holding fast to what is deeply hoped and prayed for.

Waiting… for the stirring of that inner spiritual energy—
the breath of God, always moving toward us, always awakening us.

Waiting in a world aching for healing—
still trusting the earth remembers how to renew when we give Earth a chance. 

Waiting… for the unfolding of our own stories, each one carrying wounds and fear and hopes and dreams
all that is still being written in the heart of God.

Waiting… not with passive resignation,
but with active being—knowing the Spirit is intimately with us,
as Jesus promised.

Here we are… waiting.
Not alone.
And held in hope.