The disciples were with the risen Jesus when he was lifted up and taken from their sight. They stood there staring up into the heavens. Suddenly two men – angels – appear and say: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

I’m not sure how to take that angelic message. On the one hand it contain joyous news–Jesus will return again.  But there is also a kind of rebuke: “Why are you standing around here gawking at the sky? Get on with it.” The apostles had a mission to perform.

Like the apostles long ago we encounter the living Christ in the Word and Sacrament. We hear the good news proclaimed to us in worship, and then, like the apostles, we are sent on our mission. Sometimes I think that the hardest part of our work as Christians isn’t getting people into the doors of the church, but rather getting people out the doors and into the world where most of the Christian life is lived.

Christ is risen and has ascended to the Father. What a joy it is to know that. But it is also a joy to serve others, to help them in their needs, to provide for them, to pray for them, and to tell them the Good News.

This same Jesus will return someday. Hallelujah! In the meantime don’t stand around gawking. Get out there and get busy.

Read Acts 1:1-12 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne