Luke 24:48-51; Acts 1:4-10 by Rola Al Ashkar

When I was a kid, I think I was ten years old when I got my first (and really only) French dictionary for school, and there was in it a drawing of a medieval fortress. And I wasn’t a very crafty person at that time, yet, I started collecting toilet paper rolls and other paperboard and broom twigs and I started making a mock-up of that fortress. I worked on it for months and months and I think I finished 75% of it and then I put it on the top of my closet where it stayed for years. Year after year I cleaned the dust from it and returned it there, and I lost interest in working on it, and eventually, I destroyed it and tossed it away. And I have to say that it is one of the things I mostly regret in my life, and I do not regret too many things, but I always wonder what would it have been like, had I had finished that mock-up.

Have you ever had a non-finished project that you still regret not finishing? An incomplete tale? An unresolved argument? A half-read & long-forgotten book? A movie without an ending? A story without a closure? Were you ever so close to reaching your target, so close… but never really there! How does it feel? Horrible! We need closures in our lives. We just need them; without closures there are no next things, no subsequent steps. Or at best, we could move on, but some part of us will always be stuck there in whatever is still unresolved.

When Jesus was killed by the Roman Empire, just like tens or maybe hundreds of Jews executed before him, his disciples thought that it was the end of the story. But then, resurrection happened, and it opened a whole new world before the disciples’ eyes. Some of them went back to maybe forgetting that the death even happened. He’s back again, he’s here again, he was crucified couple days ago, just a minor detail, but let’s just pretend that that never happened, and give him some fish to eat. And yeah by the way since you are here again: “when will you restore the kingdom to Israel?”

I don’t know what does it take for the disciples to finally understand? We might think that after Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection they had finally gotten the message, they had finally understood what Jesus’s mission was really about; but no, they were still expecting a political salvation.

To their stupid question, Jesus answered: “It is not for you to know the times or periods that God has set by God’s own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And then Luke tells us that “When he had said this” he was lifted up, and was taken out of their sight.

He ascended as they were watching; he had to pull himself very clearly and definitively from them this time. And I do want to shift our attention to the real important part of this figurative story, which is the legacy that Jesus wanted to leave behind: “You will be my witnesses to the end of the earth.” For the disciples to understand that they should take the mantle now, Jesus has had to put a closure to his presence with them, on which they were still counting.

He was taken up to heaven, he gave them a closure to their expectations, to their dreams about his military political leadership, and he threw the ball back to them, to pursue the job.

Restoring the kingship is something really for you to do, I will equip you with power, I will show you that whoever dies in me will always be with God and death is but a transition, but it is you, it is not me who will restore the kingship, and by the way this kingship is God’s, the kingdom is God’s, it is God’s vision of a world of justice, of equality, of peace and of love.. and it is your mission not mine.

Ascension was a closure, but also really a beginning. Like any other closure it is the beginning of something new. It was the closure of the Jesus’s era and a beginning of his followers’ era, a closure of the teaching or training and the beginning of application.

Friends, this church is also experiencing closures and beginnings. Chelsea is leaving us soon but she’s leaving with us a study of the demography of our church’s entourage, that would help us determine how we can expand and extend the ministry of our little Parkview bee. This congregation which people are unwillingly leaving by leaving this world; is experiencing many forced closures, but, new members are joining, so we also have our beginnings. Chelsea stated the other day that she doesn’t like the language of endings or decrease but she’d rather call it “a transition.” Our church is experiencing transitions. The mantle is being taken from some and put on the shoulders of others to pursue the journey.

Our beloved Joyce has ascended to be with God, and I know it was not our favorite way of saying goodbye, but it is surely a closure. Now we are left with the spirit of Joyce in each of us who knew and was influenced by her, now what do we do with it? With what we learned from this great woman, what new beginnings can we make in this church and in this community? Can we all be Joyces enthusiastically serving with loaves and fishes, hurrying up to clean the church, cheerfully singing with the choir though we know we are not the best singers (that’s an exhortation to myself), happily joining the monthly newsletter folding party. And what can we do to take this church out to the community, to Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth?