Where to Look

Reading: Acts1: 1-11

"Why are you standing there looking at the sky?'

Life on earth can be pretty difficult and hard to bear sometimes.   The cruelty of humanity continues unabated.  The dishonesty and abuse of institutions of the state, business, and religion are ever present.  It is indeed tempting to look to the heavens - for help and deliverance from these things, to escape all these evils, to look for a better place to live in some other world free from these corruptions.  It is an understandable impulse.

And yet the disciples are rebuked for it.  The presence of Jesus is ever in our midst.  He has given us the Spirit to guide us in all truth with all of the Spirit's attendant gifts and fruits.  We have all that we need to live in a loving and merciful way just as Jesus did in the world.  The remembrance of Jesus' words and deeds - going from place to place continually doing good to others - is our constant source of inspiration and guide to living.  

If we are to look upward to the heavens, let it not be as an escapist or defeatist attitude.  Let it be with the posture of seeking that inspiration and guidance of living on this earth as Jesus did, of seeking that guidance and wisdom of the Spirit to direct our thoughts and actions for the good of others.  Ascension Day presents us with this choice: we can look in despair on the world and seek an escape, or we can look to the heavens to draw inspiration to serve others in love and mercy as Jesus did.  The former leads to despair; the latter enables us to ascend with Jesus through love.