{"id":2783,"date":"2020-05-21T00:00:05","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T23:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/?p=2783"},"modified":"2020-05-20T14:49:45","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T13:49:45","slug":"a-reflection-for-ascension-day-thursday-21st-may-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/?p=2783","title":{"rendered":"A Reflection for Ascension Day, Thursday 21st May 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A message from Rev\nAlistair McLeod for Ascension Day, Thursday 21st<\/sup> May 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reading for\nAscension Day is: Acts 1 verses 6 to 11. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy do you stand\nlooking into heaven?\u201d ask two men dressed in white robes to the disciples\nstaring up into space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, why do we stand\nlooking into heaven? And where should we be looking?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere\u201d seems to be an\nincreasingly difficult, hard and lonesome place to be sometimes and none more\nso that at this time of Covid19. Out there must be some other place, any other\nplace, better than this, we think on our bad days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it must have seemed\nto the disciples. Their leader and saviour had just taken off, seemingly\nskyward. The Romans, the military and political authorities seemed stronger and\nmore dangerous than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Jesus leaves them,\nthey are pleading with him to restore the Kingdom to Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not for you to\nknow \u2026 but the Spirit will come to you \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then he is gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And like us, they are\nstanding there looking up, searching the sky, wishing to see a sign that the\ntime would be now. Or soon. Or at least certain to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like us, they would\nlike to know what the plan is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And like everyone, they\nwould like an end to the loneliness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To lose someone close\nis always difficult to bear. We all know what that feels like. It seems as if\nlife cannot possibly go on. At least not at all like it had before they left\nus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, here, with Jesus,\na promise is made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The promise is: \u201cYou\nshall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes. I send the promise of my father\nupon you until you are clothed with power from on high. Stay where you are.\nContinually praise God. Be joyful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStay where you are. It\nwill come to you. God will come to you. God\u2019s Kingdom will come to you.\u201d But\nthis is not the message we want to hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are accustomed to\nbeing on the go. We go where we wish. We are urged to go for all we can get. We\nare schooled from an early age that all you have to do is want it and work for\nit, and it shall be yours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Jesus says: \u201cStay\nwhere you are. Stay, stop looking up. It will come to you right where you are.\nContinually praise God in the temple. Be joyful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does it help us to know\nthat the concept of the Messiah and the Messianic Age or Kingdom was thought by\nJesus and his contemporaries to take place right here \u2013 not somewhere else, not\nout there, not up in the sky, not some other time, not some future time, but\nnow?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Messianic Kingdom\nwill come to us; to those of us who stay here in the city; to those of us who\nare joyful; to those of us who praise God; to those of us who know and love\nJesus, his Kingdom is here and now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are not called to\nlook for the Kingdom, to search the heavens for signs of its arrival, but to\nstep into it here and now with all that we are, all that we have, all that we\nsay and all that we do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To those of us who stay\nhere joyfully blessing God, it will come. Those who participate in this life\nwith an attitude of Thanksgiving will receive its full promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A message from Rev Alistair McLeod for Ascension Day, Thursday 21st May 2020. The reading for Ascension Day is: Acts 1 verses 6 to 11. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2783"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2786,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2783\/revisions\/2786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}