From our Pastor

I can remember when school would be out for the summer and the day after the last school day my Dad would get us up and going with the words. “Vacation is over boys, it’s time to get to work!” Now it wasn’t that my father didn’t have any value to an education, it was just that he wanted to remind us that just because one chapter of life was over didn’t mean everything was done. There was still work to do and it wasn’t going to do itself.

The disciples had a glorious and tumultuous few years with Jesus culminating in the tragedy of the crucifixion and the glory of the resurrection. As they stood on the hillside watching as Jesus ascended into the sky, they too saw the ending of one chapter in their lives. I would think they were probably looking for a respite now to just relax and depressurize from the events up to this point. After all their lives had gone through a rather extensive change for fishing to evangelizing over the last three years. It would be enough to set any of our heads swimming.

There is one point here in the question of why are your looking toward heaven as if God was now going to do something else amazing for you. I heard one theologian make the comment that we are sometimes ‘so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good’. We trust God in all things but that doesn’t mean we don’t have work to do ourselves. Throughout his life, Jesus continued to step out into the world after some heavenly experience and went to work. After his affirmation from the Spirit at his baptism, he went out into the wilderness to face down the temptations Satan would throw at him. After the experience on the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus marched down the mountain and continued to walk with the people healing and teaching—even as he was heading to Jerusalem. And as he rode into Jerusalem in victory, it was to march onward to the cross. In those times that Jesus experienced a taste of heaven on earth he still recognized that there was work to be done and set off from those events to do the work. The angels remind the disciples that there is work yet to be done and in their own way are telling them, “Vacation is over boys, it’s time to get to work!”

These last two and half years have been a great challenge for us as we have had to navigate through situations we have never faced before. We have been challenged by how we are to do ministry that have broaden our capability and understanding beyond anything we could have imagined for us. This last Easter was glorious not only because we celebrated Jesus’ victory over death but it was also the first time we have had to do so as a full congregation in the last three years. We are feeling rather heady that we were again able to have over 100 people celebrate in the church again between the two services and even had an Easter Sunrise Breakfast again. It could be easy for us to sit and watch to see what new events God will share to top that. We can be in effect looking to heaven for what’s next when we need to look around to see who might need to hear the word of hope and power we have to share. Perhaps we, too, need to see that vacation is over and it’s time to go to work.
 
In Christ’s love,
 
Pastor Paul