Ascension Day, which we celebrated on Thursday, marks one of the great turning points in the Church’s year. It is a moment that we can easily miss, overshadowed by Easter on one side and Pentecost on the other, yet it is absolutely vital for understanding who we are as followers of Jesus today.
For the disciples, the Ascension marked the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. No longer would they gather around Jesus physically, listening to him teach, watching him heal, sharing meals and conversations. Now they were being prepared for something new - a life of outward mission, a life that would take them far beyond the familiar rooms and roads where they had walked with him.
In today’s gospel reading from John (17:1-11), Jesus is praying for his disciples on the night before his crucifixion. He knows what lies ahead. He knows that soon he will no longer be with them in the way they have known. And so he prays - not for their comfort, not for their safety, but that they may be one, and that through them the world may come to know the love of God. Even before the cross, Jesus is preparing them for the Ascension. He is preparing them for the moment when the responsibility of revealing God’s name to the world will rest on their shoulders.
They may not have realised it, but the work of the Church had already begun… When Jesus finally ascended (Acts 1:6-14), the disciples stood staring up at the sky, perhaps confused, perhaps overwhelmed. And then two men in white robes appeared and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven?” In other words: Don’t just stand there. Don’t wait for something else to happen. The world needs you now.
It is a gentle telling off, but also a commissioning. The disciples are being told to stop looking upwards and start looking outwards… And this is where the story becomes our story.
Because the Ascension is not simply about Jesus going somewhere else. It is about Jesus entrusting his mission to us. It is about the Church being empowered to live as his body in the world. It is about the extraordinary truth that God chooses to work through ordinary people - people like the disciples, and people like us.
William Temple, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, once wrote about this moment. He said that during Jesus’ earthly ministry, only those physically near him could hear him speak or see what he was doing. If you were in Galilee, you couldn’t see Jesus in Jerusalem. If you were in Jerusalem, you couldn’t see him in Galilee. His presence was limited by geography.
But Temple goes on to say that by his Ascension, Jesus is now available to all people, in all places at all times. He has not gone away; he has become present everywhere. Nothing can separate us from him - not distance or time or circumstance. The Ascension is not Jesus’ absence; it is his universal presence.
And that is why the disciples could move from fear to courage, from hiding to proclaiming, from confusion to clarity. Jesus had not abandoned them. He had gone ahead of them, and he would be with them always.
There is a medieval mystery play about the Ascension that imagines two angels following Jesus as he rises into heaven. They call out, “Jesus! Wait for us!” And when they catch up, they ask him, “Lord, you have done everything the Father asked of you. But what happens now? Isn’t there more to be done?”
Jesus replies, “Of course there is more to be done. But didn’t you hear me give them what they will call the Great Commission? They will go out and baptise all nations. They will continue my work.”
The angels look doubtful. “But Lord,” one says, “have you been paying attention to them? Can you really trust them with this?”
The other angel adds, “What’s your back‑up plan?”
And Jesus simply says, “There is no back‑up plan.”
There is no back‑up plan because we are the plan. The Church, empowered by the Holy Spirit, is God’s chosen instrument for sharing his love with the world. Not perfect or flawless people, but forgiven people, Spirit‑filled people, people who have encountered the love of Christ and are willing to share it.
The question for us is the same question the angels asked: Will we join in the work? Will we participate in the mending of creation, or will we stand back and watch from a comfortable distance?
Because the calling we have received is not a burden but a gift. In baptism, we are embraced by God’s love and then sent out to share that love. We can choose to turn inward, to cling to what feels familiar, to keep church comfortable and predictable. Or we can turn outwards, recognising where God is already at work in the world and joining him there.
It might not always be an easy road - and it will take confidence, not confidence in us, but confidence in God; and it will take a willingness to be inconvenienced, because stepping out in faith to help share the gospel might be inconvenient sometimes, but….. time and again Jesus took the harder road, the road of compassion, the road of sacrifice, the road of love. And he calls us to walk that road with him.
In our reading from Acts, Jesus tells the disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses… to the ends of the earth.”
Those words were not only for the disciples. They are for us. We are called to be witnesses - not experts, not theologians, not perfect examples - but witnesses. People who can say, “This is what Jesus has done in my life. This is how he has changed me. This is why I follow him.”
The disciples waited and prayed between Ascension and Pentecost. But when the Spirit came, they moved. They spoke. They acted. They lived the gospel… And so must we.
We sometimes hear discouraging stories about the Church - declining numbers, financial worries, lack of clergy, uncertainty about the future. But the Church is not ours to save. It is God’s Church. And he has promised never to leave us. He may surprise us, he may redirect us, he may turn us upside down, but he will never abandon us.
God who created the universe, who conquered death, who fills all things, is with us. And he trusts us enough to call us into his service.
At the end of this service we will hear the words, “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” They are not a polite dismissal. They are a commissioning. They are our Ascension moment. They are the reminder that we do not stay here staring at the sky, or staring at the past, or staring at our worries. We go out, strengthened by worship, strengthened by fellowship, strengthened by the presence of Christ who is with us always - to love and serve the Lord in the world he loves.
And so, as we stand in this moment between Ascension and Pentecost, we find ourselves exactly where the first disciples once stood - held by Christ’s promise, entrusted with Christ’s mission, and waiting for Christ’s power. But waiting is never the end of the story. The Spirit comes not to make us comfortable, but to make us courageous.
We need to recognise that the world will not know the compassion of Christ unless people sees it in us. The world will not hear the good news unless people hear it through our voices, our choices, our presence. The world will not believe that hope is possible unless people glimpse that hope in the way we live.
That is the challenge of Ascension - not simply to admire Jesus, but to embody him; not simply to remember his words, but to continue his work; not simply to gather in worship, but to scatter in witness.
And yet this challenge is also our joy. Because the One who sends us is the One who goes with us. The One who calls us is the One who equips us. The One who entrusts us with his mission is the One who fills us with his Spirit. We do not go alone, and we do not go in our own strength.
So, step into this week with confidence - not in your abilities, but in God’s faithfulness. Lift your eyes from what feels small or uncertain, and look instead for the places where Christ is already at work, quietly, patiently, powerfully. And when you see those places, dare to join him.
For there is no back‑up plan. We are the plan.
And Christ is with us - always, everywhere… Amen
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