MIND-BLOWING STUFF

GOSPEL — LUKE 24:44-53
The Ascension of Our Lord

Why do you come to worship? Do you come out of duty or habit? Do you come to see friends and drink good coffee? Do you come for spiritual guidance, inspiration, or grounding? Do you come to gain strength, to listen to the word of God, or to hear the sermon? Do you come because you like to sing the hymns? Do you come to hear the words of forgiveness of sins or to receive the body and blood of Jesus? Do you come to worship because it satisfies your needs? Do you come because it satisfies God’s desires?

As Jesus ascends to heaven, the disciples cannot help but stare upward in dumbfounded awe of what they are witnessing. Suddenly two men, possibly angels, appear and snap them out of their bewilderment. “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” they ask (Acts 1:11), as if what the disciples have just seen is nothing astonishing or unusual; as if what they are trying to say is, “There’s nothing more to see here; get back to work.”

Before he was lifted out of their sight, Jesus told his disciples that they would be his witnesses “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Being a witness is more than just watching an event; it requires giving testimony to what you have seen and heard. What the disciples have seen and heard throughout Jesus’ ministry and in his death, resurrection, and ascension is astonishing, mind-blowing stuff. How would it be possible not to testify “to the ends of the earth” about what they have experienced?

If coming to worship is only about what we want, then all we are doing is gazing up to heaven. But if we join together in worship for the sake of God’s desires, then we become eyewitnesses to how God came, and continues to come, to us. That’s not useless staring into the sky—that’s the kind of astounding stuff that sends witnesses who will testify to the ends of the earth.


From sundaysandseasons.com.
Copyright © 2023 Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved.