It's Ascension Day, the "forgotten child" of the church's Principal Feasts. Because it falls on a Thursday, in many places it is moved to the following Sunday, displacing the 7th Sunday of Easter. That's a shame, because the Gospel for Easter 7 always comes from Jesus' High-Priestly Prayer, a text which we need to hear, and on which I intend to preach on Sunday. It also somewhat violates the integrity of the day's main text, Acts 1:1-11, which tells us that Jesus appeared for forty days after the Resurrection—hence this day.
The timing of the day thus carries with it a literal reading of Luke's text—exactly the opposite of what I want to make of the text.
As it has been pointed out in many other places, the world-view implied by this story is totally in conflict with contemporary understanding of the universe's structure. John Spong has pointed out that, even moving at the speed of light, Jesus would not yet have left our own galaxy. Even if it's true, this facetious comment sheds no light on the text whatsoever, and IMHO serves more to obscure its meaning. Trying to make physical sense of this text in a contemporary world-view justs ties our heads in knots.
Conversely, is also unhelpful to read it as pure metaphor, as some would have us do. The story uses the conventional imagery of the OT cosmos to deal with the practical issue of Jesus' physical absence. It may well hark back to the Ascension of Elijah in 2 Kings 2:1-12, with which it shares one key narrative feature: as the master leaves, the disciple(s) is/are commissioned for future ministry. For me, that is the heart of the matter. The question is not "Where did Jesus go?" which is unanswerable in any meaningful sense, but "Where do we go from here?" which is made abundantly clear in the Gospel lesson, Luke 24:44-53.
Where now? Back to the centre of the universe (aka Jerusalem in Hebrew thought), where power shall be given, then out to the ends of the earth. We may not share this view of Jerusalem, but we can certainly go to the centre—seeking God at the heart of all things, and also beyond all things. And we can still proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth—which today may be in the house next door!
