Ascension Day and They Were All Alone
Probably puzzled, too. The apostles were never ones to be quick at figuring out what Jesus was up to. This is probably true of disciples of all kinds of religious leaders. The leader almost always has to shock them, tell them stories, rattle their cages in order to get them to see what they need to see. You don't even have to be in their presence to have it happen. We do it all the time with Jesus.

So watching the apostles stand in the late spring/early summer sun as Jesus disappeared it is not a surprise that an angel has to tell them to move on. "Why are you staring into space? He's not there anymore."

Gone, He's gone? Just like that? What are we to do?

Have patience- wait.

We might ask why, after all this time with the resurrected Jesus, they are still worried and confused? Can't they ever figure out He knows what He's talking about?

But such aloneness, loss, is not easily worked through with logic. When things that have never happened before are happening, you have nothing to fall back on. You don't have any experience on which to build today's events. In short they had no idea what was going to happen. So they had to wait. Wait until the Spirit comes. Even when they had no idea what they even meant.

The best way to wait, then as now, is exactly what they did. They waited together. They were not alone. They had each other. They were in the midst of the group that had been their support and hope and strength. We, too, wait together and don't need to be alone. We too can find ourselves in the midst of groups that can be our strength and hope and support.

Why then do we fight it? Why do we refuse to even accept support and strength. We are so intent on making it alone that we miss the many opportunities to do something that can truly make a difference. It made me think of the words from an old Crosby, Stills, and Nash song. It may or may not have been what Stephen Stills meant, but it sure sounds like it to me as we learn that we have to be three together to be for each other.

They are one person
They are two alone
They are three together
They are for each other
--Helplessly Hoping, Stephen Stills