Ascensiontide 2006
Where's the fat lady?

"The end cannot come until the fat lady sings". I haven't a clue where that saying comes from, have you? Unless it is something to do with the opera singer and the end of a performance.

For us as Christians in the context of thinking about end times, "Before the end, what?" has a different connotation and is filled with questions and speculation. That is what was in the minds of the apostles at the beginning of the Book of Acts (ch 1 vv 1-11). Whilst we refer to this passage in Acts as the Ascension, perhaps the event is not the central feature of the account. As John Stott in his commentary suggests, "Luke is more concerned with what was said than with what happened." *

Concentrate upon what was on the minds of those first disciples. Now that Jesus has been raised from the dead, was God going to complete his purpose by finally establishing his rule? The answer to their question was two-fold. First, the time of this event remains God's secret. So not much purpose in speculation! On the other hand, it is important for those first believers to act as witnesses to Jesus, as commanded by him, from Jerusalem to the end of the earth.

The spread of God's rule was to take place by those men and women, empowered by the Holy Spirit. This was the final command of Jesus before he left this earth. These verses spell out the purpose and place of the church before the Lord returns. We are in a period of witness and mission. This precedes the return of Jesus. So those first disciples were not to expect an early winding up of history.

For Luke's readers some forty years or more later they were a reminder of an ongoing task and are the same is true for us too: the gospel must still be taken to the end of the earth. And yet at the same time our Lord's words contain a note of promise in that his departure is compensated for, by the coming of the Spirit, given by himself. The disciples are portrayed as looking intently into the sky as Jesus disappears, a detail which suggests that they are longing for the reappearance of Jesus or some thing else to indicate the end of this drama. Their almost unspoken prayer is answered by the appearance of two figures dressed in who ask the disciples why they are gazing into heaven; the question, I suppose, is an implicit reproach of them dawdling and not getting on with the task in hand.

Now they are given an assurance that the ascension of Jesus is a guarantee that, as it was possible for Jesus to ascend into heaven, so it will be possible for him return in the same way, on a cloud at the Parousia. Thus the promise of the Parousia forms the background of our hope against which we are to act as witnesses to Jesus.

In effect this passage corresponds to Jesus' statement in Mark 13:10 that the gospel must first be preached to all nations before the end can come.

As a church here on the Fairfield, we are right in our vision statement to have the winning of disciples for Jesus Christ who undertake a journey of faith towards spiritual maturity, as our prime aim. Let us rejoice and give thanks that we are part of that glorious number who will one day meet with our Lord in heaven or with him at his return. As the Apostle Paul declared we can only be sure of this through committing our lives to Christ.

"God did not choose us to suffer his anger, but to possess salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us in order that we might live together with him, whether we are alive or dead when he comes. And so encourage one another and help one another" (Ephesians 5:9-11).

God bless