It's Ascension Day. Yep, forty days after Easter, according to the first chapter of the Book of Acts, Jesus ascended up into the clouds after telling His disciples:
But ye shall receive power,, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (From the Epistle reading for Ascension Day, 1928 Book of Common Prayer)
Another cool thing about Ascension Day, besides the promise of the Holy Spirit, is that two men in white appeared to the disciples and said to them:
Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (1928 BCP again)
So that's how Our Lord is returning. From the clouds. In glory.
I would love to see Ascension Day celebrated in more evangelical churches. It's such a wonderful image of the power and might of Christ, ascending "to the right hand of the Father. And He shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the death, Whose kingdom shall have no end..." (Nicene Creed, 1928 BCP).
So imagine it. Envision it. And celebrate the power and glory of the Lord our God.
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