Toiseach tòiseachaidh

"... but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24.49

Yesterday was Ascension Sunday. Both services I attended - Holy Communion in St John's and the Assembly Gaelic Service in Greyfriars - focused on the raising of Jesus into heavenly glory and its significance. For Jesus, it amounted to his coronation as King of the Universe. For the disciples, it confirmed that Jesus was everything he said he was and that they could trust him for whom all things were possible.

So when Jesus commanded them to wait in the city until they should be "clothed with power from on high", it was not as if they were going to be abandoned - even temporarily - but that Jesus had something in mind for which they needed to prepare and which would be worth the waiting. God is always with us - whether as Father, Son or Holy Spirit - for God is One, at all times and in all places.

What Pentecost demonstrates is that God showers us with gifts that enable us for fulfil our purpose and calling, by equipping us with the gifts and skills we need. Yet we must trust him and we need to be prepared to wait - in holy expectation. That may mean ceasing normal activity or it may concern our prayer lives, the point being that we do not rush out in our own strength but that we activate our spiritual antennae for God's instructions...