“It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.” (Acts 1:7)

Today is the Feast of the Ascension. It’s been forty days since Jesus rose from the tomb on Easter morning, and during those forty days, according to the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, he’s been appearing to the disciples and teaching even more about the kingdom of God than he had when he was alive. And so they wonder: is this the moment?

They ask him, “Lord, is this the time when you’ll restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) We once had our own nation, and we lost it. We once had you, and we thought you’d lost you—but now you’re back. So is this the moment when you’ll restore the kingdom? Is this the moment when life will finally go back to the way it should be?

He gives them an unsatisfying answer. Jesus says to the disciples, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.” (Acts 1:7) And then, after a few more words, he’s lifted up into the sky and disappears behind a cloud.

It’s a very unsatisfying answer. “It’s not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set.” They’re asked simply to trust.

This is a frustrating idea, especially for those of us who’ve spent the last fourteen months waiting, and waiting, and waiting to know when things will go back to normal, or at least when we’ll be able to do things that feel a little normal again: When we’ll be able to drop our kids off in the nursery or Godly Play and go to church; when we’ll be able to travel on an airplane to visit relatives without fear; when we’ll be able to walk around, living our everyday lives and worrying about our ordinary concerns without the looming threat of a pandemic.

“It’s not for you to know the times,” Jesus says, and it’s a frustrating answer.

There is an insight, though, in what happens next.

Jesus has disappeared into the clouds, and two angels appear, and say to the disciples: “Galileans, why do you stand looking up into the heavens? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go.” (Acts 1:11)

Why are you looking up into heaven, they ask? Jesus is gone. This man you loved has disappeared; but look! You’re all still here!

If we try to plan and to control the times and seasons of the next few months, if we try to pin everything down to know for sure when we’ll be able to go back to normal, we’re only going to be banging our heads against the wall. We can’t control or predict state guidelines or church guidelines from the bishops’ office.

But we can control where we set our eyes.