The lessons for Ascension and the 7^th Sunday of Easter are about interludes.  In John 17 Jesus prays for his disciples and us.  He is at an interlude between the Passover meal and his going to the cross where he will glorify His Heavenly Father by completing his mission of salvation and going back to the Father.  In Acts 1, after he ascends, back to the Father, the disciples stand gawking up into heaven.  Two men tell them that Jesus will return as he came.  They need to go back to Jerusalem and wait for the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

As I think back fifty years Becky and I were at an interlude in the spring of 1967.  In April I received my assignment to St. Martin’s in Winona, MN.  So, we knew where we would be going, but would have to wait for my graduation on May 26^th and ordination in June.  We were also planning to be married the evening after I graduated, yet Becky had finals at Southeast Missouri State the next week.  For the next several weeks we were at interludes.  We wouldn’t be moving to Winona until early July and settling into a home.  We were married, and I had been ordained, but it was only when I was installed that we really started living our life together.

One of the things that the texts for Ascension and the end of the Easter season remind us that God is there in all the interludes of our life.  In fact, we live in the interlude between his ascension and his return.  In a very real sense, all of life is an interlude, waiting for the next chapter to be revealed.