Ascension Day — Bearing Our Mission in His Absence
Every May, while most of Hong Kong is still flipping through Mother’s Day cards and chasing seasonal sales, the Western liturgical calendar quietly turns a page that many Chinese believers overlook: Ascension Day. This year it fell on Thursday, 14 May; in some countries — France, for example — it is even observed as a public holiday. Today, Hong Kong also marks a different but spiritually weighty date: 17 May, the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT). Standing in the intersection of these two observances, Pastor Timothy invited the congregation to pause and reconsider what Jesus’ Ascension actually means.
He opened with an unusual visual prop — a UFO poster. The U.S. government recently released a 162-page declassified report on UFOs and UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), and the discussion has rippled through American Christian circles and into Hong Kong. Pastor Timothy observed that Christians tend to fall into two equally reflexive reactions. The first: “Whatever the Bible doesn’t mention, whatever we don’t recognise, must be evil — it must be of Satan.” The second: “If aliens really exist, doesn’t that invalidate Christian faith altogether?” These two conclusions look opposed, but they share the same underlying assumption — that faith must be anchored to a particular external event, or vindicated by modern scientific evidence. Once we tie our trust to “the next mystery to be solved,” our faith will never stand still.
Walking through Luke 24:44–53, Pastor Timothy brought the congregation into the scene of the Ascension. When the Lord led them out near Bethany, lifted up his hands and blessed them, he was taken up into heaven. The disciples stood there, staring at the sky. In Acts, two men in white robes appear and ask, almost teasingly: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?” Pastor Timothy joked that the disciples probably thought Jesus had just gone up to fetch something and would come right back — so they kept standing there. But the angels’ message was clear: stop waiting; go back to Jerusalem; he is not coming back so soon.
The Ascension was Jesus deliberately removing the form of presence his disciples relied on most. That kind of dependence — “He’s here, we ask him whenever we have a question” — had to end before the disciples could mature into bearing the mission. By ascending in body, Jesus’ presence is no longer bound by physical space. “His absence is a physical absence; yet precisely through that physical absence, we can experience his supernatural presence.”
Pastor Timothy then brought the theology back into everyday life. Last Thursday he attended the memorial service of a brother, Steven Tam — a man who had loved the church for over thirty years and who, even when his health failed, kept worshipping with the congregation over Zoom. “There will be important people around us who leave; and sometimes God himself will let us leave the place where we feel comfortable.” BMCC itself has been through seasons when pastors and key members departed; yet each departure has pressed more members into stepping forward. In last week’s 301 discipleship training graduation photo, what he saw was a group of people willing to heal the church and build up the body of Christ.
But bearing the mission is not an abstract slogan. Pastor Timothy warned that as long as we keep staring at the sky like the disciples — waiting for a from-heaven answer that solves all our problems — we miss the core of faith. He offered a pastor analogy: “You ask a pastor, ‘Can I do this?’ Even if the pastor says yes, you still don’t feel at peace, so you ask a more senior pastor, and then another. The question is never which pastor gives the best answer — it’s whether you yourself are willing to carry the decision.” Faith works the same way. What the church can give you is a community of fellow witnesses; but only you can walk through your own fear and anxiety.
This kind of bearing, Pastor Timothy said, is precisely what IDAHOBIT calls for. Those who remain are sent into the city to witness — on the streets, inside and outside the church — continuing to resist the rejection and prejudice aimed at LGBTQ people, not through better credentials or fresher evidence but through the power and love the Holy Spirit himself gives. “When we are no longer afraid, the world around us slowly changes. We are participants in the change, not spectators on the sidelines.”
Pastor Timothy closed with the last image of the Ascension: the body that ascended bore nail marks — a body that had passed through death, been lifted up, and been made new. Jesus, again and again, affirms a life that is flesh and blood, and proclaims the renewing power released by the Holy Spirit. The Ascension is not a farewell; it is a commissioning.
Blessed Ministry Community Church is a home that welcomes everyone — we believe the Lord is with us when we are staring at the sky, and even more so when we turn back toward the city to face our own fear and our own calling. If you come here today carrying questions about faith, identity, or the future, you do not need to have all the answers in place before you can meet God. We welcome you to join us on a Sunday.
