There is a principle in life that says you can only keep what you are willing to lose. I don't know how many people really believe it, but it is a spiritual principle and it is evident in the natural world as well. Jesus illustrates the principle when he says, "unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it is barren...totally useless."
Any farmer knows that principle.
Unless you plant it, you will never harvest.
You can only eat your seed grain for so long, then its all gone and you in trouble.
We know that unless we are willing to befriend others, its unlikely we will be befriended in return.
If you don't invest your money and your energy, you will never reap the rewards.
You are more likely to be hit by lightning than win the lotttery.

Jesus also says the same thing in the parable of the talents. Hide it and you lose it.
He says if you are willing to lose your life for my sake then; and only then, will you really discover it.

This is true of the Kingdom of Heaven as well--you cannot hoard it.
You remember when God was leading the Israelites in the desert and fed them with manna--they were to harvest only what they needed each day. Any attempt to hoard the stuff and it would spoil. Also, the moment they came into the land that could sustain itself, the mana stopped. God gives us what we need when we need it, and just enough. Hoarding is not allowed.
That makes sense in its own logic.

Here is another example of it: In the time of Elijah, there was a severe famine and Elijah came to the home of a widow and her son. He asked for food. She said she had enough for one meal for herself and her son then they would starve. Elijah said, and you can read it for yourself in 1Kings 17, "Make a cake and feed me first." He promised that God would look after her and her son. She did and God did, but she had to give before she received.

So what does any of this have to do with Jesus ascension...his being taken up into heaven?
The same principle is at work.
Remember how we read in John's gospel about Mary Magdalene finding Jesus in the garden on the morning of his resurrection. At first she doesn't recognize him, but when she does she embraces him and does not want to let go.
Jesus says to her "let go. I have not ascended to my father in heaven."
At another point he says, "It is better for you that I do go."
Tell Mary that! She thought they had lost him, and she is not about to let go, but Jesus tells her she has to.
Because unless he leaves, he cannot send the Spirit.

There is a simple principle at work here too.
In the flesh Jesus is in one place at one time, and though he is still able to perform wonders for them, this is not his plan.
His plan is that they all will be filled with the spirit and will become his hands, his feet, his voice to all the world.
Unless he leaves, the greater kingdom cannot be.

They might have said, "who cares? We have you here and now and that's all we care about."
They might have, but they didn't and they had no opportunity to anyway.
God takes Jesus up in a cloud as they are standing there watching, and then a bit later at Pentecost, God sends the Holy Spirit on them all and they are invested with the same power that Jesus had in the flesh, they even healed and brought people back from the dead.

But they had to be willing to let go of Jesus in the flesh.
They had to lose that comfort, that immediacy to gain the greater--the Spirit in them.

The principle is exactly the same.
We experience the comfort of Jesus in a group or a relationship.
Wonderful, but it is not meant for hoarding. It is meant for giving away.
Only as we release that to others can we continue to be filled ourselves. Hoard it and it will spoil.

I have heard from time to time people say how much they enjoy the warmth of a smaller church like ours.
I am glad to hear it of course, but there is an implicit danger in that. It is that we think the warmth somehow is dependent on smallness, and it is not. It is dependent on us, especially the core leadership being warm and caring people.
It depends on everyone understanding and practicing the principle of giving away what you recieive.

It is disconcerting to find yourself in a large and impersonal setting if you are looking for warmth and intimacy.
But it can be downright upsetting to find yourself in a small group that turns inward and shuns the newcomer.
Small groups can be just as cold and impersonal as the large and impersonal group. In small groups we call it cliqueishness.
It is the small town where everyone knows everyone but the new person who just moves in. Those people get to know that until you have lived there a generation, you are still the outsider.

Hoard it and it will spoil. Share it and it will grow.
Jesus says, "it is better that I go." The reason is that if he stayed they would never have grown beyond the stage of being dependent on Jesus to do everything. The world needed them to begin acting like Jesus in his place. And they did.
We read about all they did in the Acts of the Apostles.

As Jesus left and they stood there looking at the place where he was, an angel says, "He is coming back", but in the meantime remember what he told you and get on with it.
They had to let go of what they had so they could gain what was to follow.

Yes, he is returing.
Yes he will establish his kingdom as he promised.
But that kingdom will look a lot different than what you expect.
It is still being established and it needs us to be involved.
It is being established when we give our money for water wells in Africa.
It is being established when we bring our baskets of food to the food bank.
It is being established when we visit the sick in the hospital and the infirmed at home.

It is being established when we provide a safe and welcoming group for those youth we saw baptized a few weeks ago.
It is being established in lives of people who can see in your face that you really do care.
But we continually have to be prepared to let go of what we have so that God can bring us into what he is preparing for us.

What the angel did not tell them at that moment was that the road from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the world was a road not just of establishing God's kingdom on earth, but was also going to be a road of pain and suffering for them as well. Sometimes God asks us to invest it all.
But his promise is he returns far more than we give away.
Whether we give away peace or time or convenience or even health and life.
What is planted will one day be harvested.

Do you believe that?
It is true.
Just look around.
What is there that we enjoy that someone did not sacrifice so we could enjoy it?
What will we sacrifice in love for the love of God, that others can enjoy and that God will be pleased with our faith?