Cross of Christ Lutheran Church - Liverpool, NY (WELS)

Everyone has doubts about all kinds of things. Doubting is part of the human condition. But there are times when doubts don’t make sense. We walk with Jesus disciples up the mountain in Galilee and find some surprising doubt.

When you don’t speak the same language, it’s hard to communicate. When we share the gospel, we need to speak the same language as someone. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit has taken care of that problem for us at Pentecost.

If the disciples were to list their reasons for staring up into the sky, I think we’d find it quite compelling. We’d likely want to continue staring up into the sky with them. We already do it more than we think.

We have every reason to revere Christ as Lord and live our lives for him. But doing so appears to put us in a lose-lose situation.

In stories, the vampires can’t get you if you’re holy. Are you holy? In real life, there are no vampires. But there is darkness. There is trouble and suffering that threatens to suck the life from us. These are the issues that the Apostle Peter took up in his letter. He’s writing to people who are suffering. But he encourages them, “You are holy! The darkness cannot get you.”

Luke gave us a description of what the early church devoted themselves to: the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

They were cut to the heart. What do you do when you’ve just made the biggest, worst, most shameful mistake of your life and now the person you offended has all power over you? What do you do when you’ve just crucified the Author of life? That’s what the Jews desperately asked Peter. “Brothers, what shall we do?”

The week after Easter is, on average, one of the lowest attended church services of the year. We fall into our regular routines, wearing our regular clothes, singing in our regular voices. Jesus still lives, but do we act like it?

Jonah comes walking up from the beach, soaking wet and admittedly smelling like the inside of a fish. “Guys, you would not believe what just happened to me!”

Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”