Jesus, stand among us in your risen power.  Disciples long for this: to see Jesus, have him with us, in his risen, resurrection power.  Those first disciples were scared for their lives.  Jesus was dead and gone, and now what?  The answer was clear: they came for him, they’ll come for us, next.  Our days are numbered.  O, why did we ever pledge ourselves to Jesus?  Look what’s it’s gotten us!

Then news came that Jesus wasn’t dead—well, he was—they all knew it, had seen it; they couldn’t forget what they saw, and what it did to them.  Death makes an impression, beloved!  They were being told he wasn’t dead anymore.  Was it true?  Was this news trustworthy?  They wondered and trembled, and Jesus stood among them in his risen power.  Jesus!  You haven’t left us!  You’re truly alive, and with us again!  Can you imagine their joy?  I can only begin to imagine what seeing Jesus, alive, did for those fears of doom that had been gnawing away at their hearts, their hopes, their peace of mind and soul.

When Jesus, in his risen power, is standing among you—sisters and brothers, bring it on.  C’mon, world, let’s see what you’ve got.  It’s easy to talk in this rash, foolhardy way, when you see Jesus right in front of you, who was dead and is now alive, radiant, unstoppable, undefeated and undefeatable, because he is God.  Here we are, listening to this first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and Jesus goes away again.  The followers have seen Jesus and know he lives.  When you’ve seen and know, believing is no challenge.  And if you haven’t seen with your own eyes?  And if you’re not sure whether you know, or how you know?

It doesn’t take long for fear and uncertainty to seep back in, does it?  The world is very skilled, diabolically skilled, at making us afraid, uncertain.  Divide and conquer.  The first division is in our heart and mind: the old division, always there, even before Eve’s tongue tasted that first mouthful.

Jesus has told his followers that he would be leaving, yet he would not be gone.  They would not see him, yet he would be there, still, with them, always, to the end of the age.  He tells them their task now is to go out and proclaim the Good News of salvation to all peoples in all places.  They might ask him about missionary methods.  They might ask him to bless them with the skill to respond persuasively to objections and questions.  Instead, they ask him if he’s going to restore the kingdom now (1:6).

All Jews knew that the Messiah was going to restore the kingdom of David: strong, independent, safe, with Jews in charge and gentiles in subjection, pure and true priestly worship being offered in the purified Temple.  The kingdom that the Messiah would establish forever would be just: no oppression, all would have enough of what they needed.  The re-established kingdom of David would usher in the end times, times of total peace, then the resurrection of the dead, then judgment.  There were several versions of just what sort of kingdom the Messiah would establish, but everyone looking for the Messiah knew that the Messiah, and the kingdom he would establish, would establish the world as it ought to be.

The world as it ought to be.  How far we are from that!  Should you have to suffer?  Should you have to worry?  Should you have to be afraid?  Or any of us?  The disciples, Jesus standing among them, are eager, so ready, for him to bring the kingdom now.  That’s their wish, their hope.  That’s their priority.  They don’t ask Jesus about God, or faith, or hope, or love, or obedience.  They don’t ask Jesus if his hands hurt, what with those holes in them, or his side.  They ask when Jesus will give them power, prominence, the safety of walls: the city of David, at the center of the power of the kingdom of David, was surrounded by massive walls.  Lord, when will you make the walls unbreakable?

They don’t ask about God’s priorities.  They ask about their priorities.  Because why would God’s priorities be different from mine?

Jesus was just telling them about the Holy Spirit.  They weren’t asking about the Spirit.  Their thoughts and hearts aren’t on the Spirit: Jesus is about to leave them, and they are starting to feel afraid again, worried, not at peace, not happy.  They want assurances that Jesus will take care of their priorities before he goes.

Oh, these coronavirus times in which we live.  H1N1, SARS, flu, pneumonia, cancer.  Global warming—well, either that is or isn’t happening.  Thirty-five years ago, the fear was the ice age that the nuclear holocaust would cause: Nuclear Winter—anybody remember?  Nuclear weapons are still around, by the way.  Nobody seems to be talking about those anymore, since we’re so chummy with Russia now, and China, and North Korea, and Iran.  I seem to recall that India and Pakistan also have nuclear weapons, and they get along so well.  Israel has them.  Why did we ever think we were safe?  What makes us feel safe?

“What’s the buzz?  Tell me what’s a-happenin!”  What’s going on, as Marvin sang.  How can we make sense of it?  Why is this happening?  I watch YouTube videos at the end of the day.  It’s how I wind down, I guess.  Kent Rollins has some mighty impressive cowboy cooking videos, even if he is from Oklahoma.  And I’ve noticed a sudden uptick, a surge, even, in the number of religious videos addressing the end, with titles like “Warning about the End of the World,” “Signs of the Last Days Are Showing,” “The Truth about the Antichrist”: Irvin Baxter stuff, Hal Lindsey stuff, Harold Camping stuff.  What’s happening?  Why is this happening?  How can we make sense of it?

Other videos advertise themselves as being from prophets.  Beloved, in the midst of all this, this fear, worry, and suffering—because we are suffering: our lives, our certainties, have been upended, again, and death seems near, much too near!  In the midst of all this, I urge you to remember, remind yourself, that you already have what you need to know: the way of salvation.  You have who you need to know, Jesus Christ: risen, triumphant, the one whom nothing can defeat, who is unstoppable, unstoppably working even in this moment for your salvation, for your encouragement, for the upbuilding of this church, our ministry to a world shattering itself with fear, worry, confusion, desperation, frustration.  The world careens off to destruction, as always, and we are called and calling to life.

It’s always the right time for repentance, which isn’t just confessing sin, or even confessing need for God, but is total reliance upon God.  But that’s hard, isn’t it: relying totally upon God, when we’ve been educated, socialized, acculturated to rely upon ourselves, or at least upon the government, who gives us free things, like money.  It’s always the right time for repentance, and let us always await Christ’s return with hopeful, joyful, expectant hearts.

And what Jesus says to his wondering followers, when they ask him about the coming of the kingdom, is this: “It is not for you to know the times or the dates the Father has set by His own authority” (1:7).  It is not for us to know, yet how much energy, zeal, time, and resources are expended upon what it is not for us to know.  Harold Camping knew.  He knew in 2011 just as he knew in 1994.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses knew in 1941, and Charles Taze Russell knew in 1914.  John Wesley suggested people might want to be ready when 1836 arrived.  It seems we want to know.  What is happening?  Why is this happening?  That is sometimes a short version of why is this happening . . . to me.

The uncomfortable answer is that God is behind it all.  That raises many more questions than it answers, but if God is in charge of everything, being God, then God is, someway, somehow, for some reason, behind it all.  When Jesus is asked about such things, he answers now is the time for repentance, now the time to seek salvation.  It is being offered now.  The time is always now.  In that Spirit, when his followers share their priorities with Jesus, Jesus shares God’s priority with them: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you”—well what’s that got to do with anything?  How is that an answer to any question being asked, here?  Jesus continues: “and you will be my witnesses [. . .] to the ends of the earth” (1:8).

Not our priorities but God’s.  Not things we don’t need to know to be saved, but what we need to know to offer salvation.  We don’t need modern-day “prophets.”  What we need is sound preaching: biblical, orthodox preaching.  Since Christ’s coming to this earth, the Spirit has no need to speak through prophets, because we now have the Word himself.  Having the Word himself, our call is to proclaim him.  The Spirit works through the Word proclaimed.  The Spirit works with the Word proclaimed.

What does the Spirit say by the Word?  What did Jesus just say?  You will receive power: ability, to do, to say; the power to set free, to go, without fear.  You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.  Jesus said this before Pentecost.  We live after Pentecost.  The Spirit is with us, now, and has been all along: Jesus in his risen power.  Oh, we don’t see him, face to face, and doubt, worry, fear, gnaw and nag, we know!  We walk by faith and not by sight.  We always have: disciples always have.  Many saw Jesus, what he did, and did not believe; there were also those who professed to believe who went away.  We do not walk by sight.  We walk by faith.  We always have.  Faith is the gift of the Spirit, who gives power, ability, to set free, to go, to proclaim, in courage, peace, hope, and love.  Free, in the midst of fear.  Fear is the wisdom of the world; free is the wisdom of God.

God’s priority is that those who receive this Spirit go and proclaim.  “You will be my witnesses.”  Proclamation takes many forms, as the Spirit gives ability.  The Spirit calls us to proclaim where the Spirit sends and sets us.  In my experience, the proclamation to which the Spirit most often sets us is in common, humble things, small things done with great love.  As we go out—out of ourselves, our fears, our worries, our priorities and preoccupations—as we help more also to proclaim the greatness of God, we do the part God has given us to remake the world as it ought to be.  The world that ought to be is the world where all are proclaiming the greatness of God, where all are living lives in accord with this proclamation.  Lives proclaiming the greatness of God: this is the kingdom.

The point of the power is to go out as witnesses.  The last thing Jesus says before he goes away, again—only he hasn’t really gone away, and he never will, now—the last thing he tells his followers is God’s priority for them.  Then he is “taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight” (1:9).  We do not walk by sight.  We do not believe because Jesus is physically present with us.  We do not believe because Jesus speaks out of his own mouth and in his very voice.   We believe by the faithful proclamation of disciples in the Spirit, disciples just like you and me.  We believe by the Spirit.  The Spirit makes the way.

His disciples were “looking intently up into the sky as he was going” (1:10): they were each thinking different things: “Whoa!”  “There’s something you don’t see every day.” “Oh! Where is he going now?  Now what will we do?!”  There they all are, the apostles, standing around, looking up into the sky, standing there.  Until two men in white asked them what they were doing.  Didn’t they have anything better to do?

Beloved, Jesus will return.  He ascended in glory; he will return in glory.  He won’t come humbly, a babe in a manger.  He will return as the Son, from the right hand of the Father.  All will see and feel his power.  (More about that, perhaps, in November.)  We have this assurance, this promise, this reminder from heavenly messengers, by the faithful testimony of the apostles.  This treasure shapes our lives and is always speaking to our fears and hesitation, to our reluctance and worry.  Jesus will return.  Jesus is with us.  Jesus sends us out to live lives proclaiming the greatness of God.

Heartened by these words and all they had witnessed, the followers go together, gather together, and pray together.  This is the pattern for us, still the pattern, still the blessing, always, even in these times, these times of fear, worry, discouragement, frustration, confusion.  These are always the times.  The time for turning to God and receiving His gift is always now.  The Word is the light.  The Spirit is the radiance that gives us ability to read, hear, and live by this Word.

To the God of all grace, who calls you to share God’s eternal glory in union with Christ, be the power forever!