Katherine Willis Pershey | Read Psalm 16:7-11
When I lived near the ocean, I always enjoyed driving the road that ran along the shore. On a clear morning, I would ponder the blue ocean and the spray of the breakers. I marveled at the curve of the land, how the mountains and the peninsula stretched to embrace...
Lord, we believe; receive now the rejoicing of our souls as we delight in your wondrous presence. Amen.
Psalm 16 and Acts 2 fit together, since the latter quotes the former. Both celebrate God’s presence in human life and the powerful expression of that presence. In his Pentecost sermon Peter sees a messianic application of the psalm to the resurrection of Jesus. First Peter affirms that resurrection creates community, stressing the faith and love of Christians that arise without the experience of physical contact with Jesus. For later generations, belief and commitment are born out of the witness of others.
Read Acts 2:14a, 22-32. How should the reader (or preacher) acknowledge Peter’s troubling language of blame toward the Israelites without losing the point of the passage?
Read Psalm 16. In what way does God provide protection and refuge for you?
Read John 20:19-31. What does it mean for Jesus to bless “those who have not seen and yet have come to believe?”
Read 1 Peter 1:3-9. How do Peter’s words speak to Chris- tians who do not live with the threat of persecution?
Respond by posting a prayer.