Receiving The Power Of The Holy Spirit
Sermon
Sermons On The First Readings
Series II, Cycle A
Object:
I love this story. It doesn't matter how many times I hear it, or how it's told, it never fails to grab me in a new and different way. It's really an incredible tale. And by incredible I mean just that. Without credibility! Who could actually buy a story like this? The disciples, cowardly and virtually faithless, abandoned the Master and scattered in the chaos of his arrest and execution. In the days that followed, as whispered rumor and innuendo turned into actual visitations by Jesus himself, the incredulous bunch slowly got it together -- at least enough to meet with him this one last time. But even then they still were clueless. They figured that this must be it. Now was the time when he would act decisively, so they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?"
Scripture, of course, doesn't record this, but in my mind, Jesus issues a wan smile, shakes his head, and rolls his eyes slightly. Water is wet. Sky is blue. Rocks are hard. The disciples are clueless. It's just one of those things, I guess. So Jesus gently lets them know that they don't get to know the date or the time.
Instead he tells them that they will receive power. Ahhhh -- power -- isn't that what it's been about all along? Finally the Romans will be chased out and a new Jewish king will take over and everything will get better. The outs will be in, as they say, and the ins will be out.
But this is not the kind of power that Jesus is talking about, is it? Jesus isn't offering the power of politics or armies. He's not gifting the disciples with the power of wealth or influence. No, he is saying that when the Holy Spirit comes they will receive an entirely new thing. The Greek word is dunamis. The English-Greek Bible dictionary that I use for free online lists it like below.
1. strength, power, ability
a. inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or thing exerts and puts forth
b. power for performing miracles
c. moral power and excellence of soul
d. the power and influence which belong to riches and wealth
e. power and resources arising from numbers
f. power consisting in or resting upon armies, forces, hosts
Interestingly enough, nothing here actually gets to the depth of what Jesus is trying to tell the disciples. This isn't a power like anything ever witnessed before, so language then, as now, is really inadequate to the task of describing it.
The power, however, which comes upon the disciples -- and not coincidentally -- upon us -- is not really the power that is described by this word dunamis. The power that Jesus offers in the Holy Spirit is really a kind of un-power. It is the antithesis of power as we know it. It is not power shifted and given over to others. It is, quite simply, power redefined.
In Jesus Christ, power is no longer about control. It is no longer about the ability to make things happen or to exert influence. This new un-power is, in fact, so different that it is actually the literal opposite of power as we know and understand it in our culture and our world.
Paul writes best about it in 1 Corinthians:
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart." Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
-- 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
You see, the power of the Holy Spirit that comes upon the disciples reflects a complete reversal of the world as we know it. That which we once understood to be strong, we now know to be weak. Everything is turned upside down! In Christ Jesus, God didn't just put someone new in charge, he changed the whole power arrangement!
It's like going to the camera store and developing a roll of film. Have you ever done that? You hold up the photograph and then hold up a negative. Everything is opposite. That's the kind of power that God sends us in the Holy Spirit, the kind of power that Jesus promised his disciples and promises us, too!
I remember once having the high privilege of being with an extraordinary young man as he was in his last hours of life. He was dying of a brain tumor, and we had a precious few moments together that I will always remember and treasure. As he lay there we talked of silly things, and then we prayed and talked about what was coming. I will never forget him looking up at me and whispering these words. "In my weakness is my strength...."
Indeed, this young man was strong.
Friends, we stand today with the disciples of old, awaiting the mighty gift of God's power. But let us not stand there and ask when the kingdom will be restored. Let us not look simply for there to be someone else sitting at the head of the table. Instead, let us embrace the saving truth that in Jesus Christ the table is flipped upside down and the chairs and plates and silverware are strewn everywhere around the room!
In Christ Jesus, power as we know it is not just given to another, it is in itself transformed. The strength of this world is shown to be the venal weakness that it is. The wisdom of all the scholars is shown to be the pile of hooey that we always knew it was. It is this power, forged in weakness and lived out in servanthood, that God in Christ calls us to receive today.
So let's drop our quest for worldly power. Let's abandon our drive for riches. Let's leave the religious stuff behind and receive the dunamis of God! Let us step forward in foolishness. Let us leap ahead in weakness, and let us go together dancing and singing as we claim a newly defined and wonderful sense of power given us by our own Savior who even now disappears out of sight on a cloud.
Yes. It's a great story and, incredible or not, it's our story and we're sticking to it! This power of new life, love, hope, and wonder is ours in God's precious Spirit. Believe it or not, we are called to live into this power, to share it, and to use it to foster new life and new beginnings wherever we go in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen.
Scripture, of course, doesn't record this, but in my mind, Jesus issues a wan smile, shakes his head, and rolls his eyes slightly. Water is wet. Sky is blue. Rocks are hard. The disciples are clueless. It's just one of those things, I guess. So Jesus gently lets them know that they don't get to know the date or the time.
Instead he tells them that they will receive power. Ahhhh -- power -- isn't that what it's been about all along? Finally the Romans will be chased out and a new Jewish king will take over and everything will get better. The outs will be in, as they say, and the ins will be out.
But this is not the kind of power that Jesus is talking about, is it? Jesus isn't offering the power of politics or armies. He's not gifting the disciples with the power of wealth or influence. No, he is saying that when the Holy Spirit comes they will receive an entirely new thing. The Greek word is dunamis. The English-Greek Bible dictionary that I use for free online lists it like below.
1. strength, power, ability
a. inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or thing exerts and puts forth
b. power for performing miracles
c. moral power and excellence of soul
d. the power and influence which belong to riches and wealth
e. power and resources arising from numbers
f. power consisting in or resting upon armies, forces, hosts
Interestingly enough, nothing here actually gets to the depth of what Jesus is trying to tell the disciples. This isn't a power like anything ever witnessed before, so language then, as now, is really inadequate to the task of describing it.
The power, however, which comes upon the disciples -- and not coincidentally -- upon us -- is not really the power that is described by this word dunamis. The power that Jesus offers in the Holy Spirit is really a kind of un-power. It is the antithesis of power as we know it. It is not power shifted and given over to others. It is, quite simply, power redefined.
In Jesus Christ, power is no longer about control. It is no longer about the ability to make things happen or to exert influence. This new un-power is, in fact, so different that it is actually the literal opposite of power as we know and understand it in our culture and our world.
Paul writes best about it in 1 Corinthians:
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart." Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
-- 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
You see, the power of the Holy Spirit that comes upon the disciples reflects a complete reversal of the world as we know it. That which we once understood to be strong, we now know to be weak. Everything is turned upside down! In Christ Jesus, God didn't just put someone new in charge, he changed the whole power arrangement!
It's like going to the camera store and developing a roll of film. Have you ever done that? You hold up the photograph and then hold up a negative. Everything is opposite. That's the kind of power that God sends us in the Holy Spirit, the kind of power that Jesus promised his disciples and promises us, too!
I remember once having the high privilege of being with an extraordinary young man as he was in his last hours of life. He was dying of a brain tumor, and we had a precious few moments together that I will always remember and treasure. As he lay there we talked of silly things, and then we prayed and talked about what was coming. I will never forget him looking up at me and whispering these words. "In my weakness is my strength...."
Indeed, this young man was strong.
Friends, we stand today with the disciples of old, awaiting the mighty gift of God's power. But let us not stand there and ask when the kingdom will be restored. Let us not look simply for there to be someone else sitting at the head of the table. Instead, let us embrace the saving truth that in Jesus Christ the table is flipped upside down and the chairs and plates and silverware are strewn everywhere around the room!
In Christ Jesus, power as we know it is not just given to another, it is in itself transformed. The strength of this world is shown to be the venal weakness that it is. The wisdom of all the scholars is shown to be the pile of hooey that we always knew it was. It is this power, forged in weakness and lived out in servanthood, that God in Christ calls us to receive today.
So let's drop our quest for worldly power. Let's abandon our drive for riches. Let's leave the religious stuff behind and receive the dunamis of God! Let us step forward in foolishness. Let us leap ahead in weakness, and let us go together dancing and singing as we claim a newly defined and wonderful sense of power given us by our own Savior who even now disappears out of sight on a cloud.
Yes. It's a great story and, incredible or not, it's our story and we're sticking to it! This power of new life, love, hope, and wonder is ours in God's precious Spirit. Believe it or not, we are called to live into this power, to share it, and to use it to foster new life and new beginnings wherever we go in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen.
