I preached a sermon at the Southeastern Illinois Presbytery meeting last week. Several folks asked for a copy or a recording. It was not recorded and I preached from an outline, but here are some of my notes from an early draft. Much of this was reworded and/or cut before I made it to the gathering. So, although these were not the words I used that day, these notes represent the message I shared that day. The congregation was made up of elders and pastors from our regional churches. Each time I said the word "POWER" they had ribbons that they would wave to represent the presence of the Holy Spirit in our gathering and our ministries. That is why you will see a lot in this sermon about POWER.
The scripture passage- Luke 24:44-53
44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
50 When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. 52 Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. 53 And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.
When my wife and I lived in Maryland, there was a great ice storm. Power was out for days. We were so afraid of what would happen to the food in our refrigerator and freezer that we became "refrigerator ninjas." With incredible agility and stealth, we would plan attacks. "Ok... you open the fridge and I'll grab the orange juice. I'm pretty sure that it is on the second shelf, left side." Door opened... whish, whish, whoosh! We had the orange juice. "Quick! Shut it!"
For well over a day, we were engaged in these stealth operations to get the food out quickly before it would thaw or spoil. We were so worried that the food would not stay COLD... because we lost power IN AN ICE STORM! (pause)
We were so focused on the loss of power (as we were used to receiving it) that we never noticed that God was providing the power we needed to thrive and survive, the power to keep our food cold was right there all around our home. We just weren't seeing that it was available to us.
In our story today, the disciples are so ready to receive teachings from Jesus, so ready to follow him, but the plans of God are coming in very unexpected ways... the crucified Jesus, sending them out to all nations... Jesus explains this as the fulfillment of the law of Moses, that change and movement and creation and re-creation are part of the business that God is in.
Disciples are transformed in the ascension. Jesus opens their minds to understand the scriptures by explaining to them that the law of Moses... in other words... that which God has always been is continuing through Him... through the death and the resurrection... through the command and blessing of this moment. They are now to witness, receive and then bless. And they return from the experience “with great joy.”
Here’s the point where I realize that the ascension did not occur at a Presbytery meeting. We rarely return from these gatherings “with great joy.” Too often, we come to these meetings seeing this as a gathering of “them” instead of a gathering of “us.” We see our time here together as a duty, a taking care of business, and on occasion, a time to tear at each other over a particular issue. How sad it is that we don’t return more often “with great joy” to our home churches. Many of us blame “Presbytery” for that, but we forget that in Presbytery there is no “them,” it’s just “us.” We are the body called Presbytery and each of us members of it. If we return with less than joy, it is our own fault because we simply have forgotten, or worse yet, we no longer believe in the power of God’s presence here. For surely if we really thought we were encountering the risen Christ here, we could muster up a bit of joy to take home in our ecclesiastical doggie bags.
And if we do not go into our mission fields with joy, clothed with power, then how can we blame our congregations for growing senses of apathy. Oh yes... there is a culture shift. It is pulling some away. Causing others to retreat. We have lost our blessed place in the social stratosphere of our little towns. But that’s ok! Because we never should have been depending on those sources of energy. Our might as the church of Jesus Christ was never real when it came in the form of societal expectations and cultural norms. Our might has always been greatest when it came from the bold following of the Holy Spirit. So in a time of transition and social decline, we have all the more reason to start wielding some Holy Spirit POWER!
We do not worship a God who merely created, redeemed, and sustained. We believe in a God that is still creating, still redeeming, still sustaining... with POWER.
We are witnesses to the greatest work of POWER in the eternity of existence and yet we still act like weak, frail creations of a God who was so great in our communities but now stands diminished by the world’s response. When did the Gospel message of forgiveness and love and hope and POWER submit itself to the scorecard of the world?
We are witnesses of these things. Christ is sending upon you and you and you and you and all of us what the Father promised. It is a clothing of POWER from on high. It is not just a promise that you won’t go to the bad place after you die! It is not just a cookie at the end of a rainbow. It is not even the hope of becoming the most popular churches in our respective towns. It is the distinct honor and privilege to participate in what God IS doing in the world, in our nation, in our denomination, in our Presbytery, and yes... even in our little ol’ churches.
We settle. We settle WAY TOO MUCH for an existence of faith that is beaten down and defeated by decisions over paint color on a wall or CSI-inspired detailed investigations into who left the dirty dishes in the church kitchen last week. But we are not that church. As we march towards Pentecost, we do not celebrate a church that is falling. We celebrate a church that is continually rising with Christ... we die from sin and doubt and weakness and we rise with Christ... we ascend with POWER!
When we take this communion as we will today, we are not dragging Jesus down from Heaven... we are EXPECTING to be lifted up to the seat of POWER... lifted up to the seat of all authority... participate... participate in a REAL PRESENCE of our crucified and risen Savior... to receive what? POWER! and GRACE! SIGNS AND SEALS OF OUR SALVATION! These are not little ritualistic things. These are the issues of life and death. Of death and resurrection. Of resurrection and ascension. Ascend all you people! Ascend in faith as you are clothed with POWER from on high. You are a royal priesthood. You are a people of POWER. You are a people of MIGHT. You are a people that WILL NOT waste the POWER of God by being tied down by what was or fears of what will be.
As a denomination and as a Presbytery and as individual churches, what we are doing now IS NOT WORKING! Within some of your churches, there are ministries that blaze with God’s POWER. And yet for most of us, we are still held down by some other sort of force... it is not God’s POWER... it is some other sort of force. My charismatic and Baptist friends would tell me it is the Devil... that Satan is assaulting the churches with a sluggish spirit. Call it what you will... evil, Satan, the Dark Side of the Force, or a simple case of can’t-get-off-of-my-rear-itis... we are suffering from something. But take heart! This is where we have been many times as a church. We suffer and in our suffering we find a friend in Jesus, we find a reliance on his CREATIVE WILL, not our own. We find a reliance on his AMAZING GRACE, not our own. We find a reliance on his CREATIVE POWER, not our own.
Every time the electricity goes out, I anticipate it will come back on. I trust that there is a team of experts working on this issue and that it will come back on. But if we all think that, then it will stay off. Some group of people must be called... some group of people must be appointed and anointed to the task of helping the rest of us get reconnected with the POWER. YOU ARE THESE PEOPLE. You are the anointed. You are the blessed. You are the witnesses. You are the called... called to be a royal priesthood of teaching and ruling elders. Those people out there are starting to lose hope that anyone is working on our outages. They have ordained you to go to the mountain tops, to discern the will of God, to receive the POWER, to come back to the church family and then to lead them in being blessed and blessing others!
Catch a vision. Take what you discern to be God’s Will for your church and focus it into a ministry vision. We best discern God’s Will together... so connect with one another, through Presbytery and through your own church. Connect with those who seem to have the spiritual gifts of discernment and vision... Discern that Will of God together. Expect that God will do a new thing through you. Expect that Jesus Christ will give you POWER from on high. Expect to move with the mind-blowing ways that God does new things to fulfill His Law which has been eternal. The disciples, despite their front row seats to the Jesus experience, missed this at first. They were so slow to catch on that salvation was headed to all nations, that God was about to fulfill the past promises by doing new things in the now. And we, with our front row seats to the life of the church, risk missing it too. We cannot remain slaves to our lowered expectations and past performance woes. If we remain slaves to all that we have done before, then we will collapse under the weight of our own necessities. Witness what Christ might be saying to you and your church RIGHT NOW, and then... clothed with POWER from on high, develop a vision and a direction. Do not settle for the church to die a slow, whining death all around you.
And do not tell me that God has called you and your church to sit and die because the culture is just too far gone. Some may say that their time has passed... that the average age of their church is "dead." Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and calls to you through the Holy Spirit’s incredible POWER to go out into all these nations of our culture. You are called to receive and then UNLEASH that POWER, through and with blessings. What you receive from God is a blessing and then you are to pass that blessing along to those who cannot perceive it yet. Because those people out there are DYING to hear words of POWER from you. Because those people out there are DYING to know that their faith is not a relic of the past, a dinosaur just waiting for the end to come. Those people out there are DYING to rise with Christ and then ascend into the JOY of faith that is alive!
Those people out there are looking to YOU to give them a word from God... looking to YOU for the great joy and the great blessings... because they NEED YOU to lead them... they NEED YOU to help them get reconnected to the POWER of God... because they desperately need SOMEONE to witness the joy of our Christian mission as we move into the church that yet might be... a church filled with the Holy Spirit... a church filled with POWER!
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The sermon ended with an invitation to come forward and receive a blessing through anointing of oil. The words of blessings were adapted from Ephesians 3 saying "MAy God strengthen you with the power of His Spirit. Amen." After receiving the blessing, they were to take the oil and bless the person behind them using the same words. It was a beautiful site to see all those church leaders coming forward to receive and pass along blessings. Thanks be to God. Hallelujah. Amen.
