Barbara Moyer Lehman: Paying Attention to the Right Things

May 25, 2008
Matthew 6:24-34

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There are plenty of things happening in the world today to worry about.....the state of the economy, global warming, environmental concerns, earthquakes and cyclones and the aftereffects, HIV/AIDS, political unrest..the list could go on. Of course in addition, we have our own personal issues and burdens to bear..... health issues, worries about retirement funds or health care, loss of a job, death of a friend, broken relationships, financial struggles, disappointments with people, sometimes family members, even our children, tension in the work place, marital stress, addictions, unresolved issues from our past. Like I said, there is plenty to worry about!

We are challenged by the gospel reading for today from Matthew 6:24-34, that tells us not to worry! Or at least not to worry about tomorrow, or at least not to worry about what we will have to eat or drink or wear!

It seems to be pretty normal to worry, at least about some things. But how many of us get so wrapped up and in a stew over things we can’t control or fix or solve. We try to take on more than God ever intended us to. We become weighed down, and we are left with all kinds of physical, emotional and mental problems, that create havoc in our lives. Some of us can’t say, “No” very easily to things we are asked to do, or expectations that are placed upon us. We like to be needed and noticed. It feeds us and bolsters our self esteem, our image. But too often the load becomes heavy. We feel trapped and overwhelmed. Our spiral downward begins. Our faith becomes fragile. We take on more and more and work harder and harder. Soon our life feels out of control. We are focusing on the wrong things. Our excessive worrying and anxiety get in the way of our trust and dependence upon God.

So what does Jesus mean in this passage from Matthew? What was the original context and how do we interpret this in light of our present reality? Jesus’ disciples were called from their vocations. They left their work world as they knew it to follow Jesus full time, to be with him, learn from him, share in his work of proclaiming and announcing about God’s kingdom. It required them to trust in God’s providence to meet their needs. As they traveled they depended on the hospitality of strangers. God would see to their needs. After the resurrection this story was probably told to others they met, about how God took care of them as they traveled around, just as he does the birds and the flowers. But when we look at Matthew we see he places this passage in the section of the Sermon on the Mount that has to do with the right use of money. The prior sections are dealing with treasures and generosity and suddenly you have in verse 24, Jesus’ statement “No one can serve two masters.....you cannot serve God and wealth.”(meaning material possessions of any sort, money, property, belongings). Jesus confronts with clear alternatives for our priorities in life. Will we be devoted to our possessions? Or will we be devoted to God?

If we are Christians and have confessed Jesus as Lord, then the choice is obvious. We are devoted to God first and foremost! The choice is easy, living that out is not easy!

In the verses that follow, Jesus emphasizes that we should not worry about or become preoccupied with getting enough to eat or wear! Those concerns should not be something we become focused on, obsess over or strive after to the neglect of other things. The common birds of the air are taken care of. They don’t even work for their food. God provides for them. We are worth much more than birds.

And the simple flowers of the field, lilies or wild flowers, God takes care of them, gives them their beauty, even though they will be here today and gone tomorrow. Surely God will take care of us. The point is that we are not to become preoccupied with material possessions. We are not to focus our attention on the wrong things. God already knows what we need. When we allow our lives to get out of balance, we begin making poor choices. Our priorities shift, we lose sight of what is really important. Jesus says if we strive for the wrong things and become preoccupied with material possessions, we are acting like the Gentiles, that is, the people who were outside the community of faith. Then we become no different from anyone else in the secular world.

We need to trust in God’s goodness, in God’s care. We need to pay attention to the right things. We need to strive first for God’s kingdom....to put God’s work first. If we strive for anything, it should be for God’s rule in the world and God’s will in our lives!

How do we do that in the context of our present reality when there is so much to worry about and we feel overwhelmed? Take one day at a time and one piece to work on that is part of a bigger picture. One task, one project that is manageable, that we can complete or help start and know we are contributing to something larger than what we can see. Too often we try to do too much. Realistically we can’t do much about hurricanes and earthquakes and other natural disasters. We can’t meet the needs of all those suffering because of those disasters. We CAN volunteer with MDS clean up, or help build a house with Habitat for Humanity. We CAN buy and pack supplies for school kits and health kits for MCC. We CAN be prayer partners for those medical and relief workers who are doing the work that maybe we can’t. We CAN walk or sponsor someone else to walk in our fall CROP walk on Sept. 28, helping to raise thousands of dollars for Church World Service to be used in Myanmar and other places.

Paying attention to the right things means keeping a balance in our lives, trusting that God will help us with our basic needs, that our striving should not be for material possessions, status, money, but our striving should be directed to Kingdom work, putting God’s work first.

God doesn’t expect us to solve or fix things beyond our control or capabilities. God desires us to be good stewards and managers of what we have...to trust in God’s goodness and providence. He already knows our needs. Our challenge is to find what piece God is calling us to in our place and context. What new task or ministry or project can we put our best energy and gifts towards and know that it is about doing the ‘right thing’. It is about paying attention to the ‘right things’ in our lives, and sometimes letting go of other things.

A year ago I agreed to become President of our Harrisonburg and Rockingham Interfaith Association. I was told by the previous president that it wouldn’t require much work, mostly leading the monthly meetings. But it was about that time that interest was gathering and voices were being heard that emphasized we have a problem in our city and it is time to address it. We have people without shelter, sleeping on our streets, summer and winter. A task force was put together to brainstorm over the summer months. In the fall they began to put together a board of directors to come up with a plan, a name, some structure for this new venture. I was asked to be on that board as president of Interfaith. I had no idea what this would mean, where it would lead, what I could contribute or what it would require of me. Needless to say, it has taken time and energy. It has stretched me and challenged me. I have learned much. It has been deeply gratifying, and after one year, we have just begun. Our work as a board continues as we try to discern future direction, establish policy and guidelines, work with staff and listen to our heart. HARTS (Harrisonburg and Rockingham Thermal Shelter) will continue in some form, as we try to build on what we learned and accomplished in one year. It is God’s work, it is Kingdom work. It is the right thing to do.

After I had my sermon finished, including the title I chose, I looked at the issue of Neighbors, which just came out today. Shirley Yoder, who was the coordinator for HARTS the week that we hosted it, has an article about that experience and titled it, “It was the right thing to do”. It was for her. It was for me. It was the right thing to do for our city.

Trust in God’s goodness, pay attention to the right things, these are two very significant reminders that we discover in today’s scripture texts. God knows our needs, provides for us, remembers us. In the opening passage from Isaiah 49, the last part includes Zion, the city, complaining to God, lamenting that God as forsaken them, but God refutes Zion’s complaint. God has not forsaken them, has not forgotten them. Then we have this wonderful image....God speaks , “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands..” Yahweh will not forget!

In the midst of overbooked lives and frantic schedules, when we are tempted to obsess and worry over things we can’t control or change, we need to hear the words from Psalm 131 and learn what the psalmist learned. It is a psalm of quiet trust. The writer had been a restless soul, maybe proud and arrogant, tempted to be and go places, but now he is content, no longer tempted to venture into the mysteries of God or try to understand or control them.

Hear the first two verses in several translations:

(The Message):

God, I’m not trying to rule the roost, I don’t want to be king of the mountain.I haven’t meddled where I have no business or fan tasized grandiose plans. I’ve kept my feet on the ground. I’ve cultivated a quiet heart. Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content.

(CSV):

I am not conceited, Lord, and I don’t waste my time on impossible schemes. But I have learned to feel safe and satisfied, just like a young child on its mother’s lap.

(NRSV):

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother, my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.

Read together Psalm 131 (TNIV)

My heart is not proud, Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.

But I have calmed myself
and quieted my ambitions.
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.
Israel, put your hope in the Lord
both now and forevermore.

May we all learn:
-to trust in God’s goodness and care
-to pay attention to the ‘right things’
-to cultivate a quiet heart


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Phil Kniss: Park View at 55 -- a Vocational Reassessment

May 18, 2008
Pastoral reflections at the start of a sabbatical
Various texts

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This fall, Park View Mennonite Church turns 55 years old.
Old enough for senior discounts.
Not old enough to retire.
In church years, still young.
A couple sister congregations around here are pushing 200.

But it seems like a good time for us all, and a good time for me,
to lean back and take a look at ourselves.
In my last Pastoral Ponderings I wrote some of my thoughts
on reaching the ripe old age of 12 years, as pastor at Park View.
Since this is my last Sunday with you before my sabbatical
and study leave this summer,
I’m going to take some of those thoughts,
and push them out a little more—
thoughts about vocation, ours and mine.

I begin where we ought to begin, with scripture,
the book that shapes and defines us as a people.
The fact that we have a vocation, that the church even exists,
is due entirely to this book.

We just heard a series of declarations from scripture—
declaring what God has been doing in the world.
Ever since human sin started to undo God’s good creation,
God has been on a mission to heal what was broken,
to save, redeem, and restore humanity and all creation.
But God chose not to do this saving work by Divine fiat,
by single-handedly zapping things back into order.

Instead, for reasons known only to God, I suppose,
God always chose to work through a people.
Fallible human beings in community.
People bound together, bound to God, by a covenant.
Started with Abraham and Sara and their descendants.
Continued with Jesus and his band of disciples.
And it continues today through the church.

God’s partner in mission in the world today is the church.
But not church in the abstract—church in the particular—
the believing community gathered in particular places,
and particular times.
God called our community of disciples, here, into being
to be partners in God’s saving work in the world.

We find it everywhere in the Bible.
The community of believers gathered together
in covenant,
in communion,
around the scriptures,
is the agent of God’s mission activity in the world.

This is a bold statement. But I believe it.
God called Park View Mennonite Church into existence
for one reason—
to carry out God’s saving and healing purposes
here in this place, and throughout the world.

Our only reason for existence is the mission of God.
That is our vocation. Our calling.
Our vocation is not to provide religious goods and services
to the community of the saved.
Our vocation is not
to carry out programs that benefit and inspire our own people,
to provide exciting activities for children and youth,
to run small groups that will lift our spirits
and draw us closer to each other,
to support our institutions of education, healthcare,
relief, and service.
We can do all those things, but our vocation—
our one reason for existence—
is to honor God by participating in the mission of God.
Call it our missional vocation.

But we have something working against us.
Ourselves.
Our own interests, legitimate as they are.
The interests of this congregation we like to call “our church.”

It’s hard to have a large and complex organized church,
with all its obligations, and needs, and infrastructure,
and still be focused on our missional vocation.
It’s hard. Very hard.

We have the same temptation the people had in Genesis,
in the land of Babel,
when they built a big tower to reach to the skies.
They could not trust God enough to scatter over the earth,
like God told them.
Too risky.
The tower gave them security.
A feeling of being in control of their own destiny.
They wanted to be like God.
To make a name for themselves.

Every congregation I know fights that same temptation.
To build their own tower.
A fortress to defend themselves against the encroaching world,
when God said to scatter all over this world God loves.

It’s hard to invest lots of time, energy, and people
in God’s mission of healing, saving, and restoring creation,
when we have a church institution to preserve, to protect, to grow.
It’s hard to fully embrace our missional vocation,
when we have... my salary to pay... and 9 others, full or part-time;
when we have a building debt to eliminate,
a parking lot to repair,
a foyer to refurnish,
an organ to tune,
educational materials to buy,
electric bills to pay,
Christian school tuition to support,
and the list goes on.

There’s a reason why Jesus sent out 72 disciples on a mission
and said to go without a purse, or bag, or even sandals,
told them to go out like lambs among wolves.
He didn’t want them relying on their own resources,
didn’t want them to be encumbered by anything
that would distract them from their mission.

It’s hard to be responsible stewards of the rich resources of the church,
and at the same time, take radical risks for the mission of God.
It’s hard. Extremely hard.
But I’m naive enough to think it’s not impossible.
And I’m convinced that we simply must find a way to do it,
if we want to be faithful.
Because our missional vocation is job #1 for the church.

So I’ve been wondering...
if a large complex institution like ours has trouble taking risks
and becoming a radically missional community,
maybe we need to give space in our church,
for new and non-traditional and non-institutional
expressions of missional communities that might emerge,
within us, or alongside us, or beyond us.
And maybe we could not only allow them to emerge,
but actively help them along—
plant, water, and fertilize them.
Maybe we could put our resources and commitment equally behind
the institutional church,
and the emerging missional church at the same time.

Let me get specific about ways I could see this happen.
And I think Park View might be uniquely suited to do this.
Because we have a healthy, and vibrant, and growing
traditional church here.
This would not be something to do out of desperation
because we’re in crisis, like many traditional churches are.
We are not.
Many good things are happening here.
Our children’s and youth programs are in a boom phase.
There was one baby born this past week.
There are six more on the way.
Worship and music is alive and varied.
Leadership is stable and working together well.
We are active in missions and service.
Praise God!

We have strength and resources we can extend beyond ourselves.
And there are many people—a growing number, really—
who cannot and will not connect with
the life of a traditional church,
no matter how good the programs.

So I see both a need, and an opportunity,
to connect with other expressions of church—
new missional communities, if you will—
that are already emerging around us,
or to help plant seeds for even more
new missional communities.

There is a congregation in formation
just a couple miles from us,
which some of us are becoming more acquainted with.
Led by Ron Copeland and a group of others,
they have a thoroughly missional vision
of helping a Christian community develop
in the area around N. Main St.
They intend this church to be the living presence of Jesus
in the neighborhood,
among people struggling with alcoholism,
drugs, and other addictions,
homelessness, hunger, loneliness.
They don’t have dreams of a huge program.
They just want to be present, available, open,
and share the love of Jesus with people in tangible ways.
Sharing meals, shelter, and friendship.

Some of us already are building some connections with them.
I would like to see the Park View congregation
be more intentional in making connections,
for our mutual blessing.
There aren’t many models out there,
of a big institutional church with many resources,
forming a partnership of equals
with a small missional community working on a shoestring,
without being the patronizing big brother or big sister.
But I think we have gifts to offer that would be a real blessing to them.
They have gifts to offer us that could potentially bless us,
and transform us.
I would love for some of us at Park View
to engage that emerging church community
in conversations around how to bless each other.

And there are more existing missional communities out there
with whom we might partner.
_____________________

Or... I think there is plenty of need in the Harrisonburg area,
for new missional communities to be planted.
Call it church planting, if you want.
But I don’t mean church planting in the traditional sense,
where you pick a strategic location, invest money in leadership,
and develop plans for programs and structure and a building.
I mean like planting a garden.
Sowing seeds in the neighborhood where you live,
and seeing what God will grow.

Wouldn’t it be a wonderful move of God’s spirit,
if a couple households from the Park View congregation,
who already lived near each other, or moved near,
would start learning to know their neighborhood in a deeper way?
If they discovered where the neighborhood wounds are
that need healing,
learned to know who was lonely and alienated,
and started having neighborhood potlucks,
or discussions, or Bible studies?
or found some troubled or deteriorating corners
of their neighborhood,
and began to be a healing presence there?
If they started intentionally breaking the American suburban habit
of keeping ourselves invisible from our neighbors?
What might happen?
I have no idea. But I’d like to find out.
_____________________

Or... I think we could form more missional communities right here,
among those of us fully engaged in this traditional congregation.
We know about small groups.
We’ve done small groups since they became fashionable in the 70's.
But I mean more than a group of church friends who get together
for the primary purpose of caring for each other.
That’s legitimate. That’s important,
especially in a culture where there is so much social isolation.

But I mean a group whose primary purpose
is to fulfill our Christian vocation,
to help each other be formed into faithful disciples of Jesus
in this community and this world.
Who will encourage each other, push each other,
toward engaging our neighbors and community and world,
toward developing missional habits and practices.
Who might choose to engage in some missional action
as a group.
And who get closer to each other as a natural side effect.

I invited some groups at Park View to try it,
as part of my Doctor of Ministry project last year.
45 people decided to join in, which was wonderful.
Some existing groups, and some new groups.
They were intentional about developing practices
that strengthened both their communal and missional lives.
Out of those groups came many stories of transformation.

In one group of seven,
three of the women spent several weeks being part of the
“Free Food for All” Soup Kitchen.
One of them canned a bunch of tomatoes and other veggies
from her garden,
and took them along to the soup kitchen.
A couple of them learned to know one particular homeless man,
and one felt led to give him a good heavy wool coat,
that had been in her family.
Meanwhile those women started meeting together
outside the regular small group meetings,
and shared their lives more deeply with each other.

In another group, three couples decided to all
read the Bible in a year, on the same schedule,
and they met weekly for a while
to discuss what they read that week.
That same group also made a commitment to each other
to take better care of God’s creation.
So they each took an area of “creation care” to learn about,
and share what they learned.
Their life practices changed in significant ways,
and made ripples outside the group.
They encouraged this congregation to change some habits—
they started composting our coffee grounds, for instance,
and started writing a creation care column in the inView.

Another small group of three women,
also decided to read the Bible together and discuss it.
Because of the Bible reading and discussion,
and noticing how much God had to say about the poor,
one of those women volunteered to coordinate Park View’s week
hosting the HARTS homeless shelter.
She did it as a direct result of what that group of three were doing.
They were being a “missional community.”

Another group has been challenging each other
to share their faith more.
In another, people have been more intentional
in sharing their resources and skills with each other,
and with others in the community.

And there are many more stories to be told.

These people didn’t make these changes in their lives
because I asked them to.
Forget my doctoral project.
That’s not why they did these things.
All I did was give an invitation to people,
to gather together regularly, with intentionality,
and loving mutual accountability,
to develop whatever communal and missional practices
God seemed to be leading them to develop.
They did these things because they felt drawn to them.
They felt God’s call.

That’s what happens, I believe,
when any of us gets serious about living as a disciple of Jesus,
within a community of disciples.
When we have a genuine desire to live the life we were made for,
God will do the acting, the drawing, the transforming.
Being part of this kind of missional community,
is exactly what Jesus had in mind
when he commissioned his disciples
to go into the world and make more disciples.

I believe God would be pleased if Park View Mennonite Church
took on with new vigor, and new vision,
this singular vocation of forming communities of disciples
who are deeply engaged with the mission of God in this world.
That’s really all that God is calling us to do as a church.
That’s the whole point.
That’s everything.

But, if we fully embrace that vocation,
if we start investing in the lives of missional communities,
that are already out there,
or starting new ones,
or transforming our own small groups
into missional communities,
you know what that might lead to, don’t you?

It might lead to a church that is not single-mindedly focused
on growing our church institution here at 1600 College Ave.
It might mean we will pay more attention
to the quality and health of our life together,
and the level of our engagement in God’s mission,
than we do on the growth curve of our membership,
or our Sunday morning attendance numbers,
or the size of our budget.

Some of these missional endeavors
might even draw dollars and support away from our institution,
and toward efforts in our community
that don’t bring our institution any immediate benefit.
Is that something we could celebrate?
Or would it be a threat?
That is a serious question without an easy answer.

If we make it part of our vocation to support
the work of missional communities
that might make it harder to grow our institution.

What if some missional communities from “our church”
start occasionally gathering on Sunday morning,
to do their work of worship and mission
in their homes, or in a public place?
What if their participation in and financial support of
the programs we run here at this location,
start to decline because they are more involved
in missional activity in the community?
Is that a loss, or a gain, to this congregation?

And if Park View made the radical commitment
of organizing ourselves around this one missional vocation we have,
how might it change the way we are structured?
the way we spend our money?
the work we expect our pastors to do?
If we were organized around our missional vocation—
and I believe every church ought to be—
would our worship look any different?
would our small group life look different?
would our fellowship meals look different?
would the way we fund, maintain, and steward
our physical plant look different?
would our support of mission agencies look different?

I realize, from the standpoint of institutional stability and security,
I’m talking crazy talk.
We can’t grow our institution by giving ourselves away.
But the kingdom of God is often an upside-down kingdom.
Jesus got himself in big trouble by talking this crazy talk,
criticizing his own faith community
for investing more in their temple and tithes
and rituals and regulations,
than they invested in the lives of the poor, the sick,
the lost, the disconnected.

But like I said earlier,
I’m naive enough to think,
that it’s possible to be radically missional in our vocation,
and still maintain the health and vitality
of what we have going.
Because as I said, we have a good thing going, here.
Wonderful, even life-changing, things happen here in this place,
that looks like an institution.
Much of what we are doing is already missional.
We don’t have to stop it. We shouldn’t stop it.
We might just need to look at some of what we do
from a different angle,
so we realize its missional.
Or change some things to make them more missional.

I don’t know where this journey will take us.
But this is the direction I feel called, as your pastor, to lead us.
The specifics will be up to all of us working together.
But the direction is where I believe God is calling me and us.
It’s probably not fair for me to lay this out,
on the day that your ballots are due
to invite me to a fourth term as pastor.
Some of you already cast your ballots before hearing this.
If you’re having second thoughts,
it’s probably not too late to rescind your vote,
if you act quickly.

But whether or not we move toward anything
new or different or risk-taking,
does not ultimately depend on me.
It depends on us, working and discerning together.
So even while I’m away on sabbatical this summer,
I hope what I’ve said sparks some conversations.
I hope Sunday School classes and small groups talk about
how they might engage the mission of God
more intentionally in their own life.

I still have two more full weeks in the office,
so you can also come and talk to me directly, or ask questions.
Or if you want to engage in conversation immediately,
I know the Logos class is going to be discussing the sermon today,
and you’re welcome to join them.

But mostly, I hope all of us start opening ourselves
to new and imaginative ways to be in missional community.
God is at work among us,
to heal, to save, to redeem, and restore all things.
May God forgive us for times that God’s mission
got submerged by our own interests and agenda.
And may we have hope, and courage, and confidence
that God will be with us to give us all that we need
to continue our missional journey.

—Phil Kniss, May 18, 2008


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Phil Kniss: The holy and unholy quest for power

May 11, 2008
Pentecost Sunday
Acts 2:1-21

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It’s a universal quest. Common to every human being.
We all need it. We all desire it. We all want more of it.
It’s why people run for president, or senator,
or city school board, or class treasurer.
It’s why entrepreneurs go into business.
It’s why artists paint and sculpt.
It’s why musicians play.
It’s why authors write...
It’s why nations go to war.
It’s why an abuser beats a spouse or child.
It’s why churches split...
It’s why churches are started.
It’s why I am a pastor.

We are searching for power.
Seeking power is a good thing.
We need power...to live.
We need power...to exercise our full humanity.
To make choices.
To create.
To build relationships
To help other human beings.
To do good in this world.

At its best, power is a beautiful gift of God
that helps us carry on God’s work of creating life.
At its worst, power is a drug
that intoxicates, corrupts, violates, and destroys life.

When we realize we possess God-given power,
and respect and treasure the power we have,
and exercise our power for the good that our Creator intended,
and use it for the benefit of life in this world God loves,
and voluntarily place limits on our power,
then the power we hold is a thing of
great beauty, great holiness.
It is the expression of the good humanity God desires for us all.
It is the grace of God at work through us.

But there is a strong and constant temptation.
Once we taste the emotional rush of having power,
once we flex our muscles,
and see that we can make things happen that
give us a personal advantage,
that benefit our own felt needs and desires,
we are tempted to let that power run its course,
and not notice how it effects others
who happen to be in its wake.

When we direct our power toward our own selfish desires—
be they physical desires,
or emotional, or sexual, or financial, or material desires—
that power is likely to be addictive.
If left unchecked,
it becomes destructive, violent, and even deadly.
_____________________

So today, on Pentecost Sunday, we praise the God of power.
We celebrate the day when, as Jesus promised,
power was poured out on the church.
After Easter, Jesus’ disciples
who were stunned into silence by all that happened,
who were tentative, confused, paranoid,
and huddling together behind locked doors,
suddenly found they had power.
They acted with power.
They spoke with power.
Peter’s sermon on Pentecost was so authoritative,
that afterward the crowd begged him,
“Tell us what we should do!”
How’s that for having power?
They demonstrated such power to the world around them,
that they became a sensation, an unstoppable movement.
That day 3,000 persons were baptized and joined the movement.

And ever since, the church of Jesus Christ has been trying to figure out
how to handle this power they’ve been given.
Sometimes they’ve done it amazingly well... Often, not.

So how shall we talk today about the church and power?
And how to access and use the Holy Spirit power we have?
And what, exactly, do we mean,
when we talk about the power of the Holy Spirit?
What does the Spirit empower us to do?
What does the Spirit not empower us to do?
_____________________

There are clues in Acts 2 and beyond,
in the story of that Pentecost day and its aftermath.

For one thing, in the early part of that chapter,
the coming of the Spirit gave them power to let go of their fear.
They came out of the room where they were hiding,
and began proclaiming the good news of Jesus.
They were courageous in the face of their adversaries.

Also, the Holy Spirit empowered them to see clearly,
what had been hidden.
They quote the prophet Joel in v. 17 and following.
And under the Spirit’s power,
the words take on a whole new meaning:
“I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh...
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.”
And they attach new meaning to Jesus’ words and deeds,
that they hadn’t seen before.

And the Holy Spirit gave them the power
to clearly communicate this meaning,
even across language barriers, v. 6.
And the Spirit gave them power to form a new community, vv. 42ff.
And you can read on and on in the book of Acts.
In story after story we find more expressions of the power of God
demonstrated through the people of God, the church.
_____________________

But I have to say,
the power we find in the pages of Acts is a little different,
than the kind of power so many people seek today.

In the midst of a season of presidential politics,
the contrast is obvious.
In our current state of affairs,
as a society polarized over a war,
and over many other social issues,
people grab whatever power is available to them,
and use it to gain the upper hand.

There is power in
the rhetoric of a politician,
the pulpit of a charismatic preacher,
the pen of a newspaper editor,
the brush or knife of an artist,
the checkbook of a philanthropist,
the song of a musician,
the phone call or letter of an ordinary citizen.

We are all familiar with the kind of power
that tries to influence others around us,
to change others’ beliefs or behaviors.
And there is nothing wrong with using that kind of power,
when we use it wisely, and with human kindness,
and with spiritual discernment,
with a commitment to the common good.
We might even say God can sometimes
bless our efforts in those arenas.

But the power this world has come to believe in so fervently,
is ultimately rather anti-Gospel.
It’s based on our culture’s supreme faith
in the power of the individual
to do, to be, and to get,
whatever he or she most desires.

The dominant culture we live in these days is driven
by the belief that I, individually, and single-handedly,
have the power to make my life better.
There is an undying belief that all of us have the power to achieve
health and wealth and prosperity,
if we want to badly enough.
Our culture’s version of the Gospel,
has no room for submitting our will to One who is greater.
Instead, the Good News is “You have the power.”

Right now, in bookstores, you can buy the following current books:
You Have the Power: How to Tap into Your Inner Strength and Find Your Power to Live a Successful Life...and
30 Power Principles: You Have the Power to Win...and
Trust Yourself: You Have the Power...and
Think It, Do It, YOU Have the Power...and
You Have the Power to Change Your Life...and
You Have the Power to Achieve and Be Anything You Wish.

The unmistakable message of the gospel of our culture,
is that if you don’t achieve what you desire,
you clearly aren’t using the power you have.
You must not want it bad enough.
If you can think it, you can do it.

Of course, having guts and determination is a good thing.
And using them will usually get more results than being lazy.
But it’s simply not true for everyone that “You have the power!”

Tell that to Thein Myint, the 68-year-old fisherman
in a village in Burma, or Myanmar,
who last week lost all 28 members of his family in the cyclone,
wife, children, grandchildren, brothers and sisters,
nieces and nephews.
He was the only survivor.
Tell him, “You have the power to be whoever you want to be!”

Or tell it to the young woman trying to overcome years
of physical and sexual violence committed against her as a child,
and who has now completely lost a sense of self,
that she has any worth whatsoever.
Tell her “You have the power, if you choose to happy and successful.”

Tell it to one of our homeless neighbors in this city,
who has been unable to break his decades-long addiction to alcohol.
Tell it to the new immigrant just laid off from the poultry plant.
Tell it to the refugees living in Darfur.

Tell it to anyone: “You have the power!”
Tell it to a professional accomplished in her field.
Tell it to a successful entrepreneur.
Tell it to me.
And I would have to reply, “Yes, but.”

I am not an independent, self-made person.
Yes, I have power.
But the source of that power is not in me.
The power comes from God, and still belongs to God,
who entrusted it to me when God created me.

Any good I am able to do is God working in me.
It is an expression of God’s grace.
And I cannot presume to dictate to God how to show his power.
I am an utterly dependent being.
I am beholden to another greater than I.
I have to answer to the one who has a claim on my life.
I do not and cannot manipulate God
into making happen anything I want to happen.

But do I have available to me the unlimited power of the Holy Spirit?
Yes, indeed.

Because the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church at Pentecost,
and because I am part of that new community of the Spirit,
the power of the Spirit is available to me.

But the power of the Holy Spirit,
is not the power to get what I want,
or to have health, wealth, and success come my way,
or the power to avoid pain or suffering or death.

The power of the Holy Spirit is
the power to say yes to God’s offer of grace when I don’t deserve it,
the power to let my life be transformed by God,
the power to have my life reflect God’s character,
the power to lay down my own interests for the needs of others,
the power to accept suffering,
the power to say no to finding security in material things,
the power to choose the narrow gate and hard road that leads to life,
the power to carry my cross,
the power to find fullness and joy in life, even in the wilderness,
the power to live above the anxiety and fears of the world,
the power to joyfully admit that I need God to save me,
in a world obsessed with self-help,
the power to witness against the evils in this world,
even when the forces of evil push back,
the power to cross barriers of language, culture, and social status
to form a genuine community of opposites,
the power to live in community with others,
even when community gets messy, and I need to deny myself,
the power to see what others cannot, or will not, see.

I think there are two different ways that Christians often go wrong,
when it comes to the power of the Holy Spirit.

Some Christians simply let the power of the Holy Spirit
be highjacked by our selfish nature.
So many of us Christians
live a basically self-oriented life with a thin Christian overlay.
So when we seek the power of the Holy Spirit,
we’re really looking for
the power to do what we already want to do, only more efficiently,
and the power to get what we already want, only more of it.
We make the Holy Spirit into a generic power source,
an add-on powerpack,
a trump card,
a way to, in a manner of speaking,
live a self-oriented life, on steroids.

And some of us Christians go wrong in the other direction.
We take on all the right ideals as Jesus’ disciples—
we desire to live life simply, peacefully, generously,
inclusively, sacrificially, counter-culturally,
so we attempt to do it by sheer determination and will-power.
And many of us seem to do it quite admirably.
But we forget that any power we have to make these choices,
comes from God, and is a gift of God’s grace.
So we fail to undergird our lives
with a constant dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit.
We attempt to do the right things,
without immersing ourselves in a life of spiritual disciplines,
without being grounded in prayer, in scripture, in worship,
in body life, in the life and mission of the church.

The Holy Spirit must surely be grieved either way—
when Christians call on the Spirit’s power as an excuse
to live a self-oriented and materialistic life,
or when they try to live sacrificially
but don’t recognize their need for the Spirit’s power.

It must surely grieve the Spirit,
who came to the disciples at Pentecost
to be the continuing presence of Jesus,
to help them carry on the work of Jesus.
Scripture often calls the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of Jesus.”
It’s Jesus with us.
Jesus the itinerant prophet and teacher,
who sometimes had no place to lay his head,
who asked his followers to deny themselves
and carry their cross,
to lose their lives for the sake of the gospel,
to not worry about what they would eat or drink or wear—
the Jesus who confronted the powers,
who laughed and played with children,
who showed kindness and accepted the kindness of others.

When it comes down to basics,
the power of the Holy Spirit is the power to live like Jesus would.
It is the power to be a disciple,
to follow, to emulate, to be Christ-like.
We cannot be a disciple without it.

So let us seek that power.
Let us engage in this holy quest for the Holy Spirit’s power.
Let us pray always for the power of the Spirit of Jesus
to fill our lives, and to fill the church.
Holy Spirit, come...with power!

—Phil Kniss, May 11, 2008


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