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You’ve Got the Power! by Rev. Tina Blair 27 May 2007 Text:  Acts 2:1-21 © 2007 Tina Blair

My daughter has been watching the movie Bruce Almighty. Have you ever seen that film? The comic actor, Jim Carey, plays a self-centered and ambitious, funny but inept young man who works for a TV channel and is longing to be an anchorman. Through a series of strange circumstances, he encounters God who gives him his own power for 7 days. What would you do if you had God’s powers? There were 2 conditions – he could not tell anyone and he could not interfere with free will. What would you do if you had God’s power? Bruce chose to retaliate against those who had hurt him, to embarrass his colleagues so that he could get the job of anchorman, and to transform his beaten-up car into a shiny silver sports car. In other words, he used his powers only for himself. When he finally began to listen to the millions of prayers pouring in, in a gesture of convenience for himself, he granted everyone their will, saying yes. The result was chaos, with riots and mayhem. God says to Bruce, “Since when does anyone know what he really wants?” It turns out that giving everyone what they think they want is not helpful at all.

So if God has the power to grant all wishes, but does not, and God has the power to change people, but does not because God created us with free will – what is God’s power? What’s it for? And what would you do if you had it?

Today’s Bible account is about power -- about God giving power to humankind, to daughters and sons, to young and old, to slaves as well as free. Jesus has ascended and now, with wind and flame, he pours his Spirit into the place where the disciples have gathered. But what kind of power were they given? What kind of power were we given at our baptism when we received the Holy Spirit? My friends, you’ve got the power -- what will you do with it now?

The apostle Peter said, quoting the prophet Joel: “Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams. Even slaves, women and men, will prophesy.” The power to prophesy, to dream dreams, to see visions. What does that mean for us, in today’s language?

The power to prophesy – I’m sure that most of you don’t wake up in the morning thinking to yourself “How am I going to prophesy today?” do you? So in order to understand what this might mean, let’s remember what the prophets did in the past and continue to do in today’s world.

First of all, prophets called people away from their idols toward the worship of the one and only God. “You have forsaken the ways of your people, O house of Jacob,” cried Isaiah. “Their land is filled with idols, they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.” (Is.2:6, 8). “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” (2:1), he pleaded. God spoke through Ezekiel with these strong words: “your altars will be waste and ruined, your idols broken and destroyed, your works wiped out!” (6:6). Hosea mourned, “they keep on sinning and make a cast image for themselves, idols of silver made according to their understanding, all of them the work of artisans. ‘Sacrifice to these,’ they say. People are kissing calves! Therefore they shall be like the morning mist….” (13:2-3).

Where are the prophets of today? Where are the voices that cry out against the idols found within modernity and contemporary society? Who are the ones that will call the people away from believing that our only hope is in more and better technology? Who will persuade consumers that the best answer to the world’s ills is not wealth and the accumulation of more things? Who will call the people away from the worship of young bodies and of health to the worship of God and the discipline of the true spiritual life? Where are these prophets?

In today’s world, these voices are in the church. They are found in the writings of many Christian writers and magazines like Sojourners, and in Christian communities and associations like Faithful America. Where are the prophetic voices of today? They are here, right here in the American Church in Paris, in your voice. You know very well that only through the worship of the one God will things be made right. You know well that technology is helpful but not to be relied on, much less worshiped. You know well that life’s meaning comes not from having more possessions but from possessing a strong relationship to the one, holy God through Jesus Christ. Prophesy, sisters and brothers! You’ve got the power!

Prophets had a second important message. They cried out for the poor and the oppressed. To worship the one Lord is to be just and righteous, they insisted. “The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of his people,” cried Isaiah. He continued, “It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor? says the Lord God of hosts.” (Isaiah 3:13-15) Proverb 10 (verse 17) states, “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and will be repaid in full.” Amos carried this word from God: “”I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins – you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe., and push aside the needy in the gate. . .” It is from Amos that we hear these famous word’s from God: “I hate, I despise your festivals. . . your burnt offerings. . But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5: 12, 21, 24)

Where are the voices that cry to the nations that the poor are dying in the streets, even in the richest cities? Who are the ones that witness against torture and injustice perpetrated even by the most enlightened nations? Who provide hands and feet and energy to gather clothes and money to help the desperate, the hungry, the alien, the prisoner? It is Christ’s church that does much of this work in this world. A deaconess from a church in Gabon came to me the other day. “The children of Gabon are starving,” she said. “The rich are getting very rich and they look away. I saw a child die last week – a little one only 2 years old. He was so weak with hunger that he became dizzy as he walked across a bridge with his brothers and fell into the river, where he drowned. How my heart is torn by the death of that little one!” she cried. The prophets of today must continue to cry out against a world which allows this to happen. The prophets in the church today know that Jesus commanded us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those who are ill or in prison, aid the refugee – for in doing so, in helping the least of these, we are helping him, Jesus himself.

Sisters and brothers, we are the prophets of today. Here in the church we write letters through ACAT (the Association of Christians against Torture) to protest torture. We need more of you to join in this ministry. Here in the church we feed the homeless on Friday at the American Cathedral; we build houses for the homeless through Habitat for Humanity in Romania; we support orphanages in Africa and the Philippines through our offerings; we supply chickens through the children’s Sunday School offerings; the pastors give food tickets to the hungry here in Paris. Is it enough? Never. Could more of you join in? Yes! Do the work of the Lord! You are the prophets of today. God has powered out the Spirit on you. You’ve got the power!

God has also poured out power so that we can dream dreams and see visions, young and old, male and female. I believe these dreams of the old are memories of the past, of the way in which God has worked, to past traditions that have carried the faith forward throughout many lifetimes. Out of these memory-dreams of the past come the dreams of the future. One of these dreams for us, growing out of our own past, is that of a future in which our children grow up straight and tall, strongly planted in the faith of Christ Jesus.

So out of our dreams of the good in our past, out of our knowledge of the richness and treasure of our ancient scriptures and traditions, we train up our children. We surround them with this loving community of faith. We demonstrate to them what Christian community is. We model for them the compassion to the world that Jesus showed in his life. We lead them to worship the one Savior, who died on a cross for us. We teach them the ancient scriptures of our faith, the Bible, and the traditions of our faith. And we dream the dream that they will grow up as strong and solid Christians. We dream the dream that we will help them make the world a better place, a place of justice and peace.

And the dreams come true: today we will confirm into full membership eight young people who have been nurtured in the faith, have gone through a special class of study, have interviewed some of you elders in the faith, have prayed together and have been prayed for by you. They are choosing to publicly profess that Jesus is their Savior and that they wish to be his disciples. Let us pray for them and encourage them and open up for them the joy and power that come from following Christ Jesus!

You see, sisters and brothers in Christ, God is pouring out the Spirit so that we can dream the dreams and live them out through this church. We can do it. You can do it! You’ve got the power!

And finally, we are given the Spirit to see visions. Visions grow out of our prophetic work and out of our dreams; visions are a special gift of God. You know, I have a vision for you. It’s a vision of this church continuing forward in the coming years, going forward to the end of this century. I have a vision that if I were able to come back in 2107 for the 250^th anniversary, I would discover that this church had continued to touch the lives of many, as it has touched my life and yours. If I were to come back in a hundred years I would find that hundreds, if not thousands, of people had concretely learned of Jesus’ love for them through a helping hand, a warm community, or the guidance of faithful leaders and pastors. I would find that thousands had come to understand here at ACP that no matter what nation, culture, economic or social group another person comes from, she is God’s special child created in God’s image. I would find that thousands had discovered that they could be one with their sisters and brothers in Christ. I would find that thousands had taken to heart and into their souls the knowledge how much God loves them, as seen in the costly redemption brought to us in God’s Son.

Will we meet the challenge of God’s vision for us? For I believe that this vision is God’s vision for you. It is God’s vision that you be an assembly filled with many nations and many tongues, just as at the first Pentecost so long ago. I believe that it is God’s vision that you be united as a congregation that, filled with God’s Spirit, speaks one common language of good news in Christ, just as at the first Pentecost so long ago. And I believe that God’s vision is that you be a community of faith that makes the light of Christ, the light of his love and forgiveness, his justice and his mercy, beam across the city of Paris.

God pours out the power of the Holy Spirit to make this happen. You’ve got the power! You’ve got the power to prophesy to the nations to worship only the One God. You’ve got the power to demand that the powerful follow God’s laws of mercy and justice. You’ve got the power to dream your dreams into reality, using the knowledge of the past. You’ve got the power to live into the vision that God has for the American Church in Paris – people from many nations made into one Body, united by “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:4) This God of power has poured it out on you! You’ve got God’s power! Use it well! Amen.