There’s a word in our reading from Acts this morning that I have a hard time with.
I do.
Maybe you do too. It makes me…uncomfortable. But it’s right there…Right there in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles – Luke has Jesus using the word, so it must be an important word…it must be a word for us to know…But, it makes me feel funny.
The word is…power.
Power.
Look at your bulletin…it’s there….Jesus says to his disciples, “But you will receive power….”
Gives me the shivers….Because, I don’t think that word is very popular these days. Ohhh…I don’t know, maybe at one point we still lived in a culture, an age where the word trust and the word power could be used in the same sentence without crossing your fingers behind your back. Or…maybe, we were just accustomed to turning the other way….just let those who seem to have it, use it.
Lyndon B. Johnson said, “There might be many things I don’t understand. But I understand power. I know where to look for it and I know how to use it…Power is, where power goes.”
I don’t know if you’re a reader of the news…but…there are people who know how to get power.
Of course, it doesn’t even have to be on a world’s stage. Have you ever been in a room where someone knew they had the power? A big man behind a little desk, or a little man at a big table?
I don’t like it.
Even in seminary we had to talk about it. They asked us, “What’s your relationship to your power? What’s your relationship to your authority?” I didn’t like it. It made me uncomfortable. But we had to talk about it. We had to look at it.
And guess what…there’s power in this room. There is!
But, what kind of power is it?
It wasn’t just Luke who used that word “power.” So did Paul. He was writing to those Corinthians who had become overly impressed by some dog and pony, super spiritual, razz-ma-tazz, traveling evangelists when he wrote, “My preaching was not with enticing words of wisdom, but in demonstration of Spirit and power.” Now see there it is again. That word.
It seems like…these followers of Jesus in the early church…these apostles. They too had to understand what power meant.
We see them here in Acts chapter 1, very excited about a kind of power. They all gathered together after the resurrection, “Is this the time Jesus? Is this the time…when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” You see they came to the Mount of Olives that day - ready to blast the victory trumpets, they made their way up singing “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” and “The Yellow Rose of Texas” – waving at the children in the streets, polishing their brass buttons, slapping each other on the back, faces beaming and basking in the warmth of a triumphant sun…Because if the resurrection meant anything for them, it meant they were going to finally get it all back…goodbye to Rome, hello Messiah – the restorer of Israel. So they said, “Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” And Jesus said, “No. That’s not for you.”
“Well, what are we doing here?” “You’re going to receive power…when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” “Okay, so then what?” “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem…”
“Okay, we can do that – shouldn’t be too great a challenge. We already have a descent group.”
“Then Judea…” “Bigger region. More organizing…but okay….we’ll do it.”
“And Samaria…” “Wait….what??? The Samaritans!? But those people aren’t like us. Why they don’t even know a Rite I from a Rite II liturgy, half of ‘em holding their bulletins upside down, don’t know an Easter anthem from a lullaby. The Samaritans!”
“Yes…and then to the ends of the earth.”
“The ends of the earth!! You mean…Gentiles…Greeks, and Italians, and Turks, and people in Mesopotamia, and who knows beyond that…barbarians?!?” “Yes…to the ends of the earth.”
Quite a task. Quit a task.How they gonna do that? This rag-tag, thick-skulled, group of fledgling disciples, who in the shadow of the cross - half of them ran away, some of them denied, the rest of them just threw their hands up and said forget it. How they gonna do that?
You see…you need a power to do that.
To take you beyond the boundaries you and others have drawn around God. To see past prejudice, look beyond difference, take you into places you never thought you could go, to love people you never thought you could love; to speak words you never thought you could say – to be a witness…to be a witness to the transforming love of God in your life.
Yes…they needed a power to do that. And so do we. That’s the power of the Spirit.
When we first moved to Sweetwater, TX many years ago, I would drive to a barber in Abilene. It got to be taxing and just didn’t make any sense. One day I saw a little run-down barber shop – TJ’s Barber Shop - on the edge of Sweetwater. I thought, “Why not?” So, I stepped inside. Wood panel walls, one oscillating fan in the corner, chairs, old couch, table covered in old magazines, a photo of John Wayne hung on the wall, and next to him a picture of Jesus. Now, I know John Wayne and Jesus side by side presents some theological problems BUT when it comes to picking a barber shop, that’s how you know you’re in the right place.
The barber was an old guy, white hair, pop-bellied, kinda rough around the edges, but kind eyes. His name was Tommy. He called me preacher, because in West Texas no one knows what a Vicar or Rector is and even if they did know, they wouldn’t care. “Preacher,” he’d say every time I go in there, “tell me what your sermon was about Sunday.” And so, I’d tell him.
Now…I can’t prove this…there’s no way to prove this. But I am convinced what Tommy thought of my sermon was reflected in the quality of haircut I got. Because there’d be times, I’d walk out of his barber shop just not lookin’ right.
One time I was in there and he told me that he’d sometimes go over to the prison in Mitchell County and give free haircuts to the inmates. I said, “Well, what do yall talk about?”
Because Tommy was a talker. And he said, “Well, I preach.” “What do you mean you preach?”
He said, “I tell them about the cross and the empty tomb. I tell them about the love of Jesus and how God changed my life and walks with me every day.” “Well, what do they say?”
“Sometimes they cry and I pray with them. Sometimes they change the subject. Most of the time they’re just quiet. But, I’m just there to tell ‘em the good news.”
And I didn’t see it….I didn’t see it until right then. That I had an apostle for a barber.
Tommy died last December. If you were to read his obituary it says he’ll be remembered for how he loved his family and friends – for how good of a fiddle player he was and how he loved to sing, how he cut hair his whole life and how much he’s missed. But…there’s no mention of him preaching to the inmates at the prison in Mitchell County. But he did. He was a witness to the ends of the earth.
There’s all kinds of way to remember a person after they’ve died. It’s strange what we get to remember.
I believe I’ll remember him……as a man of power.
Amen.
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