Power from on high (Acts 1)

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1.8

     In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

     The word “power” appears several times in our readings tonight. Beginning with the Gospel, Luke says that the disciples will be “clothed with power from on high!” That’s an interesting image, power as clothing. We think of kings, dressed in robes that indicate their uniqueness, their authority, and even perhaps their isolation. I don’t know whether the expression is still current, but not so long ago men used to talk about wearing “power suits.” And, I remember the saying from my youth (and from later, no doubt) that “the clothes make the man.” Now, in our gender-conscious period, that saying needs to be revised, of course. But we are all familiar with the belief behind it, that a certain appearance, a certain way of dressing, can confer power, worldly power that is, on a person. And it is power like this, at least in part, that we may think of here, kingly power I mean, since we do traditionally think of Jesus as “prophet, priest, and king.” So there is a suggestion here that Jesus will confer his kingly power on his disciples. 

     Now what kind of power is this really? We’re talking about a small number of people who possess, in everyday-world terms, no power at all. But they’ve just been through some shocking, and outright impossible, events. First, their leader, their teacher, was executed and all hope appeared to be lost. Then Jesus returns and appears before them; these appearances have an odd quality, in that at first Jesus is not recognized at all, by Mary Magdalene in the garden, and by the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Recognition is gradual. Eventually, of course, all becomes clear, and the disciples are ready to hear and see Jesus as he is, during the forty days between his resurrection and ascension. And it is during those forty days that they learn of the nature of the power that Jesus is conferring on his disciples. 

     Luke says, in the first chapter of Acts, that “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” The connection is clear, between the Holy Spirit and power. And what is this power, this kingly power, for? “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” So that is the first power, the power to be witnesses, witnesses of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and, later, of his ascension. Since these events are real to the disciples, the power to witness to them is the power to convey the reality of them to others. They were so successful at this, that the reality of these events has been transmitted from generation to generation, and it is the Holy Spirit that has made this possible and that continues to make this possible.

     Notice that this power is not limited geographically. “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem…and to the ends of the earth.” That must have been a very startling, even shocking thing, for the disciples to hear. Their world has been Jerusalem and Judaea. But Jesus includes Samaria, which would have been outside the limits of a good Jew of the time. Not only that, Jesus includes the whole world, the “ends of the earth.” There is going to be no limit to this “power from on high,” to this new royal power which, far from isolating Jesus, like a worldly king, behind the clothing of royal power actually extends it and makes it and him available to the whole world.

     Paul, in his Letter to the Ephesians, uses the word “power” several times. He writes about “the immeasurable greatness of his power for those who believe.” God “put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand.” 

     What does this power do, this power that Paul mentions? Paul prays that “God…may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation…so that…you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.” So the power which the Holy Spirit gives us is one that leads to hope, revelation, and wisdom. It is the same power which raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at the Father’s right hand. The Feast of the Ascension celebrates this power, power which leads to new life in God. Powerless as the disciples may have thought themselves to be after the Crucifixion, the Resurrection completely transformed their perceptions. And Paul, who apparently did not know Jesus in his earthly life, was likewise transformed by a vision, a revelation, of the risen Lord. It is that kind of experience that Paul wants his readers and hearers to have, an experience so powerful that it sent him on long journeys around the Empire, making known the mystery of God’s will. Paul says in the first chapter of his letter, that God’s plan for the fullness of time, is to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. It is the power to accept this, to believe in this, to participate in this, that Paul is writing about. It is this “immeasurable greatness of his power for those who believe” that we receive “when the Holy Spirit” has come upon us, and we, along with Paul, will be Christ’s witnesses.

     In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.