Pentecost
If you were around in the 1970s, what do you remember about them? As well as bell-bottom flares and Abba songs, you might also recall the power-struggle between the government and the coal miners. Miners’ strikes resulted in problems for coal-fired power stations, which led to power cuts. I lived in Wales at the time, and mum and dad were ministers of a small chapel in a mining town in ‘the valleys’. When miners were made redundant, the Church and community made food parcels for their families, many of whom were struggling to make ends meet. We couldn’t bake, couldn’t read, couldn’t see – couldn’t do anything without power. Power – when we think about that word it doesn’t have great connotations, so what sort of power did Jesus mean when he said to his followers, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” (Acts 1:8). Power is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as ‘the capacity or ability to direct the behaviour of others or influence the course of events’. What image springs to mind when you think of power? Monarchy? Government? Autocracies? We know the bad examples from 20th Century history: Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot etc. Even in our supposedly enlightened Western democracies, we can call to mind recent leaders who have had a detrimental influence on their countries and their people. There are notable exceptions, such as Mandela and Ghandi, but we have to face it: humanity doesn’t have a great track record of remaining untainted when the grip of power resides with a small number of people, and those people have limited accountability. Yet power is often taken as a defining attribute for God: ‘a powerless God would generally be perceived as useless’ (MacWilliams). If God is not powerful, then the implication is he is unable to restrain evil or prevent suffering.
So what power does Christ have? Power to not let power be the thing which corrupts; power to release hold of the trappings of power itself and give life and freedom to others by empowering human will. Power to not hoard power, but to give it away in love – to make humanity co-creators on this planet, with purpose and accountability. Power to forgive – such that even when we abused the power God had granted us, and became corrupted, he still came to redeem us. Power to enable God to take the form of a man (Jesus) and walk with us as someone who is familiar with human suffering and life’s travails. Power to bring about the restoration of God’s Kingdom, the kingdom we have been longing for and hoping for and praying for. God’s kingdom: where the balance of power will finally restored, and the ‘first shall be last and last shall be first’ (Matt 20:16). Pentecost, 50 days after Easter, June 8th, is God giving to us his Holy Spirit, like a deposit guaranteeing the fulfilment of our hope in his coming kingdom.
Rev’d Andrew Hiscox