Sermons
"Spiritual Dynamite"Pastor Russell Norris |
A long time ago, I ran across a newspaper story about a family that bought an old house in the Chicago suburbs. It was a real fixer-upper. They decided to remodel the house, beginning by replacing an old rug in the family room. To their surprise, when they rolled up the carpet they discovered a trap door - a trap door that had been hidden under the rug. No one even suspected it was there.
Well, they wondered what might be hidden under that trap door. Maybe money? Or jewels? Some sort of hidden treasure? So with great excitement they tried to open the trap door. It wasn't easy. The trap door had been stuck shut for years. They finally used a screwdriver to pry it open. Finally, with a whoosh of stale air, the trap door opened.
And they all looked inside, but there wasn't any treasure, or money, or jewels. Instead, what they found, just underneath the floor, were four sticks of dynamite. Four sticks of dynamite! True story! No idea how they got there or why. But only a few feet from where they ate and slept and watched television, there was enough explosive force to destroy that entire house and everyone in it. And nobody ever suspected what was hidden just beneath the floor.
Now why am I telling you this story? Because it's our story! That is to say, just beneath the veneer of our ordinary, everyday lives, there is a power -- a power with enough explosive force to turn our world upside down. And nobody suspects.
What power am I talking about? Well, it's the power Jesus talks about in the first chapter of Acts: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Did you think these words were aimed only at the Apostles? Or maybe those who lived in the first century? Hey, if that were true, we wouldn't even be here this morning. There would be no Christians. And there would be no church.
It's too easy to think these words were meant only for those who followed Jesus up to Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. No, my friends, the words of today's lesson are aimed squarely at us. Jesus said to his Apostles, "You will be my witnesses". But he says the same thing to us. Just as he said, "Follow me", he also says, "Be my witnesses". If we want to follow Christ, we are called to be his witnesses. The two things are tied together.
Now, that may sound a little daunting, as we sit in our comfortable pews or listen on the radio this Sunday morning. You will be my witnesses? To the ends of the earth? Was that in the contract? I'm not sure I signed up for that!
Fortunately, Jesus didn't leave us without some help. Listen again to the words of the lesson this morning: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, in Brockton, in Bridgewater, in Middleboro and Easton and Stoughton, and to the ends of the earth."
"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you…" The Holy Spirit is the power, the explosive force beneath the floor of the church -- a force much more powerful than four sticks of dynamite ... or even an atomic bomb!
Not sure about that? Well, think about this: Do you remember, two or three weeks ago, how all over the world, the news was filled with images of the church - images of Pope Benedict XVI on his visit to America. When the Pope celebrated mass in Yankee Stadium, millions of people watched around the world.
Did I say millions? That's nothing! Today there are more than a billion Christians in the world. That's billion with a "b". Isn't that incredible? Think about it! More than a billion Christians! And all of this started with just eleven people, eleven fishermen, peasants, tax collectors. They were simple people, without education, without influence, without wealth, without importance. But they turned the world upside down, so that only three hundred years later Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman Empire. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Now understand: Nothing in those first Christians -- no talent, no charisma, no wisdom -- could possibly have accomplished that. No way! It's incredible! They were only peasants! They were nobodies. It was the Holy Spirit who gave them their faith, their courage, and their ability to witness. Jesus said, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you", and that's exactly what happened. The church received the Holy Spirit, and that power, that energy, that explosive force changed the whole world. The whole world!
This is good news! Why? Because the Spirit that upended the ancient world is the same Spirit who gives us the power and the faith and the courage to be witnesses of Jesus Christ today. When Jesus said that we would receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, he spoke the truth. We have the Holy Spirit. And we have the power to change our world - if we only believe it.
Truly, for those with eyes to see, the power is real. In Africa, in Asia, in South America, the church is growing explosively -- much more than in the United States or Europe. I was a pastor in New York City. The Lutheran church in New York -- the Metropolitan New York Synod -- worships God every Sunday in 27 different languages: English, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, not to mention Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Slovak and lots more. It's like a second Pentecost down there!
Right here in Brockton, there are Christians who worship in English, French, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Creole, and a bunch of other languages from Africa and Southeast Asia. We even have a service in French right here at First Lutheran Church. As soon as we finish this morning, Pastor Daniel Michel and his Haitian Church of God will be setting up for their service at 11:00. "And you will be my witnesses ... to the ends of the earth!"
Now what do you think made possible this explosion of faith? Isn't it the Spirit that Jesus promised -- the Spirit with a force more powerful than dynamite? In one of our new hymns we sing, "The Spirit's fission shakes the church of God!" God is doing amazing things in our world. And you and I -- we are called to be witnesses of those things.
Jesus said: "You will receive power and you will be my witnesses." Sometimes I think we're tempted to say: Who, me? Witness? I don't think so, Lord! You must be mistaken! I'm not ready for this! I'm not prepared! Surely you can find someone else, more faithful, more capable, more articulate!
But no, God is calling you ... and me. We are the ones he calls. We are the ones he sends ... to be his witnesses ... to the ends of the earth. But don't be scared. If the Lord calls us, he's not going to leave us out there on our own. "For lo, I am with you, to the close of the age."
It's not that hard to be a witness. We already know how to do it. St. Francis of Assisi said it very simply: "Proclaim the Gospel at all times and in all places. When necessary, use words."
You know the story about St. Francis -- it's one of my favorites -- how he decided one day to go into the village nearby to preach the Gospel. He invited a young friar, a novice at the monastery, to go with him. They went down to the village, and the two of them walked along the streets of the town from one side to the other. But Francis never said a word.
Finally, they started back up to the monastery, still in silence. The young monk couldn't stand it any longer. "Father", he said, "I thought we were going into the village to preach."
"Yes, my son," said Francis, "we did preach". "Our lives were the sermon."
It's the same for us. We all know the love of Jesus, who died for us and was raised on the third day ... for us. "God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him might not perish, but have eternal life."
That's the message. That's the Gospel. Our response to that message, our response to that love, is to share it, in our words and in our lives -- to share all that God has done for us. To tell people what God has done for us. What he means to us. And God is faithful. He keeps his promise. We can do this -- we can do what God calls us to do, because God himself gives us the power to do it.
"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses, in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Amen.