Ezekiel 36:22-28; Romans 8:1-11
Presented September 23rd, 2007, by J.D. Kline
The 17th Sunday after Pentecost
300th Anniversary Theme, Church of the Brethren:
Surrendered to God, Transformed in Christ, Empowered by the Spirit
The noted Jewish philosopher Abraham Heschel once made the assertion that “history is first of all what [humans do] with power.” Heschel’s words remind us that we live in a world enamored with power. Ours is a culture that values persons on the basis of how much power they grasp and display—how much they are able to impact life around them, how likely they are to get critical tasks accomplished, who they are able to impose their will upon, who they are lording over in this life. The culture in which we find ourselves conveys the message that genuine power is to be found in ever-rising Dow Jones Averages, in the purchase of the latest model luxury car or SUV, in the threat—and even use—of military weapons, in the grasping after the highest levels of authority. Wealth, influence, position, status, physical strength, appearance, intelligence, experience—these are the marks by which we measure power.
It’s not only the world around us that is enamored with power. Henri Nouwen, writing in his book In the Name of Jesus, laments that “power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life.” And then Nouwen makes the telling observation that “the long painful history of the Church is the history of people ever and again tempted to choose power over love, control over the cross, being a leader over being led.”
Perhaps it’s a bit surprising, then, to find a phrase about empowerment in the midst of the 300th anniversary celebration logo for the Church of the Brethren. Surrendered to God. Transformed in Christ. Empowered by the Spirit. But the key is found in the simple phrase by the Spirit. Jesus displayed power, but it is a power unlike that which the world around us seeks after. For Jesus, it is the power of the Spirit. If Heschel is correct, that history is first of all what we do with power, then it would be fair to say that Jesus impacts history with a markedly new kind of power. Who can forget those powerful words written by the apostle Paul in the letter to the Philippians, chapter two, urging us to adopt the same mind that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality [power] with God as
something to be exploited,
but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness (2:5-7).
Self-emptying. Taking the form of a servant. Walking in the way of self-giving love. Going the extra mile in relationships. Seeking reconciliation where now there is brokenness. Doing justice. Loving tenderly. Walking humbly with God. This is the kind of power Jesus chooses to display—the alternative power of God’s gracious and compassionate spirit. The power that comes, not as we live for ourselves alone, but as we make it our passion to live for the glory of God and the good of our neigbor.
Empowered by the Spirit. Sometimes the Spirit’s empowerment comes in surprising ways and at surprising times. In one of the earlier Church of the Brethren pastor’s manuals there is a reading for parents during the service of child dedication. After urging parents to watch with tenderness over the opening minds of their children and to encourage their children to listen for the voice of God in their hearts, the admonition continues, “Remember…that there is a unique potentiality in each human being as a child of God, and that the Holy Spirit may lead your children along paths which you have not foreseen.”
The ancient Israelites again and again found themselves led along paths they had not foreseen. Even in times when the people lose sight of God, God does not lose sight of the people. This morning’s lesson from Ezekiel, chapter thirty-six, is set in the time of the exile, that time of intense discouragement and disillusionment in Israel’s history when the people are forced to live in Babylon, cut off from all that had long been familiar, known, and loved. In the ancient world, the very fact that the Babylonians had overrun Jerusalem was taken as clear indication that Israel’s God was powerless to protect and defend the people. But Ezekiel, in effect, reminds the people that God’s understanding of power contrasts sharply with customary understandings. The prophet is adamant: the ancient Israelites, in their unfaithfulness, merited punishment. But the cycle of unfaithfulness and punishment shall not have the final word. Rather, asserts Ezekiel, God is going to do something unexpected, something new. God is going to plant a new heart and a new spirit within the people. God offers new energy, new power—the power that comes as we encounter firsthand God’s gracious acceptance and care. A power and a grace we cannot earn, yet a power and a grace that comes to us freely and without conditions. No ifs, ands, or buts. We don’t first have to measure up; God’s grace is gift through and through.
And yet God’s grace anticipates a response. We accept the gift as we allow God’s Spirit to be at work within us, as we surrender to God, experience Christ’s transforming presence, and open our hearts and our minds—our full beings—to God’s upside-down empowering Spirit.
The apostle Paul writing to the Roman Christians, speaks of the Spirit as that force which brings life and peace to us. In a text that carries the power of the gospel in every breath, Paul contrasts life in the flesh with life in the Spirit. But when Paul uses the phrase life in the flesh he’s not talking about our physical bodies, nor about the created world, as if they are inherently corrupt or evil. Rather, he uses this phrase, life in the flesh, to speak of a life in which our connectedness to God has become blurred. As former Bethany seminary professor Dale Brown writes in Another Way of Believing: A Brethren Theology,
In the Pauline sense, to be fleshly is to center our lives in such ways that our emotions, minds, and desires are not in relation to God and others. To be spiritual is to be so filled by the Spirit that our total being is oriented toward right relationships with God, others, and God’s good creation. To live and walk in the Spirit is to respond to God’s gift of life by loving with all our heart, soul, and mind.
In other words, the Spirit is that which ingests quality of life in all our relationships.
The early Brethren, as they formed a new church community nearly 300 years ago, embraced this new quality of life that comes as we allow ourselves to be empowered by the Spirit. Walking in God’s peaceful Spirit, however, carries with it no guarantees that life will be simple and calm. As the ancient Israelites found themselves trying to make sense out of the exile, questioning how they might sing the Lord’s song in a strange and foreign land, so the early Brethren soon found themselves in an exile of their own, being led to a new land in America. While yet in Europe, some of the first Brethren experienced imprisonment, others willingly sacrificed material wealth for the sake of the new community, still others found themselves led in directions they could not have foreseen when they first committed their lives to the way of Jesus. Nevertheless the early Brethren stood firm in their conviction that the Spirit brings life.
We too may find ourselves led in unforeseen directions. It may be a call to a new sense of mission or purpose in our living. It may be a call to take the risk of seeking peace in a world far more accustomed to violence and division; it may be a call to walk the paths of justice, compassion, and right living. Or it may simply be the ongoing task of making sense out of life, when confronted by experiences that make little sense to us. Who can say, for example, why one is stricken with ALS and another confronts terminal cancer, or why one is the victim of a senseless shooting while yet another dies in an automobile accident, while still others continue on in life, seemingly experiencing smooth sailing? How do we discern the Spirit’s peaceful and life-giving presence in the midst of life’s struggles, griefs, and pains?
Is it not a matter of holding fast to our hope, trusting that the God whose very nature is love—this same God walks with us through our difficult and disillusioning times? It is not a matter of trusting that, even in the midst of pain and grief, there is a comforting and sustaining presence that upholds and encourages us, even when we are little aware of that presence?
Through it all, the storm and the calm, are we not often surprised by an empowering Spirit, a Spirit who may well guide us in unanticipated pathways, a Spirit who offers comfort and challenge, a Spirit who provides encouragement and strength when we feel as if we cannot go on, a Spirit who touches us with peace in the very midst of life’s uncertainties and complexities, life’s stresses and fears, life’s struggles and hurts?
The early Brethren, experiencing a new heart and a new spirit, found themselves drawn to a new community. A personal experience of the Spirit’s presence was not enough for them; that same Spirit compelled them into deep relationship with one another, into a community of faith. Fifty years ago, as the Brethren celebrated their 250th anniversary, Paul Robinson, former president of Bethany Seminary, likened this new community in the Spirit to the experience of a symphony orchestra. Before beginning a concert, each musician is free to play any tune in any key at any tempo, as he or she chooses. There is a kind of bedlam that is tolerated only because of what is to follow. This is freedom, says Robinson, but not music. Then the conductor steps to the podium and raps for silence. The symphony begins. The musicians are no longer free to play as they wish. Now they are the direction of a great conductor, and together they make glorious music.
Just so, yet today, you and I are called to make music as we live life surrendered to God, transformed in Christ, empowered by the Spirit. Yet today, we are invited and challenged to embrace a new understanding of power. The power of self-giving love. The power of living, not for self alone, but for the glory of God and the good of our neighbor. The power of life oriented toward right relationship with God, one another, and all creation.
The challenge remains before us, to live lives surrendered to God, transformed in Christ, empowered by the Spirit.