Paramount Pictures big screen
adaptation of Marvel comics legendary Super Hero Iron Man launched into
movie theaters on Friday. Robert
Downey, Jr. stars as Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) in the story of a billionaire
industrialist and genius inventor (isn’t it handy when those two things
go together) who is kidnapped and forced to build a devastating weapon. Instead, using his intelligence and ingenuity,
he builds a high-tech suit of armor and escapes captivity. When he uncovers a nefarious plot with global
implications, he dons his powerful armor and vows to protect the world as
I was fascinated by comic books when I
was little, probably because we weren’t allowed to have them. But my best friend who lived across the street
had three brothers who had an endless supply.
I was drown to this forbidden fruit like a moth
to a flame and I dreamed of having some special power, like one of the
Fantastic Four. One of them could stretch his arm half a block around a corner
or squeeze underneath a locked door. Another was a human torch, and the woman
could turn invisible, as women often are to the men around them. The fourth was
the Thing, a five hundred-pound scaly blob of muscle. He could pick up cars
with one hand.
I prayed God to give me just one special
gift, maybe x-ray vision or the ability to read minds, the capacity to fly
like Superman or to run fast as the Flash and of course I swore to put my
talent to good use. Even as an adult I have wished for extraordinary gifts: the
power to make people laugh or to make my teenagers clean their room or maybe
just once to be able to sing Kareoke without making a
total fool of myself. That's the appeal of these
superheroes for kids and maybe for the rest of us, too. Special powers! If only
we had some special powers to give us an edge in this competitive world.
I have good news for you this morning.
Power is the promise of our scripture today. "You shall receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes upon you," Jesus promises. He tells us to
pray for it…watch for it… and wait for it because the power will
come. The Greek word is d u n a m i
V from which we get our word "dynamite." I've heard Pentecost sermons
a-plenty about the "dyno-mite power" of the
Spirit. But in Greek usage, the word does not necessarily mean an explosive
power at all. It simply means the ability to accomplish something. That's what
power is, put simply. It's the capacity to do something you want to do. And the
amount of power you need depends on what you want to get done.
There are many kinds of power. There
is the power of violence…the power of passion…the power of
office…the power of money. Words have power. So do actions. Power is
essential, but it is also habit forming. The more we have, the more we want,
and soon we are mainly using our power to increase or at least hold on to our
power. "Power tends to corrupt," goes John Acton's famous
dictum, "and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Usually we think of power as "power
over," the ability to coerce others into doing what we want … to
force the world to fit our will. This is the power which Niccolo
Machiavelli described so honestly in his medieval masterwork, The Prince,
where he argued that it is better for a ruler to be feared than to be loved and
to be deceitful rather than honest, if it will accomplish the goal.
Such power is dangerous…even
in religion…perhaps especially in religion. We can see what such power
has come to in the
"You will receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in
If you want to know about power, read the
gospels.
Who can have power over you if you are
not afraid to die because Christ promises you resurrection? Who can have power
over you if you trust in God to provide what you need and see the rest of your
possessions as stuff to be used in helping others? Who can have power over you
if you turn the other cheek and forgive those who have wounded you? You are no
longer a victim…no longer a beggar…no longer striving after power
… if you already have the power to love.
This may sound more like a
glorification of powerlessness to you. But believe me,
it takes power to love, because people are not easy to love. If you think it's
easy to forgive…if you think it’s simple to offer hospitality to
the stranger…if you think it’s effortless to help those who are
helpless, then you haven't really tried it. If you think it's a snap to
withhold yourself, to overcome your own selfishness, to put others before you,
then you're not really doing it. Loving one another is one of the hardest
things to do. Loving the stranger is extremely difficult, too. Loving our
enemies is downright impossible. We cannot do it … we cannot love …
unless the Spirit of Christ comes upon us. God help us, we have no other
way to gain such amazing power.
In Christ, the power to bless is greater
than the power to curse. In Christ, the power to give life is greater than
the power to take life. In Christ, the power of love is greater than the power
of hate. It is the power of the cross…the power of the resurrection. And
all of us who come to this table celebrate this Christ-kind of power, not the
power the world so greedily grasps.
If it's your goal to get wealthy as this
world measures it … to control the fates of others and to have others
fear you … then don't submit to this table … don't ask Jesus to
help you. There's no use in trying to bargain about that sort of nonsense here,
because he's not the source of such power. The power Christ promises is the
power to be his witness in the world. As Dennis Bratcher puts it, "The
mission of the church here is nothing less than to go into the world as God's
people, and proclaim a subversive, transforming message about a suffering God
who calls anyone without discrimination to respond." It’s subversive,
because it runs counter to the chapter and verse our culture reads us about
power. It’s transforming, because it is the power to be saved from all
the abuses of power in the world.
Would you like God to give you a special
power today most people don't have? Would you like to be a superhero of
sorts? Then come to the table … submit to the Savior … seek the
Spirit of Christ. Pray for it and watch
for it and wait for it, and he will give you the power to love.
May we pray?
Pour out your Spirit upon your church, O Christ. Let each of us be filled
by your presence. Then we will know your power and we will be your people and
the world will see you in us and meet you in us and be loved by you in our
love. We know this love because we have met you at this table. Let us remember
and renew as we come to the table again in Jesus' name.
Mary Anne Biggs, Pastor
Nekoosa United
Nekoosa