God’s Power of Attorney

Ephesians 1:15-23

May 4, 2008

Aldersgate UMC

“Practice what you preach!” That’s a line that has always been stressed in my life, even before I became a preacher. It’s what we do that matters in our lives.

A young couple from a town not too far from here got involved in a church that had one of those really energetic contemporary services. There was a whole lot of shouting and clapping and praising of Jesus. They really like the service and they were trying to convince Grandma that she should attend with them.

"You should have seen it," the young man said to Grandma. "The Holy Spirit was really there!"

Grandma kept mixing her cake batter and didn't say a word. "And, Grandma," said the young woman, "you should have seen the preacher. He really got with it. He was screaming at the top of his voice and the people were popping up like popcorn to praise the Lord. It was unbelievable!"

Again, Grandma kept right on mixing her cake batter.

Finally, the young man said, "Grandma, don't you like our church? You never seem to say."

Grandma finally spoke: "Honey, let me just put it this way. I don't care how loud they shout, and I don't care how high they jump. It's what they do when they come back down that counts." (adapted form a story by Rodney Wilmoth in Homiletics, 11/21/1993)

This day, Ascension Sunday, leads us to ask, “Who are we as the church of Jesus Christ? What is it that we do?” Luke-Acts and today’s lesson from Ephesians signal the empowerment of the church. The ascension of Jesus “… might have been recalled by the church as a time of grief and confusion.” (Texts for Preaching, p. 313) After all, there is an apparent separation of Jesus from his followers – at least in a physical, visible sense. But a closer examination of Eph. 1 reveals an energy and empowerment missing from church today. “In the Greek, vs. 19 [according to the working of God’s great power] and 20 [God put this power to work in Christ] are connected by the repetition of ‘working’ (energeia) at the end of vs. 19 and ‘put to work’ (energeo) at the beginning of verse 20. The power already at work in the community and invoked by the author of Ephesians for ‘wisdom and revelation’ is none other than the power that raised Jesus from the dead and exalted him in heavenly places.” (Ibid, p. 314-315) When we celebrate Christ as risen, there is a power available to us that sometimes goes untapped.

For the early church trying to understand Jesus was critical to the renewal of faith in their lives. It was hard for them to find words to talk about this human being who behaved like God. Yet from their common experience the Biblical people understood that in a legal sense a son had the ability to represent the father and make contracts on his behalf that were legally binding. Quite unlike our own time, the biblical culture accepted a son’s ability to fully represent and legally bind his father. Jesus is the Son of God in part because we understand that he fully represents God, the Father.

In the medieval world the son would need to have the king’s signet ring to fully represent him. In today’s world, the son or daughter would need to have the father’s power of attorney to fully represent in a legal sense. A few weeks ago, Richard and I visited with Attorney Robert D’Auria, many of you know him because he and his wife, Anna, are members here. As Bob was explaining the concept of “power of attorney” to us, his words brought this metaphor to mind. When he said a power of attorney gives the person authority to stand in the place of the one who has given the power, I realized that this was a way to talk about Jesus’ relationship with God, the Creator. So in one sense Jesus has God’s power of attorney; that’s what it meant for those who first named him as Son of God . The full understanding of this gave new life to the disciples at the time of the ascension.

But that’s not all!

Although not at first evident, the remaining verses of the Ephesians lesson have substantive connection to the needs of that early Christian community at Ephesus and to our needs as well. Verses 20-23 are more than just a doxology, words that give glory to God. More than describing in detail the whereabouts and activity of the risen Lord, these words tie the empowerment of the community to the power of God. “The author of Ephesians wants to ground the power of the church in this overwhelming demonstration of the power of God. That Christ has already triumphed means that the church itself will surely be sustained by God’s power.” (Texts for Preaching, p. 315) That power changes who we are from focusing on self to focusing on neighbor and yes, even loving our enemies. Having just seen “The Man of Lamancha” last night, for me personally, God’s power makes it possible to dream the impossible dream of a more just and equitable world, where people know that they are loved by God.

On Monday, I picked up an anonymous phone message on the church answering machine. An angry women, was berating the church as she talked about the tax situation with the Chelmsford Mobile Home Park. She wanted to know where the church was, why didn’t we care about the people that lived in the park. She believed we supported the town in what she feels is an effort to drive the lower income people that live in the Park out of town.

As the week progressed I found out that three or four other churches got the same phone message. After an exchange of emails with my town colleagues, I had an idea of what this message was all about. The tenants who rent space from the park owner have been told that his property taxes have increased to represent the value of the mobile homes that are located on the lots. The tenants already pay $500 per month for lot rent. Many of them will be unable to pay additional costs that will be passed on to them by this increase in town taxes.

So where is the church? What is our role in the community?

The metaphor in the closing verse of today’s lesson transforms the symbolism in 1 Corinthians of the church as a body in Christ, to the church itself as the body of Christ. (Texts for Preaching, p. 315) In this Ephesians passage, the church has become the body of Christ with Christ as its head. So in one sense, the church, when it acts as Christ, becomes God’s power of attorney in our world. That’s why its so hard for people when they see the church supporting violence, or covering up abusive behavior, or simple being irrelevant to their struggle of living. People want to know God, they want to have hope, and they look to the church to give them an experience of the power of God and the body of Christ in their world. We must always be asking “What Would Jesus Do?”

One way of being the body of Christ in a hurting world is to be a beacon of God’s love radiating faith, hope, and joy … everywhere!, our vision. Why don’t you take out your bulletin and look at our vision printed at the top. We spent a lot of time last fall and winter focusing on faith, hope, and joy, but my favorite part of our vision statement is the dot, dot, dot everywhere, exclamation point. This is the part that excites me! I remember reading the email that I got from one of our lay leaders who had added this part. I liked the beacon image, but I wanted us to be more vibrant, less stagnant and fixed in one place, more out there in the world.

Today, on Ascension Sunday, we are moving toward the end of God’s story and into Pentecost and the beginning of our story. What is our story in response to God’s activity, God’s story in our lives? How do we help this beacon of God’s love shine out in our community and world?

Aldersgate is known internally, by long time members, as the church with warm heart, and over these last six years I’ve felt that this was a true description of who we are. Now it’s time to let that warm heart shine out into the broader community. It’s time to become that beacon of God’s love radiating into our world.

Because that’s what new life is all about! There seems to be a general malaise here at Aldersgate, (have you noticed?) but this is a great congregation! Yes, some of members are ill with life threatening disease and some members have moved away, so were looking for new leaders, and all of these changes do affect us. But the power of God’s energizing love, the very same power that rose Jesus from the dead is available to us as well.

The same power that leads us to respond to Aldersgate’s members in need also energizes us to be involved in the lives of struggling people in our community and world. It leads us to respond with love to an angry woman who’s really just asking for help. It leads us to respond to the immigrant stories that we are hearing throughout our region by standing with them as they seek a more just life. With Christ as our head, we are God’s power of attorney in this place and time. God’s power already at work at Aldersgate, creating this community with a warm heart, is the very same power that leads us to proclaim faith, hope, and joy … everywhere! Amen!