May 27, 2022
“I looked for comfort, and found none.” (Psalm 69:20)
One place I looked for solace on Wednesday was in the sermon I wrote after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School almost 10 years ago. I had already written my sermon for that Sunday, but on Saturday, found myself completely scrapping it to write a new one. The title was “The End of the World as We Know It: Exile and Hope.” It was an Advent sermon, the 3rd Sunday in Advent, 9 days before Christmas. My oldest child was not quite 3 months old. I held her tight while I grieved for children who were killed.
I am no longer in the pulpit, but I found myself wondering what I would say if I were preaching this Sunday. I looked up the lectionary Scriptures and found out that yesterday was Ascension, which means that this Sunday I’d most likely use those Scriptures instead of the 7th Sunday of Easter. While I wonder how we can still be in the season of Easter when it feels like we’ve been thrust back into Lent, I’m mindful that this Sunday is the last Sunday of Easter. June 5 is Pentecost, when we celebrate the power of the Holy Spirit being poured out on all people.
I worded that last phrase of the previous sentence a little different than how I normally would, because the word POWER is what jumped out at me from the Ascension Scriptures. Acts 1:8 says, “You will receive POWER when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses.” In Ephesians 1:19, Paul prays that you may know “what is the immeasurable greatness of the POWER for us who believe, according to the working of his great POWER.” And even in the assigned Gospel, Luke 24:49, Jesus’ last recorded words in Luke’s Gospel, (because the words of the blessing he gives are not recorded), Jesus proclaims that “you will be clothed with POWER from on high.”
So, here's my sermonette, that I would flesh out depending on the congregation, because preaching is contextual:
We are already clothed with this POWER. While Pentecost is our annual celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit, we who are baptized have already received the Holy Spirit and so have received this POWER. The question is, what are we using it for? Have we buried it in the ground, like the servant who only received one bag of gold and was terrified to use it? Are we using our power to ensure the status quo? Are we using it to protect me and mine? Or, are we using it to help the weak and powerless, the orphan, the widow, the disenfranchised? Are we using it to bring about God’s kin-dom here on earth? Are we using it to ease suffering, feed the hungry, protect the vulnerable, and visit the sick and those in prison? What are we, who proclaim the name of Christ, doing with this POWER? Do we even know we have it??
In the letter my Bishop sent out this week, she encouraged us to pray and to act. On social media, I saw comments asking what to do, and the only response given (not by the Bishop) was to teach our children better. That answer is incredibly problematic, as only a small fraction of us are actively raising children and it puts the onus completely on us and off of everyone else. Instead, there are so many things you can do now: call your elected representative, go to a march, or a prayer vigil, call a loved one, write a letter, send a sympathy/solidarity card to Uvalde (or to Buffalo, or to so many places – but be careful not to write pithy sayings like “heaven needed another angel.” People do not die because heaven needs more angels.), research the NRA, study how other countries respond to massacres, listen to someone who holds different opinions from your own and learn why they hold them. There are so many possible actions, as many as there are each of us. We are not all called to the same action. But we must act. C.S. Lewis wrote, “The more often you feel without acting, the less you will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less you will be able to feel.” You are not powerless. Pastor and hymn writer Harry Emerson Fosdick wrote, “Save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore.” That is my prayer for all of us.
We are clothed with Divine POWER. It’s time to recognize it and use it.
