Acts 1:6-14
1:6 So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?"
1:7 He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
1:9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
1:10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.
1:11 They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."
1:12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day's journey away.
1:13 When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.
1:14 All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.
But you will receive power…that phrase, depending on what you are thinking when you hear it, may invoke either fear or favor. Right off the bat, let’s acknowledge that it is JESUS promising his disciples that they “will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,” not some crackpot, or even a “prophet of the Lord.” This is Jesus. What kind of power? And what can we do with it? Interestingly, Jesus tells them this “when they had come together,” and in answer to the question they pose: "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?"
In order to ask the question in today’s narrative, the gang had to “come together.” They had scattered themselves throughout the city, out of fear that they would be next in line for the capital punishment being doled out to “blasphemers.” We already know what Jesus went through, and his followers might be next. We could assert that because the Holy Spirit had not yet “come,” they were operating on the very, very low power of the human spirit, and fear can drain that in a quick hurry. We also have to realize that there are two divergent agendas at work in this story: the disciples who still think Jesus is the kind of messiah who will restore ISRAEL to the seat of power in Jerusalem and Palestine; and Jesus, whose kingdom is ”not of this earth.” The kingdom Jesus is designing is for ALL people EVERYWHERE, and is not temporal, although its reach, or “range” in the modern vernacular, will be out into the eternal future. I say that Jesus is “designing” this realm or kingdom, but its earthly foundation will be built with God as the architect and human believers—empowered and led by God’s Holy Spirit—doing some of the early heavy lifting. It is a kingdom that starts with words—a witness—and these speechless ones (if you don’t count their continual questions and Peter’s verbal diarrhea) will be helped to form a simple, yet elegant witness across the known world. They will witness to the Christ Event, to God’s power, love, and grace, and eventually to people they don’t even “like,” due to the disdain between Jews and Gentiles, and most especially, Samaritans. Maybe this “kingdom” is being launched, not built, as here in 2023, as you read this, the building continues. Those early ones set the plan in motion, but we continue to do the building, as we—the church—are led and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
A brief word about the word, “kingdom.” I tend to eschew that word, as it is rooted in a hierarchal structure that we don’t really understand in our time, culturally. In my preaching a few years before retirement, I had tended to gravitate to the term, “realm,” which may be an inadequate translation for the New Testament word, basileia. This is the Greek word we typically translate as “kingdom,” but it means something much larger, and far less temporal. One dictionary defines it as, “of the royal power and dignity conferred on Christians by the Messiah, Jesus.” God’s basileia is growing, person by person. It is of an eternal “range,” and is not restricted by any boundaries other than “whosoever believes in him (Jesus).” With this realm comes not just the power to be God’s witnesses, but also God’s imparted dignity—something so many people never got to experience before Jesus touched their lives. Unfortunately, using the more accurate descriptor, basileia, proved even more confusing than “kingdom,” for many of my listeners. Besides, they have been acclimated to thinking of the resurrected, “cosmic” Christ as the “King of Kings,” if not by the Bible, Handel’s Messiah.
I want to spend some time on “range,” or a term that has recently entered the public lexicon, “range anxiety.” This Acts passage has Jesus telling his followers that once they “receive power,” they will be God’s witnesses, yes in Jerusalem, but also “in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” That’s some range, and surely much beyond what those timid characters might have been thinking. They may have actually, in that moment when Jesus told them that, been the first victims of “range anxiety!” WHAT is “range anxiety,” you might ask?
Dara and I just made the final “leap of faith” from our plug-in hybrid Toyota sedan to a fully electric car. It’s actually called an “EUV,” for Electric Utility Vehicle. Kind of an SUV with Ready Kilowatt under the hood, instead of what is now being called an “ICE,” for Internal Combustion Engine. (Bet you didn’t know that.) We are both environmentally minded folk, due to our respect for the creation over which God has given humans stewardship. Dara has read more widely than I, the myriad experts and authors covering how we may “reduce our carbon footprint.” She is even a graduate of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, when it offered its intense training in Pittsburgh a few years ago. We purchased our first hybrid (a Toyota Prius) in 2014, basically as soon as we could afford one, and traded our 2012 Subaru Forrester in on a plug-in hybrid (a Toyota Prius Prime) in 2018. Two weeks ago, we traded the Prime in on a new Chevrolet Bolt EUV, a fully electric vehicle with a “range” of 250 miles before requiring a fresh charge. (The 2014 Prius straight hybrid we sold to our son a year or so ago, and now our other car is my 2008 Mazda Miata. While the Miata is not a hybrid, it IS very fuel efficient, getting 30 miles per gallon, which is really great for a sportscar!)
The advent of electric cars has conjured up the term “range anxiety.” I certainly had a case of this before finally taking the EV leap, and it was nurtured by a related case of the “wallet woes,” as up until the Chevy Bolt, EVs were pretty much out of our price range. In short (sorry for the pun), range anxiety is a fear of running out of power before reaching a recharging station while on a trip. And while the 250 mile “range” of our Bolt EUV is pretty good, in the current (sorry for another pun) state of electric car offerings, our Prius Prime would travel almost 500 miles on an 11 gallon tank of gas and on a full charge! And, as you know, gas stations are everywhere, while charging stations are still an infrastructure-in-progress. The 250 mile range of our new Bolt helped heal some of my electric anxiety, but the car’s “rapid DC charging” capability is credited more with soothing it. Rapid chargers are the fastest growing charging stations offered by companies like ChargePoint, EV Go, and Electrify America. (Tesla has built their own charging network, and if you can afford a Tesla, it’s a real comfort to know they are so widespread, when traveling. They have just recently begun to partner with Washington to open some of their chargers to non-Tesla vehicles, but it will take some time for this to happen.)
Our Bolt EUV will add 95 miles to its “tank” in about 30 minutes at a rapid charger. If we stay for an hour, we will be able to top off the 65 kilowatt battery nicely. Since Electrify America is locating their new rapid chargers in places like Walmart and Meijer parking lots, which are also near restaurants, spending an hour is not a hardship for the Sterlings. More expensive EVs will charge even faster than our Bolt at rapid chargers, but they are, well, more expensive! And since we have already owned a plug-in hybrid, I had added a home “Level II” charger to our garage, meaning we can charge our own vehicle overnight, right at home. Full disclosure, we haven’t yet taken the Bolt EUV on a long trip, but have several planned for the coming months, so my “range anxiety” does kick up, from time to time. Since we are now both retired, time is something we have, when we travel. (Recent polls have shown that the bulk of EV “early adopters” are retired folk, for this reason.)
I’ve been having fun imaging a few metaphorical parallels between electric cars and the Christian Church, and it’s participation in the Spirit-led unfolding of God’s basileia. Even as those first disciples may have experienced “range anxiety” when told by Jesus that they would be expected to witness for Christ to the “ends of the earth,” so we first-time EV owners have at least a bit of fear when planning longer trips than commuting around home. For example, a trip to Louisville to visit our daughter’s family could be made on a single tank of gas and a full charge of the 30-mile battery in the Prius Prime. Now, we are looking at two hour-plus charging stops on that trip, and may still roll into Kentucky with a need for a charge. (Since my son-in-law doesn’t have a charging station in his garage, we will probably park our car at a nearby YMCA for a few hours, and walk “home” while the Bolt charges.) Our Chevy is “maintained” via an app on our smartphones, and GM (as well as others) provide a “travel mapping” aid that will plot your trip for you, based on your car’s range, with scheduled traveling stops along the way. These apps must not only know where the charging stations ARE, but must know if they have POWER, if they are still WORKING, and if a “port” will be available to you when you arrive.
Many times we have thought of the church as a kind of “charging station” where our faith was nurtured and empowered, akin to what happened when the Holy Spirit first descended on the Upper Room at Pentecost. More than one of my parishioners has shared in a Bible Study or prayer group how they worship each week to “get their batteries charged” to face life that following week, and to live an empowered Christian witness while they do! And who hasn’t experienced a type of “range anxiety,” wondering if the events of the week ahead might overpower the “charge” we picked up on Sunday? There’s nothing like getting to Wednesday or Thursday in a trying week, only to find oneself “drained” of the necessary power to continue the journey. A good prayer life is like having a home “charging station,” but believe me, they are no “fast DC charger!” It takes time and commitment to them to get anywhere close to a “full charge.” And what of our churches? Wouldn’t it be nice if new Christians could have an app that let them know which churches have POWER and are still WORKING? And will there be “room” for me to “plug in” when I arrive as a first-time visitor? (For those looking for a United Methodist Church, there sort of IS an app. It’s the “Find-A-Church” link on the UMC.org website, where one may plug-in a city or Zip Code to see what UMCs are in that area. The site also provides simple statistics of each church, and even more data, if a given church has taken the time to enter their own information. A small, struggling church will show up as a kind of “weak charging station,” while thriving, vital churches will, likewise, show their mettle on the site.)
With the whole disaffiliation thing going on within United Methodism, our Western PA Conference has joined a movement launched by the “post-separation” United Methodist denomination whereby churches that “stay” may become “Lighthouse” congregations for loyal United Methodists whose current church has voted to exit the UMC. These “Lighthouse” congregations are designed to welcome those who have been disenfranchised by the disaffiliation of their church. They are, in essence, “charging stations” on the journey, and in joining the lighthouse movement, they are putting the word out that they have POWER, and they are WORKING, so those needing a boost are welcome to stop by!
The post-separation scene will be a challenge for both individual United Methodists AND the churches that remain. Sounds just like the budding world of electric vehicles, breaking in to a mobile society that has, heretofore, been totally “transported” by gasoline and internal combustion engines! The electric infrastructure is far from complete, and “early adopters” may face “range anxiety,” as did those earliest followers of Jesus, when told they would “receive power” to witness “to the ends of the earth.” It may sound daunting, but I recently watched a YouTube video of a man and his loyal companion, “Major” (a Golden Retriever) on a 2200 mile journey to Las Vegas in a Chevy Bolt. While they had many required “charging stops” along the way, their journey was a joyful one, experiencing restful stops, new people, and some unexpected good meals, as they traveled and “recharged.” Just watching it lowered my personal range anxiety! Reading the Bible, committing myself to a daily office of prayer, and believing that we United Methodists have an exciting new—different, but new—journey ahead of us, has done the same thing for my personal, spiritual range anxiety!
As my wife would say, “What’s the worst that could happen?” And with that, we will anticipate the next, fresh arrival of God’s Holy Spirit—a “Bolt from the Blue!” Amen!
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