The Power Jesus Promises
The Power Jesus Promises
Written by: Kenton Self
You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you… Acts 1:8
The people who shaped my earliest spiritual formation were people deprived of power. People on the margins. People on the outside of the circle. One of my grandmothers would tell me stories of her struggle for acceptance as an ethnic outsider. The others told stories of sunny afternoons in Western Oklahoma turning black as midnight as dust storms terrorized her community. I heard stories of tent revivals from both sides. They sat with cloth ceilings above their heads and dirt floors under their feet, The message they heard was that God was pouring out the Holy Spirit on all people - empowering those even on the margins. My ancestors received it gladly. They celebrated it with loud music, hand clapping and everyone shouting “amen.”
And they were empowered! It rained enough to pull some wheat and cotton from the dust, and in the immigrant community, businesses thrived. Tent poles were replaced by wall studs. Stretched canvas replaced by roof shingles, Dirt replaced by flooring. Their churches weren’t built on the most prized real estate, but there was still a permanent address and a sign out front. By the time I was a child, the ethnic differentiation had disappeared and we were decidedly middle class. Church services led by the next generation celebrated the arrival of that power the same as their parents did, keeping the loud music, hand clapping, and everyone shouting “amen.” Because when those on the outside are finally given a seat at the table, there is a natural desire to celebrate.
And yet most of my generation walked away from the church that raised us. Something wasn’t adding up for us. There were things we could not deny. The people we worshipped were people of a deep abiding love. They were generous. They had seen the power of the Holy Spirit moving in their lives to break chains of poverty and addiction and exclusion. But there were still those on the edges. There was still poverty, addiction, and exclusion. It was visible a short drive from my home and we passed by it often in the family car. And praying that the Holy Spirit would fall and release power didn’t alleviate the problem.
I have tried over the years to make sense of the faith I inherited - this faith focused on the power we receive when the Holy Spirit has come upon us. How does (or did) that power work and who (or what) is this Holy Spirit that we spoke of so often?
The writer of the fourth gospel has a distinct name for the Holy Spirit: Paraclete. The literal meaning is “called next to.” We worship a God who comes alongside us. In Jesus we see the fullest expression of a God who identifies with the marginalized and comes alongside them. The story of Jesus’ life is filled with moments of standing in solidarity with the excluded. And when Jesus ascends, He sends the Holy Spirit to come alongside those excluded. And the Holy Spirit empowers them.
But what happens when those once excluded become empowered? What happens when those on the margins - the very ones Jesus stood in solidarity with - leave the margins? Does Jesus go with them? Or does He stay with those on the margins?
Right before Jesus promises the Holy Spirit and ascends to the heavens, the disciples ask him, “are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel, now?” In other words, “is now the time that you are going to slaughter our Roman occupiers and put us in power?”
Jesus' answer is that the disciples’ understanding of power is not at all where this is headed. Instead Jesus offers a new understanding of power. I picture Jesus answering the disciples with air quotes. “You shall receive <air quote gesture> power </air quote gesture> after the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” When that “power” eventually comes they “get it.” They see what Jesus was about all along. It changes everything, It even changes their thinking. They stop this expectation of God wiping out their enemies and subject everyone to their political rule. No, when they receive “power”, they stay on the margins. Following the example of Jesus they go out to the sick, the foreigner, the occupier, and the enslaved. They even follow Jesus to the death, forgiving those who execute them.They continue standing in solidarity with those on the outside.
My faith makes sense when I can see those who have been afflicted by hardship as my grandmother taking cover from a dust storm. It makes sense when I see those excluded for their racial, religious, or ethnic identity as my grandmother excluded because of her last name. Jesus is in solidarity with them, and the Holy Spirit empowers me to see them as God’s beloved.
The power Jesus promises comes alongside those who live life at the edges. It stays alongside those who live at the edges.
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Kenton Self is a husband to Hope and a father to Parker. He has been a part of AUMC for four years and is active in the choir, Room 2, and Socrates Circle. As a life-long resident of Dallas his roots run deep, and as a graduate of the University of Texas his blood runs burnt orange (\m/). Pastimes include playing guitar and keeping up his 400 day streak on Duolingo. Cursed with strong opinions, he has been told he would argue with a rock. He insists that he would only do so if the rock was wrong.