For People is a conversation with Bishop Rob Wright, spiritual leader to the more than 50,000 people in the 117 worshipping communities of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. In this podcast, Bishop Wright meets listeners at the crossroads of faith and life to explore the challenges of an ever-changing world. Listen in to find out how he expands on For Faith, drawing inspiration from the life of Jesus to answer 21st-century questions.
The theme for this year's Annual Council is taken from five simple words from the first chapter of the book of Acts. You will be my witnesses. If we zoom out from those words, we see that Jesus has finished his earthly ministry and is attempting to ascend toward heaven. But before he departs, the disciples shoehorn in one last question Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom of Israel? And here's how Jesus answered the question. It's not for you to know the times and periods that the Father has set by his authority, by God's authority, but you, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, judea, samaria and to the ends of the earth. Now, I know it's early, but did you notice that the disciples question was a political question? It's a when question about the restoration of the nation state. But notice how Jesus responds to this political when question. He responds with a how answer and he makes clear what the perennial purpose of the church is, the perennial purpose. In one of Jesus' most dramatic vertical moments he makes a definitive horizontal decree you will receive power to be my witnesses. That's Jesus' answer and approach to the restoration of the nation state, then and now.
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Then and now, the promise and reception of power precedes its application. In just a few days, jesus' promise would become a reality. The church calls this promise-keeping Pentecost and this power has been ours ever since. It's power for the church to be a world house, transnational, transpolitical, a fellowship of love in scope and impact. And it's also power for the church to be a freedom house, like one of those stops on Harriet Tubman's Underground Railroad, a brave place where we believe and belong and become more like Christ, a place where lies fall away and fears about things temporal fade, where we remember that we are more than our wounds and our chains.
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To be a witness is preceded by the gift of power, because Jesus knew how hard it was to live for God in the real world. Somebody say amen. He knew that if we would be faithful to our founding purpose, things would not be easy. Jesus knew that to live for God means that you will be regularly outnumbered, so you won't be outpowered. In his mind, if indeed love is the most durable element in the universe, you will not be. You are not outpowered and you are not alone, and faith in Jesus is not a fool's errand. That's the good news. That is our witness. That is what we affirm whenever we gather that we are beneficiaries of a vertical assurance for horizontal endurance.
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The witnessing power that Jesus promised to those then is our sending and sustaining power. In middle and north Georgia now Renew in these your servants the covenant you made with them at their baptism. The prayer book prays and goes on to say send them forth in that power, in that spirit, to perform the service you set before them. In that spirit, to perform the service you set before them. The elegant genius of the gift of this power to witness is that Jesus gives it to those who, just days ago, got it all so terribly wrong. These are the same ones, us who fled the scene of his arrest, and the same ones. Jesus had to fight through locked doors to forgive, to claim inheritance with the disciples of Jesus and to be a witness to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is to understand this. You are a member of the global second chance club. That's our founding DNA, that is our witness, that is our offer to the world. Like the woman at the well in John's gospel, jesus sees past our faults and sees our needs and sees the needs of the world and marries the two. Maybe Jesus entrusted his disciples with this power because he hoped we would now administrate it through a new, thick humility that comes with being recipients of grace. The power to bear witness to Jesus in a sin-sick world is our privilege and our purpose, and the beauty of this calling is that we are learning to love like Jesus, as we are commending this beautiful struggle to others.
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To be a witness is the power to increase the celebrity of Jesus by doing what Jesus did wherever you find yourself. But not only that wherever you find yourself. But not only that. It's power to trust God. You want the list. It's power to share your story as medicine for somebody else's malady. It's power to listen, power to understand, power to be selfless, power to be steadfast, power to grow and stretch and include.
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Power to face loss. Power to tell the truth in love, power to imagine, power to be honest with yourself, power to overcome fear, power to choose strength over aggression, power to be bold and gentle, power to fend off despair. Power to endure suffering, power to forgive. Power to accept forgiveness. Power to forgive, power to accept forgiveness, power to hope and power to hold steady. Power to innovate. Power to live a good life. Power to live a good death, power to apologize, power to reconcile, power to love, power to accept the fact that every human being is a sibling with dignity.
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To wield God power in these ways and give God's strengthening touch, the credit is witness, and witness is the climax of worship. To wield God power in these ways mobilizes compassion. To wield God power in these ways is to be an echo of the truth of Jesus, wherever you are. We, as his followers, bear witness and attest that life for us is trusting God, especially when it seems foolish. Trusting God especially when it seems foolish. And we hereby and attest and affirm that life is most abundant when we center Jesus, de-center ourselves and seek the flourishing of others. And it is our testimony that community is best and most resiliently built when power is expressed as mercy. That is our witness. That is our witness.
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Now, if I have thus far failed to make my point this morning I mean it could happen Then I beg you one more try. There was an old rock and roll group, wonderfully named some of y'all are too young wonderfully named Blood, sweat and Tears. What is the average age of this group? Again, y'all don't know nothing about that, do you? They had two hits, two big hits. Let's see if you know them. The first big hit was this what goes up must come down. Spinning wheels got to go round. Stop Y'all, be careful. Now they're recording this thing. All right, be careful.
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The point is this If the song lyrics are true, if what goes up must come down, then the best evidence of God being high and lifted up in our lives is the personal and public lengths and depths we're willing to go for God, up and down. Every time Jesus was high and lifted up at his transfiguration on the cross and here at his ascension, he made sure that what goes up comes down. As witness At his transfiguration, he made sure his disciples understood that mountaintop moments were made to fuel valley-low work. At his crucifixion, he paused his personal pain to include a thief in paradise and knit a grieving family together. And here, as Jesus goes up, power comes down to continue Jesus's unfolding friend-making campaign. What goes up must come down, making campaign. What goes up must come down.
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Here's the second song. The second song helps us to understand that to be witness isn't just work. We know how to do work. This group works so hard, I know that. But there's more than work. There's also joy in witness. Joy, the second song by Blood, sweat and Tears.
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Let's see if you know this one.
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I've lost it, love before, got mad and closed the door, but you said, child, just once more, I chose you for the one it's building Now we're having so much fun.
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You treated me so kind. I'm about to lose my mind because you made me so very happy. I'm so glad you came into my life. That's our witness At base. At base, that's our witness, jesus. There's a room full of people that are so glad you came into our lives, so glad that you're working through our closed doors, so glad we're losing our earthly mind and taking on your mind, which takes us the places you want us to go. To know Jesus is to have a personal joy that overflows in your public life, a joy that the world can't give because the world can't take it away either. A joy that moves us beyond our comfort and our convenience, a joy that captures us and simultaneously sets us free, that gathers us and dispatches us. The joy of being located by God and loved by God, until the surplus of it all washes over the lines that the world imposes Hell. That's why we're here. We are the stewards of this wonder, with our lips and our lives and with all that we are.
