Acts 1:8 “You will receive power (dynamis) when the Holy Spirit comes, and you will be my witnesses… to the ends of the earth.”
‘dynamis’ is Greek for power. Obviously it’s where we get the word ‘dynamite’ from. At Pentecost, a ragtag fearful bunch of disciples were transformed into fearless, passionate firebrands who went out and laid their lives down in costly surrender. Within three centuries, the seemingly impregnable Roman Empire had been brought to its knees by the explosive dynamis of the gospel.
Two millennia later, that power is still available, and is certainly being manifest in some parts of the world – but sadly it seems to be less evident in our part of the world as much of church-life has morphed into something quite removed from its initial expression. Be honest, did you go to church last Sunday with any significant expectations of encountering the Living God?
I love Annie Dillard’s imagery in ‘Teaching a Stone to Talk’, as she describes the church coming together: “On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or as I suspect, does no-one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping God may wake someday and take offence, or the waking God may draw us out to where we can never return.”
I don’t know about you, but I’m desperate for my own regular Pentecost, and for my church’s. I’m sick to death of settling for low expectations so I don’t end up disappointed. I need some serious dynamis in my life. How about you?
God Almighty, send us out in the power of your Spirit today. Amen!
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