Watts Street Baptist Church - Sending You God's Energy

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Sending You God's Energy
Posted on Mon Apr 28 2008

Mel Williams

SENDING YOU GOD’S ENERGY
Luke 24: 44-53
a sermon by Mel Williams
Watts Street Baptist Church
April 27, 2008

“Stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24: 49b)

On various occasions we have had a send-off for our Watts Street members who have departed on mission trips—to Venezuela, Russia, El Salvador, and to the Gulf Coast. As these groups have prepared to leave, we have said to them, in various ways, “You are not going as 12 people or 14 people. You’re taking the prayers, love, and support of this entire congregation with you. The rest of us here may not literally be present with them on the trip. But there is still an exchange of energy between us as we pray for one another. So I have said to these various Watts Street missionaries: “We are sending you God’s energy.” The same is true for our members who worship this morning at the retreat at Caswell Assembly: “We’re sending you God’s energy.”

All of us go through times of saying good-bye, or times of challenge or crisis.    At these transition points, I find myself frequently saying, “I am sending you God’s energy.” It’s another way of saying, “I’m praying for you.” But it’s different. From my understanding of the Holy Spirit, it makes sense to say, “I’m sending you God’s energy.”

God’s energy is healing energy—the energy of hope, courage, and strength. When we believe in God and are bold enough to venture contact with God, we are tuning in to God’s energy. It’s not unlike tuning a radio. We all have a receiver, but we have to tune our receivers to connect with the signal, the energy. We have to get on God’s frequency, so to speak. When we do that, we open the channels for more of God’s energy to come through. Likewise, we can also send God’s energy where that energy is needed. (analogy of radio waves from Pat Long)

Where do we get this idea? It came from Jesus. Following the resurrection, Jesus told his disciples, “I’m leaving. I want you to get ready to carry the mission when I’m not with you.” He would soon be ascending to be with God. But before he left, he said, “Stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” “Clothed with power” is another way of saying, “Wait until you are sent new energy, new strength, and new courage.”

There are times when our energy is running low, when our tank is near empty. Jesus is talking about sending us strength beyond our own strength, courage beyond our own, energy beyond our own. Jesus is sending his disciples—us—energy, the energy of God’s Spirit. “Stay here until you are clothed with power.”

The amazing thing is that Jesus said he would send this energy once he is physically absent from us. We can’t always be physically present with each other. There are times when we leave—for school, work, trips, or moving to another city.

The first disciples would surely have preferred for Jesus to be physically present with them. But now Jesus is leaving. He’s saying to them, “I’m going away. But I’m sending you God’s energy. I’m sending you power. I’m sending you the Spirit. You can’t really receive this new energy until I depart from you.” So Jesus, by his leaving, is intentionally creating empty space to be filled with the energy of the Spirit. That empty space exists in all of us, and the emptiness is necessary to make room for the Spirit.   We sang this morning “Clear the chaos and the clutter.” St. Romuald said in the 10th century: “Empty yourself completely, and sit waiting…”

In all our lives there is an interplay between presence and absence. Jesus knew that he could not be physically present with his disciples at all times. His presence was very important. But he knew that there would be times when he would be absent from them. But we also know that “there is a difference between an absence after a visit and an absence which is the result of not coming at all.” (Henri Nouwen, p. 44-45, The Living Reminder)

As Henri Nouwen says, “there is a ministry in which our leaving creates space for God’s spirit…” There is such a thing as the “ministry of absence.”   When we are absent, we then make it possible for the Spirit to come. So—when we leave each other, why not say, “I’m sending you God’s energy. Be ready to receive it.”

Absence can be painful, but it’s also crucial to help us grow—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Parents have to learn about absence when we let go of our children. After the child becomes a teen-ager, the parents must gradually give them more and more freedom until eventually you set the children free to live their own lives. The parents are then absent from the day-to-day life of the son or daughter; but they still feel connected to the children in a vital way. As some of us have said with awkward grins on our faces, “Once they learn to drive and can go where they want, our prayer life increases.”

In a sense, we are saying, “I can’t be with you all the time. So I’m sending you God’s energy.”

This ability to send God’s energy is not limited to clergy or other professional religious folk. We Baptists believe in the priesthood of all believers. We’re all ministers to each other. We all have the ability and authority to send God’s energy.

When our second child was about to be born, we were in the hospital waiting to go to the delivery room. When the nurse walked in the room, I was in my agitated, manic phase. In my nervous state I blurted out a desperate request: “Ma’m, do you pray for your patients?” She said calmly, “All the time.” She saw my frazzled state, and she turned to me and said, “You just remember that the Lord is in your hands.” As God is my witness, I can tell you that a calm energy came over me as she spoke those words. That nurse sent me God’s energy. She did not say, “You are in the Lord’s hands.” She said, “The Lord is in your hands.” In essence, she said, “The Lord’s energy is with you.”

When Archbishop Desmond Tutu spoke at Duke Chapel in the l980s, it was during the time of turmoil in South Africa over apartheid. With that wonderful energy in his face, Bishop Tutu said that people had asked him if he ever got discouraged. He said, “Well, there are challenging times; but how can I be discouraged when people are praying for me!” He said, “There is a group of women in California who have written me, saying that they pray for me every morning at 4 am.”

Where did the Archbishop get that delightful resilience, that ebullient spirit? I think it was given to him because ordinary people were sending him God’s energy—and he took it in!

When any one of us is a patient in the hospital, I may likely remind you: “You know, you have many people praying for you.” And your response usually is, “Yes, and I’m grateful. I can feel it. It makes a difference.” The people praying for us are sending us God’s energy.   Those who are praying may be physically absent from us, yet they stir the Spirit to come to us and infuse us with healing energy, life-giving energy.

Doesn’t the same thing happen when we gather for worship, especially at the Table, the Lord’s Supper? At the table Jesus is not physically with us; yet he still ministers to us. We take a little piece of bread, not enough to take away our hunger. We take a little sip of wine, but not enough to take away our thirst. Because there is still that empty space in us that tells us we lack fulfillment. But even as we affirm that Jesus is absent from us here, we realize that he is present—in the power of the Spirit. Through the symbols of the meal, Jesus is sending us God’s energy.

Before we can celebrate Pentecost on May 11, we first have to deal with Jesus’ absence. So we remember Jesus’ departing to be with God. Before he leaves, he tells the disciples—us—that he never leaves us alone. He tells us to wait until we receive God’s energy.

Isn’t that why we’re here? Isn’t that why we stay connected to one another? We’re saying to one another, in various ways: “I’m sending you God’s energy. Be ready to receive it.”

So may it be. Amen.

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