Playing with Power

It has been said that dogs have masters, and cats have staff. A dog will fall all over himself trying to do things for you. “Arf, arf; you want your paper? Here you go. Arf, arf: how about those slippers? Always happy to do something for you. Just scratch my belly and I’ll be off to do the next thing. [Panting sound]” A dog will do just about anything for his master.

Cats are a little different. Try telling a cat to get your slippers, and this is what you’ll get: [Cat licking self, then turns with disdainful look.] “You’ve got to be kidding. I’m not getting anything for you. But I expect you to get my supper; nowwwww.”

Dogs have masters, cats have staff. And of course those of us who love cats are happy to do almost anything for them. “You want your supper? Here you go. How about that massage? Oh Kitty, I’ll do anything for you, just so you’ll sit on my lap and purr.”

Cats have power. And they know how to use it.

Some people are like cats. They love having power and they know how to use it. And that’s not a bad thing. I’m thinking of Sir Winston Churchill. Had it not been for his love of power and the skill with which he used it, the Allies might’ve lost World War II and the so-called “thousand year reich” might be closing in on its second century right now. I’m thinking of Lyndon Johnson. Had it not been for the skill with which he manipulated the U.S. Senate, Black folks might still be trapped in segregated facilities and Barak Obama most certainly would not be President. I’m thinking of Sir John A. Macdonald. The Canadian Pacific Railway didn’t get built because he went to some powerful men, hat in hand, and said “Please, sirs, will you build me a railroad?” No, they came to him with hat in hand, and he filled their hats with enough money that they built that railroad; and some of that money was even legal. But, they built it where he wanted it to go. And that made all the difference in shaping the future of Canada.

If people didn’t have power, the Church and the nations and the world wouldn’t get anywhere. We need power to do the good things that God has called us to do.

Jesus had power. He cast out demons and healed the sick. Jesus had power. He confronted the Pharisees with their hypocrisy and he converted some of them. Jesus had power. They tortured and killed him, but he walked right out of his tomb. That’s power!

But you know what? You have power. God has given you power. It says right here in Isaiah 40:29: “God gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.” That’s you. Maybe there was a crisis in your family, and you just took charge, and somehow you knew exactly what to do and you helped get your family through it. That’s power. And it’s given to us by God. Weeks later you maybe looked back on that experience and you said, “How did I ever do that?” And the answer, of course, is that God just picked you up and helped you to do what you had to do. God gives power to the faint. Maybe you’re the kind of person who tends to hold back in meetings and lets others take the lead. But in this one meeting you found yourself speaking clearly and decisively on the issue that was before you, and people were actually listening to you, and then they did what you suggested. That’s power. You have power. God gives power to the faint.

Indeed, God gives power to all of us. Because, you see, God is power. The Bible says that God is love (John 4:8) and that’s true, but God is also power. You can’t create the universe out of nothing unless you have power. You can’t hold the entire universe together unless you have power. God is power. But we who are made in the image of God; we have power too. God’s essential attributes are also our essential attributes. We have them in miniature, but we still have them. To be human is to be a person of power.

Having power is part of our essential nature. The irony is that we’re not all comfortable with that fact. Some of us love power and some of us hate it. Some of us enjoy using it and others are afraid of it. It’s very easy to defer to those who act comfortably with power and authority. It’s so easy that some of us do it all the time. But when we defer so quickly to others, we are abdicating our authority as servants of God. We are abdicating our authority even though we’ve been empowered by God and given authority by God. As we said last week, God has given you a set of gifts. And because God has given you those gifts, you have the power to do things and the authority to do things within your area of giftedness. When the Agincourt Interfaith Affordable Housing Committee, which meets in this building, wrote to Ottawa a few weeks ago and said, “You have to put funds for affordable housing in the federal budget,” and then the government did it; that’s power. $2 billion worth of power! Not that it was our email alone that carried that power; of course not. It was the collective power of all those individuals and groups who wrote to Ottawa. With a little bit of help from the Liberals and the NDP and the Bloc who were breathing down the government’s neck. That’s power. You have it and I have it and the Church has it because the Spirit has given it to us. And on our good days, we mount up with wings as eagles and soar with such power (see Isaiah 40:31)!

So why don’t we do that every day? Well, there’s a sickly sweet comfort in abdicating our responsibility and letting others run the show. It’s safer that way. I mean, if you don’t do anything, you won’t make a mistake. If you don’t take the initiative, you won’t make a mistake. But if you never risk making a mistake, you’ll never get anything done. God did not give us a spirit of timidity; no, God gave us a spirit of power and love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7). Maybe an overpowering parent gave you a spirit of timidity, or maybe a sibling or your Grade 3 teacher gave you a spirit of timidity, but God certainly did not. God has empowered you with your spiritual gifts to do good things. Just do it. Yes, you’ll make some mistakes. But do it anyway.

Paul Tillich talks about the dynamic relationship between love, power and justice. If we fail to move in any one of those three areas, the other two will get out of wack. If you want to be a loving person, than you have to be a powerful person. If you want to seek justice, then you have to dare to use power. The Bible makes it clear that we are called to seek justice and love kindness (Micah 6:8). Therefore, we have to be bold in the use of power.

Nelson Mandela said that our biggest fear isn’t that we’re powerless; our biggest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. Because with power comes responsibility, and the call to action.

With power, Jesus healed. Daring to use your gifts in a powerful way, we too can soar. Amen.


Text: Isaiah 40:29
Preached by Bruce D. Ervin
8 February 2009