Rambling for Kirwan Uniting Church Keeping in Touch pew sheet 5 June 2022 Pentecost

 Ergon pulled the plug, literally, for eight hours on Wednesday. At least this time it wasn’t mid 30s, so we didn’t need aircon (rather, the dog didn’t need aircon). There is a substation in the street, which needed some sort of maintenance or upgrade. So for several streets around, the neighbours and we were powerless. We’ve lived on acreage for so long, with tank rainwater which requires an electric pump, that I still worry that I can’t pour a glass of water or flush the loo, until I remember that we’re suburban-dwellers now. And that there isn’t a dam outside the kitchen window, providing (pump-fed) water to the animal troughs.

Sunday is Pentecost, power from on high supplied to a powerless multi-cultural, multi-ethnic bunch. Sometimes, we forget with just what power we have been endued, from where it comes, and what it’s for. Faced with our mortality and its attendant weakness, we forget what St Paul urges: “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings …” (Philippians 3) We have no power of our own over decline and suffering, but Christ’s power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor 12).

Ergon doesn’t supply kilowatts to the Manse so that I can watch the meter wheels go round. It’s for cooking, heating water for the shower, boiling the kettle for a pot of tea, illuminating the darkness, keeping us cool in summer – you get the idea. Similarly, there’s a purpose to Pentecost: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Townsville, and in all Queensland and Australia, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1, adapt for your situation).

Let’s be a switched-on people!