Amber Lights

 

Amber lights flash continually, warning approaching traffic that there is a blockage. That there is no way through.

For weeks now, our little road has carried signs that the road is closed except for access. We have been permitted in and out by the bored drivers slumped in the cabs of flatbed trucks carrying cones. Hour after hour, at either end of the worksite, a man spends his working day waiting. Waiting for an on-coming vehicle, now even a pedestrian or a cyclist, so that he can challenge, explain, allow through or turn back.

What are they doing? Half a mile from us, major power lines carry electricity from generating station to end-user. They have reinforced the giant pylons, giving them concrete ‘shoes’ to help them withstand the increasingly powerful winds coming with climate change. Now they are replacing the thick cables themselves, carefully lowering the old, connecting the new, and raising them. A time-consuming, possibly sometimes tedious but always dangerous job.

But they need safe conduits for such high voltages. Safety is the order of the day.

After the resurrection, Jesus told his followers to remain in Jerusalem until they were filled with power from on high. Power which would come not in a cable or a bolt of lightning, but in a person, the person of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus had spent three years preparing the cables – his disciples – so that they could safely carry this heavenly power. They needed the teaching and experience of being with Jesus to strengthen them for the winds of persecution which would threaten them as they shared the gospel with others.

When he came at Pentecost, the Spirit’s signature described in the Bible was flames of fire above each of the disciples’ heads. They’d been prepared, and they were anointed, set on fire with purpose and conviction and love.

I’m wondering this morning whether I, and some churches, have been more concerned with health and safety than willing to trust Jesus’ promise that the Holy Spirit is our helper, our encourager, our enabler, so that we can be powerful witnesses to the truth.

Help me today, Lord, to speak out your words of truth into this ‘post-truth’ generation, without fear and empowered by the divine fire of the Spirit.

Wouldn’t it be great if people felt a need to put amber warning lights round our churches, so that people entering would be aware of and anticipating a powerful encounter with Almighty God?