A year ago last Friday, August 14, 2003, at 4:09 P.M.,EST, the entire Northeast corridor went black in the largest blackout in United States history, shutting down planes, trains and automobiles - and buses and subways. In New York City, Buffalo, Cleveland, Toronto and Toledo food and water were contaminated, and there was no air conditioning in the midst of an August heat wave. The power returned for some that same evening by 10 p.m. yet, others went for days without electricity.

Yet, no one panicked. In fact, there was little looting and no price gouging. Some shopkeepers sold candles and bottled water at reduced prices. People shared cab rides and cell phones. And almost everyone got home from work late. On the upside, one woman living in Manhattan reported that she saw the Big Dipper for the first time in her life.

At first it was thought to be a terrorist attack. The reason for this massive collapse of the Lake Erie Loop that involved more than 100 electric plants was traced, in part, to the failure to trim tree branches in Cleveland, and a telephone pole that brought down some electrical lines.

That was 12 months ago. We've lost power at least once this summer as thunderstorms and high winds brought power lines to the ground again.
We just can't seem to let go of the telephone pole. The supercharged, high-tech, wired world in which we live relies almost entirely on a quaint, low-tech, 19th-century invention - the telephone pole.

This simple pine pole started out as a support for telegraph wires back in the mid-1800s, when Samuel Morse installed the first copper cable from Washington, D.C., to Annapolis Junction. Since then, these poles have taken on ever-growing responsibility, delivering telephone service, cable television, the Internet and electric power to homes and businesses. "As a result," wrote Steven Pearlstein in The Washington Post, "it now takes only a strong gust of wind to bring the capital of the free world to a virtual standstill."

Clearly, we've got a telephone pole problem. What can we do to prevent high winds from knocking out our phones, cable TV, Internet access and electric power? The answer is really quite simple: Bury the lines underground. But utility companies don't want to do this, saying that the transition would be prohibitively expensive. A seemingly lame excuse.....The companies involved obviously just do not want to change.

The reality is, to fix a major problem, all that is needed is the will to change.
This brings to mind the enormous changes that awaited the church 2,000 years ago in its infancy. It's a whole lot easier to build subways and water systems, and to bury telephone poles than it is to change the mindset of generations of thinking. That was as true then as it is now.

It's this type of thing that Peter is discovering when he returns to Jerusalem after his coastal swing through Lydda and Joppa. Back home in Jerusalem, the center of religious and cultural life, he was debriefed about his activities in the homes of non-Jewish persons who, it was rumored, had received the good news with enthusiasm.
During this session, Peter retraces his steps by recounting the curious story of his vision on the rooftop. Peter took this to mean that God was doing a new thing - making the unclean clean - that is to say, extending the good news even to the non-Jewish world.

He then cites a case study. Three non-Jewish persons, or Gentiles, had arrived at the place he was staying, and invited him to visit a Roman military official named Cornelius. Peter felt compelled to go with them, and shortly thereafter, he was face to face with Cornelius. After some discussion and a brief recounting of the heart of the gospel, a Holy Ghost revival broke out. The Spirit was clearly moving.
Peter says to his Jerusalem colleagues: "If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God-how can I object to God?" Good question.

You see, complex problems often have simple answers. We need to yield to the Spirit in our lives, and let God be God and do his work in us. Until now, the early church clearly had positioned itself solidly within the traditional Jewish religious settings. This experience, however, began a separation process in which the new, young faith which would be known as The Way, whose followers would soon be called Christians in the non-Jewish city of Antioch, would soon emerge with its own identity, quite distinct and apart from its Jewish roots.

The Jewish laws and customs that had been part and parcel of every person's life at that point, were the telephone poles that needed to be cut down and removed. It was a huge challenge for these early Christians. But since God is in the business of cutting down telephone poles and doing a new thing, who are we to hinder God?

In fact, in history, dramatic change has always been preceded by the dismantling of the telephone pole du jour. Leonard Sweet, in his book, Aqua Church, called these changes paradigm shifts.

Galileo was a pole chopper. He helped to move us from a pre-Copernican and geocentric view of the cosmos, to a modern, solar-centric universe.

Martin Luther. Louis Pasteur. Thomas Edison. Alexander Graham Bell. Orville and Wilbur Wright. Henry Ford. Albert Einstein. Thomas Watson. Rosa Parks. Martin Luther King Jr. Bill Gates.

Pole choppers all.

The struggle continues today. Not in the same form, of course. But there is still a tension in the church as God moves us beyond traditional forms to new and creative adventures by His Holy Spirit.

Two kinds of people are in the church today: pole huggers and pole choppers.
Like the first century church, we're charged with being guardians of the ancient faith while being open to fresh expressions of that faith. In other words, which telephone poles to cut down and which ones to leave standing.

What we need is a word from the Lord, such as the guidance Peter received when he heard the words, "What God has made clean, you must not call profane." Until then, we can do no better than follow the example that Jesus set in his own earthly ministry - He was a pole chopper.

• He was willing to break established purity laws in order to minister to the outcasts of society. Remember that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, touched menstruating women,
• Put the needs of children before the needs of adults,
• and preferred the company of sinners over saints.

Jesus was never afraid to chop down a telephone pole or two.

But this is not to say that Jesus was devoted to destruction. No, his mission was to institute a new and better way. What Jesus really did was take an old approach and replace it with a new and better way.
A purity of law turns into a purity of love in Jesus' ministry.

Jesus knocked down the old law in order to replace it with a new love. And so, as followers of Christ, we need to ask ourselves the question: What's our telephone pole problem today?

Like the apostles of the infant church, have we become the 'insiders' if the kingdom's good news? Do we see this great gift of grace that we have received as something that is for 'the elect'? Jesus had some curious words for the 'insiders' of his day.

What poles should you chop?
Jesus is speaking to people who were used to the idea of being chosen…but who had lost sight of the challenge of being chosen.

Perhaps our telephone pole is a tendency to reach out to only a few members of God's enormous family. Look around your world. Chop down the pole.

• Maybe we will be challenged to get to know the immigrant from Africa who works down the hall. Chop down the pole of self-centeredness.
• Maybe we will be asked to reach out to the neighborhood teen who is becoming increasingly withdrawn. Chop down the pole of fear.
• Maybe we will be dared to adopt the handicapped child who needs specialized care. Chop down the pole of indifference.
• Maybe we will be invited to help welcome young singles to church,
  or to make an effort to visit the elderly members who are trapped in their homes or care communities. Chop down the pole of laziness.

Unless we look beyond our normal categories of friends and acquaintances, we'll end up like the Jewish Christians who could not see beyond their own customs and religious mores.

Then again, it may be that our telephone pole is much more personal. Perhaps there's a relationship issue that needs to be addressed. Perhaps a guilt burden that needs to be removed. Perhaps a forgiveness problem that needs to be revisited. Perhaps an addiction that needs to be confronted.

Jesus talks about the need for us to take the log out of our own eye, so that we can see clearly to take the speck out of our neighbor's eye (Luke 6:42). Well, maybe the log is a telephone pole. And perhaps if we remove it, we'll see both our neighbors and ourselves a bit more clearly.

And very possibly, if we don't, we'll bring our lives and the lives of those around us crashing down into darkness.

There's really only one way to experience God's love and light and power, uninterrupted. Pull down the Poles.

Reference:

Acts 11
The news traveled fast and in no time the leaders and friends back in Jerusalem heard about it--heard that the non-Jewish "outsiders" were now "in." When Peter got back to Jerusalem, some of his old associates, concerned about circumcision, called him on the carpet: 3"What do you think you're doing rubbing shoulders with that crowd, eating what is prohibited and ruining our good name?"

So, Peter, starting from the beginning, laid it out for them step-by-step: "Recently I was in the town of Joppa praying. I fell into a trance and saw a vision: Something like a huge blanket, lowered by ropes at its four corners, came down out of heaven and settled on the ground in front of me. Milling around on the blanket were farm animals, wild animals, reptiles, birds--you name it, it was there. Fascinated, I took it all in. "Then I heard a voice: "Go to it, Peter--kill and eat' 81 said, "Oh, no, Master. I've never so much as tasted food that wasn't kosher.' The voice spoke again: "If God says it's okay, it's okay.' This happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the sky.

"Just then three men showed up at the house where I was staying, sent from Caesarea to get me. The Spirit told me to go with them, no questions asked. So I went with them, I and six friends, to the man who had sent for me. He told us how he had seen an angel right in his own house, real as his next-door neighbor, saying, "Send to Joppa and get Simon, the one they call Peter. He'll tell you something that will save your life--in fact, you and everyone you care for."

So, I started in, talking. Before I'd spoken half a dozen sentences, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as he did on us the first time. I remembered Jesus' words: "John baptized with water; you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So, I ask you: If God gave the same exact gift to them as to us when we believed in the Master Jesus Christ, how could I object to God?"

Hearing it all laid out like that, they quieted down. And then, as it sank in, they started praising God. "It's really happened! God has broken through to the other nations, opened them up to Life!"

Luke 13
He went on teaching from town to village, village to town, but keeping on a steady course toward Jerusalem. A bystander said, "Master, will only a few be saved?"
He said, "Whether few or many is none of your business. Put your mind on your life with God. The way to life--to God!-is vigorous and requires your total attention. A lot of you are going to assume that you'll sit down to God's salvation banquet just because you've been hanging around the neighborhood all your lives.

Well, one day you're going to be banging on the door, wanting to get in, but you'll find the door locked and the Master saying, "Sorry, you're not on my guest list!

You'll protest, "But we've known you all our lives!" only to be interrupted with his abrupt, "Your kind of knowing can hardly be called knowing. You don't know the first thing about me."
That's when you'll find yourselves out in the cold, strangers to grace. You'll watch Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets march into God's kingdom. You'll watch outsiders stream in from east, west, north, and south and sit down at the table of God's kingdom. And all the time you'll be outside looking in--and wondering what happened. This is the Great Reversal: the last in line put at the head of the line, and the so-called first ending up last.