Emphasis Preaching Journal

In the final chapter of Luke when Jesus appears to his disciples, he exhorts them in 24:49, "Stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." Without interpolating this text, we see that much of America is marked by urban blight, where the sprawling squalor of cities become incentives for churches to abandon them and seek residence in more sumptuous surroundings. The city has become a place where crime, violence and social anarchy are highly prevalent and fear terrorizes residents and places neighborhoods under siege.