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Message: Sermon: "Mystery and Mercy: Power and
Powerlessness"
Subtitle: "Oh, Grow
Up!"
By Pastor
Keith
A CALL TO WORSHIP
ONE In our
weakness we are strong In our poverty we are rich. In our foolishness we are
wise. In our shadows we seek light. In our silences we listen.
In
our touching we are spirit. In our searching we are found. In our longing we
are satisfied. In our powerlessness, we are powerful beyond all human
understanding.
ALL God of mystery and mercy Grant us
new life with you as we seek to overturn the powerful with our powerlessness
during this journey of Lent. Amen.
by Rev. Keith Mozingo
Reading: I Samuel 16:1-13
Reading: Ephesians 4:14-17, 21-24 (Amplified) So
then, we may no longer be children, tossed like ships to and fro between chance
gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, the prey
of the cunning and cleverness of unscrupulous people, gamblers engaged in every
shifting form of trickery in inventing errors to mislead.
Rather, let our lives lovingly express truth in
all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly. Enfolded in love, let
us grow up in every way and in all things into the One Who is the Head, Christ.
For because of Him the whole body, the church, in
all its various parts, closely joined and firmly knit together by the joints
and ligaments with which it is supplied, when each part, with power adapted to
its need, is working properly in all its functions, grows to full maturity,
building itself up in love.
So this I
say and solemnly testify in the name of the Lord, that you must no longer live
as the heathen do in the folly, vanity, and emptiness of their souls and the
futility of their minds.
Assuming
that you have really heard Jesus and been taught by Him, as all Truth is
embodied and personified in Him, strip yourselves of your former nature which
characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts
and desires that spring from delusion; and be constantly renewed in the spirit
of your mind, having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude, and put on the new
nature created in God's image, in true righteousness and holiness.
A
CONTEMPORARY LESSON Excerpts from A Beautiful Mind, an article by Rev Dr Joanna
Adams found at http://www.day1.net/index.php5?view=transcripts&tid=488
Two thousand years after Jesus' entry into
Jerusalem, another visitor came to the city, Germany's last kaiser, Wilhelm II.
His entourage was so grand that he had to have the Jaffe Gate in the old city
widened so that his over-sized carriage could pass through.
After the parade had ended, someone climbed up and attached a
large sign to the gate. The sign read, "A better man than Wilhelm came through
this city's gate. He rode on a donkey."
What made Jesus a better
man, do you think? What was it about him that compelled the people to spread
their cloaks and wave their branches in the air? What made him a better man?
It was his beautiful mind, which was nothing less than the very
mind of God. His beautiful mind put him on the back of that donkey.
*
His beautiful mind led him to overturn the tables of the money
changers in the temple, led him to cure the blind and the lame. * His beautiful
mind brought him to his knees before the disciples so that he could wash their
feet on the night of his betrayal. * His mind led him to the cross where he
poured out his life. What does a Christ-like mind look like as we live in the
world? We can see it clearly in the great saints and martyrs, such as Mother
Teresa or Albert Schweitzer.
I'm drawn as well to the
idea William Placher suggests in his book Narratives of a Vulnerable God as he
uses an illustration from the world of basketball. Professor Placher writes,
"In basketball the players who are always asking, 'How am I doing? Am I getting
my share of the shots?'
Those are the ones who
never reach their full potential. It is the players who lose themselves who
find themselves. And it's that kind of self-forgetfulness that makes the best
players." ….
An artist becomes lost in
the work. Lovers become lost in their beloved. Workers are excited about a
common enterprise. … In self-forgetfulness, you become most fully
yourself….
Why did Jesus ride that
little donkey into town that day? I think he did it to demonstrate true
greatness to all the world. After the donkey came the cross. And it is there,
right there, that you see greatness in all its glory….
A CONFESSION We’re taught it from our youth, O God, that
power is what we need - power in our own lives and over others. We confess that
we often live by this value and exert our power in ways that are destructive to
ourselves, to others and to our planet.
We view
power as a commodity to be claimed rather than a good to be shared. Grant us
now Your beautiful mind, that we may live in true greatness, empowered by Your
righteousness and love and empowering others through Your Spirit.
Forgive us when we doubt that this is true and help our
unbelief as we live in this world where power is wielded against much that is
holy. Forgive us; set us free; and empower us from within. In the name of the
One who relinquished His power for our sake, Amen.
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