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They
don’t have circus sideshows anymore. I suppose that’s
partly because you can watch anything you want and then some
on the internet or on TV. But before it was thrust into our
homes, it was contained in sideshows at the circus.
Once
there was a sideshow strongman. One of his unique tricks was
to take a whole orange and squeeze it until there was
literally not one more drop of juice that could come out. He
would then invite any men from the audience to come and try to
get any more juice out of it. No one ever could, until one day
from the middle of a crowd a small, gray-haired old man came
forward to give it a try. The strongman had done his bit,
squeezing the orange in his great fists until there was not
one drop left. And then this meek old man came forward. He
rolled up his sleeves and his bony hand squeezed, and sure
enough, to the crowd’s amazement, not one, but several drops
of orange juice came from the orange and dripped out onto the
ground. The crowd was hushed. The strongman stood there
dumbfounded and asked the old man, “How did you do that?!”
To which the old man replied, “That’s easy. I’m a church
treasurer. I’ve been doing it for years.”
The
church has power that the world can’t understand. This
evening I want to look at this claim of power. What is the
power of the church? How can we understand God’s
faithfulness as the source of the power, and what we are going
to do with this power?
The
church has power that the world can’t understand. The church
has power beyond itself.
Even Paul didn’t know how his letter would affect us
today. God has allowed for the preservation of these words
through the centuries. The letter to the Corinthians was just
that—a letter to a struggling church in Corinth. And yet
something about its message reveals a power to change
people’s lives. Think of the call to love, from 1
Corinthians 13: “Love is patient, love is kind….” Many
parts of his letter have made their way into people’s
hearts. Yes, the church has power beyond itself.
But
the world can’t understand this. Think of the book (now a
movie), The Lord of the Rings. The entire story is
about the giving up of worldly power. The only way to win was
with the power that was not created of that MiddleEarth world.
They knew it worked, because Sauron the Evil could understand
all things about power, but he could never understand the
fellowship of the ring destroying the source of all worldly
power in order to gain a greater power. Hypocrites think the
power is in the people. The word “hypocrite” comes from
the Greek word for actor: someone playing a role, or deceiving
an audience. There is no difference between hypocrites and
Christians, except that Christians fall back on Jesus. Yes,
the church is a mess; but the church is like Noah’s
ark—the only reason you can stand the stench on the inside
is because of the flood outside. The church is made up of
people. There are no perfect people. There is no perfect
church. In a pre-marital counseling appointment, I was talking
about the importance of plugging yourselves into a church
community. The groom-to-be said, “I used to go to church,
but I don’t anymore. They’re all just a bunch of
hypocrites.” To which I replied, “You’re right. But we
always have room for one more.”
The
church has power beyond itself. For example, the Civil Rights
movement had sinners on both sides. The power of the Civil
Rights movement was beyond the people. It showed us the power
of God. Everybody knew:
Jesus
loves the little children,
all the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
they are precious in his sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.
There’s
power beyond ourselves in that.
What
is the power of the church? Look at ten years ago. Look at the
newspapers. What were they full of ten years ago? Five years
ago? Most of what we thought was so important at the time, we
can’t name today. More and more, people are prisoners of the
present moment. We become slaves to the tyranny of the urgent,
and we get it spoon-fed to us. 1 Corinthians 1:8-9 reminds us:
“He
will also strengthen you to the end,
so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. God is faithful;
by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord.” Do
you know what the big story was in 1992? Or 1997? Or 2001? The
big story of last year, despite everything, was God’s
faithfulness. In spite of terror. In spite of fear. In spite
of human wars. “He who
keeps you will not slumber.” (Psalm 121:3) “Know
that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps
His covenant and his loving-kindness to a thousandth
generation with those who love him and keep his
commandments.” (Deuteronomy 7:9) The faithfulness of the
Lord is the point of power of the church. God’s love is
loose in the world, even in the midst of the worldly powers
which seem to be dominating the news today. God uses the
church. God loves
the world through you.
Why
don’t we experience it? Fear. We fear our present situation
more than we fear God. Remember the story of The Headless
Horseman. Ichabod Crane comes to town to start something
new, only to be driven out by fear.
That one night when the Headless Horseman rides again
was all it took. It did him in. Ichabod is never seen again in
those parts. If only he confronted his fear, he would see that
it was harmless. If only he would have turned around.
But the powers of this world make us forget God’s
faithfulness.
The
flipside of fear is doubt. Think of what the serpent told Eve.
“You shall not eat
from any tree of the garden.” (Genesis 3:1) Already he
put a gap in God’s words to Eve. When Eve replies “We may
eat of every tree but the one in the middle,” the serpent
responds, “You surely
shall not die!” (3:4) Basically the serpent was saying,
“What if God is holding out on you? What if God is not
faithful as he promises?” Powers of this world make us
forget God’s faithfulness.
Either
God is faithful to care for our every need, or he isn’t.
Which will you believe? God’s faithfulness: either we
believe it and live like it, or we don’t. The choice, then,
is up to us. I may believe in gravity, or I may not. But I’m
impacted by gravity if that indeed is true. This view is very
much in the face of John Lennon’s view: “Imagine if there
were no heaven. No hell below us, only earth and sky.”
It’s a beautiful thought, but whether or not it’s true is
not up to us. We only have the choice to respond. Either God
is faithful or he isn’t. And then we must decide that either
we believe it, or we don’t. Either we live with a vertical
perspective toward life or we live in the shallow
two-dimensional view, trapped in the immediacy of our problems
and situations.
You
might be thinking, “But you don’t know what I’ve been
through! You don’t know what I’m facing!” And I don’t.
But God does. And I do believe that the task ahead is never as
big as the power behind us.
God
gives us this power. In 1 Corinthians 1:7 Paul writes, “For
in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and
knowledge of every kind…so that you are not lacking in any
spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus
Christ.” You
are not lacking in any spiritual gift. That means “all the
gifts” of God are available for us as the church! All the
power of God, the Creator of the universe, the One who
resurrected Jesus from the dead, is available to us. God gives
us this power as spiritual gifts! Paul goes on to teach that
not one person has all the gifts, but the church has all the
gifts, in order to build up the body of Christ. The world
needs these gifts. The world needs us to be the church. The
world needs us to take the initiative to share all the gifts
of God. God wants us to do great and wonderful things. God has
chosen to work through us.
“Christ
Loves the Church” is a hymn (#590) by Brian Wren written in
1985. Listen to the words.
Christ
loves the church, with grace beyond all measure.
We bear his name, for all the world to see.
He will not let us go or let us be,
But chooses earthen vessels for his treasure.
Christ
bears the church, corrupted or conforming,
Obsessed with trifles, blessing greed and war.
His love outwits us, spinning gold from straw,
Through saints and prophets, praying and reforming.
Christ
needs the church to live and tell his story,
To praise his love and marvel at his trust,
Till, bathed in light, awakened from the dust,
We walk with God, alive in grace and glory.
God
is…love, life, everlasting, all-powerful, full of mercy,
holy, etc. We just forget. We the church, the body of Christ,
forget the head of the body, Christ. We forget God’s
faithfulness. We forget God. We forget the Source. There is
power the world desperately needs. Power for mercy.
Power for love. Power for forgiveness. Power for grace.
Power for giving. Power for justice.
Power for living. Power for hope when all looks dark.
Power for new beginnings. Don’t we need these things? God
gives us this power.
We’ve
seen that the church has power. We’ve seen that it is
God’s faithfulness. God’s faithfulness is the main event.
God gives us this power. Now, church, what are you going to
do? How will you
live with this power?
First,
you must give your life to him. In our lives, either Jesus is
Lord of all, or he’s not Lord at all. Give all your life to
him. He doesn’t want to take anything good away from you; he
just wants the best for you. He wants to empower you to be a
part of his story, the story of faithfulness.
Second,
realize that God is faithful. Give your life to him, and then
just bank on it. There’s nothing left to prove. “Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm
23:6) If the Lord is offering to be my shepherd, I will
follow. God’s faithfulness endures forever. Either I live
like it, or I don’t. So I will stop worrying. I will no
longer get caught up in the tyranny of the day. I will live
with God’s perspective of my life.
Church,
let us accept the charge from Bishop Watson, the Bishop of
South Georgia, when he quotes, “Let us light a fire of
commitment to the ends of the earth until we have no breath
left in us, or until he comes. Let us light a fire in this
generation that cannot be put out,” because God is faithful.
From everlasting to everlasting. Amen!
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