May 1: "Out of Sight"

Acts 1:6-14

⁶So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” ⁹When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. ¹⁰While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. ¹¹They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Waiting…Waiting…

When? kronos or kairos?

How?

He came in human form…

He left “exalted” raised up

Power and authority

God’s authority (exousia) = human/resurrection power (dynamis)

The power is used for one thing: witness

(witness = martyr)

the process of witness gave rise to the increases in the church

focus of witness is not to “other worldly” but to the immediate world as context

If we are to be effective witnesses

We need power…power to explain and act out of resurrection

We are witnesses to Jesus/event

If the church or congregation is to survive it needs to reclaim

The calling to be witness

And the spiritual power to be effective

The challenge is post easter power?!?!

May 8: Hands on Power

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Acts 8:9-25

⁹Now a certain man named Simon had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he was someone great. ¹⁰All of them, from the least to the greatest, listened to him eagerly, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.” ¹¹And they listened eagerly to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. ¹²But when they believed Philip, who was proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. ¹³Even Simon himself believed. After being baptized, he stayed constantly with Philip and was amazed when he saw the signs and great miracles that took place.

¹⁴Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. ¹⁵The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit ¹⁶(for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). ¹⁷Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, ¹⁹saying, “Give me also this power so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” ²⁰But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God’s gift with money! ²¹You have no part or share in this, for your heart is not right before God. ²²Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. ²³For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and the chains of wickedness.” ²⁴Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may happen to me.”

²⁵Now after Peter and John had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, proclaiming the good news to many villages of the Samaritans.



Today being Mother’s day you might think that the title of the sermon would have something to do with a mother’s magic…

That kind of magic that comforts hurts and soothes the upsets of those whom she loves

The kind of magic which unmitigate and unfettered love introduces into our young lives

The kind of magic that so fixes itself within us, that we are able throughout our lives to feel confident and powerful

We might identify that maternal affection as hands on power…

…remembering hugs and caresses that nurutured us to adulthood

…the assuring touches that we now practice with our children

But, though the day celebrates Moms and their maternal majic, that is not what the sermon is really about…!

For I want to focus on the theme, “post-Easter power” again…because I’m really concerned that we have, as a church…and a congregation really lost our sense of power (not our source!!)

…and if we are to be the church into the next century…we had better reclaim our sense of being powerful

The world we live in is full of powers…and principalities (as Paul so long ago wrote)

…and while science, since the Enlightement, has brought a definitive reproof to the idea of Magic, sometimes people still succumb to the idea

Magic, the manipulation of unseen powers, by ritual or sacrifice, is an idea that has lingered since primitive times

Knock on wood? Black cats? Blow on the dice?

Writ large in the old days…was the system of temple sacrifice…the poor lamb, led to the slaughter was thought to please God and keep us in perfect relationship…

So Power became mixed up with magical thinking and was embedded in our traditions…

Jesus became the sacrifice…replaced the temple system

Jesus became the person of power…as we came to believe in him

…but the early church, Acts especially, really wanted us (who came after) to know that what Jesus did was in no way magical

…in fact, magic, was hookum; there was NO WAY that we could do anything to control, manipulate, or persuade God to do what we thought best.

That is what this story today is about…power…beyond magic

It is really easy to see how Fantasy, the product of our human imaginations, regards Magic and allows pretentions to power…

Ever watch the cartoons? Read comic books? Analyse tv shows?

Power comes with the elastic capabilities of the Road Runner, Power Rangers, ninjas, CSI investigators…etc.

But most of this magic is the magic of modern media!

Even the real world “magic” of the navy seals…has nothing to do with the popular notions

Real power, comes from real faith, manifested in real time in the real world

The exercise of real power comes always in the context of real challenges

…where people engage each other…sometimes in intellectual sparring, sometimes with dangerous weaponry

…the exercise of real power reqires real strength of body, mind and spirit

It is not the kind of power that (as Simon tried) you can go to the store and buy for yourself…to use for yourself…to further your magical career

The Power we need in the church is the kind of power that the early evangelists, those who moved into semi-hostile territories (like Samaria) early in our history

Those like Phillip and (the heavy hitters) like Peter and John could persuade people, they could amaze even those who amazed others!

They could lay on hands…and others would be empowered!

That is the hands on power that we are looking for, the power that we need!

The critical difference here is discovered as we reflect on what Simon was asking for…

Simon, though he was good at magic, “believed” the Good News

…and joined up

He hung with the disciples…saw their accomplishments…desired their power and authority

So that is what he asked for…!

When he asked “give me this power” the word Luke uses to express his desire is “exousia”

A word that has the connotation of authority…

The permission to perform such spiritual empowerments

And, in this case, that is very different than the “dynamis” exercised by John and Peter

Dynamite! We are looking to reclaim the dynamite of our faith…!

We are talking about the power to change peoples lives, to deconstruct siful lives, re-construct spiritually healthy lives and create dynamic communities that move the human race toward God’s shalom!

We are talking about the ability, the capacity not only to ask others to repent but to be successful in that request.

We are talking about the power to risk our lives in an increasingly hostile culture, to confront its ugly powers and rescue others from the darkness that ensues…

We are talking about the power to expand and persuade and promote and grow the church…!

We live in a culture in which the People, the PEOPLE…like

That sense of Power…and often image it as some sort of magic

Intrigued by magic (not just the David Copperfield kind of illusionists) but the kind of magic of personality…the mojo (a Creole word for magic) that politicians or other celebraties have…

to persuade others to by their product,

to buy them as politically powerful

to shape your life in their image…clothes, life style, …

Such a man was Simon Magus…Simon the Magician

…he was a big deal

Ran a successful business…(Willimon suggest that an equivalent social status to medical profession today…???!!!)

Saw the success of the disciples

And wanted in…

How much for permission to do what you disciples do?

That is not what we are about…

The power that comes to us, is a GIFT from God

The power transmitted from disciple to disciple, from believer to believer is a gracious dynamic that controls us, that moves us to do the will of God and to make the way of Jesus plain

We can only be open to this gift…we can not buy it, capture it, or trick others into giving it to us

This power, this gift is the power of God’s creative Spirit

The Spirit comes to us when we worship together, when we pray together, when we embrace each other, with a Holy Kiss and touch each other with a more than motherly compassion

The Spirit comes to us and fills us with the desire for change, the capabilities of change and the vision to follow its leading toward ultimate change

Our power, the power of our faith is distinct from anything that faintly resembles “magic”

and emerges from deep, deep inside us,

from that point within where “the intentions our hearts” are lined up with God’s will

When our wills and God’s will are in sync, tuned up, then the gift comes roaring like a mighty wind, then the gift comes pouring down like a might river, then the gift exlodes in our lives like dynamite

This church has for ~ 350 years exercised the faithful power of those who have passed on the Traditions, who have laid on hands from one generation to the next…now it is our turn…!

Now we channel the “hands on power” to each other to make this a more vital ministry…

..and then to those who would follow us

…whose lives we touch with the creative power of the Holy Spirit,

a power promised us by Jesus himself!

Baptist Heritage Sunday: May 15

Righteousness, Peace and Joy

Background: Romans 14:13-23

Romans was written as Paul was preparing to visit the city (50’s CE). It was as general a statement of his beliefs as he had ever written.
Intended , like other letters, to address issues common to the early Christian communities in the time of formation and development
One issue was that was still being hashed out…unclean/clean, food rituals and requirements lingering from Mosaic laws and practices still in place from certain pagan/Roman religions…
Issue is critical because it divided the communities…majorities that had dispensed with old Jewish or pagan practice: Essentially the 14^th chapter of Romans is about relationships…of interacting community relationships and human to God…(sin opposite? Righteousness)
Vocabulary: Righteousness (equity, justice), Peace (shalom) and joy (calm happiness…?!) faith as conviction “mutual upbuilding” (edification)
Best interestingly comments on this passage as an issue that told us about the relationship between the majority of early Xns and the minority...some of whom are still in the fragile moments of a developming faith.

¹³Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.^ ¹⁴I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. ¹⁵If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. ¹⁶So do not let your good be spoken of as evil. ¹⁷For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸The one who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and has human approval.

¹⁹Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. ²⁰Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for you to make others fall by what you eat; ²¹it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble. ²²The faith that you have, have as your own conviction before God. Blessed are those who have no reason to condemn themselves because of what they approve. ²³But those who have doubts are condemned if they eat, because they do not act from faith; for whatever does not proceed from faith (conviction) is sin

Today we scramble to the preachers to remember something that we tend to forget…or at least a subject to which we give short shrift

our Baptist Heritage.

Heritage vs History

Heritage is living values that are not only operative, but characteristically creative

Heritage is “built in” to our religious behavior... beyond the facts and dates and ancient personages...

...but when we add the detail of from history,

...we find ourselves illuminated by the insight that comes to us from our Tradition, Xn and Baptists and American

I want this sermon to be about relationships...

particularly the relationships of neighboring Baptist Congregations...

Somerset, Fall River, Swansea, Hornbine?

Old Colony? TABCOM

...the personal relationships of Pastors...Don Meir, Barbara Jean, Ken Scarborough, Lynn Maclagan...

And because it is about our future, our survival as Baptist congregations...

the relationships between ourselves as Xns

and the rest of the world...that more than likely seldom if ever, show up in the pews...

...the 80% of the American Population that might be spiritual but are not religious...!

I chose this passage…

For even within the fellowship of Baptists…

we have forgotten how “not to judge”

and it fractures our community

Forgotten that the majority and minority positions are still occupied by real people whom we are called to love.

For some of us feel that we have the correct understanding of scripture, doctrine, God's past, current and future actions...

While others do despicable and unorthodox even heretical things...

As Paul, in the verses just prior to our text points out...in taking that “judgemental” position, we become “stumbling blocks…” not only to others who know us...but particularly to those who don't!

The point of Rom 14: there are things worth arguing about…and some that aren’t

The point of Rom. 14 is about the necessity of the “binding union in Christ…”

…and as Paul would add …”in the Holy Spirit”

that in the church as Paul believes it should be, we are to be bound together in a powerful, creative, history changing relationship: Christ as our head, the Holy Spirit as our motivating guide

Reflecting on Paul's point leads to an open and ecumenical set of relationships…

a building up of transformed and transformative community

an edification accomplished by attention to the essential thingss that create the community, that is conviction…(a stronger word for most of us, that its alternative translation - faith)

That we struggle with this issue of relationship today is not surprising

The history of Baptists in this area (Swansea!) could be described as the history of developing religious relationships

For we came out of a Puritan Congregational church (Newman), we gave birth to 5 other congregations...4 Baptist and one Congregational

But at the beginning, as John Myles and our earliest leaders wrote our covenant: they were keen in trying to create a situation in which essential Xn relationships could be formed and maintained...

Quote from the 1663 covenant of FBC Swansea

“Indeed further declaring that, as union in Christ is the sole ground of our communion with each other, So we are ready to accept and receive too, and hold communion with all such as by a judgement of charity we conceive to be fellow members with us in our head Christ Jesus, though differing from us in such controversial points are are not absolutely and essentially necessary to salvation.”

Dr. Brackney calls this the “ecumenical DNA” that has been passed into most Baptists by this point...but it entered here.

It entered here in order to build up and not to tear down

It entered here so that we could reclaim our heritage and escape the deadly isolation that happens when a congregation begins to think it is alone.

One of the critical issues in the first century had to do with the issue of the parousia; the return of Jesus to establish his Kingdom

Paul was telling the Romans though, part of that expected Kingdom has already arrived,

That part is what happens when the faith communities, the families of conviction, are bound together with God-power...the Holy Spirit

Paul says the Kingdom is not about eating and drinking and keeping track of the moons phases...(its not ritual observance or dietary restrictions!

It is Righteousness

Our old covenant would describe this as living in “visible Gospel relation”

That is, people would be able to tell just by observing us...that we were different

...that we lived our convictions...lived in loving relationships to each other...

Visible Gospel relationships are spirit filled and obvious...attractive...encouraging...welcoming

But pushing a little deeper: the righteousness as it was understood in the 1^st century was a little, more than a little different than the popular definition today

Righteousness was not a “one size fits all” proposition

Righteousness was the best relationship between any two people/communities...

It could and should look different for each personal relationship

What is righteousness with your mother in law, may not be righteousness with your neighbor down the street

(check out the IDB on this...)

That is why in this passage this morning Paul talks about the relationships between the majority within Xn communities who don't worry about food offered to idols or sacrificing to the new moon,

He talks about being aware of the other persons needs, of their wants, desires and feelings about you!

If this “other consciousness” is not operative, there is no righteousness

The enemy here, of course, is self righteousness, majority-thinking you are right…

…w/o regarding the other…the different thinkers, the minority, the unfamiliar neighbor, the community down stream that gets the pollution

We live in a global society, a living web of living relationships: each of which demands a conscious, conscientious and critical awareness to be described as righteousness

Baptists have shaped the discourse about religious toleration from the very beginning (Helwys => Williams) because Baptists were the minority...(ask Obadiah Holmes who was whipped on Boston Common in 1651)

In the 17^th century, the critical intellectual issue was Freedom of conscience/toleration

It allowed the minorities to speak freely their own convictions

It allowed Jews and Quakers to live without persecution

It was established in our nation by John Clarke (RI) and then instituted within our Federal constitution because of people like John Leland, James Manning and Samuel Stilllman

The righteousness of God's kingdom appeared to the minorities in the witness of the Baptists...

The kingdom that is already in place is Peace, God's shalom

Here again we need to push the popular understanding

Peace is often thought of as calm, situations without conflict

The fuller understanding includes not only the cessation of hostilities, but also a sense of healthiness of relationship

Body to body, person to person, communities to communities

God's fullest expression of shalom is when the entirety of the creation is reconciled to the Godself

When all fractures are healed, all the pollutions removed and all persons are faithful praisers of the Almighty

This is when history as we know it is fulfilled...

But as we consider our Baptist witness and the set of right relationships that we are to be responsible for

this sense of healthiness needs to come to the fore

Healthiness in mind and body...in environment and politics

I think healthiness is attractive and persuasive and powerful

...and healthiness is a visible attribute...a part of the Gospel relationships that we engender...

There is so much “sickness” social, emotional, political and existential, that a keen part of our biblical and Baptist heritage must be expressed in working toward visible healthiness

And last but not least a part of the kingdom that is already available to us is Joy

And again, joy is a word we can use casually... meaning “happy!”

But Paul knows that simple “happiness” takes place on the surface

real joy comes in having experienced real pain and sorrow

The early Xns knew the loss of Jesus, the frictions with the Jews, the persecution from the pagans and the squabbles between their own leaders...all of which cause pain

Joy is the understanding of the ultimate benefits of faith...of knowing that we are tied together in an eternal family, a body without end, a comforting, resourceful, and caring community that lifts the spirits to be able to challenge what ever obstacles are in the way of spreading the good news

...even if the obstacles are ourselves

...trapped by own own thinking that we have all the answers...

...we are not a dour, pessimistic overly solemn lot...joy is the very crackle of spiritual energy!

Joy is a precious commodity that should be shared generously with each other...and with those in our world that have no joy.

Nobody here, or in our other congregations this morning will argue against the need for edification!

Our congregations all need to be built up, empowered, and improved

as we seek to live into the next 350 years...actually the next year or so...we need to bring attention and energy to our relationships,

interacting ecumenically with other congregations in effective alliances,

with each other in efficient coalitions of co-workers

and advancing through amalgamated associations of Baptists

But the bottom line...as Paul this morning reminds us...

Our future, the church's future is based on the set of relationships

These are relationships of spiritual power/creativity

Which must be fully implemented with conviction

Conviction is for most of us a pretty scary word: for it connotates commitment

...and spiritual commitment is rare in our culture today

But righteousness, peace and joy all depend our our conviction and commitment to the Head of the church and to God self who was revealed in Jesus...

It is through that relationship that we commit ourselves

to the upbuilding of our several congregations

to the heritage of being Baptists

and toward the shalom community that includes all majorities, all minorities and all those whom God invites to the Kingdom through us

May 22: "The Power of Foolishness"

1 Cor. 1:18-25

¹⁸For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

²⁰Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. ²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.



Return to Corinth

Port city, booming in the first century

Pax Romana

Ideas and commerce from the east, Persia, India

The early community

Party strife: appollos, Cephas, Stephanus, Chloe…

Many opinions and theological tastes (influenced by Mystery cults etc)

Greek culture with add in’s

Corinth a bawdy town for new faith (20 years old)

Here’s the issue

Do we emphasize the death of Jesus…or the resurrection?

The enthusiastic “gnostic” knew they were saved and often spoke in tongues about it

The Greek converts tried to bring a reasonable understanding to the experience (later a big job for the church, to translate a Eastern/Jewish understanding into Hellenistic thought patterns

But Paul knew that central to the following of Jesus was the fact of the cross…(and so he felt and argued in Galatians) that we all stand before our cross and so before our resurrection w/ its benefits…

This put the choice back to service and radical critique of both society and religious establishments… (there was a reason that Paul was executed a few years later!)

So what you emphasized (death or victorious resurrection) would effect who joined up… (in a world of many religious choices//our own world?

Central to Paul’s argument: Where is the power?

First of all, for Paul, excellent Jew that he was, all the power belongs to God

…God being so powerful that we can not imagine…at all

no image, no full understanding…

we just stand in awe…of God’s power

…expressed in the utter foolishness of Jesus’ crucifixtion…!

That Jesus was so faithful, so courageous, so certain, so effective, in his obedience to God's will, that he laid down his life in utter agony…

That is what Paul wants the Corinthinan community to understand

So as we contemplate: post easter power

Let us try to imagine what Paul (and the others) could say and do to make people join the community….

When the choice is Roman/Greek Gods, Mithra, Cult of the Emporer, Zorastrian Dualism, Isis, and various temples that offer prostitution….

…where is the power?

Let us imagine what a powerful message we would have to have

To make people joyful about coming every Sunday…teaching Sunday school, singing in the choir, helping out at the meal site, mentoring young people,

Here’s the message:

We don’t offer reasonable sophistication

We are short on convincing demonstrations…

…we depend on a faith that says: God’s foolishness is more power than our most brilliant wisdom

The power that we have is the same power that we experienced when Jesus was on the cross.

That power that lept from the cross and gathering us in community…

Where is that power now…?

Let me suggest that we reclaim the power of foolishness

Yes, it is foolish to follow a teacher that gets himself killed

Yes, it is foolish to give yourself over to your enemies

Yes, it is foolish to side with the marginalized and defective

Yes, it is foolish to trust a God that you can not see or prove

Yes, it is foolish to think that God loves all of his creation and might forgives us for the screw ups that we do

Yes, it is foolish to believe that the creator God is still creating us and our world and our future as we experience the very power of God-foolish self sacrificial sharing

Paul was clear as he pointed out…

While reason and philosophy have their place…they are inadequate to fully understand God

While religious ritual and spiritual excitement has its function…they do not reveal God in Godfullness

Paul reminded us: to see God fully revealed one must gaze upon the crucified Jesus, realizing that this human, unique and loving as he was, displayed the reality of God for us all, then and now

That God’s victory was in human faithfulness

…not in any demonstration of physical, political or military power

That’s God’s creative power, in the cross, disassembled, deconstructed the reasonable expectations of all human and replace them with a construct of transformative, redemptive suffering, a willingness to suffer so that the human community could progress toward Heavenly Kingdom status

In each religious Tradition, the problem of human suffering, of injustice and human conflict is addressed.

In Eastern religions often the response is to delve deeply inside…to cleanse oneself spiritually and disengage from the world.

In Xnty, the response is to engage the suffering in a way that fully discloses its existential parameter, boundaries, limits and transcend them by a willful and compassionate engagement to resolve the causes of suffering

Redemptive suffering means we give up self…for others…as a part of God’s creative presence in the world.

Redemptive suffering looks weak and foolish to a world that depends on firepower, conventional, chemical or nuclear to establish dominance

Redemptive suffering is powerful, because it creates an alternative to

War, hunger, poverty, oppression, the use of force,

…so that moral persuasion, attention to human need and collective decision making reveal the way that God has described for us

We stamp upon our coins and print upon our bills, “In God We Trust”

…but that is not true!

Our policies, foreign and domestic, trust in our wisdom, our strength, our weaponry of cruise missles, predator drones and Seal teams…

This lesson reminds us that when we depend upon our selves…we simply perpetuate the human cycle of revenge and retaliation

This policy, certainly in the short run, seem appropriate and useful: It allows us to survive, without changing our enemies

But to really “trust in God,” we would have to, like Jesus did, walk into the temple and throw out the money changers, heal people on the Sabbath and confront the hypocrisy of both state and religion

To really be able to proclaim “In God we trust” we must be able to face our own cross…and love our enemies

…as was often mentioned in the Gospel accounts.

Each and everyone of us…is freed by the demonstration of Jesus on the cross…

to participate in the power of foolishness

to allow our human vulnerabilities to become our clearest and most effective offensive tactics

…and find some place in our own world, in our own communities, to appear foolish and weak as we stand before the powers and principalities of this world and proclaim God’s sovereignty!

Any student of world history, especially Western European history, knows

that at first the church has increased its power; Constantine saw and recognized the powerful faith of early Xns that went singing hymns into the jaws of wild animals

By 800 The Roman Empire and the feudal monarchy of Charlemagne had united church and state and ruled most of Europe

But then…Xns squabbled…tore and bit each other and the power of the church eroded

After the Reformation, after the Entlightenment, worldly philosophy brought such a critique to the church that the world only saw its weakness…

Uncommitted luke warm believers mixed in with ranting enthusiasts

Contradictory doctrines and practices that were indistinguishable from the world around it.

In our current society, the church has become an institution of irrelevance because lack of meaningful engagment in the most difficult issues of our time…it is seen as weak and foolish

So this must be a time when we reclaim our calling, reclaim the power of foolishness and pick up some crosses to bear…

To reclaim the power of collective witness (being of one mind and one practice)

Work our redemptive suffering on houseing or hunger, environmental change or health care, or issues of political peace

For that to happen each of us must move beyond our comfort zone, suffer willingly, to bring time, effort, resource and human compassion to the burning issues of our time

In our towns, in our states, in our nation

Personally and congregationally involvement, engagment, risk taking, sacrificial giving and a clear message: God’s power is foolish to most, it looks like the cross upon which Jesus died

But to those of us who are called, the Christ, that is foolish crucified Jesus, is the power and wisdom of God

Such a message is counter intuitive and lacks strategic weaponry…

But a message proclaimed in our time and place (as Dr. King would say) as a non-violent, direct action, would display as clearly as humanly possible, the divine creative and redemptive power of foolishness.

If the church is to survive it is that sort of foolishness that will reclaim the respect and admiration of the 80% who no longer to worship and perhaps redeem them in the process…

Sermon Dialogue on Post Easter Power: May 29

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