Jesus reveals that God is a God of abundance who will lovingly provide plenty for all, but the common perception of scarcity easily corrupts us and leads to treachery and abuse.
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
Sermons on Power (Page 2)
Jesus’s unique priesthood ensures that he is able to help us, and his solidarity with us in suffering ensures that he will help us.
Christ uses his power to lift up others, but we are prone to misuse power to exalt ourselves.
We seek to live and practice non-violence as the only way to overcome injustice, persecution, tyranny and violence and build cultures of peace.
To name Christ as King is to identify ourselves as dissenters to the claims of any other authority.
God will do great things with us, but will not impose them on us, so we have to relinquish control before God brings about the growth we crave.
We are given gifts from God – faith, love and hope – to help us cope with all that is less than God – especially when ‘principalities and powers’ overwhelm us.
Any political wisdom which has lost touch with the values revealed to us in the character of God is on the road to disaster. It is not wisdom at all; it is just the mouthings of wealth and power.
The hope that empowers us to maintain our counter-cultural obedience to Christ, is that the One who will eventually rule over all is the One who offers himself as a suffering servant of all.
Authority in the Christian community derives not from worldly status or popularity contests, but from a humble willingness to imitate Christ in his devotion to God and his service of others.
At the deepest level of our need, we are called to rest in the love and righteousness of God, which can never be forced.
The wound of abandonment which haunts every human being will find its healing in Christ who is everywhere present as the authority and power of God.
When we call Jesus King, we may not know what we’re saying.
The forces seeking to destroy any chance of real Christian living are formidable, but so are the weapons God gives us.
In a world where both monarchy and presidential democracy have lost touch with the needs of the people, Christ shows a Kingship that is expressed in solidarity with our suffering and raises us to royal dignity.
Love for enemies is a response to God’s love for us, but in cases of huge hurt it is a community issue.