LIVING POWERFULLY

By popular request, here's a sort of summary outline of last Sunday's sermon, "Living Powerfully"

LIVING POWERFULLY . . . that's what God wants for us, his beloved children . . .
But clearly, something is wrong.
God said that the light was (and is) more powerful than the darkness, but you couldn't tell that by looking at our world. This place is a mess.

We have two key problems, I think . . .

1. We don't really know what we want
I saw the third "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie and was fascinated by Captain Jack Sparrow's special compass - it is a "magic compass" which always points to the thing one most desires. The problem is that when Jack holds it, it just spins around and around.
Often, if you or I held the compass, it would do that, too . . . so many times our lives are marked by running in circles - stressed out, panicked, breathless . . . we saw that Jesus is Lord, but do we really follow His lead, are we guided purposefully by His agenda?

2. Our second problem: We're afraid . . .
We're afraid that God will ask us to do GREAT THINGS for God, hard things.
So we try to hide in busy-ness. Subconsciously, we reason thus: If we're busy doing good things for God, how could God ask us to do great things?

On this day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came to the disciples - to set their compass on the Glory of God, to set them free from their fear. The Holy Spirit came in wind and fire, and they were TOTALLY transformed. The same disciples who had been hanging out behind locked doors "for fear of the Jews" now poured out into the streets, freely proclaiming the Gospel (the one that got Jesus killed!) to the Jews that they had been afraid of.

The disciples were free, free to LIVE POWERFULLY.

If we want to know what it's like to be free, all we have to do is to learn from someone who has been in prison . . .
Nelson Mandela spent 25 years in prison for his work in the struggle against apartheid. During long, dark days in prison, he searched his heart . . . how to stay faithful, to his God, to his calling. Eventually, he was freed and was elected President of the very country which had imprisoned him. In his Inaugural Address, Mandela spoke these words about fear - and liberation.

"Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God: Your playing small does not enrich the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone, and as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our won fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Mandela speaks to us of LIVING POWERFULLY. No matter what our challenges, no matter what our circumstances, we can be free.

Today is Pentecost . . . tomorrow is Memorial Day.
In this time when wars, the truth of the Gospel is tested, our values and beliefs and actions are tested. Will we LIVE POWERFULLY? Will we live the kind of life that liberates others? Or will we fall back, isolating ourselves by hiding away - or by lashing out in anger, frustration, fear.

The Holy Spirit is come on this day, come to US to empower US - transforming our fear to faith, our intention to action, fanning the flames of our hope into GLORY . . . that the Glory of our God will be known NOW, here in our midst.

Amen.