Sermon, September 5, 2021
Fr. Phil Eberhart
15th Sunday after Pentecost
Series: The Marks of the
Kingdom
Part 1: POWER
I want to thank Jacob for that introduction! We thought that it has been so long, maybe
some might think I was a guest speaker!
It’s good to be back up front, and I’m sure you can tell me if its
as good for you in a few minutes!
I’ve decided to usurp this spot here for the whole month of
September! Ethel that’s good news and
bad news for you. The good news is you
don’t HAVE to preach next Sunday, the bad new is you don’t GET to preach next
Sunday!
It’s been so rare for me to speak 4 weeks in a row for the past
decade that my mind is spinning about what to do or say. But our readings this morning have given me a
starting point for a series I’m going to call “The Marks of the Kingdom of
God”.
Today is Part I – simply entitled POWER. So let’s begin.
Very often, in our Normal (American) Christian Life, as in life in
general, we have a sense of powerlessness.
Whether it be from the swirling hurricanes, hail storms, news
programs, political commentary or even our own health and life circumstances, I
think that powerlessness is often a point of frustration and even anger in our
lives.
Sometimes we’re mad at ourselves, sometimes at others, sometimes
just circumstances and that leads us to God.
If we believe as most of us do that God is all love and all powerful …
why?
The “why” question can lead us to some contemplation of our own
complicitous thoughts, attitudes and behaviors, but often our circumstances are
beyond the laying of blame.
Whose fault was it that I fell here on this stage more than a year
ago? God’s? Mine?
The Robe’s !! But God uses the
things that happen to us, if we let Him, to help us gain in character, in
patience, in love, in long-suffering, kindness, gentleness, so forth.
But in the midst of our malady, our plight, our power-less-ness,
there is an in-breaking from time to time.
An ln-breaking of the Kingdom of God – a different kind of
reality, that moves in a different direction than our circumstances.
We experience that in-breaking initially as HOPE or JOY.
It cuts through the weight of sadness or the frustration we are
caught in; it severs the cords of
sadness that surround us – the Bible talks about PEACE that “passes our
understanding!”
I’ve heard people who are struggling with health issues talk about
that PEACE that they can’t explain – that sense that GOD’S GOT THIS.
All of our readings this morning speak of this in-breaking! Listen again to the phrases…
And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released,
and he spoke plainly
Ps 146: 7 Who does
right to those who suffer wrong; * and who feeds the hungry. 8 The
Lord sets prisoners free; * the Lord gives sight to the blind. 9
The Lord helps those who have fallen; * the Lord loves the
righteous. 10 The Lord cares for the strangers in the land; he defends
the fatherless and widow; * but the way of the ungodly he makes crooked.
27 Religion
that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for
orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by
the world.
5 Then
the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
7 the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
Over and over and over, and not just in these passages, but
throughout the testimonies of God about His Kingdom and His plan of salvation,
these SIGNS are present.
Jesus pointed to them when asked by the disciples of his doubtful
cousin, John the Baptizer, about his ministry:
“Are you the One or should we look for another?”
“Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive
their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the
dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them.”
He almost repeats what I call His “job description” from Isaiah 61
and Luke 4:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free”
This morning I want you to hear that The Kingdom of God is coming
– it’s breaking in with POWER.
It’s breaking into our lives at the point of our need – whether
you need GOOD NEWS or RELEASE or RECOVERY OF SIGHT or FREEDOM FROM OPPRESSION.
These can all be both physical and spiritual realities in our
lives and in the lives of those around us.
I was struck over and over as I read these verses at the ACTION OF
GOD… and the IMMEDIACY of His answers, both in and through us.
I wonder what could happen if wherever we went, we asked the
simple question:
Is there anything I can pray for you about?
What might happen?
We’ve talked over and over and over for a decade about willingness
and availability and obedience. Here it
is.
The inbreaking of the KINGDOM OF GOD is NOW! It is available TO US… and to others THROUGH US.
It’s a breakthrough of POWER into a powerless world.
It doesn’t matter what our own circumstances are – you can ask
that question to someone setting you up for chemo! To your surgeon for hip surgery! To the PA you see, or the nurse you meet
along the way.
God wants to break into our own lives as we live them, but more
than that He wants to Break Out from our lives, into the world and the lives we
intersect with
day by day.
There is a prayer in Acts that I want to pray with and over you
this morning:
The church prayed this prayer in the face of persecution in Acts 4
but I want to pray that boldness in the face of the sense of powerlessness in our
own lives and in our culture.
Stand up if you want to get an anointing this morning of the Power
of God to be His Witnesses, with Peace, with Hope, with Love, with Healing…
Let’s pray: If you would,
open your hands and hearts to God:
Lord, open our eyes to the circumstances around
us, and open our lips granting to your servants to speak your word with
all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal,
and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy
servant Jesus.” Shake this place and fill us with the Holy Spirit that
we may speak the word of God with boldness.
Now lift one hand up to God…
Place your other hand on your heart and repeat after me…
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… (repeat)
because he has anointed me …
to bring good news to the poor…
He has sent me …
to proclaim release to the captives…
and recovery of sight to the blind…
to let the oppressed go free…
Now Lord, I receive your anointing…
And commit my way to you…
Send me as you were sent …
To seek and to save …
That which is lost.
In the Name of Jesus the Messiah…
the Prince of Peace…
Amen and Amen.
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