New Year's Eve Meditation--Isaiah 43:18-21

Several of you must have heard of this passage that “God says He will do a new thing. But what exactly is it that Isaiah is talking about? Remember that Isaiah very accurately prophesied of the Babylonian captivity to come. He gives the reasons, the indictments for which God is bringing the captivity as judgment.

What is the new thing that God will do? It’s a prophetic statement about the re-gathering together of Israel. Please don’t misunderstand the text, which was written with a direct application to the Jewish people. What is the principle we learn from it today? It gives us great insight into the character and heart of God. I believe we can learn some great lessons from God’s Word to Israel as we approach a new year…

I. We must forget that which is behind us. (v. 18)

God says that if we’re to move forward with the confidence of God, there are some things we need to completely forget but there are always things we must remember as well. Let’s sort it out.

A. What to carry.

1. The Word of God.
2. The work of God among His people.
3. The positive responses of God’s people.

2 Thess. 2:15 – “Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.”

B. What to bury.

1. The sins of our past.

Ps. 103:12 – “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”

2. The suffering of our past.

Here are two important questions for some self-evaluation as you start your new year:
1.) What do I need to bury from my past? What will hinder me from living for Jesus in ’10?
2.) What is something God has given me in 2009 that I need to carry with me?

II. We must face that which is before us. (vs. 19-20)

One of the most prominent ways we often face the new year is with fear and intimidation. We’re afraid of change, of the unknown, of the uncertainties of life. But God always gives us reason to “fear not.”

A. When we are lost, He has a map for us.

B. When we are thirsty, He has a river for us.

C. When we are afraid, He has a Word for us.

What are you facing in 2009 that you need to pray about today? What do you believe God is going to lead you to do this year that you need to be ready for?

III. We must foresee that which is beyond us. (v. 21)

Notice something about this statement. God makes it through a prophet to a people who are being very rebellious. Isaiah’s message has been one of judgment because the people are backslidden. But here God looks at His people and says, “They will show forth my praises.” God looks at Israel and He sees what they can become.

We can look forward to the ways in which God might use us this year if we are fully surrendered to His will. We can also look forward to the great worship service in the sky when all of God’s people will be gathered together.

Philip. 2:10-11 – “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Are you looking forward to 2010? If Jesus is in charge, then you can anticipate God being active in your life this year. What are you praying for God to do in your life this year? What kind of growth do you want to see?

Resolutions are faulty only because they are uttered by such weak lips. In reality, it’s good to make commitments to God periodically. Jonathan Edwards made some great resolutions at a very early age and one was to meditate more upon his own impending death. Another was to always be doing what he would want to be doing if he knew Jesus was going to come in the next hour.

What if Jesus came today? Are you prepared for His coming?

Christmas Eve Meditation

Christmas Eve at last, a night on which memories are made. A night so full of memories that it's hard to keep your head clear, so full are they of nostalgia and expectation. There is magic and wonder in the air, even for us who are well past magic and wonder.

What is it about Christmas that can fill our hearts again with wonder and childlike expectation, we who are old for such things, and yet feel it nonetheless? It's not the buildup, really. It's not the special offers or deep discounts in the stores.

It's not all the folks crowded into the malls so dense you can hardly walk down the wide aisles without bumping into someone. And it's definitely not the mad rush for parking places, the circling, circling, circling of the lot only to get outdone by the one car that pulls in ahead of you when the guy backing out blocks your way in.

None of those things evokes Christmas for us. It's more the traditional things that do it. The houses dressed with lights. Santa's helpers on the corner ringing their bells for the Salvation Army. Carols sung in church. Putting up the tree and hanging the ornaments, each one a memory in itself.

I suppose what evokes Christmas most in our memories is the idea of going home, going back to some special place in our minds and hearts where Christmas is centered.

A place in our lives with dimensions and walls furnished in a specific way and inhabited with specific people. It's a place where we belong, which is to say that it belongs to us, where we feel safe and good even though things at any given time there may not really have been all that good, and yet they were.

Wherever home is on Christmas Eve, that place where we go in our heart, it is no doubt a composite, a place of reunion and peace and joy that is the fulfillment of a hope and expectation of a lifetime to find the home again that lives inside of each of us in spite of the disappointments and heartbreaks we have known.

Tonight we know precisely where that home is, don't we? Our home is in a manger far away from here, where a long time ago a worried father, a just and righteous man who wished to do the right thing by his engaged, made his way along with his expectant wife, into the city of David which is called Bethlehem.

There in the lowliness of a stable amid the wondering eyes of some sheep and perhaps a donkey, a child was born. The mother, barely more than a child herself, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, this boy, her firstborn, and laid him in a feeding trough, nestling him in the hay.

And as she lays him down for the rest he will need to grow strong and brave, this Christ child, we rest as well. For there in that place which is our spiritual home all the hopes and fears of all the years are met in him tonight.

That is the place where we long to go, to the heart of all our homes and the center of all our hearts. That place where we may run with shepherds and kneel with kings and lay down the burdens of our lives with all the treasures we have brought him, with no treasure being more valuable to him than simply the treasure that we are, just the way we are; don't change a thing. For he welcomes us "as we are", and all the rest he makes right - he makes whole - simply by our being there, by worshiping him, by being so close to someone so good.

At last we know why we have come tonight, because it wouldn't be Christmas without being here. We needed to come home, to be with our family, the people of God, poor broken lot that we are, to be with Mom and Dad, with our children and grandchildren, with our brothers and sisters and our goofy uncles and corny cousins, with the tax collectors and prostitutes, the Pharisees and hypocrites, the skeptical, the bored, and the baptized. God's own.

This is that place where we have longed to be. That place of reunion and peace and joy, where the glow of human love meets the warmth of heavenly compassion. Amen

Come sit by the fire and warm your hands. Have something to eat and take a cup of cheer. What a sight for sore eyes you are. You've been expected! Welcome home. And Merry Christmas to all. Amen

“What Then Should We Do?”—Luke 3:7-18

Opportunity comes with so many different faces that we often don't recognize it. That's probably why we sometimes miss its call. A previous generation said that opportunity comes dressed in overalls. And they were largely right, for nothing succeeds like hard work. Our generation thinks that opportunity comes with a college diploma. It may, but there's no guarantee.

The divine opportunity comes in what is, to our human eyes, the most unlikely garb of all. It's no wonder we don't recognize it; or that, recognizing it, we resist it. This Advent season is an especially good time to experience the divine opportunity. Any time is God's season; but because you and I find certain settings and circumstances especially hospitable to religious experience, Advent and Lent are particularly attractive.

The first Advent preacher, John the Baptizer, offered opportunity in a compelling, almost ferocious way. When you read his words, you don't think he's offering opportunity; I expect that if we had heard him in person, we would have been even more doubtful. William Barclay said that John's message "was not good news; it was news of terror" (The Gospel of Luke, Westminster John Knox Press, p. 28). I understand what Professor Barclay was saying, but I see it differently. It seems to me that good news must sometimes come dressed in rough clothing.

That was surely the nature of John's approach. When we read the brief gospel summaries of his messages, we wonder why people went to so much trouble to hear him. Were they masochists courting abuse, or did they perhaps hope to hear him thunder against the sins of their neighbors?

One way or another, the crowds flocked to him. And largely, I think, because they felt, in the integrity of his message, an opportunity which they had sought for a long time. His was a message of judgment; but in the judgment was opportunity. And opportunity was wrapped up in the word repent.

People say John the Baptist may have had an effect on people not unlike that of the famous Green Bay Football Coach.

Vince Lombardi. One of his former players said that when you were summoned to Coach Lombardi’s office and he told you to sit down, you didn’t even bother to look for a chair. You just sat right where you were. His players were absolutely intimidated in his presence. And these were fully grown, huge, muscular, adult men!” End quote.

To be sure, John the Baptist is pictured by the Gospels as an intimidating figure. Aside from his rugged appearance and even more rugged diet, his preaching style was anything but gentle. Could you imagine me, stepping into this pulpit, week after week, and screaming out insults at you. “You brood of vipers…you poisonous snakes. Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Listen to me. The ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

Somehow, I can’t imagine myself doing that. And if I did, I can’t imagine that our worship attendance would improve significantly. We United Methodists are a little too refined to appreciate such rugged, blatant talk, especially when it is aimed at us. And yet, the Gospels tell us that crowds came out to hear John preach, and to be baptized by him. And they weren’t only the people of Israel who flocked to hear John. As our lesson indicates, there were even some Roman soldiers among the crowd.

So why is it that the people traveled out of the cities and towns to hear John preach and to be baptized in the muddy Jordan? One of the reasons that Dr. Campbell suggests, [Ibid.] “is that John was no respecter of persons. He treated everyone alike – rich or poor, young or old, titled or untitled. The Baptist apparently paid no special deference to privilege or influence. We all like to see that in leaders…” End quote.

Well, that is certainly true. John showed no partiality to anyone in his call to repentance, including Herod, whom John had rebuked because of his relationship with Herodias, his brother’s wife. Of course, that was one time that John should have kept his mouth zipped, because Herod had John imprisoned, and Herodias later had him killed. But John spoke the truth, even when it was not politically correct – even when the truth cost him his life. And that is an admirable trait.

But I doubt that John’s integrity was the sole reason that the people came out by the thousands to hear him preach. John not only spoke the truth without partiality, his message, as rough and direct as it was, proclaimed the Gospel. John was calling people to prepare themselves, to repent of their sins, to open their hearts to the will of God, because God’s Messiah, who would usher in God’s kingdom, would soon be revealed.

That is the significance of the last verse of our text for this morning, which reads, “So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.” Yes, John spoke with harsh words, calling a spade a spade, in order that he might motivate the people to prepare for what God was about to accomplish through Jesus the Christ.

John’s message had a tone of urgency about it, to be sure. He wanted those who heard him to not delay, to turn away from those things that they knew hindered their relationship with God – because God was about to accomplish their salvation. John calls us to repent because we are about to behold the grace of God in Jesus the Christ.

And unlike Vince Lombardi, whose players were so intimidated, simply by being in his presence that they would sit on the floor at his command John humbles himself before the people. As they were questioning about whether John might be the Messiah, he stated, “I am not even worthy to untie the thong of his sandals.

I am certainly not one who preaches in the style of John the Baptist, but I do believe that if we want to take this text seriously during this Advent season, we need to realize that we are not just preparing to celebrate the birth of Christ. As important as God’s incarnation is to the faith of the Christian church, John’s message is not about a baby born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger.

His message is about opening our hearts and minds to the fact that in the person of Jesus the Christ, God has come among us, and invites us to become members of his kingdom. It is an awesome message that John proclaims – a message that states that God is acting to redeem us from sin and to restore us to a new life in relationship with God.

This is the Good News that the people came out to hear John proclaim. This is the Good News that we proclaim today, centuries later. And yes, it is a message that calls upon us to be honest with ourselves, to take a good look at how we live our lives, in the hope that we might repent of our sins, in order to embrace God’s kingdom with integrity.

For although we are in the midst of preparing to celebrate Christmas, and the amazement of the incarnation, John reminds us that the true glory of God is not just revealed in our Lord’s birth, but in Christ’s faithfulness to his Father’s will. John call us, as he did the people of his day, to open our hearts and prepare to receive God’s presence among us, in the person of his Son.

For it is through Christ’s faithfulness to God’s will, that he endured the pain of the cross, and died, that the forgiveness for our repentant sins, which John preached at the muddy Jordan, might be accomplished. So let us not take this call of the Baptist lightly. For it is as timely a message that any of us might hear. And don’t be offended by the fact that we are all called a brood of vipers, for that is what we are. We are all in need of God’s grace, in order to redeem us from our sins.

Thanks be to God, for the truth of John the Baptist, who calls us to prepare for God’s kingdom. Amen.

Promises, Promises--Jeremiah 33:14-16

I am really looking forward to Christmas. I saw the Christmas items in the store during the latter part of Black Friday so I am really looking forward to it. This kind of anticipation and excitement has been instilled in me every year. But this year, with a nine year old and a five year old really coming to look forward to it themselves, it is more exciting than ever, and I can’t wait.

Advent is our time in the church year when we look forward. Advent is a season of the year when we focus on the future nature of the Promised Land, of life in the full presence of God. This is the time of year when we look at the Promises of God that are not yet fulfilled. We focus on them, and we get excited about them.

What I would like to do this morning is to take a quick look at the promises we live our lives by. Just, very quickly have us examine our own lives, see what promises that we hold onto, for better or for worse.

“Dr. Jerome Frank at Johns Hopkins talks about our "assumptive world." What he means is that all of us make assumptions about life about God, about ourselves, about others, about the way things are. [I would say that these are the promises we hold onto in our lives.] He argues that when our assumptions are true to reality, we live relatively happy, well-adjusted lives. But when our assumptions are distant from reality, we become confused and angry and disillusioned” (Haddon Robinson, "How Does God Keep His Promises?," Preaching Today, Tape No. 130). Nothing is more destructive than hoping in failed promises. Everybody knows what that is like, and how much it hurts. But we have to believe something.

I remember a few years ago. I was coming home from Bible study when I accidentally dented Joy's car. Feeling guilty about the whole thing I tried to find a way to fix it myself (like a real man). As I was watching my late night program I came across a Ding King commercial by Billy Mays on television. So the next day, full of hope, I went to a local Target store and purchased a Ding King kit. When I got home i took the kit out and followed the instructions. It didn't take long for me to realize the product is not going deliver what it promised. Words can't describe how disappointed I was. Another broken promise!

So our world is full of promises, promises of things that will give meaning and purpose and value to your life. Promises that you don’t have to feel what you’re feeling. Promises that everything is going to be all right. Promises that tomorrow is going to be a better day. Promises that you’re better than that, that you’re pretty and strong and smart and loved and liked. And we live our lives by these promises. And how well we pick these promises is how good our lives are.

I have to tell you, there are a lot of people having a very hard time. I struggle with so many people day to day who are putting their hopes in promises that are deceiving, self-serving, and simply false. When I was in Iowa, I have met people struggling to get by. I got to know them fairly well. Three or four times while I was there, they put their financial hopes in pyramid schemes. A lot of promises were made to them about how they could make a lot of money. All of it was false, and they got in deeper and deeper. It was hard to watch. They learned the hard way what promises to hold onto. Many lives are deeply scared or destroyed before that.

Church, Advent, our relationship with God, is all about promises. Our faith is about the promise of the salvation of our souls from sin and death, and our deliverance to a new promised land – the Kingdom of God! That is an incredible, huge, glorious promise for each one of us. And as we begin advent, it is right that we remember again just how huge and glorious that promise is. That is what we will be celebrating this Christmas, is the fulfillment of the promises of God.

It has become a Christian cliché, and therefore in danger of losing its meaning, to say that “Jesus is the reason of the season,” and that we must remember the “real meaning of Christmas” amidst all the hoopla. The extent to which we are relying on the real promises of God that we have great cause to celebrate, it is to that extent that we truly celebrate the meaning of Christmas.

The great D.L. Moody said, “God never made a promise that was too good to be true” (Christian History, no. 25 cited on www.preachingtoday.com). Do you know those promises, and do you trust them?

The passage in Jeremiah is written by the prophet when things looked real bad for his people. About 600 years before Jesus, they are about to be taken away from their Promised Land because for generations they have been not relying on the promise-giver, but on any other sort of promise. Everything that has given them meaning and identity, it all looks like it will be destroyed. And right then, Jeremiah, says that one will rise up – a Messiah – another David, who will restore Jerusalem to justice and righteousness. It is said that He, himself, will be our righteousness.

The situation in our lives is more confusing. Each of us is in a different place, and it is hard to lump us all together in regards to how well or how poorly we have done in choosing the promises we follow. But all of us, in the deepest needs in our lives, and, finally, in everything, have only one final source of promises that will be wholly, completely, true, reliable, forgiving, freeing, meaningful, real, and everything that we need.

A man is coming at Christmas, at the end of the world, that is going to make everything in the world right, and going to make you right as well. That is the big promise, and the one worth holding onto and celebrating above all others.

“Professional golfer Paul Azinger was diagnosed with cancer at age 33. He won a PGA championship and had ten tournament victories to his credit. He was doing well.

He wrote, "A genuine feeling of fear came over me. I could die from cancer. Then another reality hit me even harder. I’m going to die eventually anyway, whether from cancer or something else. It’s just a question of when. Everything I had accomplished in golf became meaningless to me. All I wanted to do was live."

Then he remembered something that Larry Moody, who teaches a Bible study on the tour, had said to him. "Zinger, we’re not in the land of the living going to the land of the dying. We’re in the land of the dying trying to get to the land of the living."

“Zinger” recovered from chemotherapy and returned to the PGA tour. He’s done pretty well. But that bout with cancer changed him. He wrote, "I’ve made a lot of money since I’ve been on the tour, and I’ve won a lot of tournaments, but that happiness is always temporary. The only way you will ever have true contentment is in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I’m not saying that nothing ever bothers me and I don’t have problems, but I feel like I’ve found the answer to the six-foot hole" (Robert Russell, "Resurrection Promises," Preaching Today, Tape No. 151 cited on www.preachingtoday.com).

I believe there are two of us that this message is addressed to. The first are those are devastated because you have been putting your hope in all the wrong places. If you have never known Jesus, the real promise for your life, before, I invite you now to trust him, the one real promise.

But I also think this is for those of us who have known the promise of God and get sidetracked by smaller, busy, promises of the season, of the world, even of the peripheral things of our church and our religion. This season, remember how amazing, how glorious, how deep, how much there is to celebrate from the depths of our heart in the promise of God, this little child who saved our lives forever. Don’t let anything distract your trust in that promise. Amen

A Thanksgiving to Remember

The day after Thanksgiving a number of us were at the church to produce more egg roll to sell to raise money for the youth. As we were doing our usual packaging a man came to the church wanting to talk to me. So I went out of the kitchen to meet the gentleman. It turns out the man was in need of money. He was trying to see his two boys in Santa Clarita last Thursday but just didn't have the money. That is why he came to the church. He already went to the Catholic Church across the street but all he got was Bureaucracy and impossibilities. As I was talking to him I felt his persistent faith. He reminded me of Jacob when he wrestled with God. Jacob's words were "I am not going to let you go until you bless me." In the same way the man that I met at the church was somewhat like Jacob. He is not leaving the church until we at the church bless him. At first, I told him that I only have a dollar in my wallet (which was true) and that we don't have cash at hand at the church. But the man persisted. He said to me, "don't give me that...show me a God of possibilities." And so after I laid my dollar I went back to the kitchen and told the others of this man's situation. It didn't take long before my dollar multiplied as the church members gave what they could. The man ended up having more than enough for hid bus fare and food. Before he left, the man shared his concerns and thanked us. So we prayed for him and blessed him. To this day I have never had anything like this in terms of experience. I am thankful to God that God gave us this opportunity to bless this man this Thanksgiving. We are blessed! Thanks be to God!

Not Just Any Ordinary Encounter

When I first met Pastor Lindy I never thought in my wildest dreams that I will be replacing him as pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Wilmington. It happened during the summer of 1999 at the biennial convocation of the National Association of Filipino-American United Methodists at Claremont School of Theology. I was sitting in one of those big round tables eating breakfast when all of a sudden Pastor Lindy Loresco sat right beside me. He was wearing a polo shirt, blue jeans, boots, and cowboy hat. Then I began to introduce myself. I told him who I was and that I know her sister from the Philippines--Alluida Loresco Kasiguran. After our conversation he turned to the other people around the table and began talking about retirement. Even then he really wanted to go to McCullen, Texas after he was finished with ministry. The thing that strikes me today was the fact that our encounter that morning wasn't just any random encounter...it was destiny...it was something that was meant to be...something prophetic. Three years after my meeting with Pastor Lindy, God chose me to be the next pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Wilmington replacing Pastor Lindy who pastored the church for twenty-four years. Over the years I have treasured my conversation with Pastor Lindy and his phone call to me after my return to Iowa following my meeting with then Long Beach District Superintendent Rev Dr. Osmond Lindo and members of the the Staff Pastor-Parish Relations Committee of Wilmington First United Methodist Church. Praise be to God for the life of the Rev. Melanio "Lindy" Loresco Jr.

“Playing Musical Chairs”—Mark 10:35-45

How many of us have played musical chairs? It's interesting, when children play musical chairs it looks amusing. But when you see grown men engaged in such a game it becomes disturbing as men try to get the best seat in the house.

I guess it is human nature to want to sit in the best seat in the house. At sporting events it’s the skybox seat, or the seat on the fifty-yard line or the seat directly behind home plate. These places command the best view and the highest price. They also carry the greatest bragging potential.

This desire for the best seat in the house shows up in many places. Watch people in a parking lot sometime. The best parking places are usually the ones closest to the front door.

At a concert, the best seat in the house is probably the one closest to the musicians. Maybe and even better one might be a backstage seat where you get to meet the performers.
When you have a guest to your house and invite them to sit down, don’t you give them the best seat? If one of your kids is sitting there, you ask him to move.

What do you suppose is the best seat in the church building? The back seat, of course! I know that because it’s the one that fills up first.

Diplomatic negotiating teams spend hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars and many hours getting the seating just right so that visiting dignitaries are afforded proper honor by the placement of their chairs. A slip here can mean that countries go to war.

I seem to remember two disciples of Jesus named James and John getting into this "best seat" thing when Jesus asked them in Mark 10:36-37, "What do you want Me to do for you?" And they said to Him, "Grant that we may sit in Your glory, one on Your right, and one on Your left." They wanted the best seats in the kingdom - the places of honor and prestige. It’s a natural thing for the natural man.

Jesus had some specific things to say about the best seat in the house, and it’s what I want to consider with you in this message.

You probably recognize that what Jesus is teaching here is the opposite of nearly everything we hear in the world today about success. It is not easy advice easy to take.
As I've been reading this passage, at the back of my mind I can’t help but hear the echoes of Muhammed Ali's boxing war-cry 'I am the greatest!'

And both the text and Muhammed Ali make me want to ask:
What is greatness? What is power? How do we use our greatness and our power?

I'm particularly fascinated by Jim and John Zebedee's request: 'we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.' There's an underlying sub-text here of a sense of entitlement, perhaps, in the statement they make. And more 'echoes' in my head - this time not so much Muhammed Ali - but the voices who want power or privilege or some kind of entitlement in the wider community, and in the church community. In a small, dark corner of my mind I hear the words:

'so pastor, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.' This may be found in situations of proposed change... or even proposed non-change... in the form of 'if you change the way we have communion, if you don't let the choir sing an anthem, if you have all-age services, if you don't have all-age services, if you get rid of the pews, if you keep the pews... we will stop being an elder/ leave the church/ withhold our offering/ hold the church community to ransom so that we do get our way.' And effectively continuing to hold the One who gave his life as a ransom for many ... still to ransom.

Wherever groups of people are, there will be jockeying for position and a bit of an attempt at empire building: it's what we do as humans. Created in the image of God, maybe we sometimes set ourselves up as gods because deep down we feel small and powerless and it frightens us?
Conversely, maybe we are fearful of just how powerful a thing it is to be made in the image of God - what are the implications of that, we wonder?

So, perhaps it's a little precious to be looking askance and James and John and their attempt to do what most humans do - manouevring for position. Were James and John really interested in the broader, communal picture, or was this an exercise in self-interest? No. Yes. 'What will we get out of this? How can we get more? How can we manipulate the situation to our further advantage?' Perhaps we beat them up a tad too much... and maybe we even beat ourselves up too much because we forget our humanness, forget that we are not God?

If we think of the power context my sense is that consumerism, with its cult of the individual, and the sense of 'get more toys', if I want it I should have it' - irrespective of the cost to self and others, has insidiously crept into the church. The notion of body, of community, gets chipped away under the church-hopping about from one place to another - leaving a church because, 'after all I went there, but I got nothing out of it.' Every time I hear that phrase, I'm so tempted to say: 'okay, but what did you put into it?' I suspect if I did say it, I'd be looked at as if I came from Mars... but that's another story for another time.

If I step away from a small soapbox at this point and think on the text a little more, perhaps the concluding thoughts run a little like this: we all have some kind of power - some more than others. How do we use it?

Where or on whom do we focus it - God, others, ourself?What is, and what does, power look like in the kindom of God within the godly community?

Real power is understanding that you can let it go...when you don't need it...when you know it is not your master but is rather a tool.Real power is found in the context of kenosis - a self-giving - a giving away... demonstrated in the all-powerful God becoming all-vulnerable: human as we are human.

Are we ready to drink the cup of our humanity... and conversely are we ready to drink the cup of real greatness?
Amen