[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #560, Pentecost 2, 6/10/07

[rmcgregoralbq at aol.com]

Pentecost 2 -- June 10, 2007

1 Kings 17:8-24
Psalm 146
Galatians 1:11-24
Luke 7:11-17

LIGHT UP AND LIVE

“God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) 
Therefore the presence of God lights up life. Jesus lit up the life of 
the widow from Nain – to say nothing of the life of her son. The crowd 
lights up in response. Glorifying God is turning your light in God’s 
direction. Paul recounts how God lit up his life and how the churches 
of Judea turned their light toward God in response to his conversion. 
Another widow lights up when Elijah revives her son, and she reflects 
that light toward God. The Psalmist lights up thinking about who God is 
and what God does.

Light and power are both in play here. The power of God enlightens 
those who receive it and witness it. The widow in Zarephath knows that 
Elijah is the real thing. The crowd around the widow of Nain knows they 
are in the presence of a great prophet or something. Paul knows that he 
is an apostle by divine authority, and the churches in Judea know that 
God is turning the enemy into an ally. In three hundred years, God will 
turn a whole empire of enemies into allies of sorts.

What do you know? You know you worship the living God when that God 
surprises you. Idols never surprise us because they are projections of 
us. God surprised Paul and the widows. It is surprising in the world 
that God sets the prisoners free, opens the eyes of the blind, lifts up 
those who are bowed down, loves the righteous, watches over the 
strangers and upholds the orphan and the widow. That is not the God of 
human projection.

This God is a surprise to a nation that leads the world in the number 
of prisoners it holds -- a surprise to a country teaming with 
single-parent type widows, strangers from across the border and 
children orphaned by poverty. The compassion your church shows to these 
is surprising to the world and sheds light on the living God.

So where’s the light? Where’s the power? Where’s the surprise 
appearance of God? Where’s the glory and those glorifying? Will it be 
in your message this week? “This word about him spread throughout Judea 
and all the surrounding country.”


May these thoughts strengthen you.

An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor
(an e-mail service)

[See Web Page address below for a Children’s Message coordinated with 
these lections.]

http://www.webspawner.com/users/ChildPage/

Multiple Sermon Starter Essays are available at
http://www.webspawner.com/users/McGregorPage/

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  --Copyright 2007, Roland McGregor, all rights reserved—
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