Power Play

Today is Christ the King Sunday. It is a day in which we celebrate Christ’s reign as ruler of every earthly and heavenly king. It is a day in which we are reminded what kind of power God has in the world and in our lives, and how that power compares to our own experience with power.

All of us experience power from both sides. We have power over certain things, perhaps certain people. We also are under the power of other things, other people. Sometimes we think we have more power than we really do. Other times we have more power than we realize. Power, authority, control…whatever you want to call it, we are constantly engaged in struggles and relationships of power. And most of the time, we yearn for increased power. It’s in our nature as humans to feel like we have control of things.

We want our political party or our candidates to have power in government.
We want the power to choose our own healthcare provider.
We want the power to do our job the way we think it should be done and not the way our supervisor wants us to do it.
We want the power of holding the remote control in OUR hand.
We want our hands on the steering wheel of life, controlling everything that we can. The more we control, the safer we are, the more prepared we are, the less surprised we are.

But I’m always amazed by those things around us that humans have yet to master. Through scientific progress, we’ve been able to control many things that were previously untamed, uncontrollable. But there are still things that leave us absolutely helpless.

The natural world is one thing we’ve begun to have power over in a negative way. But it seems as though mother nature often fights back, and sometimes there’s not much we can do about it. Now, when Lisa and I went to Hawaii in June, we were fascinated by lava flows. What fascinated me most was that we have pretty much no control over lava flows.

Hurricanes and tornadoes we often see coming. We can predict them and hopefully get out of the way. Floods we can hold back, to an extent, with sandbags. Earthquakes, we can build structures that won’t fall down in the midst of them – or as Lisa reminds me, we can build structures that fall down in a safer way. Forest fires, we can create firebreaks for and we can battle with water. But lava flow we are completely powerless against.

You see, lava basically burns everything in its path. It is fairly unpredictable. You often don’t see it coming until it’s too late, and there’s really nothing you can do to protect yourself. And we can’t divert lava, we can’t put it out, we can’t do anything but let it go where it wants. It’s absolutely amazing to me – here is something we just have no solution for. A lava flow is something we have absolutely no control over. It will go where it wants, when it wants, and destroy what it wants, and all we can do is watch and hope to get people out of the way in time. The power of lava flow is so great that it will always have power over us.

God’s power is so great that God will always have power over us. Paul talks of God’s power in his letter to the Ephesians. He tells of God’s power at work in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ truly died, and was truly raised from the dead by God almighty. It was through God’s power that Christ ascended, or went up, into heaven, and took his seat at the right hand of God. The right hand of God – the place of honor. This is where Christ sits, this is Christ who is the king and who has all power and authority over heaven and earth. This is who we follow as Christians – the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the Ruler of all Nations, Jesus Christ the King.

And we think we’re in control. We think we’re powerful. We think nothing can control us – we have control over our own destiny. But when was the last time you raised someone from the dead? When was the last time you raised Jesus Christ from the dead? Anyone here who can put that on their resume? I know I can’t.

So I think it’s safe to say that we are less powerful than God. Sure, this is a pretty basic statement – of course God is more powerful than any of us! But how often do we really act like it? How often do we truly live our lives with this in mind? Sadly, we tend to claim that God is all-powerful on Sunday, then spend the rest of the week acting as if we are in complete control. We sing praise to God who reigns above, then go home and sing praise to ourselves as we live like no one can stop us.

We have just endured a presidential election. In it, both candidates were often viewed as potential saviors to our nation. Both candidates were worshiped by many. There were people all throughout this land who anointed one of these men as their “king.” In light of this, what better time than now is there to declare that Christ is King? To me, the temptation to view our president as the most powerful man in the free world is a temptation to declare someone other than Christ to be our King. We are tempted to give all glory, laud, and honor to thee redeemer President! But you know, we don’t sing that here. We can be excited about a new administration, but we can’t lose sight that our Savior doesn’t need us to rally around him. Thankfully, our Savior doesn’t ever need to campaign, as one pastor in our conference has reminded me. Thank God that all glory, laud, and honor is bestowed on Christ the Redeemer King, and not to any human authority.

In 2006, Broetje Orchards of Prescott, WA saw 70% of their apple crop wiped out in a freak hailstorm. The insurance company gave them a choice: they could agree to no further harvesting and take the insurance money, or they could harvest the 30% left and keep the orchard open beyond that year – but that would mean no insurance money.

Ralph and Cheryl Broetje, the owners, decided to go on faith and keep it open. Had they closed down their orchard, they would have put several hundred year-round workers out of work, as well as hundreds more seasonal employees. Broetje Orchards shutting down would severely affect the area, as so many families depended on the orchard for a living. Well, the Broetjes refused the insurance money and kept it open because the faith they had in Christ’s power in their life was greater than any faith in a traditional business model that would suggest shutting down as the best option. In doing so, they allowed the power of Jesus Christ to work through them rather than trying to gain as much power as they could.

But it seems as though the Broetje’s have always run their orchard in this way. Cheryl Broetje says, “The power model is: How can I keep a little more power for me? But once you can get past that, it becomes: What can I be for others? How can I lift them up? What do they need, and how can I serve them?”

Thank God that we have people who are willing to let go and let God. Thank God that we have the Broetje Orchards, that remind us that traditional power models are about gaining more power, whereas God calls us to minimize our own power. God’s power model is to work through us, so that others can feel God’s power in their lives. Thank God that we have a Scriptural power model where we are not in complete control, because what would really happen if we were in control?

Some of you may have seen the popular movie, “Bruce Almighty” from a few years back. It tells the story of a man who became so frustrated with all the setbacks in his life that he claimed he could do better than God. So God gave him the chance to try it out. He let Bruce test drive the omnipotence car – he let Bruce have complete control over the world, as if he was God.

The next scene is Bruce waking up and enjoying his newfound power. He turns his old car into a Ferrari, parts the sea of traffic in front of him, and heads off to work where he messes around with co-workers. He walks around on water, gets revenge on people who wronged him, and he uses his powers to get his job back. Then he realizes that with his great Godly power comes the great responsibility of answering prayer. He really doesn’t want to spend all his time answering the endless amounts of prayer that keep rolling in, so he just replies “Yes” to all prayers. Well, at first it’s great because everyone gets what they want. Then, things start deteriorating. The climax of the deterioration happens when the Buffalo Sabres win the Stanley Cup and riots ensue. The story is a lesson about what would happen if humans actually had the power that God had. What would happen is we would become incredibly selfish, because the possession of power often makes us selfish. We’re not able to handle all the power that God can handle. Selfishness, revenge, destruction – this is what results when we humans get too much power.

Every once in awhile God has to remind us how limited our power is. Most people at this point know who Keifer Sutherland is. Sutherland is the actor who plays Jack Bauer on the hit TV show “24.” Over the summer, Sutherland went to an Apple store and tried to get himself an iPhone before their first release date. I guess he figured that his celebrity status gave him the power to obtain something no one else had. He could use his power to get an iPhone before the release. However, the Apple employees quickly made Sutherland aware that he wasn’t as powerful as he thought he was. After pulling the “Don’t you know who I am?” speech on the employees, they responded by saying, “Yes, we know who you are, and we don’t care. We don’t have any in stock, and we can’t get you one before the release.” As the Rolling Stones would say, “You can’t always get what you want”: even if you’re the most famous star on television. I’m willing to bet that it was a humbling experience for Sutherland when he realized that his celebrity status gave him some power, but that power was still limited in scope.

When we are reminded that we are not as powerful as we think we are, it leads us to humility. Powerlessness is humbling, because we are forced to rely on the powers above us for everything. Powerlessness frees us for joyful obedience of God. It allows us to enter into a spirit of servanthood toward the one who made us, and servanthood toward our neighbors. Our powerlessness gives God a chance to show how much he loves us, by using that power in selfless ways. While Bruce Almighty uses power to benefit himself, God uses power to benefit humanity. God uses power in love.

In a world full of power plays, a world in which he who has the power survives, it is often a scary thing to humble ourselves in service to God Almighty. We remind ourselves this morning that God’s power is at work in the world and in our lives, and we sing praises to that power. We are reminded that God’s power has anointed Christ as King! But do we really live as if Christ is our King? Do we really allow Christ to rule over our lives? Do we really know what it is like to be powerless in the presence of our Lord Almighty? Are we ready to accept Christ’s reign? Thank God Almighty that we are ruled by Jesus Christ our Savior and King. Amen.