Paradox, another visit

So last week we talked about mystery and this week we are talking about paradox. As I mentioned in at least one of the sermons, this is not a course on how to think. Although, if we all end up thinking better than we did before I’ll call that a double win.

Being a follower of Jesus means you are moving into a kind of paradox; the whole thing is based on what we might consider a paradox. The paradox of the Gospel is that God is most fully and finally revealed in the incarnation, death and resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus. God’s power is made manifest in Christ’s voluntary relinquishment of power.

That last sentence makes little or no sense to anyone assessing power from the world’s perspective, and that’s okay; it doesn’t always make sense from the church’s perspective either. One of the things it does it reminds us that being (apparently) small and weak as a community of believers, a congregation, a local church, has NOTHING to do with whether or not you are successful as a church. The mania for untrammeled growth in churches or economies or political power is just that a mania. In the biological world the term for untrammeled growth is cancer. I hasten to add that being large is not bad in and of itself, but it isn’t good either.

I hope you find something useful in these words. If you wish to chat about it in the comments I would be delighted to join you.

“Paradox” Knox Presbyterian (to download, right click and select “Save Link As . . .”)