We are Each Other’s Bread and Wine
no. 12

by Weldon D. Nisly
Preached at Seattle Mennonite Church
on March 16, 2003
(the week before Nisly left to join a Christian Peacemaker Team in Iraq) 

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Romans 4: 13-25; Mark 8:31-38

 

Something is wrong

I don’t usually begin with a story, but today I cannot resist.  A young pastor was nervously preparing for his first Sunday worship with his new congregation.  He checked and double-checked everything to make sure every detail was in place.  As worship began, he went to the pulpit for the call to worship.  Wouldn’t you know it?  The microphone wouldn’t work.  He began to panic and said, “Something is wrong with this microphone.”  And the people responded, “And also with you.”

Sisters and brothers, something is wrong – terribly wrong in our world.  There are those who think something is wrong with us or with me.  Why would anyone go to Iraq today?

The Apostle Paul unequivocally told the early Christians that they were called to be “fools for Christ’s sake” and that the wisdom of God exposed the foolishness of the world.  “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18).

To cut through the illusion and see what is wrong, we must as always be rooted in Scripture.  We must be biblical people — holding the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other hand.  Together, as faithfully as we know how, we live a disarmed life in a world that best knows an armed life.  That’s how foolish Christ and the cross are to the world. Continue reading ““If Any Become Followers” – Living the Disarmed Life” →