Working with our nothing

The texts for Sunday, March 4, 2012: Genesis 17:1–7, 15–16; Psalm 22:23–31; Romans 4:13–25; Mark 8:31–38.

… How often in the church do we look for ways that we can be better?

Better outreach programs
Better ministry programs
Better web presence
Better use of technology
Better teaching programs and classes

And yet, we forget that God doesn’t work with what we have, but with what we don’t have.

God doesn’t work with “we can do this.”
God works with “God can do this.”

And that is exactly what God will work with:

When we come to the end—our end.
When we lay down our selves
When we let go of “me” and “mine”
When we take up the cross in service to others, in death to ourselves, in trust in God’s abundant life rather than our own,

God will take the ruins of our lives,
the broken pieces we’ve finally let fall
the end of all we were:

God will take the dust
And it will rise … and bow down in awe
at the God who calls the dead to life and the things that aren’t as if they already are. Amen.

(The sermon I was going to preach got recorded too, you can listen to it here:  Taking Up Your Cross)