Gleanings from the Daily Office – Blah, Blah, Blah

GLEANINGS (from the Daily Office) – Blah, Blah, Blah – Year One, Proper 20, Monday, September 21, 2015, 1 Corinthians 4:8-21

“For the Kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.”

One has to wonder on occasion if the church has not come to believe it “consist in talk.” Let’s issue a statement here. Let’s present a “sermon” there. Let’s assemble yet again and see if we can move forward together.

The Kingdom is about power. We have two words, salvation and sanctification. Both begin with God and are achieved through His power. Salvation is a mediator bridging a chasm no human can touch. Sanctification is an agent bringing about a “likeness” which mortals can scarcely imagine much less achieve.

Those words alone might even drive us to despair when we recognize they establish the bar by which we are measured and highlight the absence of power in us to reach it. But there is Power to reach the bar. God does act to bridge the gap. God does act to transform us into the likeness of His son. Our message is inspiring in that it points to power to bring about the unimaginable. We don’t have to settle for low living and little fruit. God has the power to bring about in us what he hopes and expects of us.

–Frodo: “I wish none of this had happened.” Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”–