i don’t skate through life, david

i walk through life, in really nice shoes
~alexis

the hold scripture according to 1 Corinthians 1:10-18!

“For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, BUT to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

...The power of God. 

We could all use a bit more of that power right about now. Couldn’t we?

In fact, I doubt I’m the only one who’s on the lookout for it right about now. Am I?

And, I doubt I’m the only who feels like I’m coming up short-sighted.

The landscape is pretty barren these days; filled with nothing more than limp arguments with no power to offer peace and comfort. 

…Well, the folks at First Lutheran in Corinth thought they knew exactly where to look to find the power of God.

And I don’t need to tell you where they set their sights, either; because it was all the same old, usual suspects: popularity, fulfillment, liberty, and the like. 

In other words, easily recognizable displays of power as the world sees it… 

But, everything that looked powerful to them, didn’t actually make them any stronger. On the contrary, it actually, only left them all the more weaker…

For all their efforts to chase down power as they saw it, all the congregation had to show for it all was the conflict that was tearing them apart!

…You ever been there? I know I have. 

Those times when I thought I could see, for sure, just what I needed to put my life in order. Only, it turned out to be nothing more than an illusion.

We’ve all been there, those dead-ends that looked so promising at the start.

…Nearly twelve years ago a series premiered that explored this all too common experience in all its tragedy; Breaking Bad.

The show’s about Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who, after more than a few bad breaks, turns to manufacturing drugs to try and secure his family’s future wellbeing.

As you can imagine, with a plan like that, his vision doesn’t pan out the way he imagines. 

In the end, his plan becomes a jail cell. At a certain point it’s clear to him and the viewers that the best he can do is try and play out his hand for as long as possible. Try and make as much money before the clock runs out.

And with an admirable determination, that’s exactly what Walter does. 

But in the end, all his plan has the power to do is wreak havoc on the lives of the loved ones he set out to provide for…

It’s ironic, yes. But it’s nothing new. Is it?

Sure, we may not go to such extreme lengths, but we can all relate. Those routes that looked so promising, but only left us worse for the wear.

In fact, as the show aired, that’s what rocked many the critics, just how relatable Walter was. How he made decisions we could understand, and even justify. 

Sure, his methods may have been extreme, but his logic was sound…

While that may have been shocking for pearl-clutching critics, anyone who’s ever set foot in here for a service for more than 15 minutes has had all that preciousness about our motives and our logic washed away right at the start, when we confess we’re sinners.

Sinners. That’s all the problem is, and failing to see that is fatal…

The fact is, sin has damaged our sight. And what’s more, what God has done in the cross is so stunning, you cannot look upon it with your own unaided eyes!

In fact, you can only hear your way into it. Or, failing that, fail you way into it… 

Honestly, I don’t recommend Breaking Bad. Especially right now. But even in the best circumstances this show couldn’t hold Amanda and my interest. It just got to be too predictable. The same old story of the world without the cross. The world without redemption. 

And we all know that story all too well. Don’t we? It’s an old, tired story

…Why, it’s the same old tune Paul’s problem-child of a congregation in Corinth won’t stop sining! The folks there seem to think all this Jesus talk is nice, but nothing that has any real impact on the life.

They’re running the rat-race like everyone else, trying to accumulate as much as possible as quickly as they can.

Paul, though, issues the clarion call announcing that when God in the flesh died on the cross, so did all those old power structures! And, trying to cling to them is tantamount to trading in an outdated currency! It’s singing the same old song, after the records been flipped!

…Now, Paul is quick to admit that what he’s saying sounds like foolishness to those dancing to that old tune, but for those of us who have been swept up into the slipstream of what God has done in the cross, it’s nothing less than the earth-shattering power! 

Blessedly, nearly five years ago a series premiered that examined this unexpected paradox for all its wonder. It’s a Canadian comedy whose first name I shouldn’t say in a sermon, but whose second name is “Creek,” and we’ll just call the show “S-Creek.”

The series is about the formerly wealthy, powerful and influential Rose family. Right at the start of the series their lives are upended when it turns out they’ve been defrauded by their business manager. 

As all their assets are seized, they’re forced to relocate to a podunk town in the middle of nowheresville that the patriarch of the family had bought his son as a gag. 

Now, that setup itself is a recipe for more than enough humor. But, unlike Breaking Bad, this is show a show with heart. It knows something of the kind of power that’s reveled in powerlessness. Kind of programming that isn’t easy to find.

In opposition to most cringe-TV, which S-Creek trades in, it allows camera hang around after everyone wants to move on. And allowing the camera to show what happens after we turn our faces, we see a power born from helplessness and even humiliation. 

The kind of power Paul would call the power of God!

Deprived of their former belongings, up the creek without a paddle, the Rose family finds their lives washed up. And then, washed into! 

Washed into a life they could have never imagined for themselves! One that’s more beautiful and meaningful than they could have ever envisioned before their apparent disaster.

You can only hear your way into this life. Or, failing that, fail you way into it/

The thing about this life the Rose’s have found is, they found it in the last place they ever through to look!

There’s so many touching scenes where the way this life comes to them isn’t through any sort of recognizable power, but rather through the disgrace and weakness that’s foisted upon them. 

And, the further up the creek they get, the more wonderful the life they’ve been washed into turns out to be! 

…In many ways, S-Creek is Breaking Bad in reverse. What undoes Walter’s life isn’t his bad breaks, it’s the way he goes about trying to mend them. The way what looks like power to him, fails wholeheartedly every time. 

The Rose’s, on the other hand, don’t have any means to try and paddle their lives back into a better situation. Even the power they have their sights so desperately set upon at the beginning of the series, are comically out of reach to them! 

As they get swept up further and further into what looks like to all the world like one loss after another, they find a truer, purer more beautiful life!

And it’s no different for us who have been washed into Jesus and apparent defeat!

For Walter White and the Corinthians, what looked reasonable, is actually foolishness in light of what God has done on the cross! 

And, for the Rose’s and those who are being saved, what looked like weakness and helplessness has turned out to be nothing less than God’s upside-down power! 

This is how God’s power looks EVERY time! Upside-down! Powerless!

In Jesus Christ we get as much of a glimpse of it as we can bear see. And what do we see there? 

Him giving up his life. Laying it down. Dying helplessly on the cross for all the world to see.

But, hidden in that apparent foolishness, in that weakness, is nothing less than the power of God! The power of God to save! The power of God for eternal life! The power of God of salvation!

…Perhaps you’ve seen some of the cross-shaped power at work lately. 

I think we all have. That’s been one of the surprising things about this strange moment in history; the way all those who think they’ll boldly take a stand look weak, pathetic, and even sad. And, the way hunkering down, doing nothing more than nothing at all, reveals this sort of power you could never SEE otherwise!

Beloved, that’s nothing less than the power of God in our lives! God isn’t too powerful or too good to show up in our little corner of the world!

This power of God looks like powerlessness. It’s perfected in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9)! And that’s what makes it God’s power. Not ours!

…If you feel like you’re up the creek without a paddle, like you’re all washed up, that means you’re in the slipstream of Amazing Grace that’s leading you home!

In your baptism you life was submerged in these waters of grace. 

Now your life flows along on in its currents, out of your hands! These waters are no mere creek. They’re a river of amazing grace is mightier than our Mississippi, even! 

And as you get caught up in its current, the most powerful thing you can do is go limp, helpless. Get swept up in these waters. Let them wash over you.

…It’s a frightening prospect, I know. But as the witness of countless saints before us attest, as shows like S-Creek portray, as scripture declares it’s the best thing that could ever happen, nothing less than the power of God at work!

So, to prepare ourselves, let us tune our hearts to sing of this flood of Amazing Grace God has unleashed at the cross!