“Birthpangs”
Commerce Presbyterian Church
November 15, 2015
Slide: Birthpangs
Warning: this sermon is a little out there…
so I ask you put a little extra effort to staying with me if you want to follow along this morning :).
This morning’s sermon is about living with one intention: a desire to please God.
Turn to your neighbor and say: I desire to please God.
"I desire to please God. "
How many of you sitting in this room now, would have predicted the path you have taken in life that has led you to this present moment?
How many of you could have said, yes, because I made that decision to do something--
I don’t know,
go on that date--would have resulted in you being a grandmother to those people who call you grandma…
All he did was ask you on a date.
[You didn’t know years later you’d be going to a church in Commerce because you said yes! ]
For most decisions, most actions we take or actions taken by others,
I’m sure we could not have predicted where they might have led,
or what might have come as a result.
It’s kind of frightening in many ways isn’t it?
We like to think we have certain control over things, but if we think about it, we realize how little control over our lives we actually have.
Life is unpredictable.
I don’t want to say uncertain, but rather, unpredictable.
We cannot predict what our actions may lead to.
Some people call this unintended consequences.
That even when we have the best intentions when we do something, things we cannot predict will come as a result--.
Slide: The tragic events in Paris weigh heavily on hearts across the world this weekend.
We try to make sense of what has lead to such insane actions and actors.
We ask why?
Why such senseless violence?
What has stirred up such a hornets’ nest?
How do we make it stop?
There are many theories as we seek answers and explanations.
Whatever actions that are taken--no matter our best intention--will result in unintended consequences.
And it is very likely, Isis is an unintended consequence of previous acts of “intervention”-- intended for something else.
Which is why I think many of us are very cautious about the use force 14 years into the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
We pray for the victims.
We pray for our enemies--as Jesus tells disciples to do.
