f

/
CRUC FX! AND POWER BETHANY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
YOHN 19:1 | LAFAYETTE, INDIANA
& CORINTHIANS 1:18-25 APRIL 8, 1973 JOHN M. BUCHANAN
— Nyda

On a warm August morning in 1945 the nation was stunned by the news that a lone

bomber had totally and utterly devastated a Japanese city by dropping and detonating what

was called an “atomic device". Stncesthret=day= the namep_of the game has been _power. \n

Oe el 7

a~sense-it-atways’had—beer. \ Ge the victor goes the spoi is") had motivated a long line of

SS

invading armies from Alexander the Great to the Vikings, to the divisons of Kaiser Wilhelm.

a Ee
nad g Ve aio it
The quest for power had been the driving force behind the great and grand movements of

al

history.

But ever since that August day_in 1945, power has had a new and onimous real ity.\ The
Atomic Energy Commission set it out in very plain words: \"...man now has, within the range
SE ED a

of his grasp, the means to exterminate completely the human race...to reduce the world to

ee ed

the primitive conditions of the time of Calin and Abel...to scatter to the four winds in

a matter of seconds the civilization it has taken so many centuries to put segetter® |

—e

Suddenly, the name of the game became power:| no longer how to achieve it, but having

Se

achieved it - how to exist with it \ Suddenly the problem became how to a without

EET
=

being controlled by the power we had developed in order to control others. Ge

On that score we have not done very well, nor - if would d_seem, Have we been willing
— SS

a — —e —

il learn how to do beter. We have grown accustomed to the Damocles sword of nuclear
a

annthi bay ron one Carder wo She 4 ‘the most powerful nation in the world, and _yet - ina

very real way - we have beome the victims of what we have created.

Power is subtle, colplex and above all else, essentially neutral.| Power has been
Ss ——— z ial

defined very simply as the ability to accomplish one's purposes. | And within that_defini-

tion our captivity to our own power becomes clear \ We have enough nuclear power to kill

every living thing on the face of the earth several times over\ We have so much power

+hat it is unthinkable femeven contemplate using it. \ We have riilliaecty power in the form

OC GT

of the mightiest military machine the world has ever seen. \ pd yet all that military power

could not subdue a nation,of 17 million in the jungles of S.E. Asia, unless it wag_turned

'oose, destroying entire villages - for instance - to save them from the enemy.
We have amassed industrial power and yet we cannot seem to stop inflation. | we have
ee

put together smoothly functioning potitical machinery, designed to enable society to

Eo

accomplish its goals fanvet we cannot seem to establish an equitable*tax base by which

to educate our chitdren. | ne heye plenty of power, and it keeps tutning up in the shabbiness

=e Se

and inexusable ammorality of the NTT case and the Watergate conspiracy.

—— ee
ry 12 5
; Bu} ipower, asS.e-have=boon—bhinkingeabeutebt, romains essentially neutral.| The same
ar —_—
nuclear power that can ges rey us, may one day save us from our self-made energy crisis.

Yous. Ciro Duh Coan, hewtel
lf you_have-not-yet victtes ome-Hospital's new addition, you ought to.}—That's—power :

maa SSS aa ie |

economic,.-sctentific, industrial ad_moral power-channeted—inte-healing—and compassion.

Power is not at all..negative in and of itself.

Power, on the first level, is the ability to accomplish one's purposes by external

oo =e

force. | It is to push people and materials around, for better or for worse. \ It is to build

Se a, eee

amen — 6 i, OES

a bomb or a hospital >| 14 is Adolph Hitler, when asked about the Vatican's reaction to his

anti-semitism, responding ~ ("How many divisions does the Pope have?"|

Obviously, there is a second and deeper level at which power must be discussed.

— ee

Dostoevski suggested that test of civilization is this: @ nation could be called civilized

when it began to put more emphasis on the forces that persuade than the forces that compel.

On the fifth anniversary of his death last Fae, Caso uscumantary on the life of

Sa ae ieee

Martin Luther King was shown @g@in on television. \ And among the many memorable scenes in

———=— Ey

that movie, one eloquently expressed power at this second, and deeper level. \Lines of

= —— seine

Slack people stood quietly, with immense dignity, on the steps of the court house in Selma

——"

Se

to register a
Alabama, waiting/ to vote. And through the doors came power, in the person_of Sheriff

Jinm@@herk, prodding with his tomety club, pushing, arresting, humi tating. \ But the power

of those courageous Black Americans would win that struggle and many more - even though it

could offer no coercion in answer to the Sheriff:
Sse ———.

Napoleon Bonaparte, a man who knew a little bit about power, once observed that (1

was on the side of the strongest battalions." ) But later in exile, and wiser we can assume,
ail een ee

SS

he wrote:| "alexander, Caesar, Charfemagne and myself have founded empires.

Upon force we
ee

founded them and they are gone. | Jesus Christ alone has founded His empire upon love,

and at this hour millions of men would die for Him whom they never have ey

oS

And at this point, we move from power as the ability to accomplish one's goals by

coercion, to power as persvesion.\ In this context Christian Faith maintains that the
— eS

——-

ee

symbol of power is the Cross of Jesus Christ:|not an eagle, not a brandished sword, not

a battle flag, but two rough pieces of lumber on which a man died, the victim of the power

of coercion.
Sane

Now , It's one thing to say that, but it's another thing to understand it as truth

— eee a ee Roe MEE en

and to believe it as Gospel \ Even as it was happening it was a most troublescme idea.
Pontius Pilate, in fact, couldn't jeve i Fi 3

c ouldnit believe what he was seeing and hearing \ ¥ had_ power | he
was the governor.\ The Jewish High Court could pontificate all it wanted about the capital

offense of blasphemy - but he, and he alone, had the power of life and death over the

snccenal
prisonor.|(oon's you understand, Josus?') he asked. "|_have the power here \ | can set
you free ~ or | can have you put to death."] And all Jesus would say was, ["You have no
power over _me unless it is given you from above." That is to say: |"What you think is
power - is not power at all."
Pilate couldn't understand that, and we ought to be able to forgive him for it. R

Because we don't understand it very wel| either \ The disciples themselves resisted coming ro

to grips with the fact that in Jerusalem two kinds of power vwre in mortal cont lict.| On we
a ee &

G
the one hand, the power of the religious establishment and the Legions of Rome:\on the Ua?
mi | ennai a

v
wither herd, The sower wi Jesus Gheried walking wleadl ly foie Hes Jove of death, OF *

Later, after the fact, the issue remained. \r. the world the Cross. of Jesus Christ

kepttlooking like weakness, not power:/like a humiliating defeat, not a victory.\ The a
=e SS .

are

thought of God revealing power through suffering was a stumbling block to the Jews - The

i eee eee ee

Jews who longed for the power of King pavid.\ The thought of crucifixion as a synonym for

power was foolishness to the Gentiles ~ the Gentiles who knew that the real symbol of

power was the Roman eagle. "But", wrote Paul, "Christ crucified is the power of God,"

Se
mE Pee

Who wants a God who gets himself pushed around like that? \ wr wants a God whose

only son is despised and rejected and executed? | Who wants power if the spoils turn out
eee EE,

Be SVT TS

to be a cross? |That's stil! very much the issue as—the-ehurch-trtes to-make-some-sense

ed Bae
ou-t—of_theLonten—Season.| If only God had sent a legion. of angels and prevented it from

iii T So

happening. If only God would act like a benevolent dictator, and exercises power in ways

we can see and feel and understand.\ But in six hours or so His son was as dead as anybody's
————— 8 a ce ee ee See

SSE

son would be under the circumstances. | vnc wants a God like that?
Cas

—

-4-

People ~ you and | ~- lose faith precisely because God does not and will not use

ahi ele

coercive power \ Not only to prevent a crucifixion, but to prevent all the unfair and

tragic things that continue to happen to us, (in me, god? funy did you let this happen
to ne? | Why didyou take him from ner) You've been there and so have \.\ Theoiogically, it
Leia mma | _——— ee Ce”

is the oldest dilemma tn man's recorded history.\ How do you square the existence of a gaod

| eae inn hein a

ehh,

and powerful God with the reality of ex !7\ Hox can you believe in any kind of God in the
catia Liens I

face of Auschwitz and Cancer and iittle children dying of starvation? | Personally, ft is #h
a, a Ere mantic! hae

the juggermaut that al! of us must face sooner or tater.\ How to believe in God when the
increas eee = aE
bottom falls out of titer \ Hos to believe when death seems to be the only power? the cross
ao. 7, aco Oleg

trios
Stil] stumbkes us: ]its power stiil seems unreal, a dream, a wish -
SCL, Mecca aeminde nimiarain' od om =e

God does not coerce.\ The power of Ged Is not to compel, not to force, not to intercede
Da saan a] ere o_O ETE a

aven on behalf of his own son.\ God's power Is the power of love. \ It is, and always will
Cement cea arian ad a nnn ome eee

be, the power to persuade, the powcr of the heart - and to look for it elsewhere Is to go
ny — Seal
through fife never having found it.
cece

Now, we know a little bit about the power of the heart - the power of love to persuade.

Think of it in terms of a school teacher you once had - as we al | nave | A strict discip!i-
ar PT OT, a

—,

narian - who coerced you to do certain things: \re memorize dates, to draw perfect circles;

“at t¢, to conform and to be taught - or else. \or the opposite: the teacher who al towed
See | bee areaiiad | reste TI

you to do whatever you wished, whose laxity reveated unconcern. | Those teachers did not
— GE CREECH, 7.

suISs@ me 1 I . : af : aachern : hi d in the
cause me to grow and fearn \ thas happened when a teacher cared \wisn something deep |

teacher touched something deep in me and | was persuaded to {tearn and grow and develop.

Or think of it in terms of your own arenthood.\ Parenthood can mean coercive power:

that is, the ability to insist on certain behavioral stendards \ By forme we can accomplish
ey — oO a

conformity to our witt| And yet we know that unless we convert the heart wehave faited.\ tn
important matters - such as a value system ~ nothing is more bankrupt and doomed to
eee, oT
ultimate failure, than coercieve power | (100014 do it, or cise")only delays the "doing?
erat a | ee)
until the "or else" is out of sight.\'Don't do it because | love you"\ras the creative
ce = se

pessibility of being heard and understood and adapted.
— ER, —E

God's power is his ve.\ And that love treasures our freedom:\that love choses to
— | niidremhemeaninndemninininamialiadadiieiat ad a ero,

hecome powerless and to appeal to the neert. \ coe choses not to make us love him: God
Amaia, Lined aisaiitemneiee

on Bes

choses not to force us into conformity:]God choses mt to coerce us info becoming what he
ea

wants us to ve. Love is never coercion: [rather love creates a situation in which we chose,
oe CRETE TS Se Cama

in our freedom, to be what love wants us to be.
ES

Sas
; het. .
Love - God's love - will never violate evp=-esedon.| Rather we remain free - free to
ae [SEE ee eo

resist, deny and even crucify if again and again.
Sie eae eo “ a

The cross of Jesus Christ becomes, for faith, the symbol of power as we see it as the

symbol of love. | That's what was intended on calvary - that all men should see how greatly
nee, SSS

they ars loved And at the level of our deepest need there is nothing more urgent than

that.\ We need love as we need food and dciok.| We need to be wanted and ngeded | we need

to know that we matter - that someone cares about us - that we are important to someone.

Se scneeeiileehdintiil iia aa

r AN agene7 funy oh.

People need that badly enough to call the Crisis Center - more +han a +housand a month-
[Ee Se SS

many of them just to be reminded that it does matter whether they live or die.\ People need
ath Cad | ‘ Néucl Lusk Es —_— as
that badly enough to pay a professional hundreds of dollars just to take them serfously
— See oe

for ap hour at a time\ People; need poople.\ People need the very real power of human
Ea RS AA EST

love to heal, to support, to inspire, to motivate. People need to be saved from the
See: SSE or, ESO aT

literal hell of meaninglessness and despair - by the love of someone else.

The power of the cross, \the saving power of the cross of Jesus Christ is just this:
ET Lee)

if says we are loved: It reveals the very heart of God as the heart of a loving father.
mS EP ST ee aera)

It makes very clear the nature of our God to stand with us even when everyone else has
Sama, as SSS

fled. \ It gives us the picture of a God whose power is precisely in his refusal to violate
=e ria SS

our freedom; a God who wept as his own son died, and whose love can bind up our wounds as
eee te ee Fe alt

we arieve.\ The power of the cross is a love that does not let us go, but that walks with
a aes

Ceili [e,
us even jn our Own death. | is the power of God's very presence with us. ove
Ernest Hemingway concluded “For Whom the Bells Toll" with a vepy powerful scene.
Robert Jordan has tied fatally wounded and the woman to Novem, Maria, wants to die with
him. \ Jordan tells her she must go on_and live, and the words /he uses suggest the essence

i

of the crucifixion and the sey real power of the cross.

"Now you will go for both of us," he said.| "ou must do your duty _now...Now you are

going well and fast/and far and We both go in thee..\ Not me, but us porn| The me in thee.

Now you go for us both. \Traty. | We Ssoth go tn thee ndw. \This | have promised thee."
Se ‘ eT SESE ee ,

aks

SS ee i ee

She started to turn around. |"Don't+ look around'"Robert Jordan seid| "Go." | And Pablo

\
hit the horse with a hobbling strap and it looked as if Maria tried to slip from the
See eS

saddle but Pilar and Pablo were riding close against her and Pablo was holding herd and
= aT SE —
the three horses were going up the draw,

"Roberto", Maria turned and shouted. (ver me stay!\Let me stoy!"|

SEF

(vi am with thee,'f kobert Jordan shouted | (0 am with thee row. We are both there.
Se og

Gol"} Then they were out of Sight around the corner of the draw and he was soaking wet
— == a a. — . eaneianieenmmenl
with sweat and looking at nothing.

rn we Ciues is ws Co re
pe Power — btt—net-coercion.
=a

)+ 12 Power - In a love that became powerless.
~ era

{ fErd: Pirseaceyunme vo» \ \. dee
in Power to_oteate_and_healyand_save .

Power Htr-a-eress.

a _ —Tiheh

Ya :

y, J

j Father, mep*have always aqarerne about the cross. And < confess that our reason fails
*’

\. / Ne: /
\ us as Wd, in turn, think abot Ats meaning. Be with us as‘we stand under the outstretched
ff 4 ~\

apie: in Jgtq christ our Lofd. AYEN :
\y
- You and I live in a unique time in the long history of nankina.\ Until

this time the best efforts of men have been dedicat: d to tne creation,

refinement and oreservation of power: the nower to control and coerce. |
And suddenly this ower has been seen to be inefrective)\ lly country is
the most oowerful nation, militarily, the wor|d has ever inown)\ Ana yet,
with all its might, my nation has been frustrated in accom Tishing its
purjzoses in S.E, Asia.\ our vaunted oower has not been worth much in the
jungles of Viet Nam and Vamb dia.

The vhurch, too, is losing what for centuries has been regarded as
sower,.\The monolitn of Kome has cracked - not yet financially or numerical

but morally, ins vdrationalty.\ vor where is the vower oftue Church to dee Ares
influence in Northern Tretana?|where Was it in-tseAmericen—south? Where

is it in the agonizing awakening eh Soutn America?
I

+ vim cue