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Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Left Handed Power v Right Handed Power with Pastor Ryan Braley {Reflection: Special Edition}
What if there was a way of living that transcended political power and societal norms? Join us on this special edition of the Reflections Podcast as we explore the profound message of Ephesians 2:19-22, brought to life amidst the ancient streets of Ephesus. Despite unexpected technical hiccups, this unique sermon invites us to imagine a kingdom where we are no longer strangers but cherished citizens of God’s community—a vibrant realm built not on force, but on love and grace. Discover how Jesus’ transformative message calls us to prioritize our spiritual citizenship and engage with the world through a divine, heavenly lens.
The episode unfolds with a thought-provoking exploration of right-handed versus left-handed power and their profound influence on relationships and society. Through personal stories, like a poignant tale of my son Logan's aversion to reading, we witness the limitations of authoritative power in fostering genuine connection. Contrast this with the compelling narrative of a friend's compassionate offer to adopt a child, highlighting how relational acts of kindness can break through where laws fall short. It is a call to embrace both traditional and relational approaches to inspire true heart change.
As we wrap up this journey, we are invited to actively participate in building God’s kingdom, moving beyond mere adherence to societal expectations. Imagine a life aligned with heavenly values, where each action reflects our divine citizenship. Whether you feel called to political activism or personal, supportive relationships, there's a place for you in this mission. We warmly invite you to share this enlightening message and join our community at Central in Elk River, ready to celebrate and further explore this transformative path, whether in person or online.
Join us! Facebook | Instagram | www.clcelkriver.org
What is up everybody? Welcome to our Reflections Podcast. This is actually a special edition of our Reflections Podcast. It's actually a sermon that I gave a week and a half ago. That morning the tech was like on the fritz. Nothing was working and we couldn't record it or stream it. And boy did I hear about it. A bunch of people were like where's the sermon, ryan? And they were throwing tomatoes at me and they were egging my car. I'm like, fine, I'll get it on there on a podcast episode. Just kidding, that's only half true, but anyway, the tech part is true. We couldn't record it. So I want to give a sermon in Mike's Beats Laboratory on Ephesians 2, 19 to 22.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to start by reading the text and then I want to unpack it and talk about right-handed power versus left-handed power. So Paul writes consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ himself as the chief cornerstone. In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord and in him. You too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. This is the word of the Lord. I love this passage. We're in the middle of our Ephesians series and we're going through the book of Ephesians, a letter written by Paul out of prison, from prison, to the church in Ephesus, a place that's full of art and culture and just good vibe. It's like a modern day or it's like an ancient world version of New York City Tons of pagans and pagan worship there, all kinds of bizarre practices. And he writes to this little fledgling little community of Christians there that he planted In Acts 19,. He plants this church there and it survives and is even thriving. This letter was probably used as a circular letter as well. It kind of went around the Asia Minor area and was passed to many churches. So this is actually an applicable letter to a lot of different churches and maybe even to us as well today. I love it.
Speaker 1:The part I want to really hone in on is that Paul says that you are no longer foreigners and strangers this is to a Gentile audience who were kind of outside, of the sort of the people of God in the ancient Hebrew story, but he says fellow citizens with God's people. Many times Paul mentions that we are no longer citizens in the place we live directly, but we are citizens of heaven. So let's unpack that If there's one predominant message in the New Testament, in the Gospels, it's that the kingdom of God has arrived in Jesus. It's not just that Jesus doesn't go around saying I've come to save you after you die, to take you to heaven. Rather, the thing he says the most, the most poignant, pressing and frequent thing he says is that the kingdom of God has arrived in me. There's this brand new thing happening in Jesus. He comes to bring it Now.
Speaker 1:Kingdom is a word we don't use a lot today. It really means like a domain or an area in which there's a king and the people follow the rules, the laws, the ways of the king. And so imagine the kingdom of God like an area in which the ways of God were how everybody behaved. What would that be like? What would it look like? What would the experience for all of us be like?
Speaker 1:And in Luke 4, 43, by the way, jesus says hey, I have to go from town to town proclaiming the good news, which is the kingdom of God. He says this again and again and again that he came to preach about, to show, to put on display and to inaugurate this kingdom of God, this area, this place where God is in charge and there's plenty to go around, and people respond accordingly. And so, in Jesus, god is working within this world to form it into this place, this holy city, this kingdom of God, a place where the rule and reign of God holds sway. And Jesus is doing it here and now. As Robert Farrar Capon says, here in this place, not someplace else called heaven, not a kingdom that belongs to somebody at a distance, on a cloud that we call God, but this place and all of its thisness and placeness. So God is immediate and close. He's invested in building something beautiful and new and vibrant. Here, he's making creation real and good and true and returning it to its sort of paradise kind of form, and he's perfecting what God has already made. He's not trashing it and starting over. He's building something brand new within this place and time, and it begins in Jesus, who inaugurates this kingdom, his most prominent message the kingdom of God. Here's the question, though, that it raises for me, anyway how will God do this? How does Jesus do this? How do you build a kingdom, how do you establish a rule and reign in a place. So God is all powerful, most of us would agree. So how can he do that? How does God use his power?
Speaker 1:Now be reminded that when Jesus comes to earth in the ancient, you know, first century Near East, it's a political hotbed. There's tons of political and cultural friction between the Jews and the Romans in this place where Jesus shows up. The Jews hated being ruled over by the Romans, these pagan, godless people who knew nothing of Jewish law or Jewish rule, and they despised it. They hated it. They wanted to have their own freedom and liberties. They wanted to rule themselves, and so they needed help to be freed and liberated. So they were waiting for and depending upon a political Messiah. They thought when Messiah would come, he would liberate them out from underneath the Roman rule, and they thought it would happen in the way of David, this political, military Messiah, and that by military force and supernatural assistance, that this Messiah would restore the fortunes of Israel. And it was a profound insult to them that they, the people of God, were not an independent nation.
Speaker 1:So there were different kinds of groups and factions that were formed in this part of the world. There were and most poignantly or, I guess, most obviously there were two different groups, and when I use these terms like conservative or left and right, I do not mean today's American partisan politics. This is ancient world language, but some things are similar, but it's not at all the same thing. So the two main people and their responses to being under the thumb of Roman rule were two Jewish groups. One was called the Zealots, and the Zealots were like these wild radical people who wanted to overthrow all foreign rule by any means necessary. Maybe you know some Zealots in your own life, but they wanted to use weapons or violence or whatever they had at their disposal to overthrow the Romans and any other pagan godless rulers that were in their life. And, interestingly enough, jesus had a zealot within his 12 disciple group, simon the Zealot. On the other side were the conservatives. The conservatives were like hey, we don't want to upset the apple cart, we don't want to rock the boat, keep your head down, do whatever you have to do to survive and we will live and let God redeem us. And Jesus had some of these people in his 12 as well, and there are also a lot of folks in between.
Speaker 1:But it raises a lot of questions Like these Jews had a lot of questions Like should we obey Roman law? We're not Romans, we're a part of this Roman empire, but mostly because we're being oppressed by them. So should we in fact obey Roman law? The Zealots are like no way, man, we're going to rebel and do our own thing and order. He's like no, obey them. But if we should obey them, which ones? All of them? And how about paying taxes to Caesar? Should we pay taxes to Caesar? If not, that creates a problem, because then we're radical rebels and rebels can be crucified. But if we do, that means we're supporting the empire. And what about this one? Should Jews be a part of the Roman military? If so, we're actually helping prop up this imperial system that we are victims of. So what should we do?
Speaker 1:And when Jesus shows up, they try to drag him into these kinds of questions, like these very, very worldly kinds of problems about paying taxes, serving the military and obeying laws. But here's the wild thing Jesus just never seems all that interested in answering kingdom of the world kinds of problems. He doesn't really care about these kinds of things. It seems like he kind of gives some answers. Here and there he gives a third way answer. On occasion he gives vague answers, but he never seems interested in dressing up the kingdom of the world or solving kingdom of the world problems. Instead, jesus is, like, extremely interested in doing something brand new. He's interested not in the kingdom of the world and just sort of glamorizing or dressing up the kingdom of the world. He's interested in building a brand new thing, a unique kingdom, a unique city, a brand new thing. And, by the way, just a heads up. It looks on the outside like utter foolishness the things he does as he puts this kingdom of God on display. It looks utterly foolish the things he does. No one expects and people are like this is crazy. We're going to lose if we keep doing this kind of thing.
Speaker 1:So, for example, at the end of his life, jesus is standing before Pilate. Pilate's a Roman governor and so he knows the kingdoms of the world very intimately. Pilate doesn't. And Pilate, when he's interviewing Jesus, he kind of asks him are you a king? Because he's got to know. And Jesus says, yeah, I am.
Speaker 1:My kingdom, though, is not of this world. If it were, I love this. This is such a good line. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. He's like saying hey look, my kingdom is not of this world, it's from another place. If my kingdom was from this world, if I operated in the way that your kingdom operates listen, buddy, I would call my servants and we would fight you. And I think under his breath he might've, and we would win. I think under his breath he might've and we would win.
Speaker 1:I think he said that. Maybe he didn't, but he's saying like I'm not here to promote more of this kind of stuff. You have plenty of kingdom of the world type leaders that are already doing it. I'm here to bring something brand new. And then Pilate says oh, you're a king. Then and Jesus says you say I'm a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on my side who listens to me listens to the truth. And then he goes on and says I am the truth. So he's like I'm here to bring something brand new. But here's the deal, no-transcript. Hey, listen up, you knuckleheads. He could have hidden all the knuckleheads under a rock, which is where Mike and I would be if he had taken all those knuckleheads and thrown them under a rock. I mean, he could have just slapped everybody around and made them do what he said, but this is not what he does. I mean, obviously, jesus doesn't do it this way. He doesn't strong arm anybody. He doesn't, you know, coerce them. It isn't like beat them up and bully them. He does it an entirely different way, a mysterious, a mysterious and brand new way. So the one way that he could have done it is this, you know, knocking their heads together.
Speaker 1:We call this direct, straight line intervening power, and Luther uses this kind of language and a guy called Robert Farrar Capon uses it, and they actually they kind of change up which hand is which. But for the sake of this podcast, this is right-handed power. Right-handed power is what the kingdom of the world generally uses to get its way. It's the use of force to get the result that you want. So it's hey, mike, uh, you better show up at eight o'clock this morning to record this podcast or else you're fired. That's right-handed power. It's direct, straight line intervening power, power over top, top down power. And here's the deal. It actually is very helpful, it works. It works all the time.
Speaker 1:So, for example, my daughters and they I think I have the permission to share this, but they, uh, they will. Often we have them do chores at home and, um, you know Katie, my wife, who is just the most beautiful, loving woman of all time, she says hey, uh, kids, girls, come upstairs, it's time to do your dishes. This is right-handed power. Well, sort of. I come in with the hammer, though, cause if they don't listen, then I bring in the right-handed power to say okay, girls, if you don't listen to your mom and if she has to ask three times, then I'm taking the cell phones away and you won't get them until next week. Boom, that works like a charm. They come, zip up the stairs like I wove a wand in the air or whatever, and they're there doing dishes. That is right-handed power and it works. I said, hey, if you don't do this, I'm taking your phones. Man, look, they love their phones. They're off their phones a ton too, which is great. But they knew, and they came running upstairs and they got to work.
Speaker 1:Right-handed power is about top-down this or else kind of power. It this or else kind of power. It's power in numbers. I had a buddy in high school one time. He had a Zippo lighter and these group of guys came up to him. They wanted to see he was playing with it and they wanted to see it. And they're like, hey, we like this lighter, can we buy it from you? And he's like my buddy goes no, and they go listen. Either you sell it to you that's right-handed power, it's power in numbers, it's do this or else.
Speaker 1:This is also an example of what the police use. Now, look, I support the police, I love the police, I love having rule and order and law, but the police use this. If you drive down the highway going 110 miles an hour, they will pull you over and they will say, hey, you can't do that, it's against the law and you're going to go to jail. That's right-handed power. Another form of right-handed power is on a global scale, and this is where it can get dysfunctional, of course. But hey, other country, do what we say or we'll bomb you.
Speaker 1:So right-handed power is top-down power, power in numbers, power in size. It's military might, laws, strength, it's power over. Now here's the deal. It provides law and order and structure and it does work. It keeps things from being chaotic. Without police, I would argue, without law, without laws, it could be utter chaos, and so right-handed power is not a bad thing If I don't tell my girls come up here and do what your mom said, or I'm taking the phones. They maybe wouldn't come up there, because sometimes, you know, we do our own thing instead. But here's the deal. It's responsible. While it's responsible, it's responsible for almost everything we see in the world around us. We all use it. Again, it provides order. But here's the deal. It has very obvious limitations, mostly relationally. Now, the police are not that interested mostly in kind of having a deep, long-lasting relationship with me other than just to keep me safe. Their job is to keep order and protect the laws, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:But what if you had to use right-handed power in a situation where you wanted to maintain a loving, healthy relationship? Well, here's an example my son Logan. When he was younger, we uh he, you know he had to read every night at the school wanted him to read out of a book for 20 minutes every night, and he hated it. So I did the only thing I knew to do when he was younger he was probably seven, eight, nine years old I used right-handed power. I go Logan, you better read the book. And he didn't. He's like no. So here's the problem. Right-handed power becomes useless if you want to maintain loving, healthy relationships.
Speaker 1:Because what's my only alternative now, if I'm committed to right-handed power? What am I going to do now? Raise my voice. No, no, logan, no, I really mean it. You better do what I said and read the book. And I yell. And he's like what? If he's like, no, that doesn't Logan, I'm going to take it up another level and I'm going to force you to watch TV with commercials. That would work. No, I'm just kidding. But what? But what am I gonna? And he's like no, and this is what happened. I go, logan, read your book. He said no.
Speaker 1:I said Logan, you better read your book, man, I mean it. And he's like no, I'm bringing your mom into the conversation, you better do it. And she's like you better do it. Now, we have forcing numbers, right. And he's like no, and I'm like okay, and I knew, you know, you shouldn't count with children like one, two, that's bad advice. So I'm not gonna do that. Because going to do that, because that's also what are you doing? You're just, you're kicking the can down the road.
Speaker 1:So I said, all right, I'm going to hit him where it hurts. I go fine, because I'm committed to right-handed power. I'm like buddy, if you don't read that book tonight for 20 minutes, you will not play in the baseball game this weekend. And my son loves baseball and I got him. He's like. He looked at me and was furious and I knew I had him because now my right hand of power would work. But guess what I go listen, go think about in your room and you know you. You come back and you tell me what you want to do. So he goes away into his room and he comes back out later and leaves this note on the table and me and his mom found it and we opened the note and he writes this is so funny.
Speaker 1:Imagine a seven-year-old boy, eight-year-old boy. He's like dear mom and dad, I will not be playing in the baseball game this weekend. I'm sorry it has to be this way. It's funny now, but really dramatic, like all the drama you can imagine, infused into this letter. I but like, really dramatic, like all the drama you can imagine, like infused into this letter. I'm sorry it has to be this way.
Speaker 1:And he said no. So now what do I do? Well, logan, you better do it, or I'm going to beat you up or chain you to a like what am I? You know it's, at some point it breaks down and doesn't work. Here's why it can't. The law, the police, you know military action, my own son, my own kid at some point it can't change their hearts. Can you imagine if I told my 28-year-old I don't have a 28-year-old son? Let's say he's same, logan, logan's 20 now, but let's say when he's 28,. If I said to him Logan, you better take out your garbage or I'm going to ground you, he would laugh. He'd laugh in my face. Like it doesn't work.
Speaker 1:Now here's what one author, robert Farrar Capon, says. He says it doesn't work unless you refuse to use it. Instead, instead of dishing out pain and punishment, as opposed to using right-handed power, we foolishly take the beatings and the punishments ourselves. That begins to work. That is what we call left-handed power. So if right-handed power is power over and top down, left-handed power is power under, power, from beneath, taking on the punishment of others, the beatings that others deserved. And Luther calls this the most powerful force in the world because he and others argue it's the only power that can never be corrupted by evil.
Speaker 1:I love Mike Tyson said one time he was asked hey, mike, how do you best intimidate another man? And Mike Tyson, you know the boxer. You think he would say you know, give a right-handed power answer and say just punch him in the face. But he doesn't. He gives a left-handed power answer. He goes. Oh, the best way to intimidate another man is to love him. This is Mike Iron, mike Tyson. Just to love them, he goes. Most men know how to be hated, but they don't know how to handle love. That's the real deal. Oh man, it's incredible.
Speaker 1:Left-handed power is paradoxical. It's intuitive, it's using your imagination. It's the only power that cannot be touched by evil. Now, it's problematic because it's long and slow and painful and takes time and it involves love and forgiveness and sacrificial witness and service and these kinds of things.
Speaker 1:Jesus, when he's told or when he gives a picture of his kingdom, the kingdom of God that he's building, he doesn't say the kingdom of God is like a hammer that just smacks a nail. Nor does he say it's like a thunderclap that the heavens just erupt with this loud, thunderous bang and the whole world will hear it. Nor does he say it's like a display of fireworks that are beautiful and transcendent and majestic. No, he says the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. What? Are you kidding me? Have you ever seen a mustard seed? They're about 1.5 millimeters in size. They're tiny. If you were carrying one and dropped it on a carpet, the carpet would swallow it up. You'd never see it again. If I held it up from, like you know, 20 yards, you couldn't even see it. They're tiny Like Jesus. You must be mistaken.
Speaker 1:The kingdom of God, the creator of all the cosmos, this powerful being and his kingdom is like a mustard seed. Are you kidding me? And have you ever seen a mustard plant? These things, this tiny little baby seed that looks like nothing. It's almost forgettable. You could swallow it and wouldn't even know it. You could step on it and you'd crush it. But this seed goes into the ground and it's covered up and it disappears. The power of the seed is that it goes into the ground and disappears and no one knows what in the world is happening down there other than the seed dies and its power is in going underground, disappearing underneath, dying, giving up its own life. This is the epitome of left-handed power in the kingdom of God. And then it grows over time, a long time, and it gets watered. And then it grows in this mustard tree. You can see one of those bad boys from a long way away. They're huge and they give shade and they're beautiful. And it grows in this huge, beautiful, wondrous thing that can give shade and gives habitat for the birds and provide sustenance for people. It's unbelievable, but you would never know it. It's mysterious, foolish, it's amazing.
Speaker 1:My son Gavin he's my second son. He was a bit different than Logan. I learned early that right-handed power did not work with him. He got in trouble one time and I went to go into his room and I was planning on yelling at him. That's kind of what I knew to do. I'm like I'm going to yell at him and make him feel bad about his actions and be strong, dad and whatever. And I went in there and probably one of the few moments I got it right, I felt like I should just instead give him a hug. And so I'm like that's ridiculous. This kid doesn't need a hug, he needs a yelling, a talking to. But I did it. He needs a yelling, a talking to. But I did it. I gave him a hug and he just melted in my arms and began to weep and cried and cried and cried. That was all it took. I hugged him. I absorbed the pain that he was experiencing, that I wanted to give to him. I ate that and swallowed that and, mysteriously, foolishly, I offered him this hug Now it's not really foolish, but you know what I mean and it melted his heart.
Speaker 1:See, the kingdom of God. God doesn't force people to obey. Instead, god transforms lives. He heals people, he mends broken hearts. He comes to build relationships and to love people. He doesn't say do it my way or else he wants children, and only the left-handed power can produce children. The kingdoms of this world use right-handed power a lot, but Jesus uses left-handed power to establish and build his kingdom, to transform hearts and change lives.
Speaker 1:Okay, one example of this that I want to help us maybe to reimagine how we engage the world is this controversial, often heated debate about abortion. Now, most of us listening to this podcast would probably agree that abortion is not a good thing. I don't know many folks who argue that abortion itself is a good thing. They might want to argue about the you know what is a human life and what happens if the mom is in danger these kinds of nuanced things. But generally a lot of folks would agree that abortion is not.
Speaker 1:But here's the deal. Many of us might try to lean into the right-handed power way of doing things and go and petition and even try to change legislation and try to appeal to that right-handed power, change laws and maybe, if it's more dysfunctional, you might go and try to intimidate people at these clinics and maybe bomb a clinic here or there and, using force and numbers and bullying tactics, or change laws. Now look, changing laws is great. If that's what you feel called to do and get involved with the legal level, that's wonderful, wonderful and vote and those kinds of things. But you have to understand these things don't change hearts. So what if, in addition to those, if you feel called to do those things I mean don't bomb clinics, okay, but I mean some of that more law and order type things you want to try to change laws, do that. But also, what about this? What if the church instead rallied around these mothers who, for all kinds of reasons, want to have an abortion?
Speaker 1:I have a story of a dear friend of mine who went to an abortion clinic and, amidst all the petitions and the signs and the yelling and the screaming, she went to the back, I think, of the clinic and met one of the young girls who was having an abortion. They began to talk and had a conversation and the woman who went down there to try to help in any way she could said hey, could you let me have a coffee with you? And the young woman who was going to have the abortion said I'll do that. So these two go out and have a coffee. And it turns out this young woman wanted an abortion for all kinds of reasons. She, she was extremely poor, her, her. The father wasn't in the picture, she had no support, no care. And my friend said what if I help you in all these ways? And these two struck up a relationship. And then the woman said I would be willing. This is after a long, you know long, many weeks of of her not having the abortion and my friend and her meeting together. My friend said what if I told you I would like to adopt your baby? This is, guys.
Speaker 1:This is left-handed power at its finest. It's coming under, it's relational, it's. I'm going to absorb the cost of this, not that the kid is a cost, but whatever the cost is you're going to incur. You know financial costs, stress, strain. You're young, you know I want to help absorb that. That's what the left-handed power is all about. And the young woman said I'll do that. And this woman saved a life that day.
Speaker 1:So what if we? This is one example what if we, as Christians, began to look at our own ways of being involved in the world? And yes, if you're into right-handed power politics, if you're a politician, keep doing it, be the best politician you can be. If you're a police officer, hey, do it and be the best police officer you can be. And so, if you're in the right-handed kingdom right-handed power, do it and do your best job.
Speaker 1:But also those of us in the church, I would encourage us to let our imaginations be open a bit and begin to see the world with a left-handed power kingdom of God, gospel kind of lens.
Speaker 1:How can we change hearts and be a part of that business, rather than just simply trying to mitigate and create laws?
Speaker 1:Jesus came to build the kingdom of God, not a Jesus-y version of the kingdom of the world. We are citizens of heaven, not of this world. So may you and I be builders of the kingdom of God. May we remember that our citizenship is first and foremost of the kingdom of heaven, that our way of being in the world and the lenses through which we see the world ought to be a little bit different than the kingdoms of the world, that Jesus didn't come just to fancy up or Jesusify the kingdoms of the world. He came to do a brand new thing. So may you and I live in tune with and help build the kingdom of God. Amen. Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share it with some friends. And don't forget, you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 830, which is our liturgical gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering, or you can check us out online at clcelkriverorg Peace.
