Sunday, March 25, 2018
Sunday reflection: Influence and power
I love Palm Sunday, in a complicated way. It's a day of such great hope and such great tragedy.
Today I get to give the sermon at a wonderful church, First Covenant here in Minneapolis. I love the people there, and they put up with me about once every four to six months. I very much feel a duty to do something special this morning.
I'm going to talk about influence and power. Jesus entered Jerusalem with his reputation preceding him. People knew about his spellbinding teaching, his healing, and the crowds that were drawn to him. Yet, he entered in humility, riding a donkey.
People expected power, but he sought influence. Power is the ability to make people do what you want, while influence is the ability to convince them to make a choice on their own. Power overwhelms an individual's will; influence transforms what an individual might want.
In writing the sermon, it occurred to me that we have failed in addressing narcotics use in part because we have relied to much on power than on influence. We have tried to deny people their supply rather than influence them to reduce demand. Should we be surprised that this has failed?
Jesus always takes me to interesting places....
Today I get to give the sermon at a wonderful church, First Covenant here in Minneapolis. I love the people there, and they put up with me about once every four to six months. I very much feel a duty to do something special this morning.
I'm going to talk about influence and power. Jesus entered Jerusalem with his reputation preceding him. People knew about his spellbinding teaching, his healing, and the crowds that were drawn to him. Yet, he entered in humility, riding a donkey.
People expected power, but he sought influence. Power is the ability to make people do what you want, while influence is the ability to convince them to make a choice on their own. Power overwhelms an individual's will; influence transforms what an individual might want.
In writing the sermon, it occurred to me that we have failed in addressing narcotics use in part because we have relied to much on power than on influence. We have tried to deny people their supply rather than influence them to reduce demand. Should we be surprised that this has failed?
Jesus always takes me to interesting places....
