Disruption! It's a plague on our tidy, well-ordered lives. We loathe it!
I spent a lot of time on Sunday discussing the enterprises of Elon Musk, a 43 year old billionaire whose Tesla Motors, Solar City, and SpaceX have disrupted the status quo in automotive design, solar energy systems, and space flight. This disruption has a powerful impact that advances these industries in whole new ways. Disruption can be quite positive.
The biggest disruptor of all: God. The scriptures show God's intervention that disrupts things in order to advance God's purposes and promise.
Both texts start at the beginning of things. The Genesis (first) creation story describes God's creation of light in the primordial watery darkness of origins, the first act of creation. The beginning of Mark's gospel details the emergence of John the Baptist, a disruptor in his own right. Yet John admits to being the one who has gone ahead, preparing the way for an even greater disruptor, Jesus, the Son of God.
Seeing the way God values disruption, it seems remarkable that our churches and our faith lives are diametrically opposed. Security, stability, tradition, clarity, and predictability are clearly the values maintained by churches, and cherished in our faith and spiritual life. That's a caution for us, drawing us away from God's work in the world.
The water and light in these texts combine in our experience to form a rainbow, the sign of God's first covenant following the act of God's disruption, the great flood in the time of Noah. It's a great reminder that, amid disruption, there is the promise of God.
Check the full sermon in the video below, and get the downloads below the video panel if the sermon text suits you better, and to get the Fairfielder answers.
I spent a lot of time on Sunday discussing the enterprises of Elon Musk, a 43 year old billionaire whose Tesla Motors, Solar City, and SpaceX have disrupted the status quo in automotive design, solar energy systems, and space flight. This disruption has a powerful impact that advances these industries in whole new ways. Disruption can be quite positive.
The biggest disruptor of all: God. The scriptures show God's intervention that disrupts things in order to advance God's purposes and promise.
Both texts start at the beginning of things. The Genesis (first) creation story describes God's creation of light in the primordial watery darkness of origins, the first act of creation. The beginning of Mark's gospel details the emergence of John the Baptist, a disruptor in his own right. Yet John admits to being the one who has gone ahead, preparing the way for an even greater disruptor, Jesus, the Son of God.
Seeing the way God values disruption, it seems remarkable that our churches and our faith lives are diametrically opposed. Security, stability, tradition, clarity, and predictability are clearly the values maintained by churches, and cherished in our faith and spiritual life. That's a caution for us, drawing us away from God's work in the world.
The water and light in these texts combine in our experience to form a rainbow, the sign of God's first covenant following the act of God's disruption, the great flood in the time of Noah. It's a great reminder that, amid disruption, there is the promise of God.
Check the full sermon in the video below, and get the downloads below the video panel if the sermon text suits you better, and to get the Fairfielder answers.
| 01-11-15-ff-answers.pdf |
| 01-11-15-water_and_light.pdf |