Welcome to Narnia CHRISTMAS THAT NEVER ENDS
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“Left-Handed Power”
Sermon Series:
Welcome to Narnia
CHRISTMAS THAT NEVER ENDS
Sunday, December 15, 2013©
Dr. Victor D. Pentz
Senior Pastor
Scripture Lesson: Micah 5:2-4
Recently I heard the story of a ten-year- your opponent grabbing your left arm."
old boy in Hawaii who got in a car wreck and
lost his left arm. After he recovered, he wanted Sometimes it's what you don't have –
to learn judo, which sort of confused his par- your weakness – that becomes your biggest
ents, but they figured, "What's the harm?" So strength. This morning we're calling that “left-
they got him a judo instructor and the instruc- handed power.” What you and I are looking
tor said, "I want you to learn just one move; for in life—what we're yearning for whether
let's just work on this one move." So they we know it or not —is left-handed power.
worked on that one move for a long, long time.
Eventually the teacher said, "Okay, you've al- God’s Judo
most got this move down; time to enter a com- It's the story of Christmas. Often we
petition." The boy said, "That's crazy. I can't come to church and pray, “God, take away my
win; I don't have a left arm and I only know weakness so I can be great and strong." But
one move – I'm gonna get creamed." The judo Christmas is the story of how by coming to us
instructor said, “Well, let’s see what happens." in weakness, God has conquered the world.
So the boy entered a local competition, It began with his arrival in the sleepy
and he won the tournament in his age divi- podunk town of Bethlehem. Have you ever
sion. Afterwards, the boy said to his teach- been driving in rural Georgia and whooshed
er, “How is this possible? How did I win this through what amounts to a wide place in
tournament with only one move and no left road where the entering and leaving signs are
arm?" The teacher said, "It's easy. The one the opposite sides of the same sign? That was
move you mastered is one of the hardest moves Bethlehem. Israel had impressive cities
in judo and the only defense against it involves like Jerusalem, Hebron, and Shiloh, but for
1some reason heaven came down and was born Right-Handed Power
one night amidst the buzzing flies of a drafty Now right-handed power we get. In
stable in Bethlehem. Eight hundred years earli- right-handed power you apply the amount of
er the prophet Micah had seen it coming and force you need to accomplish the result you
wrote these words: "But you, Bethlehem want. You grab a napkin and wipe the spa-
Ephrathah, though you are small among the ghetti sauce from around the corners of your
clans of Judah, out of you will come for mouth. You send in the troops to drive your
me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose enemy out of the country. Right-handed pow-
origins are from of old, from ancient times." er can always be defeated by a greater right-
handed force. You and I are way more im-
From there Jesus goes on to grow up in pressed than we should be by right-handed
a town that's the butt of even more redneck power. That is the theme of a book that is
jokes than Bethlehem – Nazareth. "Can any- right now number two on the New Y ork
thing good come out of Nazareth?" they'd say. Times best seller list: David and Goliath by
Then instead of a political leader, he became a Malcolm Gladwell. Goliath, of course, is raw,
wandering teacher. Not only that, in the end he naked right-handed power – all 9 feet 6 inch-
wound up dying by giving himself over to his es of him – a symbol to Gladwell for today's
enemies without even lifting a finger. When his Goliaths in business, commerce, sports, and
career ended in weakness and death, people technology.
said, "Forget it. It looked promising for a while
but what a waste. Another nice guy finishes Gladwell says the same things that
last." make a Goliath seem so intimidating and so
impossible to defeat have a flipside that is the
Jesus came in shocking weakness. source of weakness. Goliath ran out onto the
battlefield encased in impenetrable armor
But don't you see? It was left-handed made up of hundreds of overlapping bronze
power. That was God's judo. Martin Luther fishlike scales weighing over a hundred
used to say God rides the lame horse. Today pounds, designed to absorb body blows. He
we'd say God has a thing for underdogs. had a massive shield and a log-like spear. Ob-
Speaking of dogs and horses – you can also viously he was expecting another mighty war-
add beavers. In the Narnia tales, Aslan the Lion rior to come right at him mano a mano.
puts together an army of children and beavers
and unicorns and small underground creatures But David was a scrawny teenager. He
to topple the evil reign of her satanic majesty tried on King Saul's armor and it just hung on
the White Witch. Let's watch some left-handed him. He said, "No, thanks. I'll go out in my
power. Meet Mr. and Mrs. Beaver: weakness." So he picked up a leather pouch
Video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/myvigmi2w3bpsw4/ with some strings and a few stones. Over here
Narnia%20Beavers%20edit%20for%20LHP.mov was a barefoot shepherd boy and over there
was a nine-foot honors graduate of the Philis-
An army is made up of children and tine West Point.
beavers and unicorns. A boy without an arm
wins the tournament. The Creator debuts in a Here was left-handed power. There
feed trough. That's the mystery of left-handed was right-handed power. You know how it
power. turned out. Poor Goliath never had a
2chance. Goliath hit the ground so hard he rat- Many of you know I've just returned
tled windows all the way to Jerusalem. Why? from China after a speaking tour with the Billy
Goliath's strength was also his greatest weak- Graham Evangelistic Association. In China to-
ness. He was frozen in all that clunky armor. day is the fastest growing church in the world.
We met with China's Minister of Religion, a
Gladwell quotes an Israeli ballistics ex- communist and presumably an atheist, and with
pert who calculates that David's stone hit Goli- a kind of swagger he said, "We have the fastest
ath's head with a velocity of thirty four meters growing church in the world." They have
per second, which would be the same stopping more Christians in China today than there are
power as a medium-size handgun. people in the British Isles.
Here is Gladwell's point: Power does Some say what's exploding In China
not only come as size and strength. Sometimes right now is the largest scale revival in the his-
even greater power comes as surprise and tory of Christianity. I spoke to around 3,000
speed and smallness. young worshippers at a church in Beijing, and
oh, what passion I saw in their worship. Some-
It was David's weakness God used to one once asked a couple of Chinese pastors,
bring down Goliath. In the same way he'll use "Where did you learn to worship?" They said,
you in your simple barefoot faith to do amaz- "From Mao Zedong!" American pastor: “I
ing things. thought you said, Mao Zedong.” The Chinese
pastor said, "I did.” American pastor: "But he
God loves to use his little people to was a monster." Chinese pastor: "God can use
bring down the high and the mighty. Why? Be- monsters too."
cause in our weakness, at the end of the day,
who gets the glory? God gets the glory! So he The Chinese pastor went on to say this:
uses little beavers to bring down the wicked "We Chinese people were never very religious.
witch of Narnia. He uses little David to bring We were Confucian and Confucianism is about
down the giant. In the words of singer Gordon horoscopes, good luck, and wise advice, and
Lightfoot, “high steppin' strutters land in the not about real worship. When missionaries first
gutters.” By using left-handed power God came we weren't interested in a Savior or wor-
brings down those right-handed tyrants. shipping God or Jesus, so Christianity never
took off.
Left-handed Power at Christmas
We get a glimpse of this in the Christ- “Then along came Mao. He started say-
mas story: "And in those days a decree went ing we were going to build heaven on earth by
out from Caesar Augustus that all the world faith in an eternal China. He made us sing
should be enrolled." You know what that was? hymns to the revolution. He gave us a holy
That was just God jerking Caesar's chain to get text, Mao's little red book. He made us get in
things in motion to get Mary into Bethlehem in small groups and study it. At the height of his
time for Mary to have that baby in Bethlehem power he would gather us in Tiananmen
as Micah foretold. In other words, the wheels Square. Millions would crowd in. Mao would
of history are moving for the sake of God's lit- walk to the balcony and spread his arms like
tle people – and not for the sake of Caesar or this (crucifix). Our voices would thunder and
Herod, and more recently in China, not for the we'd cry and slap our little red books against
sake of Mao Zedong. our chests.
3“Do you know what Mao was doing? years he was imprisoned. He was beaten. He
He was playing God. But then he died. Then it was spit upon. He was urinated upon by his
hit us: gods don't die. After 1976 we started guards. For twenty-one years, he was not al-
hearing the gospel again. People said, ‘We lowed even to touch his wife's hand. His chil-
know how to worship; we just had the wrong dren were kicked out of school and prevented
god. Jesus is the savior and the true God our from getting jobs. It would have been so easy
nation has been seeking.’ Mao was preparing for Nelson Mandela to walk out of his prison
us to worship Jesus even though he didn't real- cell a seething cauldron of hatred and venge-
ize it, and then he died and now we have Je- ance. So much violent right-handed power was
sus." there at his fingertips if he had only said the
word.
“Jesus is the God Mao taught us to look
for and then he died; now we have Jesus.” Go- Instead, in his autobiography Nelson
liath bites the dust. Caesar bites the dust. Mao Mandela wrote about the many kindnesses of
bites the dust. Meanwhile a baby born to a vir- his white prison guards. He spent his time in
gin in Bethlehem is winning the hearts of mil- prison learning to speak the language of his op-
lions today in China. That is the method in the pressors, Afrikaans, and learning to become a
madness of God's weakness. fan of their favorite sport, rugby.
Again and again, God uses the small At his inauguration as President of
and the weak to bring down the big and the South Africa, he invited his jailor to sit among
strong. the dignitaries and then appointed to leadership
in his administration many of the people who
The Real World of Left-Handed Power had imprisoned him and killed many of his
But this left-handed power thing—does friends. Could you have done that? Instead of
it work in the real world of today's power poli- right-handed power, doubled in a fist, he of-
tics and racial conflict and global struggle or is fered the open hand of left-handed power and
it just a nice religious idea? Let me answer taught an entire continent how to forgive.
with one word: Mandela.
What's often not acknowledged is that
There was nothing soft or sentimental Nelson Mandela was a quiet Christian educated
about Nelson Mandela. He knew what he want- by Methodist missionaries. Sometimes the
ed and how to go after it and he bet his life and most awesome power in the world is the power
his nation's future on left-handed power. In my that you don't use, that you hold back out of
generation growing up we just knew there was reconciliation and forgiveness.
going to be a bloodbath in South Africa. As
soon as power shifted to the black majority af- Don't be afraid to use your left-handed
ter the horrific years of oppression under apart- power. It's the very power of God. It won't let
heid by the white Afrikaners who were 10% of you down.
the population, it would be all over for those
white people. There was going to be hell to The place you most need left-handed
pay. power is in relationships. If one of your main
objectives in life is to stay in loving relation-
And then it didn't happen – because of ships you must have left-handed power.
this one man, Nelson Mandela. Twenty-seven
4Teenagers provide a good example. If won my heart.
you have a two-year-old playing on the edge
of a cliff you can grab the child and use right- Christmas is the wonder of God the
handed power and not have a broken relation- baby nursing in the arms of his mother. I don't
ship on your hands, says Robert Capon. But think anyone has ever expressed the magic of
suppose your teenager makes unauthorized that baby better than my friend Dale Bruner.
use of your family vehicle. (Incidentally we He said, "That which goes deepest to the
had that case a few years ago: parents called heart goes widest to the world." I'll prove it.
and said their 14-year-old son had stolen the That's my new grandson (show picture), born
family car. The interesting thing was he used three days ago here in Atlanta. Charlie has me
it to drive to our church youth group meeting wrapped around his little finger. That baby
– sort of a “bad news, good news” thing.) But from Bethlehem has wrapped around his little
seriously, you unleash this barrage of right- finger millions of people around the world
handed verbal firepower to tell that kid what right now who would die for him. Caesar and
is going to happen if he pulls a stunt like that Herod and all their armies and firepower to-
again. You take away privileges. Then sup- day are nothing. It's been pointed out that to-
pose he does it again and you're committed to day all these years later we call our children
right-handed power. So you yell louder and Mary and Joseph – and our dogs we call Cae-
threaten even more awful things. He does it sar.
again, and so you beat him.
But I don't want to insult any dogs. In
Robert Capon writes, "You see the pic- fact I want to show you the amazing power of
ture ….[A]t some point this personal relation- God in the weakness of one boy and the love
ship is all going to fall apart… unless you of one dog.
who has every right in the world to use right- Let's watch:
handed power at some point refuses to use it... https://www.dropbox.com/
and decides instead that instead of dishing out s/0ynf2j798mq71c9/Creed%20and%
justifiable pain and punishment, you are will- 20Casper%20edited%20v2.mov
ing to, quite foolishly, take a beating your-
self....[T]his, is left-handed power.... It's a
way of paying a huge price personally to not
close the door on a relationship."
In my case I did take the family car Prayer:
when I was fifteen – took it out joy-riding. Lord you have chosen the weak and
When I was caught I remember my dad came small things of this world to showcase your
in to confront me. I must have had a death glory: a little boy like Creed, and even a dog
wish. I shoved my dad. My dad was a big like Casper. Lord, pry open our right-handed
burly firefighter. He could have crushed me. grip that has to dominate and control. We
Instead he just stood there and stared at me a open ourselves to being used by you in what-
long time; then he shook his head and slowly ever way you choose, even if it be in weak-
turned and walked out and quietly pulled the ness and smallness, in the very way you came
door closed behind him. It was the loneliest to us at Christmas in Jesus, for in his name we
moment of my life, but in his weakness he pray. Amen.
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