Disciple – Now I See

“Now I see” — Sermon by Caleb Campbell, May 22,2022

How do you view Jesus? What is your vision of him? Where is your vision of Jesus leading you, as you imagine Jesus, as you think of him, as you follow him? How is your vision? Where is your vision of Jesus leading you?

Perhaps even another, more important question: Who gets to shape your vision of Jesus? Who gets to influence what Jesus looks like in your life? What voices? What sources? What methods are you using to discern your vision of Jesus?

Today we’re going to continue on in a sermon series called Disciple, where we’re looking at the Gospel of Mark, learning more about what it means to follow Jesus. To be a disciple is simply to follow the Jesus way. But the question that we have before us today is what if I’m misunderstanding Jesus? What if my vision of Jesus is blurry? What if it’s confused? What if I’m not totally sure? What if perhaps I have a misunderstanding of who Jesus is? For each one of us, these are critical questions.

If we have a misunderstanding of who Jesus is, if we have a distorted view, so to speak, we may actually follow that distorted view into paths that are unhelpful — paths that lead to harm and not to flourishing, maybe even paths that would not be of God’s Kingdom. And so, who allows you to do that is a good question for us to be asking today. We’re going to be in the gospel of Mark Chapter 8, verse 22 and on.

In this text you have a lot of language about vision. By the way, for those of you who are joining us in person, you should have received the handout. I think some o

f you may have gotten last week’s text, but that’s OK because we’re going to have the text on the screen.

No need to worry for those of y’all that are joining us online. If you don’t have a Bible available, just go to bible.com and again, Mark Chapter 8 verse 22 and on. By the way, if you’re joining us in person and would like a Bible, we’d love to get one to you. There are some available on the tables in the back. If you don’t own a Bible, please take that as our gift to you. But I’ll also have it up on the screen, so you can all follow along there.

Before we put it up on the screen, I’m actually going to read the text, and here’s what I might ask you to do. As you hear these words read, would you imagine? Would you allow the spirit of God to impact your imagination as you see this in your mind’s eye? And then we’ll dialogue about it. And just pay special attention to how much language here in this text has to do with sight or vision or perspective. So, this is the gospel of Mark, Chapter 8, verse 22 and on.

“They came to Bethsaida. They brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and brought him out of the village. Spitting on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Do you see anything?’ He looked up and said, ‘I see people — they look like trees walking.’

Again, Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes. The man looked intently, and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him home, saying ‘Don’t even go into the village.’

Jesus went out with his disciples to the villages of Caesara Phillipi. On the road he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; others say Elijah; still others one of the prophets.’

‘But you,’ he asked them, ‘Who do you say that I am?’

Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he strictly warned them to tell no one about him.

Then he began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, to be killed and rise after three days. He spoke openly about this.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning around and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You were not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.’

Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, ‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life because of me and the gospel will save it. For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose their life? What can anyone give in exchange for their life? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his father and the holy angels.

Then he said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God come in power.’”

This is the word of the Lord.

So, we’re looking at this text and we’ll just notice a few things as we go through the material and just pay special attention to how much language is used around vision, around sight, around seeing.

Let’s take a look … by the way, was there some weird stuff in there? Did you guys hear he spit on a dude’s eyeball? If you don’t think that’s weird, I don’t want to sit next to you in church. I will just tell you that much — I’m going to make sure to sit on the other side.

OK, so check this out. Watch this. I think this is beautiful. I mean the construction of this particular text is so beautiful and powerful. I love it.

“They came to Bethsaida. They brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him.” (Verse 22)

What does everyone want to have happen to this blind man? They want him to do what? See, right? They expect that Jesus is going to do a work and that the man is going to see. So watch this about vision. Watch how many times perspective, vision, and sight show up.

He took the blind man by the hand and brought him out of the village. Spitting on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Do you see anything?’ (Verse 23)

He took the blind man by the hand and brought him out of the village. Now, that’s kind of strange. It seems a bit strange that Jesus doesn’t just do the miracle there. Rather, he walks the guy out of the village, OK? That’s not common in Jesus’s MO, and now we’re going to continue to Jesus spitting on his eyes.

OK, so this this is rare. Jesus does not commonly spit on people’s eyes. In fact, let me just ask you a question: So far if you’ve been following along in the Gospel of Mark — or maybe if you could just imagine for a moment — do you think that Jesus needs to spit on people in order to heal them? OK, so there’s something else going on here, and I’m actually just not going to resolve the tension for you. Rather, I’m going to encourage you to study your Bible in a group of people and ask this question: “What’s this about?” And then you can see what sort of crazy ideas everybody comes up with, right? That’s Bible study for you. So much fun.

“He looked up and said, ‘I see people – they look like trees walking.’” (Verse 240

I see people but they look like trees walking. Is that weird? Yes, it is. Are there any “Lord of the Rings” fans in the house? OK, this is not. This is not the Ents. OK, this is something else. Here’s what I think is going on here.

Based on the text, it seems like Jesus spits on the dude’s eyes, touches his eyes and then asks him this question. “Do you see anything?”

Do you guys know when you first wake up, and you’ve got all this stuff in your eyes? OK, I’m not an optometrist. I don’t know what that is, but I know I’ve got to get it out of my eyes so I can see clearly. It’s happened to you guys before. You can you kind of see, but everything is fuzzy, right? You kind of have to intently hold on a minute, OK? And then you see clearly, right?

OK, so that seems to be what happened. It seems like Jesus kind of heals the dude — like half heals the dude – weird. And the guys says,” Well, I kind of see, but I see people moving around, but they kind of look blurry, right?” I kind of have a distorted view of reality. I kind of see, but I don’t fully see. You guys catching this?

Now let me ask you a question: Do you think Jesus is just out of gas? He’s thinking, “Listen. Another healing. Let’s go outside the village.” And you know, Jesus, it didn’t work. Can we do another round? He’s like “Alright, you know, OK, let’s.” Is that what’s going on here? What’s going on here? There’s something else going on here.

Notice that this is strange in all of Jesus’s miracles. First of all, you’ve got the spit, but then it’s a two-part miracle and it’s unnecessarily in two parts, right? The guy says I see trees. I see people, but they’re kind of like trees. I kind of see, but I don’t really see.

“Again, Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes. The man looked intently, and his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him home, saying ‘Don’t even go to the village.’” (Verse 25-26)

Again, Jesus placed his hands on the man’ eyes. The man looked what? Intently. And his sight was restored. He looks intently, and then his sight was restored. And he sees what? Everything clearly.

OK, I’m going to just give my opinion. I think I’m right. I think that this is a set up for the next section. I think that the author Mark is intentionally articulating and showing you this miracle right here, in this moment because of what’s going to happen next. Because what’s going to happen next is that you’re going to have a clarification of our vision of who Jesus is. He’s going to turn to his disciples here in a minute. He’s going to disrupt their misunderstanding of who he is in a way that’s really powerful. He’s going to invite them to see him more clearly. Watch this. It will make my argument right now here.

“Jesus went out with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Phillip. On the road he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ They answered him, ‘John the Baptist; others, Elijah, sill others, one of the prophets.’” (Verse 27-28)

Jesus went out with his disciples to the villages Ceasara Philippi. The disciples are on the case, so they’re following Jesus. And from what we could tell in the broader context, they’re headed towards Jerusalem, which is where he’s going to be crucified and buried and rise from the dead. OK, so they’re on the road to Jerusalem.

Jesus says, “Who do people say that I am?” Another way to say it is what do you think people see me as? What is people’s vision of me?

They answered him, John the Baptist, others Elijah – who was like an old-school prophet — still others that they didn’t know what prophet — just one of them.

“’But you,’ he asked them, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.’ And he strictly warned them to tell no one about him” (Verse 29-30)

Now he’s turning the question. He starts with who do people say that I am? And then — who’s he talking to? He’s talking to his disciples. He says, who do you say that I am? What’s your vision of me? How do you see me?

Now notice this. Peter answered him, you are the Messiah. Peter thinks he sees Jesus clearly, so much so that he’s willing to contradict what other people say about Jesus. And he says, Jesus, I know who you are, you’re the Messiah. And he’s probably like A+ on the theology quiz.

Now this word Messiah. It’s got a lot of religious baggage, but here’s basically what it means. It just means chosen one or anointed one. Another word for it when it gets translated is Christ. This idea is that there is a chosen one who’s going to save our people — there’s a lot of modern religious overtones to this. But in Jesus’s day, this would have been somewhat religious, but a lot of political and military. And here’s why. The people living in Jerusalem were living not as a free people, but they were living under Roman occupation. The Romans had come in, conquered their land, and were occupying their territory. And what does any occupied people want? They want their freedom. They want to gain their freedom back. They want salvation from their evil overlords. Is that right? Is that normal, a normal desire? It’s a totally normal desire.

Now in Jesus’s day, there was this language in their scriptures — what we sometimes refer to as the Old Testament — that there would one day be a chosen one who would reestablish the Kingdom of Israel. There would be a chosen one, a Messiah and anointed one who would come and bring salvation. So, what do you think everyone in Jesus’s day thought the Messiah was going to do? Save them from whom? From Rome. Everyone’s messianic expectation is that the Messiah “chosen one” would come and he would kill Caesar. Is that a normal expectation? Is that just completely legitimate for anyone who lives under occupied force? Yeah, this is what we would want, right?

OK, so Peter says you’re the chosen one. You’re the Christ, the Messiah. Now watch. And he strictly wanted them to tell no one about him. This is that Messianic secret that keeps coming up in the Gospel of Mark. If you want to know more about that, just listen to some of the previous sermons on DSBC dot church. In fact, you should just listen to all the sermons from the last 45 years. They were pretty good.

“Then he began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed and rise after three days. He spoke openly about this.” (Verses 31-32)

Notice this. “… for the Son of Man to …” Uh oh!

What do Peter and the disciples want Jesus to do? Conquer Rome. And now Jesus is saying I’m the Messiah. And the Messiah, the Son of Man is going to suffer many things. Be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, which are like the religious elite, who should be celebrating the Messiah.

What? Rejected? And then he’ going to be … Oh, my! And then rise after three days. He predicts his resurrection. He spoke openly about this. He spoke confidently or powerfully about this.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning around and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are not thinking about God’s concerns, but human concerns.’ “

No, no, no! Peter took him aside and began to do what? Rebuke. OK, so the chutzpah of this guy, right? So, Peter gives the answer, “You’re the Messiah. That’s who I say you are.” And in his mind, he had a certain view of what Jesus was supposed to be. And then Jesus completely contradicted what Peter’s assumptions about the Messiah were. Notice Peter is in a state of disruption. His whole belief system is now being disrupted, so much so that Peter, one of Jesus disciples, comes out from the crowd of disciples, takes Jesus aside and then says, “You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.” Right? He says, “Jesus, that cannot happen.”

Why does Peter rebuke Jesus? Jesus is not living up to his expectations of what Jesus is supposed to be. Let me ask you this. Have you ever seen God do a work and then be angry at God for doing the work? You ever seen the teaching of God, then be angry at God for the teaching? So, are we above this?

And Jesus is saying I’m going to suffer many things, be killed, and rise three days later, OK? And then Peter comes out from the crowd, and then notice. Notice the language Peter uses as he takes Jesus aside. What does Peter think he’s doing to Jesus? He is trying to lead Jesus. Right, he comes out from the group of disciples, grabs him, and takes him aside. Are you guys seeing this? Peter takes Jesus aside, and who’s in the lead? Peter presumes himself now to take the lead and define Jesus how Peter thinks Jesus should be defined. Do you think this is going to end well for Peter?

OK. Again, remember that we’re talking about our vision of who Jesus is and who we will let define our vision of who Jesus is — and if the vision of Jesus that we have is leading us into being Jesus-like or anti-Jesus.

Watch this. But turning around, Peter takes Jesus and says something like “Can I see you in the kitchen? Come over here, please. Jesus, you’re not going to die. You’re not going to do that. You have to be Messiah. You have to be an alive Messiah.” Right?

Notice what Jesus does. He turns around and looks at whom? He’s now inviting everybody in. He’s inviting everybody into what he’s about to say next. He rebukes Peter and says what?

Right, get behind me. Now, is that a strong rebuke? This is an exceptionally strong rebuke. He calls him Satan, right? Is a strong rebuke? I mean we would never do that to each other. Jesus rebukes Peter and says get behind me, Satan. Notice this. You are not thinking about what? God’s concerns. What are you thinking about?

OK, here’s your homework. Go home today and read Chapter 8,9 and 10 in the Gospel of Mark. Notice that three times Jesus predicts his death, burial, and resurrection, and three times immediately adjacent to those texts where he predicts his death, burial, resurrection, his disciples argue with him about power. And they’re arguing from the perspective of the kingdoms of this world, not the Kingdom of God.

They want more power. Just notice it, go back, read Chapter 8,9 and 10. They can’t see Jesus clearly. They see him, but they see a distorted view of Jesus. This distorted view of Jesus is causing them to say to Jesus, “No, you can’t die.” The other disciples will come to Jesus and say, “Make sure we get to be empowered, Jesus. We want to sit at your right hand and your left. And when your Kingdom finally comes” — and in their imagination it was when Jesus kills Caesar and establishes his earthly domain – “I want more power, Jesus.”

When you get home and read chapters 8, 9 and 10, it’s there, it’s right there. You get Peter being rebuked because he’s elevating human concerns above what? God’s concerns. He’s elevating the kingdoms of this world over the Kingdom of God.

“Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, ‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. (Verse 34)

Calling the crowd … OK, so this is different. Up until this point in time, Jesus usually takes his disciples away from the crowd for the deeper teaching. Notice what he’s going to do now. He’s going to do a deep teaching, but he turns to the crowd.

So remember … oh, sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Man, isn’t Jesus so cool? Watch this. Uh, I’ve got to tell you guys this. What did he say to Peter? That seems pretty harsh, right?

OK, but notice this “get behind me.” Here’s the deal. This is grace. He could have told Peter you’re out. You’re not allowed to be my disciple anymore. Or he could have said, you know, off with his head. But notice what he says. What does he say to him? Get behind me. Remember where the disciples were and remember that Peter came out from his place as a disciple and tried to lead Jesus. Jesus turns him back and says get back behind me. Because where do disciples exist — in front of or behind the one they’re following? He says get back to being my disciple, not my leader. It’s an act of grace. He reestablished Peter as a disciple. Do you guys see?

It in just this brief moment, Peter tries to elevate himself over Jesus and Jesus is like “Nah, bro. You get back behind me,” right? This is not “get away from me.” This is just “get back in your rightful place behind me and follow me, follow me. And then notice. Jesus says get behind me in order to do what? Follow me. Notice, he says, if anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Does that sound like kill Caesar to you? That’s interesting.

Some of us wear crosses, right? And we have jewelry or earrings. Or some of us have tattoos. At least for me, when I preach, I wear this cross. And one of the things it does for me is that when I feel it on my skin, it’s a physical reminder of my posture. My posture is to be cruciform — formed like the cross, which is sacrificial, gracious, loving, not trying to take power for myself, but rather use my power in service of others. Perhaps some of you do the same thing in your space. In your role, it just serves as a reminder. But what does it mean?

What must a disciple of Jesus do? What posture should they take? A posture of the cross. Now notice what Jesus does here. He says take up your — not sword, which is what they want, right? In fact, one of the things that you’ll see in in the other gospels is that when the soldiers come for Jesus, you know that Peter flinches to grab a sword. You know what Jesus says to him? Put that away.

The cross was used by the Romans to humiliate and disempower political dissidents. And he says that’s the form I want you to take. This let me just ask you this question: Does that have any bearing on how we think about power? Does that have any bearing on our posture as it relates to one another?

Does this have any bearing with what it means to follow Jesus? If a vision of Jesus is as a warrior who’s going to slay, and he’s just handing out swords — that distorted view of Jesus will likely lead me to do things that are elevating human concerns above the concerns of God. So, could you ever imagine a time in human history where people will use Jesus’s name to justify the growth of their own kingdom? For 1700 years, that’s been going on. I would just refer to any Western civilization history book. Just look at how much God-talk there is to justify concerns of humanity, not the concerns of God.

But Jesus says if you want to follow me, take up your cross. Let me ask you this: What does it look like for you to take up your cross? What does it look like for us as a church family to be cruciform?

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it. For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life? What can anyone give in exchange for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with holy angels. Then he said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come in power.” (Verse 35-39)

Jesus says that if you keep trying to reach out and take for yourself, it’s going to destroy you. But if you give away, that’s where you find the true power. What does it benefit? I love this. “What does it benefit for someone to gain the whole world and yet lose their life? What can anyone give in exchange for their life? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in, the glory of his father with the Holy Angels. And then he says to them, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God coming in its power.”

And what does Jesus have in mind there? I think that Jesus doesn’t mind the Kingdom of God coming in its power through his crucifixion, his death and his resurrection. How does King Jesus win? By killing, or by letting them kill him? How does Jesus win? By reaching out and grasping for a crown of gold, or allowing them to put a crown of thorns on his head? Does Jesus win by the sword or by the cross? OK, so when he says take up your cross and follow me, I believe that he means for us to look at his death, burial and resurrection and say I’m going to live that way too.

So, what does that look like for us as a church? It is very, very easy to tether the Kingdom of God with the kingdoms of this world in order to advance our version of the kingdoms of this world. To put it another way, it’s really easy to use God-talk for my own political gain.

One of the questions I have is: Am I allowing Jesus to shape my politics, or am I allowing my politics to use my Jesus? Here’s a test that I that I use for myself. When was the last time Jesus changed one of my political commitments? When was the last time I allowed Jesus to change one of my political commitments?

If the Spirit of the Living God isn’t dwelling within us, constantly reforming us and renewing our minds — not according to the patterns of this world, but by the power of the Spirit – then should I expect that I’ve got all my political commitments lined up with the Kingdom of God at the age of 41 now? How old am I? 40? Trying to sneak an extra year in there on you.

Right, do you think that I still need to grow? Yeah, you guys weren’t unanimous in that. Thank you. Do you think I still need to grow? Yeah, of course I do. And do you think you do, too? OK, so when was the last time that Jesus reformed or reshaped one of my political commitments? Because it’s so easy to be like Peter and think “Jesus, you need to be this way because this is what I perceive you to be” rather than allowing Jesus to say, “Hold up, hold up. I’m actually not the way you think I am. You need to see me more clearly. You see me dimly, you see me blurry. But you need to see me more clearly. And if you want to see me clearly, look at the cross. So as a church family, we are engaged in politics and government. But we are living, not as people tethered to any partisan or political party — because those are versions of the kingdom of this world – but we live as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. Because the Kingdom of God absolutely transcends all parties.

Let me tell you a story about Scottish people. Yeah, so I was talking to somebody there today. He was relaying this story. A friend of his — he’s Presbyterian, and we’re still friends — he was talking about this Presbyterian minister who was a very conservative American Presbyterian minister. Very, very conservative. He went over to the Highlands of Scotland to another very conservative Presbyterian Church to minister to very conservative Presbyterians.

And they got on it after he was there for a few weeks. He got on the topic of politics, as one does when you’re a very conservative Presbyterian, and he was shocked and aghast to discover that every one of the people that he was talking to was a socialist. He said, “How could you be a socialist? You’re Christians.” And they looked at him like a cow looks at a new fence.

They said, “We’re up here in the highlands of Scotland. We wouldn’t have water, electricity. We wouldn’t have any of these things if it weren’t for democratic socialism,” which is the party that they were. They said, “According to the clear teachings of scripture, this is obviously the right way to vote.”

Could you imagine that flying in Phoenix? Now, what is that speaking to, right? We’re laughing because we already get the joke that the Kingdom of God is not the kingdoms of this world. So anytime the kingdom of this world claims to be the Kingdom of God, we ought to say, hold up. That was Peter’s mistake.

Is there a cross here? Because if I’m going to see Jesus more clearly, I need to be seeing cruciform life – a cross. And boy, do we need this cruciform life now. In this community, do we not have competing visions of Jesus? As a church family, we are committed to the best of our ability to put Jesus on display, which is cruciform, shaped like a cross. Committed to, every day, picking up our cross and following Jesus.

And so, here’s my encouragement to you. I want to encourage you in two things. On your way in you should have received a handout with a prayer card on it. Would you guys please grab that? If you don’t have one, there should be some available in the back of the seats.

Years ago, we heard about a story of a church that was building a new building. Before they finished the building – before they finalized their drywall — they said, hey, before we put the last sheet of drywall up, let’s have a prayer service. What we’ll do is, we’ll pray for the people in our community. We’ll pray for the people in our lives who need to see Jesus. And we’ll write their names down on these cards and we’ll pray over them. And then we’ll put them in the wall, and then we’ll seal up the wall.

And the reason that we’re going to do that is because we want to be reminded. Every time we walk past that wall, we want to be reminded to pray, and so they did it. And it was this beautiful experience. Eventually over the course of weeks and months they would do baptisms, and they would say things like hey, this Jim who’s going to get baptized – is his names in the wall? We’ve been praying for Jim for the last six months.

We loved that story, and we were like, oh man, our building was already done. So, one of our elders took a giant sledgehammer and put that hole in the wall so that we could participate in this same act. And so, over the years we’ve done this exercise where we have just asked the Lord, “Lord, who’s here, who’s not here that needs to be here? Lord, who is kind of adjacent to this community, but hasn’t yet seen a vision of you, Jesus? God, who have you put in my life that needs to see a vision of you, Jesus?” And we fold that up and we put that in the wall.

So, I’m going to ask that you would consider two things. One: Who are the people in your life that God has called you to pray over? Who needs to see a clear vision of Jesus? Maybe they’re getting a distorted image of Jesus, but they need to see a clear image of Jesus. Would you just write those names down? And at the conclusion of our time together, would you put those in the wall as a commitment to pray.

And I’m going to ask you to do something else. In that act, would you also commit to praying that the Lord would show you and provide you with an opportunity to show Jesus to them? To show Jesus to them — it could be through words, it could be through actions, whatever it looks like in your life. What would it look like to take up your cross? To follow Jesus and to show that cruciform love to the people that God is calling you to pray over.

I’m going to pray, and then we’ll take a moment for you to write those names down. Then after we conclude, would you place those in the wall as an act of commitment?

Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, we love you and we give you thanks for your many blessings and provisions. But Jesus, we also give you thanks that you have given us this clear vision in your word. This deep truth that to follow you is to take up a cross, just as you, Jesus, have taken it up. But it doesn’t lead to despair. It leads to resurrection. And so we live in hope, knowing that we don’t need to grasp power for ourselves, that we don’t need to take the sword in order to establish your Kingdom, but rather, Lord, that in giving ourselves to you — using our power and giving it away in the service to others — Lord, that you honor that, you bless that, and ultimately you use that as your Kingdom comes, and your will is done here on earth as it is in the Kingdom of God. Would you continue to shape us more and more into a people that mirror you, Jesus? It’s in your name that we pray, Amen.