THE COCOON
by Bob Wickizer
Scripture: Isaiah 64:1-9, Psalm 80:1-7, Psalm 80:16-18, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Mark 13:24-37
The Cocoon
Bob Wickizer
Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7,16-18; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 ; Mark 13:24-37
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence--
…
to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
I have listened carefully to people discussing the events in Ferguson Missouri. The invective, the hatred, the misunderstandings and the stereotypes and name-calling I have heard make me wonder if collectively we have been asleep since the 1960s.
I will not dive into the details of the case because A) it is not germane to this sermon and B) no one can ever know the facts of the case so anything we could say about it would be purely conjecture. Nonetheless, many people earnestly discuss the facts of the case as they have learned about it on FaceBook or the news. They manage to convey their bias neatly packaged in some fact or detail that they learned on the Internet.
We should know better than to allow the news or the Internet to do nothing but confirm and amplify our preconceived notions about how things should be. Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms, ''Watch. Keep awake!'' In other words, if you are already asleep, wake up and use your brain.
We all want to have a neat and tidy world fully understandable in terms of good guys and bad guys. We want to know where we stand so we divide up the world and most of us put ourselves on the good side of the ledger. Once we have established our world-view, all data coming into us either confirms our understanding of how things should be or the data is rejected. Every one of us constructs our own comfortable cocoon and then we crawl inside and fall asleep.
The trouble with the cocoon is that it becomes our only world. We cannot fathom the world outside it. We cannot talk to other people outside it. We cannot even imagine another cocoon because we are asleep inside ours.
But the real world is not ne ...
Bob Wickizer
Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7,16-18; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 ; Mark 13:24-37
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence--
…
to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
I have listened carefully to people discussing the events in Ferguson Missouri. The invective, the hatred, the misunderstandings and the stereotypes and name-calling I have heard make me wonder if collectively we have been asleep since the 1960s.
I will not dive into the details of the case because A) it is not germane to this sermon and B) no one can ever know the facts of the case so anything we could say about it would be purely conjecture. Nonetheless, many people earnestly discuss the facts of the case as they have learned about it on FaceBook or the news. They manage to convey their bias neatly packaged in some fact or detail that they learned on the Internet.
We should know better than to allow the news or the Internet to do nothing but confirm and amplify our preconceived notions about how things should be. Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms, ''Watch. Keep awake!'' In other words, if you are already asleep, wake up and use your brain.
We all want to have a neat and tidy world fully understandable in terms of good guys and bad guys. We want to know where we stand so we divide up the world and most of us put ourselves on the good side of the ledger. Once we have established our world-view, all data coming into us either confirms our understanding of how things should be or the data is rejected. Every one of us constructs our own comfortable cocoon and then we crawl inside and fall asleep.
The trouble with the cocoon is that it becomes our only world. We cannot fathom the world outside it. We cannot talk to other people outside it. We cannot even imagine another cocoon because we are asleep inside ours.
But the real world is not ne ...
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