Last Sunday, January 4, I preached the Epiphany sermon at our church, based on an outline I blogged before:

• The wise men at the beginning of the story were inspired (by the star) but not informed (by scripture)
• The Jerusalem religious leaders and scholars were informed but not inspired.
• Finally, the wise men were informed AND inspired, and they worshiped.

Many folks told me after they felt “Inspired” and “Informed.”

On Monday, I took my brother-in-law Jim to Costco to work out something with respect to his Costco account and the affiliated credit card. I didn’t understand the issue, but Jim was concerned he might have lost $400 in bonuses. Afterward Jim gushed over customer service rep Kobe who told him immediately not to worry, that he (Kobe) could fix it. And he did. Jim described Kobe as “Inspired” and “Informed.” He was inspired to care for the customer, AND he was informed enough to fix the problem.

A good and necessary combination! It’s not enough to care if you don’t know how to solve the problem. And if you know how to solve the problem, you must care enough to implement the solution.

A nice real-world application of a simple concept: inspired AND informed, caring AND capable.

When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. (Matthew 8.1 – 3, ESV)

PS If you want to watch the sermon, at the moment it’s posted here: https://mcpcusa.org/watch. That’s the whole service, and the sermon starts about 33 minutes in.