A Sermon by Dan Calvo
Pittsburgh New Church
November 9th, 2025
One of the best feelings in the world is the feeling of being in control. That feeling we get when we are on top of everything in our life, when we get everything that we need to get done finished in our To Do List, when we are keeping track of our health, working out and eating healthy, when we are paying all our bills, when we are getting all our errands done, and when we are moving forward in life knowing that we are getting things done and that we are in control. When we are in this great situation, we almost feel like we are a commander of an army, being able to direct every part of our life to go the way that we want. It truly feels amazing to be in charge.
But then of course as it happens we realize that we are not in charge. Life comes at us really fast, and before we know it we are faced with just how limited we are, and how much we do not have control over the world. Maybe we lose our job because there were cuts, maybe we get into an accident and get injured, maybe we get sick, maybe a family member passes away, or there is some sort of a natural disaster. All these things are completely out of our control and most of the time we cannot really keep them from happening. When we are faced with these challenges in our lives we have to look at ourselves and realize that we are limited human beings and that we are actually not in charge. This realization that we are limited and that we do not have the power to control everything in the world can bring a lot of pain to us, because we like to believe that we have the power to control everything that can happen to us and that we have the power to take control over the world around us and avoid any bad thing that may come our way. And of course, the reality is that we do not have that power and when we face that reality it can be very painful because then we come face to face with the fact that in many ways we are completely, absolutely, powerless.
The centurion in the story that we just read today for the children's talk was in a very similar situation to this. For context, a centurion as we talked about was a commander of the Roman army who was in charge of 100 warriors, sometimes even more and they were chosen to become centurions after proving themselves in battle and after passing very strict standards of physical ability and martial prowess. Centurions in many cases were from wealthy backgrounds, but a wealthy background was not enough to get them in that position. They had to prove that they were warriors who were strong enough and powerful enough to command 100 Roman soldiers for the most dominant empire on earth. So clearly, a centurion was someone you did not want to mess with. A centurion had a lot of control over the lives of others, and yet in this story this centurion did not have the power to heal his servant. The centurion had enough authority to command over 100 warriors and he probably had the resources to get the best medicine available to anyone in the world at that time with him being a high-ranking officer of the Roman army, and yet he still wasn’t able to change his situation. He could not heal his servant, he was completely powerless to do so.
In our own lives we like to believe that we are like the centurion, that we have all this power and authority over our lives. Maybe it comes from our education, from the wealth that we have been able to accumulate or that has been passed down to us, or maybe it comes from our physical prowess or even our appearance. And we may go through life thinking that we are in control and that we have the power to take charge over any situation that comes our way and yet we have to be faced a lot of times with the fact that we don't have that power, we don't have that authority. We cannot miraculously heal every illness, we cannot prevent natural disasters from happening, and we cannot bring the dead back to life. We are not God. We are limited. We are powerless.
If the centurion had decided to rely on his own power and his own authority to deal with his servant’s illness, his servant would have died. If we do not accept our limitations, we will bring tremendous suffering into our lives and even the lives of others. We can become riddled with anxiety over the fact that we have to be on top of everything, and we have to be in control of every single little part of our lives and if anything doesn't go according to plan then we become distressed because we feel that we are failing at being worthy human beings. If we go through life believing that we must be in control all the time when we are faced with the absolute truth that we are not in control and that left to our own devices we are actually powerless we may very well lose hope, we may lose faith, we may lose our confidence, and we may end up living in fear that something is going to happen to us and we won’t be able to do anything about it. Or on the other hand, we will try to bite a whole lot more than we can chew trying to take control over situations that we cannot control, living in denial over our own limitations.
If someone in our lives was to develop an incurable disease, we would do that person a terrible disservice if we were to tell them that we have the power to heal them. In the same way we would do ourselves and our families a terrible disservice if we were to see the weather forecast in the news saying that there is a dangerous tornado coming our way and because we weren’t ready and it didn’t go according to our plan for that evening, we freeze up and become desperate. In all these situations we end up asking ourselves the same question, “What do I do?”
It may sound counterintuitive but the best way to deal with this difficult situation is to humble ourselves and surrender to the supreme authority of God. This is something that may challenge a lot of our notions in our modern culture that call on us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and get over it and just push through and try to take control under any circumstance. Humility and allowing the Lord to take charge of our lives aren’t really qualities that are seen as positive in our modern world. But really that is an unhealthy and unrealistic way of trying to deal with our limitations as human beings. In this story, the centurion recognized this, and he reached out to the Lord and asked Him to heal his servant. Recognizing that there is a power greater than ourselves that can actually help us and guide us and take care of us is the first step in achieving the humility we need to allow the Lord to lead us through life.
This passage from Secrets of Heaven which you can find in the back of your handout explains this state of humility further, by saying this:
A state of true humility can only exist when people acknowledge that of themselves they are profane and condemned, and so of themselves are incapable of looking towards the Lord where everything is Divine and Holy. To the extent therefore that a person acknowledges his own condition he can possess true humility, and when engaged in worship can have real devotion. For all worship must contain humility, and if separated from it no adoration and so no worship at all is present. The reason a state of humility is vital to worship itself is that insofar as the heart is humbled selfishness and all resulting evil come to an end; and insofar as these come to an end good and truth, that is, charity and faith, flow in from the Lord.
This recognition that by ourselves we are powerless and we cannot lead good lives without the guidance of the Lord is at the core of humility. When we acknowledge that we are limited, that everything that is good in our souls and in our lives comes from the Lord and not from ourselves, then we can achieve a level of humility that will allow us to overcome the challenges in our lives because we will no longer be relying on our own strength but on the infinite strength of the Lord. While we may not have the power or authority to be in control of everything in the world or in our lives there is one thing that we are absolutely in control of, and that is our willingness to humble ourselves and allow the Lord to take charge of our lives.
And when we allow ourselves to rely on the Lord, He is able to come into our lives and bring peace and healing. As the Lord was reaching the centurion’s house, the centurion sent messengers and said, “Lord you do not have to enter my house because I am not worthy of it. I know that if you simply want it to be so my servant will be healed.” The centurion completely humbled himself before the Lord and he was absolutely convinced that the Lord could heal his servant, that the Lord had the power to take over the situation, and that He was in charge. The centurion recognized that his own authority as a powerful warrior, as a leader of 100 men was meaningless compared to the supreme authority of the Lord, and when he humbled himself in this way he allowed the Lord to do His work and heal his servant.
Heavenly peace, which is the peace that is experienced by angels in heaven, comes from an absolute reliance in the authority of the Lord. One of the most important passages in the Heavenly Doctrines, from the book Secrets of Heaven, says this:
Peace holds within itself trust in the Lord, the trust that He governs all things and provides all things, and that He leads towards an end that is good. When a person believes these things about Him he is at peace, since he fears nothing and no anxiety about things to come disturbs him.
When we recognize that the Lord is in charge and that He is always leading us to a good result we can surrender to His care, and we can end up appreciating the fact that our lack of control over the world is a very good thing. We don't have control over the weather, we don't have control over death, we don't have control over what is going to happen tomorrow. And thank goodness that we don't have that control! Thank goodness that we are not in charge! Because there is someone who is looking at every single miniscule detail of our lives and carefully guiding us to the best possible result that will make us happy and fulfilled, and that person is the Lord. When we trust in His care, we know that we can deal with every situation that comes our way, no matter what it is, because we are not relying on ourselves, we are relying on the Lord.
While we may go through life thinking that we are in control and that we have the ultimate authority to take charge of everything in the world around us, the truth is that we do not have that power but when we humble ourselves, and surrender to the care and guidance of God, we can let go of all the anxiety and pain that we've been going through while worrying about being in charge. We can achieve heavenly peace and spiritual healing by relying on the higher power that is taking care of us at every single moment of our lives. We can let Him take the lead, let Him be the centurion and commander of every aspect of our lives, because He will guide us to the best possible result, not only in this life but to eternity. Amen.