November 27th, 2013 Commentary to Henri Nouwen's Daily Meditation

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Daily-Meditation--Having-Reverence-and-Respect-for-the-Body.html?soid=1011221485028&aid=O9JxIch06Eg

In case the above link to Henri Nouwen’s Daily Meditation doesn’t work:

Wednesday November 27, 2013 
Having Reverence and Respect for the Body

In so many ways we use and abuse our bodies.  Jesus' coming to us in the body and his being lifted with his body in the glory of God call us to treat our bodies and the bodies of others with great reverence and respect.

God, through Jesus, has made our bodies sacred places where God has chosen to dwell.  Our faith in the resurrection of the body, therefore, calls us to care for our own and one another's bodies with love.  When we bind one another's wounds and work for the healing of one another's bodies, we witness to the sacredness of the human body, a body destined for eternal life.

My Commentary:

Long before my conversion experience and in the throws of my first career studies in the fine arts; I used to figure paint.  In fact figure painting was my undergraduate major.  I would paint the female or male nude in either watercolor or oils.  It was a different kind of appreciation for God’s creation you could say.  The human figure is incredibly complex and intricate to paint.  I studied at the time with one of the best at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  His paintings were earthy and raw as well as exacting much like British figure painter Lucein Freud.

Twenty plus years later, I am studying another kind of Body—the Body of Christ and how I may best use myself for both answering God’s call and serving His will. Looking back sometimes at my art, I am looking into my former self.  It is as if St. Paul’s beautiful message of clothing yourself with Christ and putting on the New Nature is a New body of my transformed self.  Lament is the tease of the mirror/ temptation from the evil one… for now my new self is truly a temple dedicated to God.  His Holy Spirit and wondrous love strengthens my soul assuring me always where my journey is leading me to.  His prevenient GRACE is building up the solid foundation of faith my heart needs to best serve His holy church!

I leave you with thinking about those within the Body that are more or less “Chaplains to the worldly culture,” than pastors/servants to Christ.  There is a new female pastor on the Lutheran scene making a “prophetic” buzz with both her language, body piercings and tattoos.  Is it really connecting with the lost and seeking in the subculture as perhaps her ministry to culture’s aim is? Or is she distracting from the Gospel and central focus of Christ Jesus with showmanship and bodily mutilations?  We are both saint and sinner, this is true but how does Jesus speak through all these stumbling blocks of our sin?  We need to be grateful for everything God has given us.  We need to be grateful for the beauty of nature and of ourselves as given to us naturally.  With Thanksgiving nearly here in 18 hours, let us take the time to truthfully reflect upon these thoughts above.

God Bless You and your Wednesdays too!

Nicole Collins

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni's fresco detailing "The Creation of Adam" in the Sistine Chapel; Rome.

November 26th, 2013 Commentary to Henri Nouwen's Daily Meditation

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Daily-Meditation--Wounds-Becoming-Signs-of-Glory.html?soid=1011221485028&aid=LJhG5q6mvpc

In case the above link to Henri Nouwen’s Daily Meditation doesn’t work:

Tuesday November 26, 2013 
Wounds Becoming Signs of Glory

The resurrection of Jesus is the basis of our faith in the resurrection of our bodies.  Often we hear the suggestion that our bodies are the prisons of our souls and that the spiritual life is the way out of these prisons.  But by our faith in the resurrection of the body we proclaim that the spiritual life and the life in the body cannot be separated.  Our bodies, as Paul says, are temples of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 6:19) and, therefore, sacred.  The resurrection of the body means that what we have lived in the body will not go to waste but will be lifted in our eternal life with God.  As Christ bears the marks of his suffering in his risen body, our bodies in the resurrection will bear the marks of our suffering.  Our wounds will become signs of glory in the resurrection.   

My Commentary:

I believe it was Thomas Moore who said that the soul is the tabernacle of the Holy Spirit.  This tabernacle is at the center of the internal church of Christ planted and germinating within us to tap into.  It was a couple of weeks ago, there was an online debate about the resurrection.  Someone challenged the thought that perhaps it is just a metaphor.  If it was just a metaphor then what do we do with the centuries of martyrs dying to proclaim Jesus arose and gave us New Life!?

Sometime earlier before that I was watching a show on the History channel about the early Christians and how they basically developed codes to communicate to one another.  The Jesus fish is actually one of the first codes.  Basically a disciple would draw an arc and if the person he/ she came across completes it correctly, they knew they were Christians and could escape persecution together. 

One of the lesser known symbols found nearly on every Christian grave as a “creedal” code in some sense was the symbol of Jonah and the whale.  For the Early Christians the satiric story of Jonah and his survival in the whale represented for them Jesus triumphant rising from 3 days in the tomb and being the Messiah!  These ancient tombs are ironically buried beneath modern Israeli apartment buildings, underneath malls, vacant houses… nearly everywhere!  Think about that for a moment—the ravages of time as well as truthfully… Are we burying our faith or bearing our faith in Christ Jesus resurrection?

Those voices may have been silenced in actuality by death’s cool sting but as we hear from St. Paul—great encouragement! 1 Corinthians 15:51-58: “⁵¹Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, ⁵²in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. ⁵⁴When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” ⁵⁵“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” ⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.⁵⁸Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

Matt Maher let’s join St. Paul in singing: Christ is Risen!

http://youtu.be/IExdrZGQVeI

God Bless Your Tuesdays!

Nicole Collins

"A Garden of Grace;" Sermon for Christ the King Sunday--November 24th, 2013 || Nicole Collins

In nearing his final breath Jesus says while saving a sinner: “⁴³…Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Paradise in its original language, here, actually means “walled garden.”  Could Jesus, the New Adam, have been referring to the New Eden?  The verse before is from one of the criminals crucified alongside Jesus, who has been enlightened to hear Jesus message that it is the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law, that guides our lives into becoming a lifestyle of GRACE.  Here is the voice of faith itself—one of the manifestations of GRACE: ⁴²…"Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

Just what kind of a Kingdom do we truly know Jesus instructing our hearts to realize?  It’s certainly not the kind of worldly kingdom we expect—shaped by conquest and “power…”  The true power of God, the Lordship of Christ is LOVE.  Love IS the greatest fruit born from faith which was born from GRACE.  The prophet Jeremiah foretells of the divine king: “^6b… And this is the name by which he will be called: "The LORD is our righteousness."  Out of a remnant people, a New kind of king arises…  a crucified one! It would be Reformed German Theologian, Jürgen Moltmann, the author of ‘The Crucified God,’ to best illumine our tension, our struggle with this: “The knowledge of the cross brings a conflict of interest between God who has become man and man who wishes to become God.”

As we hear in today’s texts, St. Paul had a tough time with the Colossians… they were beginning to close their heart’s wisdom to growing in understanding the GRACE of God and fit it instead, to their own pious understandings.  This is human nature… where God opens the door, we put up a wall.  St. Paul had to go “creedal” on them as we hear his profound heart’s wisdom on whom Christ Jesus is: “He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. ¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; ¹⁶ for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-- all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”

This is the entire snippet from Paul’s conversation with the Colossians, but nothing he says could be or should be left out!  The victory we were all given through Christ was GRACE.  The future hope of the Kingdom of God is the landscape of GRACE—the New Eden, as he was our example—the New Adam.  We will always battle with our saint and sinner reality until the final battle between Christ and Satan is complete.  Until then, the tree of life, the first born of all creation examples to us a new kind of Law—one founded in, with and through LOVE.

The wisdom of the heart born in Baptism as New life through Christ Jesus is abstract.  How do we actualize a lifestyle of GRACE through LOVE?  This is the very human challenge or task of discipleship for discipleship must begin through the Holy Spirit to transform us.  The Body of Christ itself is an abstraction for us to understand how we need to come together to “grow and go” spreading the Good News of the Gospel. Perhaps even thinking about the Lordship of Christ as the head of the Body is an abstraction—the Mystery of GRACE operating through LOVE exampled through our intentionality…

This past week I had a conversation with a former congregant of a community I left a couple of churches ago…  It was really troubling to me to hear how he was suffering now.  He was a member of this community for quite some time.  In fact, he and his family were going to this church for at least a generation plus…  He has always been someone who needs to be guided with exceptional love and nurturing; to which all pastors are called, commissioned and ordained FIRST by God to provide. To my surprise, he tells me of “office hours, by appointment only signs & answering machines, as well as being shunned and laughed at when confronting the pastor for help!”  I grieved with him for the congregation as well as thinking about serving the Lord.

If we truthfully, as pastoral leaders are to be agents of change and have truthfully been transformed by the reign of Christ within our hearts… why would something like this ever even happen?!  These verses from the Prophet Malachi spoke to me in regards to his dilemma: “You have spoken harsh words against me, says the LORD. Yet you say, "How have we spoken against you?" ¹⁴ You have said, "It is vain to serve God. What do we profit by keeping his command or by going about as mourners before the LORD of hosts? ¹⁵ Now we count the arrogant happy; evildoers not only prosper, but when they put God to the test they escape."

Since there were no nearby churches in my denomination for me to refer to this man to consider going to, I referred him to a Missouri Synod community.  I don’t know if that will be a place to once again spiritually feed and nurture him; but just like many genuinely faithful peers—I am still in training waiting with great faith and patience to be ready to serve!

Reaching out to this man had me also reflecting about that “walled garden,” as the near to last Words of LOVE Jesus speaks to a world that put him to death.  I don’t know how much people know of how horrible this kind of death was or could even want to imagine it…  You slowly die of asphyxiation which in the original Greek means: α- "without" and σφύξις sphyxis, "heartbeat," essentially if you cannot breath, you cannot talk, you cannot live…  Jesus however defied that human element of being unable to speak and SPOKE saying: ⁴³…"Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."  I tell you now… those Words are still speaking, here and now in the calling of those committed to Christ’s reign! 

Paradise is a garden.  It is a garden seeded by the Love of God bearing the fruit of GRACE.  The fruit of GRACE is faith which needs to be nurtured not only by being accountable to one another but by and through our love to God and neighbor.

I would like to leave you with a song that fits thinking about Christ Jesus reigning through and for all of creation.  While I was ruminating on these texts this whole week, I couldn’t get this song out of my head…

"All Of Creation" by Mercy Me

Separated until the veil was torn

The moment that hope was born and guilt was pardoned once and for all

Captivated but no longer bound by chains

left at an empty grave

the sinner and the sacred resolved

and all of creation sing with me now

lift up your voice and lay your burden down

and all of creation sing with me now

fill up the heavens let his glory resound

Time has faded and we see him face to face

every doubt erased forever we will worship the king

the reason we breathe is to sing of his glory

and for all he has done praise the father praise the son and the spirit in one

and every knee will bow oh and every tongue praise the father praise the son and the spirit in one

AMEN

To close with the actual song, here’s the link: http://youtu.be/O7bD02ZmTqk

November 24^th, 2013; Christ the King Sunday; Lectionary 34; Proper 29; SOLA Lectionary

Psalm 46; Malachi 3:13-18; Colossians 1:13-20; Luke 23:27-43 RCL: Jeremiah 23:1-6   

Nicole Collins

November 22nd, 2013 Commentary to Henri Nouwen's Daily Meditation

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Daily-Meditation--The-Challenge-of-Aging.html?soid=1011221485028&aid=0WtM9sca76k

In case the above link to Henri Nouwen’s Daily Meditation doesn’t work:

Friday November 22, 2013 

The Challenge of Aging

Waiting patiently in expectation does not necessarily get easier as we become older.  On the contrary, as we grow in age we are tempted to settle down in a routine way of living and say:  "Well, I have seen it all. ... There is nothing new under the sun. ... I am just going to take it easy and take the days as they come."  But in this way our lives lose their creative tension.  We no longer expect something really new to happen.  We become cynical or self-satisfied or simply bored.   

The challenge of aging is waiting with an ever-greater patience and an ever- stronger expectation.  It is living with an eager hope.  It is trusting that through Christ "we have been admitted into God's favour ... and look forward exultantly to God's glory" (Romans 5:2).

My Commentary:

The challenge of aging, what a funny title?!  I guess all of us “gen X’ers” can relate however.  As I’ve told people I’ve only felt old either hearing ‘80’s music or having 2 watts of energy past 9pm.  Seriously though, what we need to keep in perspective with “growing and going” as disciples of Jesus is that the big picture needs to be kept in God’s time.  Not only must we spiritually operate from an intentional place of hope and trust in the Lord but we must see that we, as a part of the body are bearers of Good News!  Living faithfully into the lifestyle of GRACE is a process of constant renewal.  An attitude of Gratitude should erase our anxiety about parameters of time and see the beauty of each new day as our New Life!

It is the Love of Christ that gives us New Life—he renews us daily in every way and shapes our paths by his prevenient GRACE.  Speaking for myself, I am always amazed to reflect on how God has transformed me.  It is daily that His gift of New Life through GRACE feeds me.  It is daily that prayer to Him enlivens me with new hope, trust and builds that solid foundation of faith!  The beauty of aging for the Christian should be seen as wisdom that shapes our hearts to be gifts of GRACE to others. 

God Bless Your Fridays!

Nicole Collins

One Great Day

God is still speaking whether we allow ourselves to be accountable or not…  The days are surely coming when the battle field lines are clearly seen and the real war begins!  There is a lot of fire in all of today’s texts.  It is a good and cleansing fire from a particular perspective.  It depends on how you keep your spiritual footing’s balance. In ruminating through great conversation Saturday morning; I heard voices. 

I heard the voice of MLK in his famous speech—‘I have a dream:’ “But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope.”

This was the beautiful fantastic speech made to motivate people to rise up and be accountable against civil rights oppression.  But let us think about the few snippets I included here to relate to our call to action as Christians…  There’s a lot going on these days especially Christians persecuting other Christians and evil similar to what Jesus experiences in the temple preaching the coming of man and the destruction of evil…  Here is God himself supposedly in His House(!), seen as a very unwelcome, uncomfortable VOICE to the people calling for true Transformation and speaking to that little talked about place: the internal church.

Malachi is the very last book in the Old Testament, not including apocryphal books that is; to end its chapters with a blaze of controversial things for us to think about! “¹See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. ²But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. ^3aAnd you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet… ⁵Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. ^6aHe will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents…” Little did the Prophet Malachi know that Jesus would essentially be the non-violent fulfillment of his oracle. BUT, perhaps Jesus was speaking about “violence?”  I would say the internal process of spiritual transformation is a violent upheaval of change from the Old Nature to the New.

The string of Prophecies from God Himself spoken in the temple of the narrow closed world of the Scribes and Pharisees were not welcomed Words for them to hear!  Daring to speak for our transformation in metaphor to the destruction of both the temple and the Jerusalem had Jesus’ enemies thinking in terms of actual violence: (Luke 22:1-6) “¹Now the festival of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was near. ²The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to put Jesus to death, for they were afraid of the people. ³Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve; ⁴he went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers of the temple police about how he might betray him to them.⁵They were greatly pleased and agreed to give him money. ⁶So he consented and began to look for an opportunity to betray him to them when no crowd was present.”

We know that Jesus turning over the tables of the money changers would prove to make the final justification and conviction for the Scribes & Pharisees to have Jesus Crucified BUT, in regards to my first example of speaking up for righteousness sake…  What justified those who assassinated Martin Luther King?  Simply talking about loving neighbor with color-blind eyes?  Satan finds his ways to work into our calls to righteousness whether they be coming out of God’s mouth literally to those speaking for true values to be realized NOW without trepidation, without fear and trembling against oppression but obedience to the discipleship call to action!  Action without accountability is social justice.  Action from within the truthfully transformed heart of the individual for the love of God and neighbor—where Christ is the Lord of their lives! IS the true righteousness—with no holds barred GRACE—not cheap grace’s “works righteousness!”

The Martin Luther from 500 plus years ago illumines the Christian disciples’ challenge: “This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.”

Yes, he was sure right about that wasn’t he?  It is one, long and winding road that we all face if we live into that lifestyle of GRACE and respond with the transformed spiritual fruits of our faith.  We are the agents of change within a transactional world curving inward like a star collapsing—a black hole of eventual death; Satan’s victory!

In regards to the Christian battlefield of Christians persecuting other Christians today… we are called to an even greater sense of urgency and agency.  It is truly an ironic thought that God himself in the flesh—Jesus Christ would be so unwelcome and feared to the point of death in our Gospel texts today…  Where in speaking about today and its “corporate community” to Christ, have themselves in certain camps: preaching, teaching in the “name of Jesus!” chaplaincy to the transactional world of the self and all its ugly fruits: greed, indifference, intolerance, bigotry, phobia, and all things that circumvent and tear down the cross of Christ itself! How welcoming… when ourselves and our Will or pursuit of supposed righteous can fail to be ok and even dare I say welcoming atheist mega churches to develop abroad!

This past week, I saw an interesting post about affirm or being “politically correct,” in accepting the development of atheist churches; that we have to be welcoming not defending our call to voice the Gospel if we say we are Christians and not Gnostics…  What is the true root of failure here?  Could it be in avoiding the uncomfortable call from Jesus to not only be Transformed but to preach, teach and example His living Word in the world as His disciples?  There are many who call themselves disciples but who’s voice could they be perhaps hearing truthfully instead of Christ’s?  Satan!  We have to hear this as well: Satan is real and his minions have had great success in our politically saturated, “correct” world!

St. Paul in today’s letter snippet from his second letter to the Thessalonians basically says: “⁹This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. ¹⁰For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. ¹¹For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. ¹²Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.¹³Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.”

Transformational discipleship which Jesus taught takes work!  It is work not around the self but FOR Love of God and neighbor—living into that commandment that is written upon our tabernacle to the Holy Spirit: the heart.  We instead fight battles dividing each other into nihilism and spiritual death.  We allow Satan to build a “Mighty Fortress” to the God of the self and its agendas.  Idolatry feeds very well into our Old Nature temptations.  Why change at all?  Why bother, I need to fight for myself!  It is like hearing Martin Luther King’s speech: “I have a dream…” and only hearing it as someone’s ideals… NOT values!  It is like hearing Jesus in today’s text as threatening to tear down the temple, literally… when he is actually speaking of the need for our hearts to be rebuilt to and for God and neighbor!  But who am I to share these things?  To dare start the fire of TRUTH that needs to be SAID?!

Instead of focusing on who am I… think in terms of whose You are.

AMEN

November 17^th, 2013; Lectionary 33; 26^th Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 28; Year C; SOLA Lectionary

Psalm 98; Malachi 4:1-6; 2 Thessalonians 3:1-13; Luke 21:5-36                 Nicole Collins

November 15th, 2013 Commentary to Henri Nouwen's Daily Meditation

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Daily-Meditation--Embracing-the-Universe.html?soid=1011221485028&aid=IGCMD6RWgh4

In case the above link to Henri Nouwen’s Daily Meditation doesn’t work:

Friday November 15, 2013 

Embracing the Universe

Living a spiritual life makes our little, fearful hearts as wide as the universe, because the Spirit of Jesus dwelling within us embraces the whole of creation.  Jesus is the Word, through whom the universe has been created.  As Paul says:  "In him were created all things in heaven and on earth:  everything visible and everything invisible - all things were created through him and for him - in him all things hold together" (Collosians 1:16-17).  Therefore when Jesus lives within us through his Spirit, our hearts embrace not only all people but all of creation.  Love casts out all fear and gathers in all that belongs to God.

Prayer, which is breathing with the Spirit of Jesus, leads us to this immense knowledge.

My Commentary:

One of the things I have always appreciated feeling centered about is that science in totality and complexity merely explains the magnificence of God.  All of what we discover is the “Art” of God as the creator of the Universe.  I love this one Rob Bell video called “Everything is Spiritual.”  Basically in the video he goes into great detail pointing out anomalies in both our thinking as well as in things discovered to prove without a doubt, God’s continuing work in creation is evident!

In so many ways, in so many things… we just don’t take enough time outside of ourselves to realize the omnipresence of God…  We are living in the Landscape of GRACE transformed by Jesus.  Within this landscape of GRACE, there should be inhabitants transformed and living GRACE as a lifestyle; but as we know this isn’t the reality of this world.  All we are asked to respond to our loving and Gracious God is with GRACE, itself as loving both God and neighbor and the beautiful creation he has given for us to dwell.  Do we really need much of anything else?

God Bless Your Fridays!

Nicole Collins

A link to ‘Everything is Spiritual’ by Rob Bell

Like with everything in this age of intellectual debate; there may be things in this video that you need to filter through your theological understanding to see the revelatory aspects of his central message…  The more direct way of putting this is that Lutherans usually don’t talk about the Holy Spirit (enough or not at all in some camps) but perhaps we need to.

http://youtu.be/ap1MSWQMd9Y

November 13th, 2013 Commentary to Henri Nouwen's Daily Meditation

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Daily-Meditation--Heart-As-Wide-As-the-World.html?soid=1011221485028&aid=ZEnPyjxGr5A

In case the above link to Henri Nouwen’s Daily Meditation doesn’t work:

Wednesday November 13, 2013 

Heart As Wide As the World

The awareness of being part of the communion of saints makes our hearts as wide as the world.  The love with which we love is not just our love; it is the love of Jesus and his saints living in us.  When the Spirit of Jesus lives in our hearts, all who have lived their lives in that Spirit live there too.  Our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents; our teachers and their teachers; our pastors and their pastors; our spiritual guides and theirs - all the holy men and women who form that long line of love through history - are part of our hearts, where the Spirit of Jesus chooses to dwell.

The communion of saints is not just a network of connections between people.  It is first and foremost the community of our hearts.

My Commentary:

One of the classes I had at the current seminary I’ve been studying at was Biblical Theology.  It basically was a hermeneutics class using Calvinism and Dispensationalism to read the Bible to which truly rubbed my Lutheran mind the wrong way… except for the concept of hearts turned or turning to God.  Before I came back to God or those pre-conversion days; I was an existentialist teetering into agnosticism with a pinch of curiosity of the mystery of the Soul.  I read perhaps way too much of Thomas Moore’s wonderful series around the soul such as ‘The care of the Soul,’ Soul Mates,’ ‘The Original Self ‘ and ‘The Re-enchantment of Everyday life.’   One could say his theology was creatively teetering over the perilous cliff of light-universalism plus Roman Catholicism… BUT I appreciated one aspect of his theology/philosophy that I am seeing from a different perspective than from those early days of my faith journey.  I appreciated his honest pursuit of understanding the Soul.

What is that mystical place—The Soul?  Is it technically or spiritually speaking the heart and personality of the person affected supernaturally by God?  Is the Soul the seat of the Holy Spirit—the tabernacle of the internal Church of Christ planted as a seed—always germinating?  Bearing fruit is the challenge of being “simul justus et peccator” or both saint and sinner.  Developing a heart as wide as the world is a beautiful poetic thought Nouwen states as coming to grips with where we are in living into the life of GRACE.  The affected heart turned to God in and through love is a new creation, new covenant of relationship—the process of sanctification or holiness.  If we can truly affect the world with the Gospel perhaps we can become one great community of saints—sanctified citizens of the Kingdom of God.

God Bless Your Wednesdays!

Nicole Collins

We all could use some "S.O.A.P"~ daily discipleship as experienced this past week at the Mission Festival

One of the wonderful exercises we did at the mission festival was to focus upon daily spiritual formation and growth as a disciple of Christ, called: S.O.A.P.  It is scripture, observation, application and prayer.  

I will definitely incorporate this kind of meditation into my prayer life.  This was a verse given at the break-out sessions and my responses~

Psalm 119:97-104

⁹⁷Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all day long.

⁹⁸Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is always with me.

⁹⁹I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your decrees are my meditation.

¹⁰⁰I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.

¹⁰¹I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word.

¹⁰²I do not turn away from your ordinances, for you have taught me.

¹⁰³How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

¹⁰⁴Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

Scripture: Chose one verse that stands out to you. Write it out on the lines below.
104 "Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way."

Observation:  In one sentence, what observations can you make about this verse?
Truth is revealed the more you study God's Word
Grow and Go with God as well as fight heresy.

Application: In one sentence, what application to your life will you consider making?
Being more supportive of Orthodoxy's voice.

Prayer: Based on your meditation, write out a prayer to God.

Heavenly Father,
May your Word always guide my heart
May I be a source to others to defend your Word
And build others up with the Truth of your Word
May the light of your GRACE break through the darkness--
AMEN

God Bless Your Mondays!
Nicole Collins

"Resurrevolution!" Sermon for November 10th, 2013 by Nicole Collins

Driving on my way to Ohio this past Thursday; I had the luxury of taking in all of Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship as an audible 10 hour audio book through my adult “toy”—my Samsung Galaxy phone.  I never realized how sitting back and simply taking in his passionate, pastoral reflections on discipleship were so grounded in both GRACE and the power of Christ’ resurrection.  For Bonhoeffer, GRACE and the power of the resurrection was the revolution taking place in the hearts of the multitude of disciples who chose to follow Jesus. 

The very first sermon given at the Mission festival was an instruction around the true power of God—The Word.  In, with and through the Word we KNOW that the power of God is the Gospel of Christ.  Christ Jesus resurrection defeating sin, death and the devil upon the cross is the cornerstone and pillar to our faith—Why we Are, whose we are—Why we Believe and are children of GRACE.

A Thursday night, day long Friday and half day Saturday only began to touch the tip of the spiritual iceberg we face as the Body in the world, trying to not be of it.  This Bonhoeffer quote actually haunted me these past few days: “At this point Jesus reveals to his disciples the possibility of a demonic faith which produces wonderful works quite indistinguishable from the works of the true disciples, works of charity, miracles, perhaps even of personal sanctification, but which is nevertheless a denial of Jesus and of the life of discipleship. This is just what St Paul means in I Corinthians 13, when he says that it is possible to preach, to prophesy, to have all knowledge, and even faith so as to remove mountains, and all this without love, that is to say, without Christ, without the Holy Spirit.”  It haunted me in thinking about the past: I left the ELCA and I have no regrets but the scars Satan has left negatively branded in my heart.  I left for the Gospel and its hold—power upon my heart—NOT for the world. In wondering about the future of where we stand as followers of Christ—committed to Christ through Love… It is indeed a personal fire that draws me to persevere for the TRUTH to be truthfully revealed and to grow in proclaiming the TRUTH!

In efforts trying not becoming ubiquitous on “facebook…” I am tempted to join into groups or discussions/ debates where perhaps it may be best to let it be.  There was one post however that drudged up those painful memories of hearing from “people of faith” exhibiting their LACK OF BELIEF, lack of passion. I don’t recall or frankly will not quote the post here but basically it challenged us to wonder—maybe St. Paul merely was being psychological about the resurrection of Christ Jesus even taking place! How could we even dare to fathom that there is no resurrection; especially if we are claiming to be his disciples? Gnosticism or the “secret knowledge” heresy raises it distorted revisionist head once again in a worldly culture all too focused inward to simply BELIEVE.  Belief is the structure that forms us, guides us and builds us as the true fellowship of GRACE—intentional disciples.  Being intentional in all we say and do is lost upon our intellectual dissection of the Gospel of GRACE’s heart: Christ.

St. Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, alludes to the true fellowship of GRACE in painting that apocalyptic landscape where the final battle between Christ and Satan takes place through our lawlessness. “⁹The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, ¹⁰and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. ¹³But we must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. ¹⁴For this purpose he called you through our proclamation of the good news, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.¹⁵So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter.”

We need to live into GRACE and die to the world.  We need to hear like Moses that day when God said:  “^14b…I AM WHO I AM…” and simply, faithfully BELIEVE!  Standing firm and holding fast to the pillars of FAITH is the accountability task of all who take in GRACE and define themselves disciples.  Defining the self to be centered in Him is our countercultural challenge from Jesus to spiritually transform.  Spiritual formation is both discernment and deconstruction from the inside out.  The problem with evil is how Satan finds ways to prey upon our vulnerability and our “knowledge…”  We can build white-washed stone cathedrals towering to the heights of heaven in the name of God… but without Christ, without Love, without GRACE—we are as hard as the stones erected holding nothing but emptiness and death.

The last worship service of Friday evening included a commissioning woven with prayer and the laying on of hands.  The pastor who was preaching that evening was praying over everyone there.  She came to me as I knelt at the rail, looking deeply into my eyes and said: “You hold much anxiety don’t you?” Those words rang down to my very being… I replied “Yes, I am.”  I don’t recall much after her first words except that they were beautiful words from someone who doesn’t ‘know’ me but does KNOW who she proclaims: Jesus!  I don’t know how many other people that evening or even at the close of the entire festival experienced introspection like I had, but it was something spiritually needing to BE HEARD.  We can all feel like Job, wondering whether what we do as the Body—individually or collectively truthfully engages the problem of evil…  Faith in, with and through Christ Jesus conquers Satan’s efforts.  Even in the height of the terrible things Job was subjected to, he cries aloud to YHWH: “²⁵For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; ²⁶and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, ²⁷whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.”

The face of discipleship from this spiritually growing seminarian is an ever-changing battlefield balanced in tension between Good and Evil. It is Christ Jesus who binds our hearts to his will when we are truthfully, Confessionally built upon His Word and no others… As Jesus says: “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage;³⁵but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.³⁶Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. ³⁷And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. ³⁸Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.” Jesus was talking about those following Mosaic law’s customs of marriage but in looking beyond those Words to the TRUTH revealed to our discipleship hearts—Jesus beckons us.  Jesus beckons us to whom are we faithfully married to—the world or the Kingdom of God?  Sanctification is a process and a lifestyle of intentionally living in the light of GRACE.

If we chose to revise belief in “vain” attempts to justify rather than understand that God is: “^14b…I AM WHO I AM…” We become the lawless minions of Satan’s attempts to destroy all that is Good, building cathedrals of stone and death instead of boundless love covering the earth. We must hear and repeat St. Paul’s closing Words in today’s letter: “¹⁵So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter. ¹⁶Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through GRACE gave us eternal comfort and good hope, ¹⁷comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.”

AMEN

Sunday November 10^th, 2013 Lectionary 32; 25^th Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 27; Year C; SOLA Lectionary

Psalm 148; Exodus 3:1-15; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8, 13-17; Luke 20:27-40 RCL: Job 19:23-27a  Nicole Collins

November 6th, 2013 Commentary to Henri Nouwen's Daily Meditation

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Daily-Meditation--A-Ministry-of-Healing-and-Reconciliation.html?soid=1011221485028&aid=Qr14yWmBhTA

In case the above link to Henri Nouwen’s Daily Meditation doesn’t work:

Wednesday November 6, 2013 

A Ministry of Healing and Reconciliation

How does the Church witness to Christ in the world?  First and foremost by giving visibility to Jesus' love for the poor and the weak.  In a world so hungry for healing, forgiveness, reconciliation, and most of all unconditional love, the Church must alleviate that hunger through its ministry.  Wherever we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the lonely, listen to those who are rejected, and bring unity and peace to those who are divided, we proclaim the living Christ, whether we speak about him or not.

It is important that whatever we do and wherever we go, we remain in the Name of Jesus, who sent us.  Outside his Name our ministry will lose its divine energy.

My Commentary:

The last sentence of today’s meditation makes the most important point: “It is important that whatever we do and wherever we go, we remain in the Name of Jesus, who sent us.  Outside his Name our ministry will lose its divine energy.”  Ministering from a place of truthfully knowing/living God’s GRACE; we can remain true to being in the world but not of it.

Being in the world but not of it was a profound challenge to the Body of Christ to faithfully/spiritually keep true to.  The corporate Body—gathering of individuals known as “the church,” was supposed to live up to drawing people to itself as a culture of its own.  Instead we have allowed sin to divide us in a profoundly complex way. There are those in hoping to minister to the world abroad that feel the church needs to marry itself doctrinally to the fallen culture of society.

“If you can’t beat ‘um, join ‘em…” doesn’t disciple the spiritually poor and hungry to come to the feast of New life in Christ.  It makes the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the authoritative norm of the Word of God revealed in the Bible and all its’ GRACE-filled fruits irrelevant.  The Gospel of Jesus is radically and counter-culturally to be transformational as well as the disciples evangelizing, transformed themselves.  However, if we approach discipleship through a transactional, idolatrous “Epicureanism”… we lose the accountability and intentionality of why we believe!

The reality of living in the light of GRACE and spreading the Truth of the Kingdom of God as revealed by Jesus Christ is divine by its core energy: transformation.  Transformation of the whole self—the heart turned to God with a willing obedience to bear the will of God for the sake of the world is the divine reality of GRACE.  We turn away from GRACE in seeking self-oriented “works-righteousness,” when we idolatrize our intellect and self over and above God and when we are anything but Gracious and loving to both God and neighbor!

That last part is the more disturbing for me spiritually… when we can’t be bothered or concerned enough to be gracious to God and neighbor.  Our own little worlds should not be that precious!  The beauty of the kingdom of God is a reality of divine love; when the world is truly in harmony with one another… where perhaps being in the world, someday, will no longer need to include: “but, not of it.”  Our battle with Satan’s rule upon this world needs to be a daily aspect of our vocation within the priesthood of all believers.  Let us pray that someday our witness of Christ to the world will become pandemic.

God Bless Your Wednesdays!

Nicole Collins

November 4th, 2013 Commentary to Henri Nouwen's Daily Meditation

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Daily-Meditation--The-Poverty-of-Our-Leaders.html?soid=1011221485028&aid=ziXfz1mwvwY

In case the above link to Henri Nouwen’s Daily Meditation doesn’t work:

Monday November 4, 2013 

The Poverty of Our Leaders

There is a tendency to think about poverty, suffering, and pain as realities that happen primarily or even exclusively at the bottom of our Church.  We seldom think of our leaders as poor.  Still, there is great poverty, deep loneliness, painful isolation, real depression, and much emotional suffering at the top of our Church.

We need the courage to acknowledge the suffering of the leaders of our Church - its ministers, priests, bishops, and popes - and include them in this fellowship of the weak.  When we are not distracted by the power, wealth, and success of those who offer leadership, we will soon discover their powerlessness, poverty, and failures and feel free to reach out to them with the same compassion we want to give to those at the bottom.  In God's eyes there is no distance between bottom and top.  There shouldn't be in our eyes either.

My Commentary:

We should pray for all leaders in the church these days since we are now in an age of Christians persecuting other Christians…  What do I mean by that?  Just like exampled in the secular society around the world of the church, we are polarizing one another with politics and divisive indifference!

When I first started seminary in the fall of 2008, I never thought in a million years that I would be more or less training to be a “politician of sorts…”  Instead simply being a devoted disciple of Christ training in formation to serve his Holy church; I was labeled a “conservative.”  Apparently Orthodox Lutheran persons who disagree with antinomianism, Gnosticism, revisionist-universalism or heresy have a giant bull’s eye target invisibly painted upon them. 

Since when did believing, with a profound faith, in the Trinity, the creeds and the TRUTH as revealed within scripture… being Christ Jesus is the Lord of our lives… become a point of condemnation and ridicule by the all-too vocal “liberal” Protestant world?

In speaking of the “gospel” of Christians persecuting other Christians; these words—liberal and or vs. conservative have been planted by sin and are bearing their evil fruit in the collective Body of disciples… who SHOULD be centered in Christ… not self-consumed “works-righteousness!”  The urgency and agency of the Gospel of Jesus has been lost through our unwillingness to grow faith through the light of GRACE.  Instead there are those “serving the church” of Christ out of a growing cynicism, a nihilism that grows as the TRUE pillars/ norms of faith formed by GRACE are beginning to crumble away.

We must pray for each other to get out of the dark clouds of a worldly endeavor Satan has planted to turn our hearts away from God.  We must revolt against Christians persecuting other Christians and—Re-form the church TRUTHFULLY, with abundant GRACE—together. As it says on the back of my cursillo cross: “Christ is counting on you,” yes he is counting upon all of us to become humble, accountable and obedient to HIS mission, NOT OUR mission! If we choose to grow away from the mirror into the depths of spiritual poverty… our life together for the love Christ and neighbor will slowly die.

God Bless Your Mondays!

Nicole Collins

November 3rd, 2013 Commentary to Henri Nouwen's Daily Meditation

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Daily-Meditation--Becoming-the-Church-of-the-Poor.html?soid=1011221485028&aid=b9FWQTz9hCQ

In case the above link to Henri Nouwen’s Daily Meditation doesn’t work:

Sunday November 3, 2013 

Becoming the Church of the Poor

When we claim our own poverty and connect our poverty with the poverty of our brothers and sisters, we become the Church of the poor, which is the Church of Jesus.  Solidarity is essential for the Church of the poor.  Both pain and joy must be shared.  As one body we will experience deeply one another's agonies as well as one another's ecstasies.  As Paul says:  "If one part is hurt, all the parts share its pain.  And if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy" (1 Corinthians 12:26).

Often we might prefer not to be part of the body because it makes us feel the pain of others so intensely.  Every time we love others deeply we feel their pain deeply.  However, joy is hidden in the pain.  When we share the pain we also will share the joy.

My Commentary:

Today’s Nouwen meditation has me thinking about the statistics I have heard about our current times.  I find it ironic how often it is the case that people who are spiritually hurting, spiritually poor decide to drop out of church completely especially when it seems like they need community the most.

There are a lot of circumstances to consider in regards to poverty.  There is external poverty and there is internal poverty to which the church is to address through the discipled love of Jesus.  Often the external is addressed with numerous outreach ministries and pastoral care but the internal poverty of a person is hard to detect.  Outside of being a training ground for discipleship—guiding others to “grow and go” with the Gospel; people need to be fed.  Being fed by the Word of God, the nourishment of the sacraments and the loving fellowship of a community centered in Christ.  The soul needs to be re-fueled with Christ and this isn’t a Sunday only experience but daily.

A few years back when Phil & I were at St. Philips; Pastor Eric would nearly have a Bible study every night of the week!  It was so wonderful I oddly enough found myself at times wishing for a night off!  BUT, I needed that daily dose of Jesus beyond my own prayer life within community.  It was like getting my 1000mg of vitamin Gospel~ I could honestly say I was not poor in any sense… even if the outer reality of my life was struggling in earthly “poor—ness.” 

The truth for us Christians to hear here is that we need one another.  We need to grow rich in the Word, be filled/refueled with the Eucharist and BE a family of GRACE together shining Christ’s light to all who come to the Body to become whole.

God Bless Your Sundays~ I know mine was!

Nicole Collins