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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
10th, 2013 Lectionary 32; 25th 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
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