"Laying the Foundation," Sermon for January 19th, 2014 By: Nicole A.M. Collins

The one laying the foundation to our discipleship journey is the one we are accountable to proclaim: Christ Jesus, Our Crucified Lord, Savior, Redeemer and Sanctifier. I can say with all honesty that I DO love to tell the Story.  It IS Christ Jesus who led me to find my true identity as his humbled and obedient servant!  May my life’s story preach and teach the Good News AS the fullness of GRACE received! AMEN

Eleven years ago I heard God’s voice calling to me to begin the journey most holistically into the priesthood of all believers.  Right then and there at Ebenezer Lutheran church, He named me, claimed me and gave me a task to live my whole life towards.  This task is to live as his servant by preaching, teaching and caring for those who need to continue their process of answering God’s transformational, spiritual call upon their lives. To love is to live as the Gospel of John symbolizes the life, work and person of Christ Jesus to BE— love.

John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, was our first servant of the Gospel, you could say.  For in the wilderness of our graceless reality he heard God speaking to him to prepare the way.  He remained an Old Testament Prophet but his life’s work gave us an example of how we as one of the many members of the Priesthood of All Believers could make a transformational difference through humbly speaking/living the Word, as it is.  Saying it like it is—the TRUTH of the Gospel leads us to hear, feel, adopt the fullness of GRACE which is the summation of Christ Jesus.

I love the movie Godspell on many levels, the ending of the 1973 film/ musical has all the disciples beginning to go back into their lives singing a combination of both the intro theme: ‘Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord’ and ‘Long live God.’  It wasn’t however, going off into a “works righteousness” or “transactional” agenda/ pursuit of living into the cost of discipleship MORE than it was being sent off as agents of transformation.

Is it fair to say that John the Baptist was an initial agent of transformation or one more of spiritual formation transition?  Let’s hear some of the verses before today’s Gospel snippet: “¹⁵(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”)¹⁶From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.¹⁹This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” ²⁰He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” ²¹And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” ²²Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” ²³He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said.” 

The people of power, the scribes and the Pharisees demanded from John: Who are you?  Can we say in parallel to John’s experience to our lives today that we at some point in our lives have been challenged by others to “explain ourselves, declare our identities as people of faith?”  I would say that this is now more than ever apparent.  My own journey in answering God’s call and being commissioned through my conversion experience has upwardly battled justification NOT to God mind you, but to others!

Just the other day, I got a Google chat notification from someone on the opposite side of the spectrum of defining and living into the Priesthood of All Believers.  Basically, he feels called to merely champion the social justice battle of Bipartisan lambasting and works righteousness justification.  His Gospel has very little to do with Christ Jesus and helping others to grow/ transform themselves through the Gospel, more than it is all around politics and self-righteous vindication.

This is a popular view though, since it feeds the human nature’s tendency to grow into self-idolatry and lawlessness.  St. Paul, the original Pastor to the Pastors, we see this week needs to preach and instruct his wayward Corinthians to refocus on whose they are, as well as who and why they are disciples of Christ Jesus.  To borrow a dear peer’s perfect analogy: St. Paul had to get his “Las Vegas” people to ship out and shape up to the Gospel’s call and commission upon their lives.  How he did this was by laying the foundation of GRACE.

What could we say is the foundation of GRACE he laid before the Corinthians?: “⁴I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus,⁵for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— ⁶just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— ⁷so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁸He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

What a beautiful way to begin a letter.  We hear about Jesus and the testimony his eventual victory at the Cross defeating sin, death and the devil would impart upon our lives.  It is a Gracious reminder to us of “why” we are disciples and “how” we are to respond—bear fruit with our New lives!  This is what he needed to remind the Corinthians of to keep on track.

Martin Luther talks about our role within the priesthood of all believers through his discussion of John the Baptist’s role: “Thus John the Baptist did not have this name because of his person; he has it because of his office and testimony—For he was not to preach and testify of himself, but of Christ, who had now appeared for the salvation and consolation of the entire world.  Therefore he points at Christ with his finger and says: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”  By virtue of this testimony and proclamation he deserves to be called a preacher rich in Grace, one who does not preach the Law—through which comes the knowledge of sin and which makes sin abound, which strikes terror into the heart and provokes it to wrath—but the Gospel of God’s mercy for the sake of Christ, who bore our sins and rendered satisfaction for them.”

Thinking more deeply upon Luther saying that John the Baptist pointed his finger to Christ; we can also think about how we’ve pointed our fingers.  AS the saying goes, the one finger pointed out justified by our own righteous vindication has the other three fingers pointing back upon us.  Those “Trinitarian” set of fingers should get us reflecting upon ourselves when we step on the spiritual gas-pedal of discipleship with the wrong motivations or intentions, with ourselves in mind over and above God.

My “wayward” friend is a hearty “advocate” for the Gospel but it is not necessarily centered in or necessarily for Christ Jesus.  This is our contemporary problem, however, which mirrors St. Paul’s pastoral struggle with reaching out to the Corinthians to not cave into a self-defined discipleship to Jesus but a SELFLESS—CROSS-BEARING DISCIPLESHIP obedient to the Law of Love.  We are called as members of not only the Body, BUT of the office—priesthood of all believers to through our humbled, transforming lives preach, teach and care for the Gospel.  We are stewards, servants to the Word and its power to transform lives to Christ Jesus.  We are called to serve no other call except that of God’s will to fulfill the gospel of Hope through loving HIM and neighbor.

Let us Pray:

Ever Gracious God, may our lives never cease loving to tell your story,

May our hearts work bear the spiritual fruit of your justifying GRACE

May we never sway from your foundational intentions of GRACE

May we always champion your Will and Word above ourselves

For the Glory of your Son, Jesus the Christ—who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit

One God, now and forever

AMEN

2^nd Sunday after Epiphany; Lectionary 2; Year A; January 19^th, 2014; SOLA Lectionary

Condell Hospital Theme: ‘I Love to Tell the Story’                                      Nicole Collins

Psalm 40:1-11; Isaiah 49:1-7; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 & John 1:29-42