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It is
2,000 something years later, how do we truthfully hear or yet alone understand
the reality of the Messiah? This is what
today’s lessons spoke to me, in thinking about our role in the Priesthood of
All Believers. Are we just
intellectually lining up as if we were in a soup line to hear the facts and
figures of our salvation history only on Sundays mornings? OR have we allowed ourselves to make it very
REAL in that dangerous, and uncontrollable place—the heart—the original
transformational tabernacle of God’s Work upon us and through us.
We
weren’t physically there, 2,000 something years ago, but we have the witness of
hundreds of years of martyrs and selfless people who have: 2bseen a
great light; who have lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light had shone. 3aYou
have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy… 4 For
the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of
their oppressor… has been broken by Christ Jesus, Our Crucified Lord and
Savior. But these martyrs are painted away in works of art, trapped or encased
in stained-glass windows or detailed within church history books for
seminarians to store up to be a font of knowledge for the future call to come.
We
are a creedal people, who have heard the Word… but where are we in regards to
living into burgeoning forth Kingdom of God behavior? I wondered about this during this past week
in thinking about a friend of mine. She
did something wonderful and highly unnatural in regards to the standards of the
world; she selflessly came to the aid of someone in need. She sacrificed her time and her wallet to help
someone out. Where even their own family,
initially extending a hand, withdrew coming to their aid…
But
the world is a lot easier when everything is black and white with no tension to
struggle, yet alone be compassionate and selfless to address the in between. Just imagine, what if all of today’s lessons
were written in reverse? Let’s Start
with St. Paul’s letter to his wayward Corinthians.
“A
transactional revision of Paul’s letter:”
Original
verse: 10 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and
that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in
the same mind and the same purpose.
Rewritten
from “today’s” perspective: Keep up the Good work! Do whatever YOU feel is best… Let them
underneath you know what YOU want them to do! Yeh, you are MY disciples but YOU
know best probably even better than those underneath you.
Original
Verse: 11For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there
are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. 12What I mean
is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I
belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ 13Has Christ been
divided?
Rewritten
from “today’s” perspective: I told Chloe,
Apollos and Cephas to keep you in line; if you don’t want to be underneath their
rules, leave we don’t want you. Do
whatever YOU want… Christ was the one who spoke to me anyway. Express your
faith on your own, YOU know best.
Original
Verse: Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of
Paul? 14I thank God that I baptized none of you except
Crispus and Gaius, 15so that no one can say that you were
baptized in my name. 16(I did baptize also the household of
Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)
Rewritten
from “today’s” perspective: Remember
spread the Word! Who both brought you to Christ and initiated you into our
fellowship to begin with… ME, Paul! Look at how much I had to sacrifice for
you?! Christ spoke to ME first and I baptized you, initiated you into this
community. It was MY discipling of you
that made you Christians in the first place!
Original
Verse: 17For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the
gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be
emptied of its power. Christ the Power and Wisdom of God 18 For
the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to
us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Rewritten
from “today’s” perspective: I’m your
pastor, I have years of training and great wisdom, I KNOW everything needed to
do my job building your church… I preach
and teach about Jesus’ free grace during the appointed hours. There’s nothing for you to spiritually do
except sit back and take it in. Don’t forget the offering plate. You only need to be accountable to yourself
and support our church. We’re just a club of Christians anyway.
The
antithesis or reversal of the original scriptures displays one very prominent feature:
the ego. The world of the self worships
the unholy trinity of I, Me, Mine which is the opposite of the Gospel and
living in the light of the Gospel as a humbled, and faith-filled servant. With the above, there is only hierarchy,
exclusion, cheap grace and club privileges…
Where, however, is the cross?
Where’s Jesus the Messiah?!
Our
culture has him as a socialist campaign figure head championing our worldly
wants and desires. We are showered freely with the wealth of being saved with
no need for personal spiritual formation or yet accountability… Let’s just step on the gas pedal of political
lambasting and intellectual superiority, works righteousness is quite
satisfying... We have good reasons for
being divided, OUR needs aren’t being met!
What
about today’s Gospel? Could we naturally see the reversal there as well? Let’s just summarize the past few chapters
leading into today’s Gospel lesson through this lens: Jesus gets ordained by John the Baptist,
saves himself from Satan in the garden and now has to start his call. Well, he’s got to find some individuals
worthy to staff his church. He’d best
check out the Rabbi Convocation to see who’d work out the best for him. Can’t have anyone without the training and
knowledge of God to run my club…
YIKES! What sounds familiar though? It would be our complacency and orientation
to ministry as a separate corporate affair.
We are merely going through the motions of something we are slowly
shading ourselves away from: The Living Light of the World; Christ Jesus the
Messiah, HERE and NOW!
The
past 1,065 words you have heard nothing but a lot of Law, all death in many ways,
with the Gospel trying to chisel through, as cracks of light into the self-concerned/
hardened walls of our hearts. This is
where we are, though—all of us in some form or fashion. The priesthood of all believers has become a
doctrinal statement in Reformation history to be admired but NOT really lived
into! We have steeples with Holy Men
& Women doing their jobs to dish out a helping heap of cheap grace and some
Gospel to tide you over into next week’s important and busy schedule.
Even
from Luther, we hear how he addresses our efforts corporately as the church: “Now there are two roadblocks that commonly prevent
us from gathering the fruits of the mass. First, the fact that we are
sinners and unworthy of such great things because of our exceeding vileness. Secondly,
the fact that, even if we were worthy, these things are so high that our
faint-hearted nature dare not aspire to them or ever hope to attain to them. For to have God for our Father, to be His sons and daughters
and heirs of all His goods – these are the great blessings that come to us
through the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. If
you see these things clearly, aren't you more likely to stand in awe before
them than to desire to possess them? Against this twofold faintness of ours we
must lay hold on the Word of Christ and fix our gaze on it much more firmly
than on those thoughts of our weakness. For "great are the works of the
Lord; all who enjoy them study them," "who is
able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." If they
did not surpass our worthiness, our grasp and all our thoughts, they would not
be divine. Thus Christ also encourages us when He says: "Fear not, little
flock, for your Father is pleased to give you a kingdom." For it is just
this overflowing goodness of the incomprehensible God, lavished upon us through
Christ, that moves us to love Him again with our whole heart above all things,
to be drawn to Him with all confidence, to despise all things else, and be
ready to suffer all things for Him.”
Wow! What a
passage! This quote was from Luther’s
treatise against the injustices done through the Roman Church—“On the
Babylonian Captivity of the Church.” How
fitting it is 500 something years later, that our seeking to “BE” the church of
Christ in the world back then; we still have the same problems, even worse
today.
We are a culture that needs to look deeply and painfully
into that mirror of the Law to begin to see the Gospel—the Holy Light and Life
of the world, crack through and rest upon us.
We need to renew—BE transformed TRUTHFULLY by and FOR God and Love of
neighbor. Think about the woman at the
beginning of my sermon. The Kingdom of
God had genuine hands and feet through her willingness, intentionality and
compassion. She is a shining light of
the Gospel shone by her transformed New Creation Heart in loving her neighbor
without the world’s boundaries!
AMEN
January 26th, 2014, 3rd
Sunday after Epiphany; Lectionary 3; SOLA Lectionary
Psalm 27:1-14; Isaiah 9:1-4; 1
Corinthians 1:10-18; Matthew 4:12-23
Nicole Collins
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