"The Adam Bomb," Sermon for February 23rd, 2014 by Nicole Collins

2,000 plus years ago Jesus was preaching and teaching on the side of a mountain illumining what would be a whole new way of life, a whole New creation to consider...  In many ways, more than we could ever realize; Jesus’ Words were atomic! Meditating this whole past week on the entire Sermon on the Mount had me hearing the world news in the background completing what Missouri Synod Pastor, Craig Massey in his book about transition and transformation says in its title: “Adjust or Self Destruct.”

“The Old nature affects the intellect of man.  The influence of the Old Nature on the unregenerate mind is devastating.  The unsaved man is diametrically and diabolically set against God....”  He goes on to say: “In spite of modern, scientific man’s efforts, we find society failing to produce his greatest desires. Man wants peace but wages war.  Man wants economic security, but his manipulation of money creates chaos, etc.  Man without God has failed to solve any of these problems.  The fact is that the problems increase in spite of man’s efforts to curtail them.”

Today’s excerpt from Jesus’ continuing Sermon on the Mount reveals a radical New application to understanding obedience to living “in the world, without being of the world”: LOVE. Everything in today’s Gospel challenges us to hear these statements as what we are required as disciples to be accountable to, in order to become fully developed as the Greek says is “perfect.”

³⁸“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; ⁴⁰and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; ⁴¹and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. ⁴²Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. ⁴³“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

The problem is that we do not resist the evil doer being Satan himself! In fact we bring him on, we invite him into our lives and all our decisions when we operate from greed and indifference which are the two core sins at the root of all of human depravity. This is our destructive Old Nature allowed to reign in our “temples.”  St. Paul once again needs to continue in his campaign to align the Corinthians to not only the Holy Spirit but to the New Creation planted within them to be obedient to and operate from. “¹⁶Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? ¹⁷If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. ¹⁸Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. ¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” 

This past month I have been revisiting studying anything and everything about sin and salvation as I am finishing an hour of Systematic Theology that my seminary is having me take in efforts to graduate this year.  What has been the most fascinating about it outside of plugging the Lutheran view over the Calvinist perspective is that for all we have defined and all that we have aspired... Were we there when they crucified Our Lord?  

What if instead of the dark and dreary news playing in the background alongside the Beatitudes and the entire Sermon on the Mount being preached by Jesus... We saw the nails being driven into his wrists and his body contorting to loudly share snippets of Psalm 22? Would our Old Nature just change the channel, put on our ipods to high and drown it away for another day?  It happened 2,000 years ago, have we buried it away into our cold deadened hearts?!

Well not all of us sit on the sidelines like Rodin’s Thinker in contemplation; we have community, we have Pastors, Priests, Nuns, Deaconesses, and basically the entirety of the Priesthood of all believers engaged in being the Body’s hands and feet in the world today... don’t we?  There is an unrelenting tone of the Law to the start of my message today because it is something we can’t avoid.  We can’t live into it on its own, for that brings upon us another form of death...  We need that beautiful HOPE, PROMISE and LOVE that only the Gospel of Christ Jesus can deliver!

But what is Hope, Promise and Love to the wisdom of the world’s culture today—irrelevant and perhaps foolish as we hear of escalating violence against Christians, politics becoming a perfected socialism, oppression and general “unhappiness?” Let’s revisit the Pandora’s Box of Satan’s revisionist work: Happiness.  What really does that or should it mean for the Disciple of Christ Jesus? Well it certainly isn’t what the Old Nature tempted, being led by Satan says it is.  It is living into the lifestyle of GRACE, not a five fingered Grace as our Calvinist brothers and sisters rationalize it to be but GRACE upon GRACE.  GRACE all caps, extra bold and preferably the size of the Hollywood letters circumsized onto our very hearts!

Living into the lifestyle of GRACE is unnatural and radical but it is the perfect reality of the fully developed New Creation—the New Adam and the New Eve.  A reality brought to us through great sacrifice and our unimaginable evil inflicted—the crucifixion of Jesus—the reality of the Cross.

Our Luther says in his sermon around today’s Gospel that: “The Christian way is altogether different.  For we have been transferred to another and a higher existence, a divine and eternal kingdom, where the things that belong to this world are unnecessary and where in Christ everyone is a Lord for themselves over both the devil and the world...  The Gospel teaches us about the right relation of the heart to God... Then you will see that Christ is talking about a spiritual existence and life... He is telling them to live and behave before God and in the world with their heart dependent upon God.”

If I am reading Luther correctly here, he is saying what lies at the heart of the Gospel in regards to our response: Spiritual Formation—Transformation first THEN Reformation!  The other day on one of a myriad of Lutheran FB groups I belong to; I posed a question for conversation about Spiritual Formation within parish ministry—its implementation and focus.  Outside of receiving very few responses, one friend said that our reality as Pastoral leaders is purely about reformation and doctrine.

Think about that for a moment—if our reality as the hands and feet of the Body in the world is merely doctrinal reformation... how can we adjust and grow into the Gospel reality of the beatitudes?  The Beatitudes yet alone all of Jesus’ teachings are to take root, begin and be deeply developed with the heart.  It was almost like misunderstanding St. Paul’s message about caring for the temple to mean make sure you have a trustee committee and a good sexton to take care of your new church!

The Gospel of LOVE is a transforming and abstract one that begins in that abstract scary place—the heart. Were you there when they crucified Our Lord? Whose they? Well yes of course, the Romans and the Sanhedrin... but couldn’t it also include what we have done and left undone?  I have been working on my first capstone ministry project this past month around developing a specific worship as discipleship paradigm series around Reflection, Confession, Repentance and Renewal.  The old 1950’s Lutheran Service Book and Hymnal’s public confession which has the minister at one point say:

“On the other hand, by the same authority, I declare unto the impenitent and unbelieving, that so long as they continue in their impenitence, God hath not forgiven their sins, and will assuredly visit their iniquities upon them, if they turn not from their evil ways, and come to true repentance and faith in Christ, ere the day of Grace be ended.”

Yikes! This obviously was dropped by the time of the LBW but what key things does it say in connection to our role in living into the very personal message from Jesus to transform?  The battle between the Old Nature and the New is one fought in reconciling ourselves to God—accountability and obedience are the unspoken response our lives lived in the light of GRACE are to bear.  Our call to discipleship comes with a caveat—being and becoming a freely responsible servant to the Gospel and realizing the HOPE, PROMISE, & LOVE takes an inward, internal, spiritual adjustment—transformation before enacting Reformation.

Let Us Pray,

Heavenly Father,

May you help to guide us to become fully-developed,

Perfected to be obedient to your will and purposes for all of creation.

May you nurture our paths of discipleship to realize the true happiness and joy the Beatitudes bear

Continue to inspire and motivate us to adjust lest we destroy the reality of GRACE

Which is a life led by your Gospel of HOPE, PROMISE & LOVE.

AMEN

February 23^rd, 2014; 7^th Sunday after Epiphany; Year A; SOLA Lectionary                               Nicole Collins

Psalm 119:33-40; Leviticus 19:1-2,9-18; 1 Corinthians 3:10-23; Matthew 5:38-48