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How many of you here this morning use a GPS unit to help you find somewhere you want to travel to? They’re pretty convenient aren’t they? There’s even android and I-Phone apps available to help you find your way! The same could be said as well for faith with the exception that the application takes yourself and the motivating unit is the Holy Spirit! There’s always however an element that you need to put your trust and hope in, to get you to where you need to Go—this is the faith journey.
This
past Wednesday, we had an active day of service here at First and Santa Cruz
with the Blessing Bench Pantry ministering to over fifty needy families and
individuals within the downtown Joliet area.
Many of these individuals who come to be served at the pantry rely on us
as their situations become more challenging and government aid dwindles. For them the Blessing Bench is more than an
outreach service to the community but a visibly, active sign of faith that
there are better times ahead for us all.
How
many people know the sign of here’s the steeple and inside are the people? What just happened with what I have done with
my hands?—the four walls are gone and what remains are the people or the hands
& feet of the Body—the motor of the church.
Speaking of certain people in today’s Gospel text we have Nicodemus.
Nicodemus’ story is an interesting one for his life was already involved in the
world of ministry. Nicodemus was an esteemed rabbi and secret follower of
Jesus. It almost seems that in his
misunderstanding Jesus he inadvertently mocks the notion of conversion (the
initial step of coming to faith) by saying: “How can anyone be born after
having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be
born?”
Nicodemus’
initial reactions though are the first steps of beginning the faith journey’s
spiritual formation: this would be questioning.
Questioning and challenging ourselves is that fine line of spiritual
discipline between fear and doubt to trust and hope as our motivation to move
forward—live into our faith. Living into
our faith is that realm that challenges us to go beyond the borders of Sunday
and this room. It challenges us to open
the doors to that inner sanctuary within each of us being the Heart—the Holy
Spirit’s sanctuary of Grace initiator of response—our internal GPS. This is the first church the Gospel of Christ
Jesus hopes for us to operate from.
Just
like with anything else, turning on the switch or activating our faith journey
takes willingness and discernment. A part
of this discernment truly needs to be discovered through each other in
fellowship, Bible Study, Worship and Prayer (or as the people under the
steeple). We see Nicodemus definitely deep in discerning to overcome his own
fears and doubts to take that step forward.
It’s taking that step forward that is our first hurtle. We do have guiding lines however to
discerning, incorporating and living into our faith Journey destination—being for
the Love of God and Neighbor... This
guiding line is GRACE, our response is our walk—stepping out in faith with the
Gospel of LOVE as our motivation and the Holy Spirit as our spiritual fuel to
be bold and take those steps.
This GPS
to our spiritual life’s journey into discipleship—takes discipline and a new
kind of motivation—Christ Jesus as the center of your life. Being aware of Grace is a spiritual GPS
feature. It is when you just know and see/ experience clues of God’s work
spiritually guiding your life... The
deeper your faith grows the more in some senses they seem like miracles of
God’s timing and hand. Here again, however we find ourselves questioning or
discerning our moves forward just like Nicodemus: is it fair to say the moment
of conversion (transformation—spiritual rebirth)—realizing and beginning to
live into our faith, does eventually have to come to an end? Or does it just turn another corner either
going up another mountain peak or sinking down into the valley of our
contemplation and toil?
We
are all witnesses on our faith journeys—It is a life time experience and
process. It is a lifetime of making
those many leaps of faith.... Where leaping over the chasms of uncertainty and
fear nearly throw out your back! Do you just run for the Tylenol or do you run
to the Lord? It is a lifetime of falling
down but having the Lord lift you up by your very heart and renewing your steps
once again... It is a lifetime of
realizing just how amazing the Love of God IS as GRACE is ever flowing around
you like the proverbial dust in the air!
The
Psalm we heard earlier this morning could be considered like the travelling
music for a person’s walk of faith. “1I
lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come? 2My help comes from the Lord, who
made heaven and earth.” As we heard, the
Psalm continues with great statements of not only trusting in the Lord but
being Obedient which in our Old Testament text this morning we hear how Abram
answers his call from God to begin his faith journey.
We
hear about God leading Abram almost literally by the hand to journey forward
upon His promise: “1b... Go from your country and your kindred and
your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2I will make
of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that
you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and the
one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall
be blessed.”
We
must know that God is still speaking to each and every one of us through the
Holy Spirit. That internal GPS of GRACE
manifested as faith never turns off—it is a process. A process of receiving the gift of Faith,
discerning and incorporating it through intentional obedience and trust to then
graciously respond with the spiritual fruit of our lives being— LIVED through
faith!
Removing
the title of rabbi to Nicodemus, he simply is a human being—something we all
have in common of course! BUT he would soon grow to realize that he was
beginning to be changed by Jesus spiritual, unrelenting challenge to him: “5...Very
truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of
water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is
born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Just
what does Jesus mean here?: What is born of the Spirit is spirit. How do we come to understand the Spirit
working in our lives through us, alongside us within the Lifestyle of GRACE?
John the Gospel writer alludes to our understanding of spirit as Jesus not only
talks about water and the Word but also the air: “8The wind blows
where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it
comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
The
mystery of God’s Spirit is just that—mystery BUT it is one adhered to, lived
into by Faith through GRACE. The
manifestation of GRACE in our lives is the living gift of faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. This living gift of faith
is sewn in the heart and reaped naturally by our loving and Gracious response
to a loving and Gracious God. The love
and GRACE of God is our spiritual fuel to trust in a new promise and live by a
new law.
We
have a problem though, much like poor Nicodemus. We really do not understand abstract,
invisible, unknowable things.... We want
to grasp as St. Paul says in today’s Letter to the Romans—the fleshy, worldly
understanding of things. It is what is
empirically available. FAITH however
requires us to fight the human tendency of rationalizing and creating an
understanding of the mysteries and miracles of God. This is our ongoing, internal spiritual
formation battle. How do we live into
the spiritual? How do we truly
comprehend the miracle of God’s LOVE made available through Christ Jesus and
His Cross? A good example would be Wednesday’s
Blessing Bench Pantry ministry is one way but there are many others we can
enact or join into by faith.
The
explosive aspect of the Gospel of Jesus is the reality of GRACE—that 5 letter
abstract “breath” of God freely given to us as we “grow and go” as freely
responsible servants of Christ. Not
servants of a religion—obedience and accountability to the Living Word of God
as living into the lifestyle of GRACE—a resurrected, recreated life in the
image and spirit of Our Lord and Savior—Jesus Christ! “16“For God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish
but may have eternal life. 17“Indeed, God did not send the Son into
the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved
through him.”
Let
us Pray:
Heavenly
and Most Gracious Savior,
May
we grow a Living FAITH built upon Your Word
May
we die to the Old Nature and truly be Converted—transformed into the New!
May
we take that bold leap and tread into the unknown—
Knowing
fully that Your Love and GRACE is guiding every step & that every breath we
take is full of your GRACE!
AMEN
March 16th, 2014; 2nd
Sunday in Lent; Year A; SOLA Lectionary Nicole
Collins
Psalm 121; Genesis 12:1-9; Romans
4:1-8, 13-17; John 3:1-17
Preached at First & Santa Cruz Lutheran Church of Joliet, Illinois
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