"A New Kind Of Freedom;" Sermon for Sunday June 22nd, 2014 By Nicole Collins

Jeremiah’s passage this Sunday sounds like that inner voice we hear of all our fears, doubts, despair and anxiety.  Anxiety can be a killer physically or spiritually or both for that matter.  It is an aspect of the bondage around our souls constraining us with burdens we really don’t have to bear but overcome through Christ Jesus who indeed gives us strength!

It is in many ways that inner voice that St. Paul is trying to pastorally guide within the hearts and minds of the Romans in today’s epistle.  There are many “ah-ha” moments in this text not just for the very fabric of the Reformation’s magna carta of Christian liberty but the reality of Grace as living and suffering in spiritual formation to the New Nature. 

It is living fully accountable to the daily spiritual warfare struggle that we are both saint and sinner.  I can’t recall the cartoon but there’s a really clever and funny cartoon of a man with a little saintly figure of himself on one shoulder whispering into his ear and the other of course a little devil figure... 

We ALL have those little voices or back and forth bantering between the heart and the mind what we need to own up to in doing, being, living as a disciple of Jesus.  Instinct is the easiest place to go to, however... it seems rational, logical and as the Romans understood it, like the cliché:  “If it feels right, just do it!”

We’ve allowed the Old Nature to run amuck with that of course to the detriment of waning in being committed, intentional and genuinely faithful to CHANGE for Jesus sake and our neighbor.  Jesus’ instruction in today’s Gospel is hard to hear for it truly challenges us just like Paul in his instructions to the Romans.  For instance, verse 28 is a “Pandora’s Box” to the truth of what Jesus wants us to grow to know/ live into—the New Nature: “²⁸Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

My understanding of this verse is the choice of either living into the lifestyle of Grace or harboring and festering the development of hell—the reality of a graceless wilderness.  A graceless wilderness is a lawless world built by sin, fed by Satan and multiplied by our lack of doing anything otherwise.  This could be truthfully, a lack of boundaries which ironically leads to bondage and death...

Who we are, if we profess that we are disciples of Jesus, St. Paul says it best: “¹³No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.”

This is the grounding, growth into that painful, challenging journey to BE/ become fully-developed with Christ at the center of your lives—The New Nature.  The refuge of God is His new understanding of Law as obedience—act of volition, to transform from sinner to saint through Grace.  The reality of Grace given by Christ Jesus, the totality of boundless love and amazing freedom from sin, death and the devil is redemption; what a mighty refuge it has proven to be!

This past week, I witnessed on the side lines, a rather unfortunate dispute between two volunteers of a retreat for incarcerated family members’ ministry.  The conflict did not end in a good way at all for either individual... The air was thick with negativity, anger and distain. “Coulda, shoulda, woulda” is the song I’m sure, that played over and over in their minds after the bile, accusations, “name-calling” and anger subsided.  Obviously the Old Nature with its logic, instinct and “if it just feels right, do it,” mentality had dominion over this week’s meeting...

What was the final outcome however? A folded weekend, disappointed future attendees and no ministries to be done in fellowship again with these individuals and those of whom they were to serve! In the name of Jesus they began this ministry now in the name of sin, bondage; their hopes in serving others merely served themselves to discord, contempt and maligned perceptions of what they refused to do!  What they refused to do was to change, compromise, acquiesce through humility to love and serve God and neighbor together in true unity as the Body.

Verse 14 from this week’s letter to the Romans truly resonates here: “¹⁴For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” If those had erred on the side of Grace, perhaps there would be a completely different outcome—living into a New kind of freedom as what Paul continues in teaching the Romans:

“¹⁵What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, ¹⁸and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”

Being obedient from the heart is operating first from that internal church.  This internal church as I’ve often said before in many a sermon, many a prayer is where the Holy Spirit works and where the seed of the New Nature is planted.  Our future life lived into the reality of Grace is heart knowledge.  This is entirely spiritual as we are in essence, spiritual beings.  The heart however needs to connect to the mind to live into being a “body” within the greater Body to bear forth the Kingdom of God.

Realizing and growing “heart knowledge” as a disciple of Jesus is allowing the Holy Spirit of God to truly have dominion above and beyond you, human vices, base-needs and desires.  We have so many wonderful examples throughout history of individuals who’ve devoted their lives to Christ and His purposes and plans for us... It should example for us the reality of the battle between good and evil that we have to be accountable to deal with daily.

If you have been following the news lately, Christian persecution is not only on the rise but showing some success in its path of destruction. From stories like the Sudanese Christian woman imprisoned and being sentenced to death to Pastor Saaed imprisoned and near death in an Iranian prison for the past two plus years.  There are many Christians out there in the world who are standing firm in their faith.  They are willingly embracing persevering their suffering for the sake of a higher commandment, Law—the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Words from Jesus in this week’s Gospel amplifies our discipleship challenge in regards to a New Kind of Freedom and a New kind of righteousness: “²⁶So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. ²⁷What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. ³²Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; ³³but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.”

We all will have moments like the individuals I spoke about earlier, where the “shoulda, woulda, coulda” voice of regret could have been avoided all together... especially if the real battle was realized and fought from a place of grace. We are vulnerable creatures who are both saint and sinner as well as we truly are children of grace.  Realizing our spiritual identity as children of grace is a constant process of reflection, repentance, confession and renewal= CHANGED also known as the New Nature; YOURS in, with and through Christ.

AMEN

Sunday June 22^nd, 2014; 2^nd Sunday after Pentecost; Year A; SOLA Lectionary 

 Nicole Collins

Psalm 91:1-16; Jeremiah 20:7-13; Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:5, 21-33

http://youtu.be/rzpxMFNjvv4