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2,000 something years later we are still working on understanding as well as realizing Christ’s mission in the world. Can we claim to have lived into that down pour of the gracious reigning presence of God successfully as the “Body?” Or have we merely created our own “ministry” centered on everything man-made except for Christ Jesus’ Gospel?
We
are in the season of graduations. It is
officially Spring time in Chicago, where the trees are budding as well as lives
are being and becoming as their individual journeys begin a whole new
leaf! It is the season of ‘New Life,’
most literally and spiritually. All that
hard work bears fruit as you embark upon a brand new journey!
Looking
up the meaning of the word Apostle in my “Anchor” Bible dictionary series has
it to mean: to be an envoy, missionary,
ambassador who carries the message of the Gospel. When we profess the Apostle’s creed nearly every
week, we are in essence, in the presence of God confessing what we believe, who
we are and whose we are... How real is
it though beyond the people-under-the-steeple, post Sunday reality?
Knowledge
is subjective as well as can be misguidedly shaped to respond only to our visions
and missions. What about heart
knowledge? This being a special kind of
knowledge to truly live into Christ’s mission of a gracious outpouring of lives
bearing the fruit of love, peace, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, kindness,
etc.
As
Christians, we’ve not been too successful in truly or truthfully standing up
for our faith since we are in an era of “political correctness,” indifference
and a wave of martyrs not being heard yet alone stirring the heart to real
action! This past week in the news was
an awful story about a young mother giving birth in shackles & awaiting her
death sentence merely for not caving into renouncing her faith in Christ!
In
the “name” of misguided, intolerant faith; justifies gravely evil sin. We could just declare it an action of
political extremism... BUT the Muslim
culture, as well as many others, is a man-made culture of belief—their own religion,
understanding of God. Satan preys upon
our construction of agenda, vision and mission so much so that instead of an
outpouring of reigning GRACE we have a field of blood—A field of blood in a
graceless wilderness!
All
Judas Iscariot wanted was a leader who’d be just the right kind of warrior to
crush the Romans and lead the Israelites back into power to be “God’s Chosen
People,” once again... He was thinking
like a practical educated man: “We couldn’t possibly have victory over the
Romans with a spiritual missional manifesto of being and becoming love to both
God and neighbor? Jesus is just being a
dreamer, he’s not being a realist!”
What
did Judas’ mission truly accomplish for him in the end, however? His own bloody suicide upon a hill drenched
in guilt and sin! Instead of hanging on
to the tree of life, he chose to hang from the tree of death. Nothing realized “glory...” only death,
division and destruction. The remaining
Apostles had to almost literally draw straws to keep that missional number of
12 disciples going forward. The
remaining—knew they were a remnant that must break the bondage of that Word remnant,
to grow and go with the Gospel!
Lest
we forget...Who were they though? They were a bunch of ordinary men & women
living beyond the world’s expectations of them into being extraordinary through
Christ who was indeed their hope, salvation, cornerstone and reason! The mortar to their united faith was being
humble, disciplining themselves, resisting Satan and most importantly making
that grand leap of faith. The grand leap
of faith that no one can ever completely or perfectly prepare for, IS the
discipleship journey.
Eleven
years after conversion, six years of seminary, lots of debt, and lots of loss
later... The Mortarboard is not so much
a weird square hat to don at one’s graduation, but is a symbol. Speaking for myself, this is a symbol of the
glory of God reigning, pouring down upon me as He has been my reason and mortar
to my heart’s knowledge of being/ becoming for His Gospel’s mission NOT mine!
‘The
Way,’ through our own human nature has perhaps “lost its way” when we harbor so
much division, revision, lawlessness and ulterior motivation to our
“in-name-only” unity as the Bodies of Christ in the world today. What does the face of Christ’s mission in the
world look like in the here and now? If
we are doing nothing but fighting continual personal battles laced with
political corruption and judgmentalism we fail the discipleship imperative
Christ gave His Apostles to build the Kingdom here and now through LOVE and His
Word.
There
are seas of assemblies, convocations and forums taking place around this time
of year—Spring means New Life, so why not have our “united” dialogues, team
planning and fellowship now? As we know from the past, assemblies have torn the
(man-made) church apart—divided truthfully as Satan’s victory to take us away
from the Mission, Vision, and TRUTH of the Gospel being Jesus, PERIOD!
There
are no sides politically represented here in this sermon, for this sermon as
well as myself ARE about JESUS ALONE.
Remember we Lutheran Christians believe and in some ways or fashion, are
bound to the notion of Christ Alone, Scripture Alone, Grace Alone and Faith
Alone. This is our ‘united,’ doctrinal mantra of following Christ.
Under
the larger umbrella, however, for the disciple of Jesus, answering His Call,
commission and obedience to His Holy Spirit’s formation within the Heart—the
seat of the soul, our identity IS true union and unity with, and for Christ
Alone Period. There are many of us that
have completely fallen prey to being more or less disciples of Judas. Look, it makes sense to us, doesn’t it? Jesus wasn’t meeting Judas’ political
activist (human) expectations of mission...
In
our reality of the Body of disciples today, we are doing more or less the same
thing. The soft-serve, cheap grace gospel has placed Christ back at that point
of his earthly ministry to remain earthly, not Divine.... Jesus’ mission and
identity had to be rewritten into a version of Judas’ expectations now realized
as a “benign socialist,” merely a prophet transactionally delivering upon all
Epicurean ideas & agendas. The
reality of the Gospel of GRACE—His life, death and resurrection have been put
on the backburner of true discipleship missional work to be done, for our own self-concerned
purposes and mission.
Witnessing
again, as a recent graduate preparing for a life devoted, humbled, dedicated
and committed to Christ Jesus Alone...
All I can do truly and truthfully is continue to BE and Become who Christ
wants me to be. The question left for
you, is have you accepted this journey—are you really living into that
lifestyle of Grace Jesus has poured upon us, reigning in our hearts—realizing
His Glory?
AMEN
7th Sunday of Easter;
June 1st, 2014; Year A; SOLA Lectionary Nicole Collins
Psalm 68:1-10 (RCL—32-35);
Acts 1:12-26; 1 Peter 4:12-19; 5:6-11;
John 17:1-11
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