"Turn then, and LIVE;" Sermon for Sunday September 28th, 2014 by Nicole Collins

If then, there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy... Why haven’t we completed our tasks to bear the fruit of joy, yet alone be anywhere near unified in thought, Word and deed?  Is it because what we’ve done and left undone that has only looked to our interests first over and above others?

St. Paul’s hopeful voice pleads to a hopefully unified soul: “⁵Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus...”  Instead we overlooked His fully Divine and fully human nature and exploited God for what He could do to further our causes and purely be a giver with no accountability and no gracious response to share in return...

Christ emptied or in the actual Greek, made “void” His earthly existence as an obedient act to the law of Love.  Through this act, He would become our font of endless GRACE through a cross we have yet to understand and bear as His disciples! God lifted Him up higher, than we could ever fathom... where His name shapes all below—bending, turning every heart where every knee is compelled to bend in all dimensions of time and space in worship, praise and commitment.

Soon we can do no other but confess with our lips: Glory BE to God—Jesus Christ is LORD!  A creedal song sung deeply in the catacombs of a heart, a life’s time journey from completely turning and fully living into the Lifestyle of Grace—The Kingdom of God.

Therefore if then, there is any encouragement in Christ—we love the Lord and Love our neighbor truly, truthfully:  We must be and become accountable through our humble role in the priesthood of all believers to work out our salvation, reconciliation with the Lord...  We must realize how truly God is at work within us, enabling us to will and to work for His Goodness, His delight.

We must break away from our struggling... to truly and truthfully live into being, becoming the children of Grace—salt and light for the rest of the world to see.  All of this will be seen in how we are led and fed by the Living Word; where nothing we do, say, be, become are ever in vain when they are done for the Lord.  Even if our lives become sacrificial as a loving and gracious response to a loving and gracious God; let us rejoice and love one another as our Heavenly Father loves us indeed.

I can’t translate, re-translate, read and re-read St. Paul’s beautiful letter to the Philippians enough; for there are just too many things it brings to the heart of the hearer, time and time again!  Much like the Beatitudes, it is St. Paul’s beautiful Words for us to hear timelessly what Christ gave to us and who we were, and who we are to be and become as children of Grace.

You can nearly hear the Psalmist mirror the heart’s voice in response: “⁴Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. ⁵Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long. ⁹He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. ¹⁰All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.”

These Words are centuries old from a people and a culture that grew out of suffering, acceptance and renewal to become a unified identity soulfully in sync with God—living faithfully into Grace.  Their bright light and salt for the world has been shining for well over 2,000 years.  Though, what is time in regards to God’s time?

I had a very disturbing dream the other night created most likely out of the careful snippets the media here would only allow you to hear or see...  I had a dream that I saw the ISIS movement as a large, encompassing black cloud of death.  It was moving across the landscape destroying everything in its path.  It couldn’t be heard, yet alone seen as it was a black hole of sorts where everything any source of light could not escape it.

There was only one other time in history we could say shares this image and that would be the Holocaust.  American eyes were sheltered safely for some two years of so to the horrors of death, the Nazi regime would impart upon the world.  Was it out of indifference or protection?  That’s not where this sermon will go... where it will go however is in wondering...  when we become a heartless culture to turn away from both God and neighbor; we can only aid building the foundation of a graceless wilderness.  The black death of ISIS is being fueled by our avoidance of the struggle...

This is not to add or imply Augustine’s just war theory, is the only way to circumvent evil...  But did we ever go to the root of how this all began? Convert or Die is no way to be obedient to God’s will... It is an earthly manifestation of power and conquest at the expense and demise of neighbor.  A young college student shared with me that her teacher pulled her out of class to chide her for daring to speak of acceptance over tolerance...  We only teach tolerance here, said her instructor.  If this is so, how could we even remotely find any encouragement in Christ yet alone His Gospel of Grace?!

Being “civil” is the new politically correct ideology for circumventing responsibility, for avoiding harboring a healthy humility towards God and fellow man.  The day-in-the-life of Riley needs to find a true path home.  It’s like treating a cancer with a transactional balm; there is little healing it brings to the surface. The heart is left damaged and isolated from God.

Acceptance as implied by Paul’s perspective in his beautiful conversation to the Philippians here is all about whose we are and living into, embracing our role as God’s salt and light in the world—children of Grace. In accepting our role spiritually and in gracious response to a loving and gracious God, we could defeat the black cloud of death that Satan has brought to fruition currently with ISIS.

Like the dust storms in the west, if we merely allow them to brush things away—we are just being civil and tolerant to the scourge of evil ISIS has become in the world.  If then, there is any encouragement in Christ; we need to NOT be of the world but be and become Christ’s ambassadors in this world to restore light and purpose to our days and our ways—in, with, and through Christ Jesus for Love.

St. Paul’s voice freely built by and for Grace brought down those prison walls he was in to inspire, empower, encourage and enlighten a burgeoning community of believers. It could just be simply seen as he was the first pastor beautifully using his pastoral gifts to think, care and BE for the Philippians so that they may carry on for Christ’s sake and neighbor.

Why just Paul I ask for us today?  Yes, this is an ancient text, a moment in the history of the Christian faith... but where we are in the here and now of things; why can’t we turn, then and live?  Turn from just being civil, tolerant, delegating, judging, transactional and self-concerned to a faith-filled realization of GRACE alive in our hearts to LIVE for God and Neighbor?  If then there is any encouragement in Christ; the power of GRACE fueling our faith-filled hearts would indeed conquer evil in many forms and ways more powerfully than we could ever imagine!

This is about a whole 'nother war my friends... one not played with buttons and consoles but with Grace in action!  Haven’t we learned anything from the horrors of evil in the past?  Could it have all been because of our judgmentalism and indifference that aided to murder thousands upon thousands within the Holocaust evil reign?  Compassion has hands and feet but they must be realized solely through our faith.

Christ never died in vain for us sinners for we can aspire to be and become saints through a heart dedicated for God.  We can will and to work together for the Lord’s goodness, righteousness and delight.  Joy, peace, love, kindness, mercy and more are there within us to tap into, they are the beautiful attitudes of Grace.  If then, there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, turn, then and live for the Lord!

AMEN

September 28^th, 2014, 16^th Sunday After Pentecost; Year A; SOLA Lectionary  Nicole Collins

Psalm 25:1-10; Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32; Philippians 2:1-18 & Matthew 18:15-20

http://youtu.be/Ca8sHbpnFo0

"Cause & Effect;" Sermon for Sunday September 14th, 2014 By Nicole Collins

The ebb and flow of life is predicated essentially upon cause and effect.  There is always in some shape or form an initial cause or spark which then creates an effect or result.  From the beginning of time we can see and understand this Biblically when God created the world and said it was good.

As we know later on temptations were caved into and evil officially so to speak enters into history and further enters into our daily battle as we try to live into our faith as children of Grace.  What then, are the markers of Grace?  What composes the reality of Grace versus the reality of hell—a graceless universe?  An aspect of Grace which does, can bind us all together is forgiveness, the other is the law of Love.

To err is human to forgive is divine; so the saying goes. It’s not that cut and dry, however, for if this was so, the world would be a dualistic realm of just good and just evil.  The ideology of that challenges our faith for if God did create the world to be essentially good and is sovereign to the Kingdom of God present here and now as an untapped reality.... Why does it seem like sin, death and evil is truly reigning these days in particular?

I had myself asking these questions in deeply trying to fathom what on earth would drive some young American girls and some European girls, teenagers to sign up and join the “cause” of ISIS becoming female jihadists and even boasting about the murder of those reporters to which the media only seems to acknowledge...  The physician, the reporters interviewed on Fox said that the girls were enticed to come to believe in and act within a totalitarian ideology presented in social media.

This is when judgment becomes decisive, when the natural world reigns with its seeming “logic” that to have one culture of faith reign supreme... another must die period.  How primitive, truly ignorant and frankly diabolical! The hungering and thirsting souls of those young women seeking God cave into romantic fantasies of rebellion, intolerance and warped “justice!” What a “cause...” no forgiveness, no love of neighbor, revenge and death.  Their message is effective alright... what affect it has is a whole other story.

All of today’s lessons example beautiful stories of the cause and effect of being forgiven and forgiving others.  The logic behind both Joseph’s actions in Genesis and the king in Jesus parable are completely and radically unnatural to our human nature and Satan’s temptations to live into the ways of the world...  Joseph’s brothers were terrified or quaking in their boots... They were probably saying to each other: “What’s he gonna do to us?!  He’s the Pharoah’s second hand man in power.... Yikes!”

Well if we allowed our human nature to fathom before the story continues; we would probably have a Martin Scorcese’ style narrative of Joseph obliterating them in some form or fashion...  As we know, what happens next is completely contradictory to that; he most amazingly, graciously forgives them for what they put him through even offering to take care of them and their families!

The gracious act of forgiveness goes much deeper however especially in grounding our faith to not be, of the world, but living in the world, as ambassadors of Christ Jesus’ Gospel—for the Glory of the Kingdom of God.  We are not attuned to being an introspective, altruistic (selfless) society however.  In fact, living way too much into the ways of the world have made us perfected, “logic-driven” empiricists and more or less narcissists to the detriment of living Grace—faith. We become the kingdom builders of the graceless reality of Hell.

Becoming the builders of the graceless wilderness simply takes caving into the sins of commission (cause) and the sins of omission (effect).  How little we truly and truthfully realize how things we have done and left undone have perhaps affected people in our lives, gravely.  Perhaps even in our own self-righteous realm we just can’t forgive and forget through Love—living into Grace.

A few years back, I recall hearing horrible news about a dear friend while driving back from Ohio entering into Indiana.  There was a great rainstorm brewing, where there were torrential rains, outside the car and inside...  The tears shed were angry and full of wanting revenge.... However what horrified me not but a moment later was seeing the wrong-doers as having the extended fingers of Satan dragging my heart into feeling these horrible feelings against these people!

We are, since the fall, truly both saints and sinners... for I still cannot come to forgive what these people did to my friend.  It could become my undoing for the Lord shed such beautiful and underserved GRACE, LOVE and FORGIVENESS upon me...  How dare I still harbor these feelings against these people?!  Turning things into an “us and them” reality is itself the face of sin. Makes perfect logical sense though, the one you love is hurt—seek revenge, destroy and be vindicated!

Those young women, newly anointed Jihadists feel vindicated in their cause as new converts to the Islamic faith.  “Destroy the infidels, the white devils where they live in their depravity!”  “Allah wills their death to “purify,” his kingdom.”  Hitler said something similar even distorting scripture passages and theologians such as Martin Luther...  Devisive use and abuse of “power” to enact—cause radical “change” to fit his ideologies and precepts! These are the diabolical fruit of Satan’s reign showing itself in the world.

The ironic role of one of the character’s in Jesus parable was that of a slave.  This slave was granted an amazing reprieve from the king from tremendous debt upon his plea for mercy.  Perhaps the King’s court would’ve thought he was nuts for pardoning him from such ridiculous monetary debt... but the King saw something else as a priority.  He saw and most likely felt his heart compelled to do the right thing and be gracious to this truly undeserving slave.

This slave was living more into his role on a whole other level.  He was a slave to himself—what best solves his problems, wants and needs.  He indentured himself further by convicting and condemning a fellow slave by showing no mercy, no consideration whatsoever in collecting what was owed to him.  For it wasn’t to be so much that the King would find out and be angry throwing him and his entire family back into prison but the slave’s conscience is indentured by his sins...

Conscience, soul, identity—these are all words that define our spiritual warfare reality daily as baptized, disciples of Jesus.  Satan fights for control of them every waking moment of our temporal life on this “floating rock” in space created amongst millions upon millions of creations the good Lord made! The world of the self is in itself an ideological prison.  Delusions of grandeur and conquest are fed to us as a poisonous elixir the Evil One himself concocts out of our “desires, needs for power and control...”

What the Gospel of GRACE that Jesus Christ offers us is a type of power that we truly miss the mark in understanding...  St. Paul’s conversion-fed knowledge of the Living Word speaks best to this in regards to living truthfully and completely in GRACE is being gracious: “. ⁷We do not live to ourselves, (he says) and we do not die to ourselves. ⁸If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” Why do we avoid this?  Is it just a matter of the “no pain/ no gain” aspect of discipleship we don’t like?  Or is it because we can’t or won’t go there spiritually?

St. Paul goes further in challenging the Romans to “cut it out” and focus on Kingdom things over worldly things:

He says “¹⁰Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. ¹¹For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” ¹²So then, each of us will be accountable to God.”

Judgment is the perfect place for the battle between good and evil.  Judgment can become in itself an idol creating totalitarian ideologies that impose “rule” and essentially delusions of power over and above others, the soul and even one’s identity.  Social media was what was utilized by these ISIS cells and by these vulnerable, psychologically deprived young women.  They left their middle-class families, small town universities and lifestyles to join the “cause” by becoming nurses to aid these terrorists and breed an army of the next generation of ISIS by marrying militants in power.

Who knows what the fate of these women will bear?  Some have been caught and arrested others are for the moment, living for a “cause...” they have no understanding of except that it makes results at the expense of death and destruction!  Hitler sought to purify the world from his neighbor, the Jews by leading and feeding a desperate people with a culture of belief that actually builds stone by stone, chain by chain the graceless wilderness; reality of Hell itself.

Being and becoming fully aware of our accountability as disciples of Jesus living into His Gospel of GRACE and love requires that we live into everything we resist!  In order to know the forgiveness and GRACE of God—the magnitude of its magnificent power—EFFECT upon our lives begins with our willingness to radically forgive, love, care, and support one another.  Joseph’s behavior, the King’s behavior seems crazy to the “rational” world but is the beautiful behavior of GRACE—the reality of living into, becoming a complete person through Christ—the Kingdom of God.

AMEN

Sunday September 14^th, 2014; 14^th Sunday After Pentecost; Year A; SOLA Lectionary   

Nicole Collins

Psalm 103:1-12; Psalm 40:1-11; Genesis 50:15-21; Romans 14:1-12 & Matthew 18:21-35

"Keeping Watch;" Sermon for Sunday September 7th, 2014 by Nicole Collins

The last verse from St. Paul’s snippet to the Romans today sums up our task as well as our journey: “¹⁰Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.”  How ironic these profoundly beautiful Words of life, Words of the Gospel heard through the conversion-enlightened heart of St. Paul are pruned away and used some 19 centuries later for diabolical evil...

It is perhaps a little known fact that Hitler began most of his public speeches to the desperate people of Germany with a significant chunk of the first chapter from Romans 13...  Words of life cherry-picked and gravely distorted to speak to diabolical evil and cater ultimately to death...  The utter depravity of Hitler’s twisted mind to creatively ignore the real context of Paul’s “careful” voice about being conscientious to secular authority to basically avoid persecutions is surreal. 

The anatomy of the freely responsible servant of Christ is a Baptismal daily affair of Reflecting, Confessing, Repenting and Renewing as we are all called and commissioned members of the Priesthood of All Believers to be, to do.  We are the watchmen of the faith in the world today. Being a witness is being both active and ACCOUNTABLE in your role as a minister within this Priesthood.

Much like walking through an art gallery however, we look fondly upon the ideals within the picture frames presented in the Bible but then we spiritually walk away back into our own man-made constructions of nearly impenetrable stumbling blocks of the nihilistic universe of I, Me and Mine.  The origins of the graceless universe also known as the reality of hell begins here.

We must strive to develop a kinder and gentler world—this was the idealism I once held from the beginning of my spiritual formation into ministry.  Currently around us, in the world, we have active and present Barbarians traversing throughout the Middle East murdering, raping, pillaging and desecrating in the “guise” of religious fervor for a diabolical intention of bondage—Satan’s reign planting the first “bricks,” establishing toxic roots within indifferent soil!

The Prophet Ezekiel basically challenges us: Are you a Prophet or a puppet in owning up to your ministerial roles? We all can’t be uniform leaves on a tree... though some in the church world today feel that is the ideal. Or feel those who are active witnesses only “parrot theology or must be narcissists”...  Those they feel fit the mold are more or less to be merely a controlled voice box for doctrine and indoctrination, no work on the roots (spiritual formation of the Pastor).  The problem, however, is that God made us all individuals with various creative applications that when shaped by a truly mentoring disciple of Christ has the potential to really be all things through Him who strengthens us daily!

Prophets and prophecy however, have been painted away into that picture frame that we only truthfully take a passing glance at.  Much like the watchmen asleep within the tower; we are immersed within our “perfect man-made” environment of distractions and ignorance...  Technology has helped a lot there, basically you can have the whole world at the tip of your fingers to flit back and forth into... with no consequence or even so much of a thought!

Love Thy Neighbor as a sister or a brother of Christ is on one level, a beautiful ideal but perhaps the very word, ideal, is our stumbling block.  An ideal is an unattainable goal or quest—we have either used this as an excuse through a self-righteous shallow/legalistic humility or out of complete indifference and ignorance.  Living and changing as Jesus tells His disciples, is to be that of the innocent frame of mind of a child.  What He’s talking about is a Kingdom-oriented, focused Humility.

Jesus’ Words are pretty direct: “³... Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all].” How has this been cherry-picked or misunderstood to be not about a call to obedience and accountability?

Jesus continues in instructing the disciples to align their hearts to this “ideal:” “⁴Whoever will humble himself therefore and become like this little child [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving] is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” I had to have us hear these verses through the amplified Bible to see just these four adjectives: trusting, lowly, loving and forgiving.  Having or harboring/ spiritually developing trust, healthy humility, brotherly love (compassion) and mercy is a painful, persevering task—You must focus inwardly to hear God’s Living Word beckoning you through Grace and Love to Be and become—children of Grace!

Jesus challenges the disciples by defining what makes a mentor: “⁵And whoever receives and accepts and welcomes one little child like this for My sake and in My name receives and accepts and welcomes Me.”  Being and becoming “little Christs” in world as Luther once said is actively living your life as a Witness, herald, and teacher of Christ Jesus’ Gospel to the world. Herald is not just an established Biblical word for our (Man-made) ecclesiological understanding of “preaching...”  Being a herald is being prophetic without the ego!  If Christ Jesus is truly the center of your life, your heart, your purpose for living... there is no I— but for Him, for neighbor!

Our task according to Jesus is that we are truly responsible to respond and it’s not going to be achieved by our short-sightedness and need to control: “⁶But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in and acknowledge and cleave to Me to stumble and sin [that is, who entices him or hinders him in right conduct or thought], it would be better (more expedient and profitable or advantageous) for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be sunk in the depth of the sea.” We have however exiled the true purpose of the corporate church which was to be of mentoring and discipleship, into politics and judgmentalism to accomplish elaborate self-righteous agendas, goals. Through these actions we are not discipling people to the faith but turning them away.

Jesus continues to say: “⁷Woe to the world for such temptations to sin and influences to do wrong! It is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the person on whose account or by whom the temptation comes!” Can you imagine for one moment what it would have looked like if Jesus were preaching on a hill opposite of Hitler saying these words? The extreme contradiction in purpose is profound to fathom!  A desperate people who were angry, decimated and thoroughly humiliated by the first world war were tempted by Hitler’s profound evil that they must kill and destroy their neighbor—the Jews.

“Convert or Die,” has been the battle cry of the ISIS group who claim to be doing/ proclaiming Allah’s will. There is no room for care or concern however—it is purely, unequivocally, barbaric oppression to obedience period.  Vacillating on our end to step into reaching out in care to neighbor is not “a manageable” state of confronting rampant evil especially if we still do consider ourselves “watchmen” of the faith.

The bigger picture for all of us as disciples of Christ Jesus is that we must continue to reflect, confess, repent and renew in daily, Baptismally answering: What is my role and purpose within God’s plans, within the ministry appointed to us all?  It is not all about us but it is about Him and we are to live and lead lives shaped by the commandments—the greatest is the sum of Jesus and His Grace: LOVE.  If we could end all horror and evil—what would the world look like?  A greater question still: Why must it be just an ideal?  Why can’t we make it real?!

AMEN

September 7^th, 2014; 13^th Sunday After Pentecost; Year A; SOLA Lectionary      Nicole Collins

Psalm 32:1-7; Ezekiel 33:7-9; Romans 13:1-10; & Matthew 18:1-20

Youtube sermon link: http://youtu.be/AG5nKNhLTUE