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Having faith, keeping faith, building faith is a funny and unpredictable challenge—it needs to be fed and led. What feeds us? There are many things that would fall in this category, everything at times, but, the most important: Christ Jesus Gospel as the Living Word wrought through the authority and direction of the Holy Spirit. In a perfect world, the Holy Spirit truly leads us but we have not died to sin and in fact feed, indulge ourselves with a lot of junk food—empty content, empty promises.
The
daily spiritual “junk food” we often find ourselves indulging in is everything
from health-wealth energy Gospel bars, cheap grace low-gospel-content “chips”
of self-wisdom to self-righteousness, and lastly “feel-good” smoothies to wash away
any remnant of the true Gospel we are to be obedient to and grow from! Where
all these “indulgences” eventually lead us truly and truthfully is into a kind
of spiritual “limbo”—a quagmire of indecision and meaninglessness. The only way
we have navigated around this is through idolatry. We have made our values, ideas and
intellectual systems the standard and norm where something comes to fruition,
but its not necessarily in consideration of God and neighbor...
It is
very hard for us faith filled and intentional disciples of Jesus to keeping
ourselves fueled with the pure and Living Word’s commands and demands upon
us... Especially when the cost of the fuel goes up! Disciples today in this culture have a mighty
fight to head up and a mighty fortress of Satan’s stumbling blocks and
temptations to bring crumbling down. The more we turn away from God to debate,
discern and build up the idolatrous world of the self, the harder and more
perilous the stakes become.
In
today’s parable Jesus challenges us to hear and own up to the challenges of
keeping the faith and living into it as children of Grace and promise. The “graceless wilderness” of our indecision
fueled by our spiritual, fast-food-consumerist, ethic drains us to the point of
becoming indifferent and cold to the purpose and authority of God’s Living Word
in our lives and truly from loving neighbor out of our own grace-grown volition,
response (Ministry).
For
how can we even remotely understand the message beyond the context of what the
Prophet Amos leaves us to ponder? “24...Let justice roll down like
waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” What is justice anyway?
Is Justice today, merely just another Pandora’s box lost in translation to our
politics and agenda-mongering over and above anything that truly speaks to or “is”
righteousness? The Truth will set us
free if we are ready to trust in the Lord and live for the Lord as our sole purpose
and mission in this world, but not of it.
This
past Tuesday, my wonderful husband dragged me over to the polling place to
vote. As he, among others are well aware
of, I am not a fan of politics since so much of it has caved away to complete
and utter injustice, polarization and condemnation. If anything I feel politics have joined with our
intellectual idolatry of the self to form a powerful weapon the Evil One is
using to destroy and divide people of faith all over the world... (I did,
however, do the deed and voted!)
Later
that evening we went to a candidate’s “victory” party since my husband who is
in politics, worked for his campaign. All around the warehouse style space of
this bar slash grill, there were dozens of monitors tuned into the local
election news polling station. There
were even some actual reporters already there setting up their elaborate
camcorders and microphones to key into the “deciding” moment when the elector
would be declared winning his position.
As soon as he was declared, victor, the crowds screamed. It was a surreal moment to experience! (As
well as deafening!)
After
the screaming and myriad of chanted slogans, the politician began to speak.
Meanwhile the monitors still blared in the background lists upon lists of
people and those who either conceded or fought their vote tallies till the bitter
end. The media much like the crowds
stayed glued for only a moment or so to hear the candidate’s niceties and introductions
but ironically began to fall away and leave once the politician began to talk
about his actual plans and ethics for his constituents’ future.
What
I found incredibly ironic from this whole experience is thinking about what we
choose to champion, create as priority and our staying power or commitment even
to something we have made into “false idols?” Here was this person, actually
beginning to tell of what his services and intentions were for his voters but
it seemed like people were falling away and didn’t care to hear what he
actually was going to say. The media
frenzy fell away even sooner than the constituents.
The
daily news to follow since that day began to cave way into their usual patterns
of judgmentalism, mistrust and polarization but perhaps that is the extent of
how much we pay attention... or want to pay attention to! Meanwhile the things
that really matter are not truly and truthfully seen, yet alone heard any more
for our indifference has clouded us away and back into our disillusion and
discernment.
Being
Christian especially one with an additional “man-made title” or discerning
adjective such as Lutheran reveals its worldly challenges to being truly and
truthfully informed. As most people know, the Lutheran world is divided not
necessarily for the better by battles that perhaps are not Biblical more than
doctrinal politics. Where you are or “claim
stakes” within or to, helps to form that “invisible” label over your head which
may or may not be even remotely close to who you are spiritually in
Christ... But this is the evil that
politics in the church has done to the Gospel and purpose for the Body in the
world but not to be of it.
The
church I helped to plant alongside several friends is very much a Lutheran
church with the exception that the Lutheran aspect has become more or less the
sub-atomic particle to the structure and function of a discipleship,
Christ-centered community. Since it is
inwardly apparent in experience and being an active member of this community,
on the outside some will see you as “Lutherans in limbo,” or aspiring Baptists
since you don’t follow the uniform empirical package of “Traditional Lutheranism”
in America. This is their perception
merely which is purely based on externals, not however, inwardly—spiritually experienced. Human nature is empirically focused, we are
spiritually challenged to move beyond this, however.
Inward,
spiritual experience is the Gospel of Jesus actively working also known as spiritual
transformation. What we must realize is
that the Living Word is actively pursuing, calling and indeed shaping those who
have ears to hear and a capacity to feel! God instills the gift of faith deeply
within our hearts. The seed has been
sewn by God, now it must be reaped through a sure and certain hope that we will
not only see Jesus again but bear the fruit of Grace with our lives lived
brightly in, with and through the Lord, intentionally for the sake of Him who
gave His life for us—Jesus.
Returning
to the ironic illustration of this politician making his speech... We all have
the capacity to create and share ourselves, our ideas with others... Since when did we gain or welcome the
capacity to turn away and condemn not only each other but God for being God?
What and who do we really seek? Whom do we truly and truthfully serve? We must
never forget that the true sovereign, heavenly parent to us all only has one
statement, one message, one treatise for the human heart to be shaped
obediently to—the Gospel, the Living Word, the story of Grace—Jesus Christ.
Our
faith defines us, this is true. What we “choose”
to believe in, champion and uphold is the difference. It is the difference between being and
purpose, life and death, ministry or “job.”
Who are you though, but one of many children upon a tiny floating rock
among millions of God’s creations unfathomable to the “mind” but not impossible
for faith—heart knowledge, Christ’s true victory.
AMEN
Sunday November 9th,
2014; 22nd Sunday after Pentecost; Year A; Proper 27; SOLA Lectionary Nicole Collins
Psalm 70; Amos 5:18-24; 1
Thessalonians 4:13-18 & Matthew 25:1-13
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