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The Psalmist’s words begin to shape that modeled role of servant leadership: “10The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.” What other adjectives could we consider placing in the place of fear? As disciples of Jesus perhaps we could understand this as Grace.
The
Grace of the Lord is the beginning of a different kind of wisdom (heart
knowledge). All who truly and truthfully
live into it glean in God’s good timing, an understanding and a shaping. This shaping is God’s Grace transforming you
to be and become a faithful, faith-filled steward to God’s Word and Will and
never your own agenda. Your life begins
to infuse with the beauty and practice of living into the Life style of Grace.
I have
been blessed this past week in “hitting the ground running,” so to speak. For I
have been ministering to help a parishioner in the midst of a series of tragic
circumstances beyond her control. There is only so much anyone of us can do but
God says to us to never say never; just DO & BE for others. This has fueled the fire of compassion needed
for me to begin to truly and truthfully minister to someone.
Your
life lived not as your own but that of God’s, IS prophecy. It is the servant leader, Jesus tried to
carefully example for his disciples to discern in their hearts first before
acting through their hands and feet. Being in a polarized world where the Evil
One’s reign has established a firm foundation in the “church world…” It was
interesting to get a nasty Facebook message, the other day, from a pastor
rebuking and chiding me for saying that politics do not belong in
ministry. He basically told me that his
ministry is to cater to his political agenda.
What he neglected to leave out is precisely what he leaves out period:
the Gospel!
Leadership
as a disciple of Jesus, as modeled by the Lord himself and His faithful servant
Paul in today’s texts is not to be of the world, but cater and serve a godly
purpose period. True selfless leadership never uses the word agenda, yet alone
I, Me and mine. The Evil One’s work
however through a worldly wisdom has had some see ministry as grounded in the
self. The Gospel and Grace of Jesus
becomes merely a “phantom ideology” on the back burner to the ego for those
more concerned with doctrinal human laws and cultural fads.
We need
to look upon our lives as a continual construction project. For me it recalls one of my favorite movies
which ironically will be taking place on Monday: Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day
is that now 22 year old classic that has Bill Murray’s character reliving the
same day over and over till he truly and truthfully begins to be changed. He
begins to have an “Epiphany” of renewed purpose and vision for his life lived
for others.
Many of
us can look into the novels of our lives lived thus far and wonder: how did I
get here? Was it grounded in, with and
through God for the love of God and the love of neighbor? Hearing the Lord and
allowing Him to shape our conscience is not an easy process it takes a lot of
trust; holding back the fear and vice the Evil One places in our paths to be
stumbling blocks to truly and truthfully becoming servant leaders through and
for the Gospel of Grace!
Living
into the Gospel of Grace means not catering into graceless behavior… but we
still stumble over it as well as are challenged to grow from it ourselves. I left my retort to this pastor up on my Facebook
page to make a point hopefully beyond myself about the notion of priority in
ministry. It probably seems graceless of
me to leave it there but perhaps it could be looked upon as a hindrance to the
graceless message of intolerance, narcissism and political agenda that this
pastor’s message was towards me.
You
have probably heard these two Words like an echo in my sermon thus far: Truly
and Truthfully. Why am I drawn to using
this often in consideration and discernment of today’s texts? Truly—what is
truth, do we live into being true to ourselves as children of God, children of
Grace? Truthfully—putting on aires or
being a phantom representative of the “office” of ministry is just like what
St. Paul says to the Corinthians about being “puffed up…” Living into Grace, True prophetic
discipleship is truthfully taking on a selfless, virtue representing all the
beautiful fruits Jesus has taught us to try to realize in his Be(the)
Attitude(s).
We will
find ourselves during the many pages of our lives’ stories stumbling and
resisting much like the character Phil Connors in ‘Groundhog Day,’ where we are
stuck in a dead end of our own devices with seemingly no resolve, re-living it
daily as painful reminder.... That is what places us in bondage
spiritually. If we are un-willing to
truly and truthfully trust in God for the next steps of the journey to move
forward as disciples of Grace; how could we break the cycle? “Church” is a living organic creature; it
really has little to do at all with walls & shaded windows… Spiritually however, even there, we put up
walls and see through dimly shaded, colored lens of our own divisiveness as
members of the priesthood of all believers.
The
parishioner I have been ministering to said something really sweet the other
day about being a witness and doing ministry herself. She basically said how many have perhaps
unfortunately viewed “doing” ministry: “You are the pastor, you went to school
for it; what can I really do?” I told her that her life’s story is what truly
and truthfully ministers to others; it goes way beyond titles, training & offices…. I told her in many ways her faith has been a
beautiful witness to my living truly and truthfully in service to others! When
we are all together as a church family; it is our witnesses to each other that
DO ministry.
I’m not
running for an office yet alone catering into recapitulating the “school of
Athens for Jesus… accolades,” I am here as we are all here to live in, with and
through the Living Word of God—the Gospel of Grace—Jesus Christ! Discipleship
is a journey that doesn’t have a crystal ball to look into the future and know
God’s plans… It’s living into a humbling
trust that crushes the stumbling blocks of the Evil One’s efforts within the
journey of your life.
Speaking
for myself, I have no idea where the journey will lead to next but I DO know
truly and truthfully who leads and shapes me. The days and the hours, the weeks
and the weather will keep moving forward; it is upon my heart to HEAR the Lord
and truly and truthfully be His disciple, here and now, the best I can for His
Kingdom’s sake.
We can
think of our lives as books on a shelf, with finite edges, hidden pages or we
can open that book, tear out those pages and use them. This brings me to think about my friend’s
church in the city and their current struggles being in transition to finding a
new pastor. Essentially who they have at the moment as interim, is a former
business manager who is engaged in reading manual after manual in how to lead a
transitional congregation. She even has
the congregation reading these “self-help” books. Not one of these books addresses “truly and
truthfully” what leadership is supposed to BE.
It caters simply to structure, “profession,” separation and segregation
the “church” has become to the detriment of the Gospel, plain and simple!
We need
to hear the Law at this point in order to understand Grace: “18I
will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will
put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything
that I command. 19Anyone who does not heed the words that the
prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable. 20But
any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in
my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak—that prophet
shall die.”
Hearing
this spiritually in the here and now through the Gospel of Grace: Be and become
truly and truthfully accountable to serve and love God. Be and become shaped by witnessing to God’s work
active in your life in service to others. Don’t profess but Confess, don’t
state but deliver—proclaim… Doing otherwise is the death of the Gospel.
Amen
February 1st, 2015; 4th Sunday
after the Epiphany; Year B; SOLA Lectionary;
By: Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 111; Deuteronomy
18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark
1:21-28
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