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“14Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”
It is
hard to fathom or imagine that it took 46 something years to rebuild Solomon’s
temple. On that same note, as well, it
is hard to believe in the concept that we indeed build, destroy and rebuild
throughout our life time’s journey as disciples of Jesus. This is especially true when we faithfully
live cross-shaped, Christ-centered lives.
In some
way or another we will see things torn down, dismantled, over-turned or utterly
destroyed either in a physical sense or more importantly in context to today’s
lessons, in a spiritual sense. For we
must hear deeply St. Paul’s indirect message to why we need to live
Cross-shaped lives… He says to his wayward Corinthians: “18For the
message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us
who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Being a
“fool” for Christ goes way beyond worship… it is something that incorporates
that vertical relationship with Christ Jesus as your Crucified Lord and Savior
as well as it incorporates that horizontal need to live that relationship
through loving God and neighbor with the spiritual fruits of our lives rebuilt
by Grace through faith. It’s a different kind of accountability as well as it
is a different kind of freedom… one that is shaped by the New Law we find
through Christ and His victory through the Cross to defeat evil, death and the
power of sin.
That
cross is one the world sees as either irrelevant when influenced by the unholy
trinity of I, Me and Mine or prayerfully shaped by the Kingdom of God for the
Kingdom of God reaped in loving God and neighbor truly and truthfully. Living truly and truthfully into the cost of
discipleship laid upon your shoulders is not something many will understand yet
alone be supportive of. Some will see
you as a fool, finding any and every moment to ridicule and belittle your
efforts in responding to His Will. The
Evil One will take advantage of this situation, as well, in helping to bring
down your confidence and question yourself…
It is human nature.
While
the world goes by, however, now is the time and place to live into that new
horizon, the one where Grace becomes active through our hands and feet shaped
by faith and always, shaped by that Cross! Being a disciple of Jesus isn’t
living into religiosity being doctrinal, theological, politically or
financially-motivated. It is none of these things, it is living into faith,
period…
Half of
46 is 23 and 23 years ago was another horizon to embark upon as it was my first
full scholarship paid year at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb for my
Masters of the Fine Arts. Half my life ago was another horizon, another
teachable point that even before the Lord became known to my heart… I had to traverse upon on my own. With all
hopefulness and ‘delusions of grandeur’ that particular journey was begun.
Our new
housemate claims to be a ‘sensitive’ and can see most expansively into one’s
life. She said the other day in a most
profound and uncanny manner that: “Art was something that only served to be a
place for you to voice the pain and challenges you could not face or would not
face in your complex life at the time.”
She is probably very much true as well as we could all say that there
are things, patterns or manners in our own lives we avoid addressing…
The
Corinthians also known as the ‘Las Vegas people of the ancient world,’ needed a
lot of help from St. Paul to open their lives prayerfully to loving God and
neighbor. They were in many senses like
the first capitalists, the first politicians, the first opportunists, salesmen
and so on. Worldly and seemingly logical
as well as temporal, transactional and limiting—this guided them over and above
the transformational message of the Cross.
For the Cross, perhaps challenged them too much.
Feeling
like you’re in over your head is a part of those valleys and those mountains within
the discipleship landscape. A landscape we all must travel down. With all hopefulness we often do make “choices,”
that either the world will or won’t understand or that we doubt and
discern. Trusting in the Lord and your prayerful relationship with Him should
be what best informs you. This is
conditional though, only for us; God however His Law and Love are unconditional—we
must strive to be transformed by and for this—Love, Grace!
You
will be constantly challenged with defining yourself by and through Christ,
plain and simple. The world will list its
“standards/rules” either imposing them upon you or imprisoning you to
everything BUT the Gospel of Christ Jesus.
One could allow themselves to see or experience it as an “us” vs. “them”
reality or move spiritually beyond that for a greater purpose and a greater
goal! This is the empowering impact of
the Cross upon our lives lived intentionally following the ‘Golden Rule’—“37Jesus
said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your mind.” (quoting from one of the Old Testament books
of Law, Deuteronomy and then His New view of the Law—Gospel) Jesus continues in
saying: “38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And
a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” These few
verses contain the vertical and the horizontal of what makes up a cross-shaped,
gracious life.
The
wisdom of God is something we will never fully understand yet alone realize for
we are limited, finite creatures. Creatures of God created by and for God to
live for a particular purpose we have yet to aspire towards. Just as St. Paul says in continuing to
challenge the Corinthians to “wake up and smell the coffee:” “21For
since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God
decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who
believe.” Living into faith is a heart and head accountability which bears the
fruit of GRACE as children of Hope, children of God.
Paul continues in his concern for the
Corinthians to see and live into a higher spiritual goal: “22For
Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23but we proclaim Christ
crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but
to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and
the wisdom of God.” Being called here is
not about offices, candidacies, or dogmatic, doctrinal campaigns… it is servant
leadership. For the pastor it is being a shepherd—leading and feeding the flock
with God’s Living, transformative Word!
“25For
God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger
than human strength.” No one’s life is going to fit into the world’s “perfect”
mold for that is confining, limited and really does not give a faithful voice
to anything but the idolater’s gospel!
These
next verses I hear prayerfully shaping my own journey as a disciple of Jesus: “26Consider
your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human
standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27But
God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is
weak in the world to shame the strong; 28God chose what is low and
despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that
are, 29so that no one might boast in the presence of God. 30He
is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God,
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31in order
that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Who am
I? Whose am I is a better question. Wherever you are on that long and winding
path, with its pits, valleys and moments of failing…. God has you here and now
for a particular purpose something Grace defines and faith expresses. This
stuck out in the back of my mind meditating upon these texts as well as
thinking prayerfully about my friend’s church and their current plight. The interim pastor there who merely considers
herself a “facilitator” or as my friend called it “one of soft-gloved coercion…”
is now currently serving a congregation that has dwindled down from an average
of thirty to an average of about four people showing up on a given Sunday morning.
I began
to dream about what I could do if I was their pastor… For this church was as well, that church at
the beginning of my faith journey before my conversion experience. Former member, former artist for the church
now their pastor?! Those who knew me then, wouldn’t understand where I am now
for I am living into New horizons the Lord of Life has laid before me. They would in reality probably think it would
be ridiculous and not even give someone like me a chance. Isn’t this though, how the world sees things?
Sees the motivations of the disciple as foolish? Why couldn’t those intentions
be coming from a place of compassion and justice shaped by and for the Cross?
It is
intentional however that I am a disciple of Jesus. It has been intentional that my art has now
become lived into being a pastor to share the fruits of Grace my faith in the
Lord has given me! Wherever any of us are, we cannot deny, we should not turn
away from where the Cross leads us to DO and BE for the Kingdom of God.
AMEN
March 8th, 2015; Third Sunday in
Lent; Year B; SOLA Lectionary;
Sermon by Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 19; Exodus 20:1-17; 1
Corinthians 1:18-31; & John 2:13-25
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