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In today’s Gospel, Jesus says to all His disciples, not just directly to James & John: “43b……whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. 45For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
A
ransom is a transaction, it is a business barter in human terms, how we pay for
things. In Godly terms and
understandings however it is all connected to that beautiful abstract center of
all that God has to offer: GRACE. That
all caps, Hollywood sized sign reality of what drives us to obedience to love
and serve both God and neighbor. What if
we truly lived into Grace meaning showing genuine selfless compassion, mercy,
love, kindness etcetera? The world
wouldn’t look too normal wouldn’t it? We
probably wouldn’t recognize it! Perhaps it would even frighten us~ after all we’ve
been more than comfortable with ourselves living into our own patterns more
often than God’s patterns for our lives… right?
The
disciples got angry with James and John.
They did seem to ask a bone-headed question, that was selfish but that’s
because they really didn’t understand the discipline Christ would not only be
bringing into the world but that they only seem to understand Him through a
worldly lens of power, and not a spiritual one.
Jesus journey from the waters of the Jordan baptizing Him to begin His
mission of Grace to its perfection, fruition at the cross—is why we gather.
The
Gathering communities or churches or “gathering of Lutheran misfits” try to
live into the idea of gathering or coming together to scatter. Living into the mission of Grace God places
before you as you follow Him on your faith journey. Glory for the Kingdom of
God is obedience to the Holy Spirit’s mission to guide and strengthen you for
the Lord’s service as one of many in His priesthood of all servants to the
Gospel.
My
personal relationship with our loving and gracious God began at that conversion
experience I had almost 12 something years ago now. In a tiny north side Swedish Lutheran church
I heard God and His Words begin to be etched upon my heart a New Obedience I
needed to yield to. I confirmed this
through a baptism of tears. Five years
after that renewal, baptism of tears, I darkened the halls of seminary and
began a more formal YES to God’s call to become His servant. Then and there I was freed from my former
life and perspective and became a ransomed servant of the Lord and for the Lord
through Grace.
As
everyone here knows, just this January I was “made” official for service and
ordained to the role of Pastor through the Lutheran Evangelical Protestant
Church. Ordained pastor means simply one
in charge of Word and Sacrament as a leader to the flock of believers in said
care. This coming Saturday a good friend of mine or a “war-buddy,” who’s been on
a similar crazy journey, will be ordained as well. I couldn’t be happier for him and it’s not
because he “deserves it” but more for the work that he will truly embark upon
for the Lord and for the love of neighbor!
We both
have great visions of what ministry will look like planned from our heart and
acted upon through our hands and feet and it does take a profound sense of
commitment as well as a lot of dreaming…
Dreaming with a hope, a much greater hope for the future of a world
teetering near spiraling into a graceless wilderness of self-service, vice and
personal gain, glory. Speaking of “working
for God’s glory plus dreaming” towards the future, I put up my own campaign
through “Go Fund Me” for the Grace Hub to find and create its official physical
plant: The Grace Hub Discipleship Center.
I got
turned on to the idea by another friend of mine who was pestering me enough
with his Go Fund Me campaign to pay his way in seminary; I thought I’d give it
a whirl. Not one donation yet… Which I
could see this both ways, the positive side being that things take time or the
negative side that people don’t believe in me having the drive, obedience and
patience needed to plant a community.
The world needs to see everything in tangible terms and we don’t necessarily
see or even care to realize where people are especially when they need to be
given the chance to shine as a servant of the Lord.
This is
a path to be sojourned alone but empowered by Grace through a faith that must
endure those many days of suffering spiritually. Suffering feeling spiritually
insecure about who you are in the Body of Christ and reminding ourselves of
whose we are as children of God, children of Grace for Grace. We are to be the caretakers of that Hollywood
sized sign reality of GRACE. We need to be committed to more than lip service
to living as a bond servant of the Lord.
The
foundation of that beautiful journey of faith, that personal relationship
between you and God began a long time ago.
It began at your baptism. Those bricks were laid throughout our lives
shaped by and through the Living Word of God! The mortar has been comprised of
the many lessons we encounter throughout the whole of our lives to “perfect” us
for service. This foundation and its’
prayerfully mortared and set reality was never built on “cheap grace” but
through the precious blood and sacrifice of a crucified Lord of all for all—Jesus!
A most costly GRACE.
Satan
loves to try to make us feel insecure about how much we’ve done, where we are
and so on. Sure it could be easy to take
out a chalkboard & draw a line each time you were asked to officiate
something, write up something or counsel someone but if this is the only way
you are seeing what you DO as an obedient disciple… then you are right in the
same boat as James and John in misunderstanding sacrifice and service for the
Love of God and neighbor.
One of
the ministry moments right under my nose has been caring for our
housemate. We are buried in trying to do
so many things together. We’re looking
into official care-giving certification, handicap accessible apartments and
more importantly Phil & I are coming to learn what love in action is
through the Gospel for neighbor. Nothing
could go more slowly than it has been…
Either people do not respond or you find yourself having to call, write
or leave messages continually for people whom you are seeking to help you, to
help others. It is like we are in an age
of limited care, concern and accountability.
Living
into those etched Words of Grace upon my heart is shaping the desire for
chaplaincy. However, you can submit all those
papers and participate in all those interviews finding yourself explaining away
why you want to be living compassion to others but if it’s being filtered and
judged by human terms and not really in Godly terms… People don’t seem to care
what you can give if the piece of paper doesn’t have enough there or your
references aren’t enough or you have to keep an outside job that you can’t drop
for unpaid training…
We’re
not allowing people to find their role in the priesthood of all believers. We’ve compartmentalized it to be a Sunday
morning or evening experience only and our lives separate, divided amongst
ourselves. How can we relate to the
Glory of the cross and its gift to our hearts for service if we shun others
from truly and truthfully serving? Perhaps each and every time we are
frustrated and once again those tears flow; we must see those tears as
reminding us of our baptism. Cleansing our hearts from the Evil’s One’s mottling
into our affairs to drag us into his graceless wilderness of purposelessness
and despair.
Our
newly expanded family’s goals are to be moved May 1st somewhere in
Northern suburbia and to be firmly established to be better care-givers for
Sharon. God’s love and guidance is what
helps my heart to be strong and persevere.
For I know I am of His Kingdom in the here and now but I must continue
to fight the evil of all that tries to diminish Him.
Amen
Sunday March 22ndth,
2015; 5th Sunday in Lent; Year B; SOLA Lectionary;
Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 119:9-16; Jeremiah 31:31-34;
Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 10:32-45
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