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beauty and its spiritual intensity echo the Psalmist words: “11You show me
the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy…” Reaching this impasse
is reaching that cross to travel down that road where the stone has been
removed and we are truly free! Free to
be in, with and through Christ Jesus the Lord of all—the sovereign King of
Grace—alleluia and amen! Grace is that New Manna from heaven that fills the
soul and builds up the Body.
Building
up the Body takes a resurrected frame of mind however. One cannot realize this until they truly
begin to live into their faith. Living
into your faith is beginning that process of turning your heart towards God to
be shaped by the Grace that abundantly ebb and flows throughout your lifetime’s
journey!
We’ve
all at some point have said the saying that people, places and things happen or
intersects our life for a reason. I
believe that all of these moments are teachable moments to guide us not into
peril but faithfully unto God’s beautiful, intended path for us. This past Friday made my official first Good
Friday service as a pastor for the Church of Christ. Like a little kid, I am savoring every moment
of ministry I get engaged into.
Being immersed
in everything and anything ministry made a funny conversation at our text study
this past Saturday morning. Being a
ministry team of three ordained pastors & an additional soon-to-be pastor
at the main church plant; one of our team mates remarked that we’re like
Charlie’s Angels… What was terrible funny about that is that the senior pastor
is a man & the rest of us are all women.
On a spiritual note, I thought about those women coming to Jesus’ tomb
and how little is mentioned of the women disciples Jesus had in His ministry.
Here
they were, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of
James, and Salome coming to anoint the body with spices and care for Jesus’
tomb. It was a somber occasion but they
needed to tend to Jesus. Little did they first realize when that giant stone
was gone… Jesus was more than risen! He
had risen indeed! Alleluia and thanks Be
to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for a New life granted unto us all! We can’t truly and truthfully imagine the
terror and excitement they must have been feeling for it was 2,000 something
years ago as well as buried again in the all too human tomb of ritual, doctrine
and personal agenda…
Several months back one of the many awful stories about the
activities of ISIS included their utter destruction of the tomb of Jonah. The Old Testament story of Jonah and the
whale was ironically first intended to be a satire in speaking to the human
condition in battling human will against God’s will… What Jonah and the whale became for the early
Christians was a profound symbol of the resurrection and the New Nature. For ISIS to destroy such a symbol was
profoundly and frankly diabolically evil to the person of faith but only made
the ticker-tape underneath the trivial stories of our personal divisions and
judgmentalism…
After all, there is new theological scholarship out there
believing that Jesus really didn’t resurrect as well as He’s not really
divine. Even typing or saying these
words are disturbing for me… for my faith is very real and my heart has grown
through Grace and its instructions to my heart to truly LIVE! I can only echo St. Paul’s words in saying I
am who I am because of Christ Jesus and His profound impact upon my life. That foundation of “self” though, has to go
through battle especially when the Evil One tries to bind us to our will and
narrow world view.
Being bound to the world of the self with its idolatry,
ideologies and hardened vision is like being in a tomb. You have made yourself a prisoner where you
have swallowed death and have no idea what it means to be free in, with and
through Grace! Life can seem uncertain and you fear the future, you fear your
every footstep into the unknown. Those
tears shed are not felt baptismally than they are felt with weariness and
despair… We must not go on this
way! We cannot go on this way for the
sake of Him who gave His life for us and ROSE as a rose on our Path in that
wilderness!
One thing I have learned about flowers or roses in particular
that is really kind of interesting is that when they bloom and begin to truly
open people consider them beginning to die and don’t want to buy them… They want the still closed rose which makes
actually an ironic metaphor for the human condition in thinking about Christ
Jesus’ resurrect and His impact upon our lives as truly children of Grace. Isn’t when the rose blooms that it is its
most beautiful, its most mature? We’re
not focusing on age so much more than as a disciple of Jesus we must think
about that bloom as our formation as the Body of Christ in the world but not of
it.
We must roll away that heavy, impenetrable stone from the potential
tomb of our soul’s freedom in, with and through Christ. In, with and through Christ is the song the
heart must sing in order to truly grow, to truly rise from the sin, death and
bondage the Evil One tries to placate our lives with!
In the Garden of Gethsemane before His crucifixion Jesus says
most profoundly to His disciples: “Are
you able to drink from the cup I am about to drink from?” Little did they realize in just saying yes,
there would be so much more for them to grow into doing, being as Christ’s
servants of the Gospel! Our lives need to demolish those boundary lines and
fill our “Cup” or heart with God for God and live to love my neighbor.
Living to love my neighbor has been God’s first lesson to me as
a new pastor. This past week we jointly
as a new little family my husband, myself and Sharon looked for a new home that
has both handicap features as well as much more space for us all. Change is something I most heartily long to
embrace especially when it comes to moving!
We are not however, naturally inclined to want to change at all… so I am
definitely the oddball in looking forward to not only changing addresses but
growing as a disciple and pastor to not only proclaim the Good News but truly
live it!
Rolling away that giant stone is very hard and feels the pain of
tears that I must remind myself are baptismal—all a grand part of God’s
beautiful path of Grace in my life. My
life is not to be about me but is to be for Him, through HIM, through a
resurrected heart dead to the Old Nature and most profoundly alive in the
New! My faith is strong and I have
picked up my cross to follow Him as well as I must embrace that cup in order to
truly be glad and rejoice in His salvation…
No matter how evil the times are becoming, we must not lose
heart. We must build that foundation of
our heart with the power of Christ Jesus resurrection and its continuing presence
in everything and in anything we see, do, be and become! Let’s say this again
and hear it deeply:
Christ has risen! He has
risen indeed Alleluia! & AMEN
April 5th, 2015;
Resurrection of Our Lord; Year B; SOLA Lectionary; Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 16; Isaiah 25:6-9; 1
Corinthians 15:1-11 and Mark 16:1-8
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