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Hearing that voice takes the power of faith to move those mountains. The sovereignty of God is realized when the heart responds to the commission of Grace and the mission of the Gospel. Hearing yet alone responding stands upon that rocky ground however where we are easily shaken by the ways of the world and its gospel… In the beginning however, we must realize that the Voice of God is where it all began and it is through this very same Voice, we know who is in charge.
Whose
voice do you hear calling you? For Nicodemus, he was hearing God but through a
lens of tradition that heard but only followed to a certain extent… This is human nature. In thinking about where we are in the here
and now of the world: Just what are you being called to? Speaking for myself, I was called into
ministry for everyone it is different and uniquely shaped by your relationship
with God. It is a particular pathway of
Grace granted by our sovereign, crucified Lord & King—Jesus.
Sometimes
that pathway meanders through the ambivalent & indifferent wilderness of
the world and its ways. At times you can find yourself lost in more ways than
one. Lost and spinning your wheels or confused and ambivalent in trusting… Let’s
face it, there are a lot of voices out there all talking away where many of the
things heard are not necessarily good or Godly things to hear. From indifferent murders and plundering
abroad to a sense of unrest and gracelessness spreading like a virus in a world
slipping away into the Evil’s One’s grasp.
I
saw a horrible and frankly diabolically evil video the other day of systemic
beheadings of Christians in Syria. The
man kneeling, blindfolded in a pool of blood, hands bound and his head forcibly
aligned for the executioner to silence not only this man’s voice but witness of
faith! They kicked his head aside and
dragged his lifeless body to pile atop others who had suffered the same
fate. I hadn’t seen anything as gruesome
as this since the video and photos from the Holocaust.
A
similar sadness and horror to see was just the other day on the highway. A mother duck and some of her ducklings were
horribly killed in the center lane of the busy highway. The remaining ducklings thankfully scurried
off the highway into the forest lining this road. In both instances it goes beyond the murder
and death of innocence but becomes a statement of where we are in listening to
the Voice of God, living into the Living Word… as a compassionate people. Do we love God and neighbor faithfully? If we did truly hear His Voice, we could be
born anew. In His voice we would find a
New kind of refuge and New kind of Hope that ends the darkness of these things
that have taken place…
Finding
refuge in the voice of God takes a more persevering effort these days, for
we’re not allowed to share our faith yet alone defend it against the narrow-minded
with their godless self-concerned agendas… The wind is blowing where it wills
but as to what kind of wind it indeed is, is not for God yet alone neighbor. How do we as a people of faith remain against
the tide of things such as these last few days?
The
threat of war has been swept ever so carefully under the rug in order to
control what can’t be truthfully controlled… “Convert or die,” “Tolerate,”
“punishment,” “penalty,” “judgement…” and so on. The only words missing from this short list
of failing ethics is the reality of what is being avoided: sin, evil and
accountability.
We
confess creedally in many forms, in prayer, in worship in our ministries in the
world that we are born through water and the Word. Living faith is another story, as we saw with
Nicodemus and even with Isaiah, hearing and being open to the cleansing aspect
of the Voice of God was a challenge. We
can’t just say it’s a matter of human nature or our saint and sinner
inheritance… We must own up to what
truthful development as children of God, children created by and for God,
entails. Are we just technologically
advanced primates or are we both created and to live into the image of God, the
image of Grace!?
Wouldn’t
be nice to just escape all this evil washing up on the shore fronts of our
denial of the Voice…? We are called otherwise, however, to take our fingers out
of the ears of our heart & take a stand!
Not a graceless stand mind you, but one that is coming from that
uncomfortable, humble, converted place of being accountable to the source of
all life, sovereign over all—God! Peter’s continuing sermon in today’s snippet
from Acts doesn’t just remind them that they missed the boat in realizing all
that has taken place through Christ but a wake-up call to knowing by hearing,
living by being open to the reality of the Holy Spirit—God’s active Grace in
the world.
Taking
a stand requires leading with a voice.
It goes beyond the smallness of our sense of worldly justice, logic and
limited goals. We still paint with small
brushes, we still crush the words of witness when it doesn’t go in the
direction we desire for it go. Desire,
want, control—just a few words that construct the vacuum of human depravity.
In
using that horrible video, the enemy worked through that evil to be propaganda
for the ideology and idolatry of a group of people who “claim & proclaim”
to be doing their God’s will… A little too late have been the voices of concern
coming from the Middle East in regards to cries of outrage and tears of
lament. The other day I saw a wonderful
fragmented video of an Arabian Princess calling on all concerned for compassion
to bring about an end to both the defamation against her faith as well as the
murder and plunder taken on by ISIS. It
was just one speech shared by the media, who knows how much further she has
gone being a voice against the evil taking place.
On
a positive note, even the smallest of presence or seemingly hiddenness of one’s
efforts to both live in a renewed sense of Spirit examples a beautiful
hope. This is a hopefulness that is an
aspect of the hidden nature of God working in the world as the sovereign of
Grace, peace and mercy. In great hope for our world, we can truly come together
in prayer and prayerful action to realize a resurrected life. A life steeped in Grace for Grace and to be
and become Grace to others out of a beautiful love….
A
beautiful love, the world has still yet to understand: 16“For God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him
may not perish but may have eternal life. 17“Indeed, God did not
send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world
might be saved through Him.”
All of life is sacred and is the
beautiful reflection, creation of our Triune God of Grace. From the leaves on the trees budding to the
fragile lives of ducks and their young. All
life is sacred and is to be and become beautiful inside and out… Right now we are in the midst of witnessing
the Evil One’s rise in the world through the horrors of ISIS. Last century was no different for we saw
similar satanic horror through the Nazis and Hitler… The evil of the Nazis was arrested but did
the restoration ever truly take place? A
restoration, resurrection of the Spirit into a New Heaven and a New Earth where
death, evil and destruction is burnt away by the cleansing sovereignty of God.
An almighty and beautiful Voice,
that said over the waters—Be still and team with life! Who called into the darkness and said: Let
there be Light! Let there be light and a
path reformed but not overtaken through the wilderness. Let that light like a fiery coal brand our
hearts with a New mission. A mission of
Grace restoring the world to God’s plans in the here and now—where we will know
what it means to rejoice, where we know what it means to proclaim the glory and
TRUTH of the Holy and Sovereign Gospel of God!
Peter speaks to what is timeless to
our journeys’ today: “32This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of
us are witnesses. 33Being therefore exalted at the right hand of
God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has
poured out this that you both see and hear.”
Our eyes see many things, our hearts
can feel many things as well as HEAR. I can only pray that my life is not only
obedient to the God of Grace and His plan for the world… But I hope to enliven all my senses with His
Gospel imperative that I may be and become all He needs me to be to lift up His
sovereignty for the world to HEAR, to witness.
Ascribe to the Lord what you KNOW He
has enlightened Your heart to be shaped to.
Step forward against evil and the ruler of this world’s efforts to try
to drag us down into darkness and peril.
May we see and feel the lamenting tears of those persecuted as that
spiritual coal to awaken further our call to serve the King—Jesus.
Let us pray:
Sovereign Lord of Grace,
Help to continue to shape our lives
With a resurrecting hope
Help to make us bold witnesses
To carry Your Voice and Gospel
imperative
Into the darkness of the wilderness
May we live into the sacredness of
Your Life-giving Grace
Defeating evil’s rise once more
May we with a Bold Faith come to end
evil forever
Through Your Triune power alive in
our lives
As that shaping and branding Voice
Amen
Holy Trinity
Sunday; May 31st, 2015; Year B; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by Reverend
Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 29 ; Isaiah
6:1-8 ; Acts 2:14a, 22-36 & John
3:1-17
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