Nicole A.M. Collins: Faith Illuminations: The Soul's Manna; Sermon for August 2nd, 2015 by Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins

Truth be told, I’ve yet to read or see the film around C.S. Lewis’’ The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.’ The main character or creator of Narnia is the lion Aslan who many have speculated is an allegory for Jesus Christ and His Gospel role in the world but not of it.

Truth be told again, what indeed is Living about the Word of God is what you come to experience from it day to day, week to week on the journey of your life lived in faith. With this past week, I have found myself reflecting with some deep sadness about the story of Cecil, the Lion. Truth be told, we kill all the time as well as judge others, as well as become amateur politicians supposedly preaching and reaching out on behalf of Christ… BUT again, truth be told, we are not.

Speaking the truth in love is one of those gifts God bestows to those who align their hearts to His mission. Those who find the True sustenance in the wilderness of this world are those who seek and know the sovereignty of Grace active in their lives. Sovereignty is one of those words like the word dominion that is very lost to the soul when we allow ourselves to spiritually starve to death.

We become hunters in the wilderness, murdering and plundering for sport, no rhyme or reason just to satiate the self alone. Truth be told, I am an animal lover, I’ve signed hundreds of online petitions to help stop evil things and cruelty taking place in the world we feel we have “dominion” over… I have had a dynasty of cats, smaller cats not lions : ) … I love many animals. Truth be told, I could get carried away with the concept and condemnation against this person who murdered this lion but that’s not what God wants us to do.

The seat of the Soul is the essence of life, the genesis of who we are created by our one sovereign Lord, Our Father of all that we see existing…. All creatures great and small, the Lord God has created them all, we’ve heard this song but are we spiritually fed and led by it? The Israelites in today’s Old Testament lesson were actually given a break again by God even when they were wandering in this wilderness complaining and nearly blaspheming God because they felt that they were being neglected…

Centuries later, truth be told, we are still wandering that wilderness, perhaps even persecuted and diminished the Role of Christ Jesus in our lives to near godlessness BUT God still provides! We don’t know how to go back there and realize the enduring suffering our Lord Jesus took at that cross which poured Grace all over the world… but this is the reality of the journey of figuring out what is “faith justified by Grace?” What do we DO with “faith?” Is it becoming a doctrinal police officer to a human understanding we have developed to comprehend God? Is it becoming a make-shift politician operating solely from self-righteousness to enact justice? Or is it, again, using those Words in echo: Truth be Told in Love—allowing Christ Jesus dominion over your soul to live faithfully, TRUTHFULLY aligned to the Will of God by transforming the heart/ soul to being and becoming a New Natured, child of Grace?! I would say that this is the mission and vocation God has for those who Love and Learn from Him.

Leading a life worthy of the calling of which we have all been called to as the Priesthood of All Believers is realizing with all humility that our soul needs to be fed and led by the Lord. Jesus is the bread of life, His gospel should be that common meal we drive and shape our lives to align to in order to be “bread” to others. Discipleship is the fruit of our service together for a greater good. There may be no physical resources such as money, or other tangible things to motivate our response in Grace towards others but we can example a great abundance when we allow being fed and led to help us “grow up” together in Christ.

Satan is going to try to deride and derail us from pursuing and developing the gifts of Grace seen and unseen in that wilderness we are still wandering in. He will try to get us to see everything externally as divisive battles to be won or conquered through self-righteousness’ shallow glory or political conquest along with its destructive impact. Truth be told to the Heart of the believer really being fed and led by the Gospel, dominion of Jesus Christ(!); these things should repulse us as living into the graceless wilderness Satan wants us to die in bondage to!!

Decapitation is not only a horrible way to die but it is the most humiliating way to die as well. We have seen the destructive forces of evil in the world operating currently through ISIS condemning and murdering many Christians this way… They claim to operate on behalf of their radical ideology or “faith” perspective of “Islam.” In essence they claim to have a “purpose” or point to their activities of horror abroad. The novice hunter for “sport” claimed to be simply pursuing recreation. The trophy of the decapitated Cecil, the lion has provoked outrage where people are once again saying “an eye for an eye.”

My question there is, what would the dentist death truly satisfy? This is no solution, this is definitely not where Christ wants us to go in regards to enacting “justice.” For we have at times in our journey been swayed far too often by our Old Nature and its worldly understandings of things. In a sense, we have been just like that hunter and have par-took in beheading the Voice, witness of Christ Jesus and His Grace active in our own lives! Instead of the True bread from Heaven, we feast on the junk food the Evil One offers as a quick-fix justification for our actions!

All of us, who profess, confess, repent and renew in, with and under the mighty sovereignty of Christ Jesus, the Lord are living the Truth in Love as spiritually transformed New Creatures. We are now wandering a wilderness that will always be wild, and full of pits, valleys, darkness and light… but we have the Lord and Hope indeed DOES PROVIDE!

The waters of chaos we were born from at our mother’s womb, we then experienced a second expulsion from the waters of our Baptism to a New Life, a New Hope for the world to come—the Kingdom of Grace and its glory to reign…

Just the other day, I was counseling a fellow believer who shared a very deep witness about her experience of the Holy Spirit in her life. “Truth be Told,” she has a very unique perspective of God’s role in her life and is more or less doctrinally concerned with certain elements of the “faith,” that would cast her into a league of her own. Being a pastor for Christ and not caving into be a chaplain to the worldly culture, means that you need to focus on what really brings us together as disciples. Sure, I could have gasped at some of the seemingly “blasphemous” legalism and misinterpretations of the Holy Scriptures… but I decided to be a listening and compassionate presence for this person instead.

Sometimes, speaking the truth in love is living it through our presence. Grace, we must remember is that strange, abstract mystery, miracle of God that IS most definitely WITH us… but unlike that moss-dust, Manna in the Israelite wilderness provided by God… This sustenance is Christ Jesus planted in our lives to be reaped by prayer, hope, peace, selflessness, compassion and care. The meal that feeds the soul is a faith that can spiritually move mountains, can universally end death and destruction in the world and enact a “dominion” built solely by Grace over the world also known as the Kingdom of God!

Let us pray,

Heavenly Father

May we allow Your sovereignty, dominion over our hearts

Help us to be creatures of Grace

Help us to live in missional pursuit of Your Will

As a vocation of Love, peace and mercy in this world

Help us not to be hunted down and claimed for Satan’s victory

Help us to develop a land of promise, instead of a wilderness of despair

Through Jesus Christ our daily bread

Through whom, we are truthfully led and fed—

Amen.

August 2nd, 2015; 10th Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 13; Year B; SOLA Lectionary