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I don’t know about you but sometimes I wonder if the
Christian journey is governed by a kind of “Murphy’s law of circumstances.” Most of us are familiar with the concept of
Murphy’s Law… The complete 1908 aphorism
is: “It is an experience common to all persons to find that, on any special
occasion, such as the production of a magical effect for the first time in
public, everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Whether we must attribute
this to the malignity of matter or to the total depravity of inanimate things,
whether the exciting cause is hurry, worry, or what not, the fact remains.” Or the more modern phrase is simply:
"Anything that can possibly go wrong, does."
Down that long and winding road through the valleys and precariously
sojourning upon those mountain tops… we do on various occasions of our faith
journey experience stumbling blocks.
Murphy’s quote “law,” I frankly take with a grain of salt or as a
sarcastic note to survival as trying to be an active disciple in the world but
not of it! I don’t know about you… but I
wonder sometimes if God isn’t behind Murphy’s law in order to help us grow,
mature as His children of Grace and promise.
If patience isn’t your virtue then of course the standard
goes that anything and everything in your life will try to test you to see if
you can persevere! If conflict isn’t your favorite activity to be embroiled in…
then it will be upon you in spades! If forgiveness, mercy and other challenging
fruits to develop and bear are seemingly going to strain your capacity to the
max then you best prepare with a prayerful heart and a sense of mission. On a
more serious note, it is sad when we do get to that point, where we do indeed, become
desperate. Desperation is that final stage in many senses where we are very
vulnerable to either fall into utter despair or fall into evil with its looming
consequences of death and destruction around the proverbial corner of our lives.
Just this past century with the rise of Satan working
through one of his servants, Adolf Hitler; a desperate people battered by the
economic plight of their country took the profound distortion of a snippet from
Romans 13 made in many of his speeches to stir their desperation to the point
of justifying ethnic cleansing—murder.
This is definitely grave evidence of how fine a line it is to be harboring
a true belief versus one built upon crumbling doubt, fear and pride. This is
also a great indication of how our words can and do become poisonous
manipulation for an ultimate goal of terrible evil.
We can either harbor, build upon a faith that could truly
have the capacity to move mountains or we could fester and weave a web of our
doubt, fears, anxieties and every stumbling block the Evil One tries to plant
in our hearts to tear down and destroy any hope, humility and accountability we
have within us to bear.
In today’s Gospel, Mark has Jesus once again sounding fed
up or angry with trying to reach out to people about what is the nature and
nurture of true faith. Faith like Grace
can also be nebulous, abstract and challenge us unnaturally to “perfect” our
spiritual selves to realize not only the Grace of God active in our lives but
the Grace we are accountable to share.
It takes the desperate confession of a father to save his
son to declare his natural failing: “22b…if you are able to do
anything, have pity on us and help us.” 23Jesus said to him,
“If you are able! —All things can be done for the one who believes.”24Immediately
the father of the child cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
I wonder if many a pastor in various churches abroad have
ever wished to hear this from one their parishioners: “I (Want to) believe;
help my unbelief!” I wonder how many out there whether Christian or otherwise
want to shout it out, be honest and declare to the world around them: “Help my
unbelief!” Jesus had to quite literally
confront the evil force ensnared within a suffering young boy since we are too often
spectators of our faith than committed to persevere.
Understanding and realizing the magnitude and power of
the Grace of God in, with and through your life’s journey is expanding well
past the comfort zone of what we feel we can and cannot handle. Walking upon that fine line of being both
saint and sinner is hard for us but not impossible. Never say never is the beautiful rebuttal to
Murphy’s Law in that faith can trample over hopelessness, despair and all
fears.
That beautiful waterfall 9/11 memorial tribute eerily
built atop the ruins of the twin towers of the World Trade center is both
looking back to never forget but also move forward… for a tearful, prayerful
hope to restore and renew a kinder and gentler world IS, CAN BE POSSIBLE!
The 9/11 terror attacks were horrific to fathom all those
who perished… We may never truly recover from that experience. It is even more horrifying to contemplate the
diabolical evil taking foot on the other side of the world with ISIS
persecuting, ethnically cleansing (murdering, torturing, etc.) away Christians,
Muslims and all who are opposed to their reign of evil and destruction abroad
in the “name” of Allah and his voice, the Koran. The ultimate sins, the root systemic sins of
greed and indifference are raising its ugly head as death, violence and
misunderstanding.
In the local news it is always sad to hear of how we
often act without any prayerful contemplation or consideration to God. How often we choose to purely act in the
moment to inflict injury, hate upon our neighbor. The other day a Sikh American citizen near
the southwest Suburb of Darien, Illinois was taunted by a teenager, bent and
determined on road rage to force him to pull over and off the road… The teenage boy got out of his car and ran up
to the man’s window to attempt brutally punching him while spitting up all
kinds of evil misunderstandings and ignorance upon him. The news showed the man’s eyes wrenched in
tears, great tears of sadness and pain wondering why this even happened in the
1st place. The man suffered a
broken cheek bone and is slowly recovering in a lot of pain.
Other stories abroad in the media echo the same, with
policemen on trial and the looming threat of more riots on the horizon… You
have to wonder were these riots really all about racism in America or more or
less a chance to express despair in a more violent and lasting activity? An
angry people too distraught over an indifferent economy and ethically failed
system of care and concern for one another. As once said at a Bible study a
while back, if you really want to see, hear and experience evil at work in your
neighbor… have a food shortage. If we
are at that point of fighting for our daily bread and not being fed… How
charitable would we really be or remain?
All of these examples or illustrations I have shared here
have one thing in common beyond the factor of sin—that would be trust. Trusting in the Lord not only to deliver us
in so many ways than one but trusting in God that transcending the power of
sin, death and the Devil take harboring a wisdom that teaches our hearts
belief: Grace.
I was ministering to an elderly woman the other day who
was surprised that I wanted to care for her especially since she heard I was an
ordained pastor. I was washing her feet
and drying off her polio-ravaged legs when she looked upon me with tears
wondering why I would be doing this for her. She realized at that moment it
went beyond being a “job,” or being “paid” to care but that it was
compassion—grace in action from a heart growing in obedience to God and living
into being a child of Grace and promise—the fruit of creation—God’s intentions
for us all—LOVE with prayerful Words and gracious actions!
Jesus’ disciples really didn’t realize it at the time but
their faith was still challenged. It was
not only still truly developing as is the case for all of us as well, but that
they limited their faith in not believing enough that they can develop the
capacity to do all things through Christ who can and does strengthen us
daily! I love that new K-Love top 40 hit
song by Hillsong United—Touch the Sky. There are some beautiful poetic words of
someone realizing their belief…
Listen and contemplate this voice of faith:
“What fortune lies beyond the stars”—(Life is what we
make it, having faith gives us so much more)
“Those dazzling heights too vast to climb, I got so high
to fall so far”
“But I found heaven as love swept low”—(The valleys are
those teachable moments as well as often those Murphy’s Law moments…)
“My heart beating, my soul breathing—I found my life when
I laid it down” (This is death to the Old Nature and growing to rise into the
New)
“Upward falling, spirit soaring”
“I touch the sky when my knees hit the ground” (This is
truly harboring a faith that can and does MOVE more than mountains…)
“What treasure waits within Your scars”—This gift of
freedom gold can't buy
“I bought the world and sold my heart—You traded heaven
to have me again” (Yes Christ Jesus defeated sin, death and the Devil to save
us in more ways than one!)
“Find me here at Your feet again”
“Everything I am, reaching out, I surrender” (Give your
heart—trust, hope and all good gifts to love God and neighbor)
“Come sweep me up in Your love again”
‘And my soul will dance—On the wings of forever” (Here is
the reality of Grace and promise lived by Faith)
Amen
Sunday
September 13th, 2015; 16th Sunday After Pentecost; Year
B; Proper 19; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by
Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 116:1-9;
Isaiah 50:4-10; James 3:1-12 & Mark 9:14-29
Below is a link to the sermon delivered at the Grace Hub Discipleship Ministries' house church service, 8AM
https://youtu.be/J9UujNeyH20
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