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The journey of the saints onward and into the Kingdom of God… Sounds fairly surreal doesn’t it? Martin Luther said: “Being a saint isn't about what I do or don't do but about who I am in relationship with; God.” We are both sinner and aspiring saint or as the original Latin says: “Simul Iustus et Peccator.”
Our lives are like the seasons in many ways with moments
or tides of change—some more welcome than others, as well as some being
grieved. While others may find it easy
to throw away the past and bury it forever, others can’t and we cling to it
causing it to become a burden. Hope however is a great gift of faith that
encourages us to carry on for a greater purpose and a greater goal.
That greater goal isn’t to build and climb upon a “Jacob’s
Ladder” to worldly glory however… For as St. Paul said: “We all fall short of
the Glory of God” and I might add that God’s glory is contrary to our
understanding of Glory. It is another one of those abstract, “Pandora’s box”
words that we have unfortunately woven the notion of glory to the ego—the world
of the self. Since we have ventured away from the glory of God being the
splendor of the New Creation with all its New Creatures living Grace as
everything beautiful… How do we go forward?
In essence as the old sayings go, we have struggled and been challenged
by ‘Living into an attitude of gratitude,’ feeling ‘blessed to be a blessing’
to others which is living hope, persevering onward for the Gospel’s sake—a greater
purpose far beyond ourselves.
It is hard for where we are in the reality of a world chuck
full of temptations to sin, to dwell in death and grieve… and on occasion be
swayed by the empty promises of evil. Evil feeds our moments of desperation,
teetering upon the edge of despair. Many
of the strategic speeches made in WWII by Adolf Hitler to a desperate German
people actually fueled their despair to justify, frankly support the diabolical
evil of ethnic cleansing, murder—destruction! The whole of World War II you
could say was like the rise of Evil, then, as a shroud of death, war and
destruction abroad. ISIS is doing the
same thing today by recruiting their radical ideologies through social media to
young, impressionable minds…
During World War II, ordinary people were compelled to
come forward to stay off evil even to the point of sacrificing their lives for
a greater good. Ordinary people like
Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer who couldn’t turn an indifferent eye to the
horrors that war laid bare. I don’t
think he should be labelled a saint for again as that scriptural insight from
St. Paul nails it on the head: We all fall short of the glory of God for we are
limited but God is NOT. The actions and
intentions of his heart, however, should continue to influence us.
Lutherans talking about the Holy Spirit is nearly an anomaly.
I like to be a Maverick in that realm for I think it is critically vital to
revealing the Biblical Truth—we cannot and should not deny the Spirit! We have a hard time with it though, as well
as the concept and practice of evangelism, though some of the alphabet soup-group
Lutherans unabashedly still incorporate the word, “Evangelical” in their titles…
Where perhaps they should be embarrassed by their poor incorporation of it!
Aside from that, the reality of aspiring towards the “beautiful
attitude within the Beatitudes;” requires us to make very real in our hearts
Christ’s Easter victory of defeating sin, death and the power of evil at that
Cross, in that resurrection and ascension to a Kingdom we will only fully know
upon our death. Jesus in today’s Gospel
says it loud and clear: 40…“Did I not tell you that if you believed,
you would see the glory of God?”
If is that mirror of the Law our hearts need to use to
remind us of what we must do in order to grow in Faith. For if we choose to
cave into our struggles, evil’s temptations upon our lives… we deny ourselves
of truthfully moving forward for a greater goal and purpose.
Right now the world is advancing but in all the wrong
things you could say. We have lots of technology
out there, we have essentially “connected the world” through cyber space…. But we
still have not connected or grown into the truth of who we are, whose we are
and what we are really to be and do for heavenly gain, not material! We still
murder, we still operate for the self and its gain and glory and we either deny
or can’t love God and neighbor because we’ve made it all about us!
What we do and say is reliant on our understanding and
development of faith—our spiritual, New Natured potential lies deeply planted
by the Grace of God given to us by Christ Jesus, our Crucified Lord and Savior!
Those who have gone before us as an example of living faithfully can still
teach us many things. The reality of the
spiritual world is something we’ve only just started to tip toe into since it
is beyond our understanding.
I say this because I have for the past several months
heard my grandmother’s voice speak to me through the white noise of my sound
machine. Every night around the same
time about 2:30-3am, I can faintly hear her whisper my name and trailing disembodied
statements of loving advice and concern for my future. She has said things about not only meeting
God but things about my future! It frankly is both fascinating as well as truly
affirms for me in a very super-real sense that life continues on in dimensions
of time and space that we cannot fathom but know is an aspect of the awesome,
mysterious power, creation of God! In
short, the reality of my grandmother’s spirit “visiting” me affirms my faith
greatly.
From death to New life is realizing a New Earth by being “down
to earth” in faithful living, loving—all naturally born fruits of the Spirit
nurtured by Grace. The Franciscan order
I will begin taking part in brings to bear a focus on what Luther says in the
beginning: “Being a saint isn't about what I do or don't do but about who I am
in relationship with God.”
I want to conscientiously nurture my faith formation with
intentional prayer, meditation and opening.
Opening my heart to new blessings the Lord needs me to continue to grow
and be shaped by. A blessing for this
coming week was being able to be squeezed into a mini chapter retreat led by
another spiritually focused community, the Society of the Holy Trinity. They are not an order and incorporate
different practices but BOTH groups are about shaping and nurturing that inner
journey—relationship to God. Those two
days will be like the eye betwixt the storm, a well needed time of rest and
prayer, together in spirit.
If we are going to take the reign of this world away from
the Evil one; we must always be aspiring with humility, our calling to FAITH
through Grace for the Glory of God, period. Saying this made me think of a
recent Wired Word installment the Thursday night study looked at that featured
a trend of what the author called as the “Non’s” going to seminary not for a
calling to serve or for faith at all but simply to gain professional “training”
in ethics. Yikes, I’m sorry but this is
a scary trend if you ask me.
Why this is a scary trend is simple: if we can’t or deny
having faith or believing in anything how can we know and example compassion
for others? It is not man-made, it is spiritually made! How can we be people of
mercy, kindness, selflessness, consideration and care without believing/ living
into a great purpose that we KNOW or DENY is the TRUTH!? Being a “good” person is built by faith not
works righteousness/ social justice and intellectual idolatry/ progressivism.
The only thing the world is progressing in at the moment
is to an end… that is not a worthy goal yet alone built by and for a greater
purpose. Growing, progressing in the world
as disciples of Christ is all about the spirit.
It is not about us more than it is to be about God—spreading His example
in the world—the reality of Grace—the Kingdom of God and all its righteousness!
Let us Pray—
Gracious Lord,
Help to continue to encourage
Our faithful journey
To be prayerfully shaped by and for Grace
May those whose hearts influenced us to be “aspiring
saints”
Still teach us as Your Living Word of life
Opens and grows that New Nature within us
For Your Kingdom’s Glory
Amen
All Saints'
Sunday; November 1st, 2015; Year B; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by
Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 24;
Isaiah 25:6-9; Revelation 21:1-6 & John 11:32-44
Below is the youtube link to the delivery of this Sermon at the Grace Hub Discipleship Ministries' house church service at 8am: https://youtu.be/lp4kFMfkz3E
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