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The prophet Malachi ends today’s Old Testament lesson with a beautiful verse that says: “Return to me, & I will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts. But you say, How shall we return?” It sounds like the people are struggling not only in understanding but dealing with simply being in the midst of their humanness.
Something you’d never hear from the health-wealth Gospel
preachers is that the Christian journey is not easy and challenges, nearly
calls us to embrace suffering and sacrifice in order to hold towards the hope
and promise of God’s plans for each and every one of us. No matter how much we
try to make change for ourselves and draw up plans for the future… God turns
around and changes the path and plan whether you like it or not!
Preparing for Jesus’ birthday has always been a difficult
time of the year speaking for myself. In
fact much like a statistic, I’m one of those people who join the many who are
usually fairly distressed and depressed this time of year. For the past 3 years, you couldn’t rally me
to muster the energy to even consider putting up a Christmas tree. Though my
husband Phil thinks the little Lucy and Linus tree we bought at a novelty store
at least expressed some Christmas cheer. This year is going to literally be
different, for things have changed—some not for the better as well as some as a
teaching moment in God’s timing.
No matter how many years you have notched on your belt of
schooling, it is important to realize that God is always going to be teaching
us daily and leading us where we are not spiritually ready or comfortable with
treading. Is that considered suffering? Or is it truly better for us to say it’s
about growing. The Christian’s spiritual
formation journey is all about growing and going with the Good News!
A good example of illustrating the pain of spiritually growing
into the disciple that Jesus wants you to be and become can be seen in metaphor
in that old Star Trek movie from 1984.
In the ‘Search for Spock,’ the crew of the Enterprise venture onto the
planet that was “created” by the Genesis project. Since they had previously jettisoned Spock’s
casket to the forming planet, little did they know that he was being “recreated”
along with everything else on the planet.
By the time the crew of the Enterprise ‘find’ the “new” Spock in the
midst of growing they notice that he is in intense physical pain, the act of
rapidly growing that is…
The premise of the film as science “creating” as well as
the rapidly growing Spock makes an interesting parallel to how we want to both
control every aspect of our lives as well as we think we can control what we
are to learn and grow from… This is the
human condition—our life versus God’s plans for us.
A part of preparing the way of the Lord and His refining
fire of Grace to shape our hearts, is trusting in that fire to do its work. Trust is a difficult thing, for we don’t like
or want to harbor the faith sometimes the situation at hand requires us to, in
order to trust in God’s timing and His plans. We want, what we want, when we
want it—sounds like consumer America doesn’t it?
Riding those waves of Kairos time or God’s timing can be
painful because we’re impatient, we’re “expecting” and we can’t trust something
we can’t control! But God is calling all of us to turn those tears into
Baptismal affirmations of the task we all have at hand. We have to allow those tears to build us
up. Satan wants us to allow the tears to
dissolve us into despair and hopelessness.
God’s love however is using those tears like that winnowing fork
clearing the floors of our hearts struggling and congested with doubt, fear and
sadness!
Something wonderful is on the horizon and IS coming! Here
it is, the Good Lord Jesus—God with us; soon coming into our world! This is our
daily story as well—God IS with us and has plans for us. No, He doesn’t send us
a memo or email or agenda on what’s coming up… these things are revealed in how
our hearts are growing in faith alongside that wonderful Grace so freely given
BUT calling us to be accountable.
It has often been said that our homes become a spiritual
shell to “encasing” aspects of who we are on this earthly sphere… When you dream about them, it is even more
telling of where you are on that seemingly endless, long and winding road.
Truth be told in these dreams, those houses are never completed or even at some
times of my own journey, crumbling and unstable. When times are better, the walls are tall,
firm and seemingly unshakable…
That foundation of the self, built by a faith always
seeking understanding… Is the cost of discipleship and that fire we must not
fear but embrace if we are to truly be and become all of what God plans for
us. St. Paul in today’s snippet from
Philippians rises above the situation of his imprisonment and writes the most
freeing, gracious and encouraging letter to his church in Philippi. His prayers, compassion and instruction
reinforce our intentional obedience to Love both God and neighbor from a
spiritual fruit that does indeed produce a harvest of righteousness.
Where you are in your life’s journey you could treat as a
prison or you can see it as a new opportunity. Speaking for myself again,
sometimes I feel I’ve lived in Illinois way too long… 47 years to be precise!
& I dream of living somewhere out west like Arizona, Texas or
California. God however, for the
meantime, is having me stay put!
In the ‘Search for
Spock,’ Spock eventually gets back to his current age and the Genesis project
ironically ends in failure since the planet dies and implodes upon itself. We must hear Jesus’ words from another Gospel
here, however: (Luke 21:33) "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my Words
will never pass away."
The context may be different but the Words of Jesus are
what we confess to follow even through those valleys and over those mountains. This means moving on from the Old Nature and
its ways and rising into a New beginning with a New Nature which is the hope
and promise of New life through Christ Jesus reaped. This is a beautiful hope
and a beautiful challenge. We must think
in terms of WWJD, what would Jesus do as well as we must personally say WWJDD—what
would (a) disciple (of Jesus) DO?
Living into what would a faithful disciple of Jesus do is
developing heart knowledge. The heart is
not only the 1st church where the Holy Spirit is set to work but it
is that very place that develops our relationship with God. The head comes in later for we need to
harvest a great faith in the heart and then discern prayerfully how we are to
respond—the fruits of Grace.
God asks so little of us but to be accountable. If we could truly live into the prayerful
humility He is hoping we would grow and learn from… we would indeed become fine
vessels for the Lord! Just like that refining fire that prepares and shapes the
many colors and forms of glass together, we are to be a transparent
vessel. Transparent in our actions and
goals which are the Mission of the Lord’s—His Gospel imperative and transparent
in our Love—Love God and neighbor with the fruit of our faith, lives
rededicated to His service.
I’ve always admired John the Baptist. He’s not only a rebel who couldn’t keep his
mouth shut but he is someone who never gave up.
He didn’t stop preaching, baptizing and helping others begin the
preparations… What we need to take away from his example is much like the story
of the Phoenix. Out of the ashes of our
despair, fear and sadness—God is reaching out His hand lifting us up, helping
us to rise above it all for a much greater plan and purpose on the horizon!
The tears shed upon those ashes, return the ashes to the
earth to soon help burgeon forth New Life.
Forgiveness begins with a contrite heart and this takes time—we will not
know the day or the hour. Life doesn’t
come with a crystal ball, nor should it ever!
There’s nothing to see except our fears, doubts and desire to control…
The brilliant novel by George Orwell, ‘1984,’ ironically
of the same release year of the ‘Search for Spock’ film; paints a universe
twisted and perverted by the desire to control.
The book is purely political fiction but look and think about how
political we have become in our actions and desires? Whom do we serve, if all
it ever is to be is about us? How can we
grow if we assume we’ve arrived already? We can’t control history, God does and
we have to get that straight!
This is even happening in the ‘church’ of Christ today—where
we all gather supposedly in support of one another and of supposedly God’s
mission? How supportive is it when we
hurt God’s servants with political lies and slander? How supportive is it when
we dismiss people because they’re too old, or not a leader they can
control? How Christ-like is it when we
turn the church into our own “genesis project” of agenda and self-concern?
What reason then, do we have for holding faith—if Christ
is not only not the reason for the season and the refining fire to our heart’s
need for His knowledge and purposes… What are we then, doing? Where are we
going? We are building our own death bed! St. Paul and John the Baptist are
great models for us for both kept God’s mission in the forefront at the daily
battlefields of the Christian journey. What really mattered was Christ, it was
the advent of a New Life in more ways than one for all the world to see and
come to know.
Let us pray—
Loving and ever Gracious God,
May we always be prayerfully and humbly obedient
To those Words that will never fade away
If we keep You at the center of our lives’ journey
May we not fear those new twists and turns
Encourage us and allow us to KNOW Your love
As that guiding New light upon the advent of our New
Lives
Refined in Your ever-teaching fire
For our benefit and Your mission in the world’s glory.
AMEN
December 6th,
2015; Second Sunday of Advent; Year C; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by
Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, postulant FODM
Psalm 66:1-12;
Malachi 3:1-7; Philippians 1:2-11 & Luke 3:1-20
Below is a link to the sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub Lutheran Orthodox Church's house service at 8am:
https://youtu.be/HQ5Bz7s7cUQ
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