"Standing Firm;" Sermon for February 21st, 2016 by Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins, FODM

Having your feet on the ground but your heart adrift is the pain of the human journey—it is our daily struggle. Compassion giving and receiving is something that you on your discipleship journey must acknowledge is bearing the reality of the cross in your life.

Often however we go out there with anger bubbling in our hearts—strings attached and reject and condemn the messenger.  I thought about this the other day in connecting Jeremiah’s efforts as well as Jesus’ efforts in today’s texts in relation to some social media “arenas” out there where people can often or too easily grab those pyres and spears defending something they feel in the right about.  Truth be told—how do we know?  Shouldn’t we be falling back upon God and His Word for the Truth, and genuine righteousness?

Could where you be standing firm upon, however, be rocky ground or simply, truthfully an allusion solely built for your objective righteousness alone?  This is where the boundaries are blurred and complicated between the Old and the New Natures—the choices God would like to see you make and the ones you make that seem to provide you with vindication—vain righteousness.  This is the bondage of the will truly, which could either lift up the Gospel or kill the Gospel.

Triumphing over this bondage is one built by and through tears—it is not an easy yoke for any of us who take that path into the lifestyle of Grace seriously.  This was definitely true in the case of Jeremiah, what you see is what you get as well as he made it known for his persecutors to hopefully hear—if they condemn him, they are condemning God’s Word which was given to him to reveal. We hear this, “triumph over bondage,” in Paul’s words today as well, when he tells his beloved Philippians the fate of the enemies of the cross: “¹⁹Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.”   

With Jesus you hear something different, he truly grieves for his persecutors, those rejecting His message and His motives and He knew what the ultimate outcome would be.  He knew the cross was imminent. He was more than a prophet however, He was, is God.  God who came to us, for us— not to be reinvented into what we see but as the saying goes: Letting God be God for a greater purpose—salvation, grace, mercy, peace, kindness and so forth.

Walking the talk is seeing the Word, the Cross and Jesus as a living confession within the soul of the believer to open up and share beyond their given capacity through Grace.  I say this for recently I had a very challenging and prayerful exercise given to me by the Franciscan order to contemplate:  What is your sin in regards to forgiveness and needing to heal?  Deeply reflecting upon that became perhaps one of the most prayerful things I had ever sat down to expound upon, share.

One of the things that are perhaps not talked enough about is what a beautiful attitude is.  Jesus of course, exampled the perfection of what beautiful means in spirit and actions.  Beauty is as we know or has become, a Pandora’s box of jumbled meanings from subjective to objective—superficial or transformative.  The devil is always watching us here to see where our hearts are standing firm in.  He did this with Jesus as well, not just in the wilderness but in hoping Jesus would respond in striking down His enemies in one way or another.

The resurrection TV series, “Second Chance,” did it once again in challenging those blurry (by today’s culture) boundaries between good and evil.  Friday night’s episode was about a serial killer obsessed with murdering prostitutes through bodily mutilation “art”…  One of his henchmen became so enamored and spiritually fell prey to this guy’s manifesto of eradicating “beauty,” that by the time he was killed— his face, body, head was turned into a demonic mask of horns, piercing and tattoos etc.  Literally the sickness of evil had completely manifested, and this person was hopelessly lost.

Being hopelessly lost is evil’s victory in the world especially when we deny or can’t see or want to know the cross, Jesus truthfully in our hearts. It is seeing no way out, forward or otherwise.  It is grieving, lamenting in the past without encouragement for the future…. This doesn’t have to be so—for we could embrace that rocky ground to level it, and build upon it a solid foundation of faith, love, hope, peace, compassion and so much more—to stand firm upon now and always!

Standing firm today has removed the cross from the picture and turned the Gospel’s message upside down to be about politics, agenda and everything and anything that caters to the world of the self. The ego has no place in leading the heart to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus. The ego doesn’t have the capacity to forgive yet alone give compassion because it is too concerned for itself. This is why there are no genuine prophets today, prophecy was bound to God’s Word and Will.  Today there are only a lot of Words—doctrine, manifestoes, dogma etcetera that preach anything but the truth.  We can’t and won’t handle the truth however—this is that aspect of spiritual warfare.

Speaking the truth not only through love but with the Cross lifted high within a convicted heart is living into that citizenship—the Kingdom of God. What is a convicted heart?  One that realizes love as that amazing grace given—the very humbling power of the cross born in our lives to bear.

There is one man who writes and manages a very controversial blog.  It is unrelenting and is perhaps like that one string banjo we often have a difficult time keeping focused upon BUT we need to.  The voice that keeps speaking…  much like John the Baptist in never ceasing, this man is bound and determined to keep that voice going whether or not the hatred from others is seething and lashing against him—he, nonetheless stands firm!  I really admire his initiative and truly his motivation for his motivation is nothing but the truth.  Not everyone is going to have that same drive to stand against the flames like he does… but as long as we take a stand, listening closely to God’s Word for guidance and strength, how can we go wrong?

Love given whether brotherly, unconditional or motherly versus the pyres and spears in a graceless wilderness is our painful journey. This is truly the cost of our discipleship in the world but not of it. Upon an abiding hope do we come to truly know where God would like us to stand firm. Standing firm for the Gospel is living into an unpopular witness or even seemingly a silent witness against those who, self-righteously want to control or impede others from answering their calling.

The main reason so many main-stream denominations, churches and societies are struggling today and closing, ending their ministries is because they don’t find relevance or are not up to the challenge of standing firm for the timeless message of the Gospel—they either cater to the world and its temporal culture or become exclusionary legalists limiting not only God’s Word but themselves.  There is no real “progress,” yet alone any kind of truthful “liberation…” but this is where many of us stand.  We are teetering precariously over a chasm of doubt, despair and blurred boundaries!

We objectify, while God merely wants to subject our hearts be accountable and obedient to a greater purpose. So is there a prophetic voice in the world today for the Gospel of Christ Jesus?  Perhaps—what are you passionate about?  Getting back to the basics spiritually as a people of God—children of Grace and promise is “walking the talk.”

Letting God be God is number one—God needs us to all use our creativity in productive, selfless ways not destructive ways.  Destructive ways are laced with politics, the ego and the conditions, controls of the world. The Pharisees in today’s Gospel were not only hypocrites in warning Jesus about Herod but they were more or less hoping to be rid of Him period.  Jesus saw and felt their intentions, these supposed “men of God…”  He embraced the situation most beautifully by lamenting with compassion over those who were rejecting Him.

There’s the reality of the Kingdom of God—following through with a faith having no blurred boundaries but the solid foundation of the cross.  It is to be the never-ending story, the timeless story one that shapes us into New beings—transformed, transfigured for a greater purpose!

Let us Pray—

Heavenly Father,

Help us get on board, be in sync

With Your Will, not ours

Help us to see the freeing power

Of being a humble witness with Your Word

Through Love, Compassion, Hope, peace, kindness, mercy, etc.

Help us to stand firm

Within, for Your Grace

Amen

February 21st 2016; Second Sunday in Lent; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon by Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, FODM

Psalm 4; Jeremiah 26:8-15; Philippians 3:17—4:1; Luke 13:31-35

Here's a link to it's delivery Sunday February 21st at the Grace Hub Lutheran Orthodox Church's house service at 8am:
https://youtu.be/0SNg0qfzq1g