"Coming Full Circle;" Sermon for Palm Sunday 2016 by Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins, FODM

The legend of St. Patrick has it that he drove out the snakes in Ireland into the sea. This was to be more or less in line with the Biblical account of Moses and Aaron turning their staffs into snakes to fight Pharaoh’s sorcerers and the story continues.  Well several centuries later we know St. Paddy’s day as more or less the celebration of over celebrating via libations and whatnot every March 17^th—this past Thursday.

What I think is interesting is that the initial contributing source of the fall of man was the snake in Adam and Eve and in Exodus the snakes were used to drive away evil and with the legend of St. Patrick we once again see a powerful image of the snakes being driven away to drown in the sea.  Getting to the core of these illustrations is the dynamics of good against evil.   Which when we think about the irony of Palm Sunday & Jesus’ being fully aware of His fate…  The irony and strangeness of it all for us human, earthly creatures is why did Jesus’ divest His Divine, perfect New Nature to eventually die for us on the brutal, bloody cross?

This past week, I read for the first time ever, a beautiful poem or creedal declaration that made up the breast plate prayer of St. Patrick.  Here are those words:

“I bind to myself today

The strong virtue of the Invocation of the Trinity:

I believe the Trinity in the Unity

The Creator of the Universe.

I bind to myself today

The virtue of the Incarnation of Christ with His Baptism,

The virtue of His crucifixion with His burial,

The virtue of His Resurrection with His Ascension,

The virtue of His coming on the Judgement Day.

I bind to myself today

The virtue of the love of seraphim,

In the obedience of angels,

In the hope of resurrection unto reward,

In prayers of Patriarchs,

In predictions of Prophets,

In preaching of Apostles,

In faith of Confessors,

In deeds of righteous people.

I bind to myself today

The power of Heaven,

The light of the sun,

The brightness of the moon,

The splendor of fire,

The flashing of lightning,

The swiftness of wind,

The depth of sea,

The stability of earth,

The compactness of rocks.

I bind to myself today

God's Power to guide me,

God's Might to uphold me,

God's Wisdom to teach me,

God's Eye to watch over me,

God's Ear to hear me,

God's Word to give me speech,

God's Hand to guide me,

God's Way to lie before me,

God's Shield to shelter me,

God's Host to secure me,

Against the snares of demons,

Against the seductions of vices,

Against the lusts of nature,

Against everyone who meditates injury to me,

Whether far or near,

Whether few or with many.

I invoke today all these virtues

Against every hostile merciless power

Which may assail my body and my soul,

Against the incantations of false prophets,

Against the black laws of heathenism,

Against the false laws of heresy,

Against the deceits of idolatry,

Against every knowledge that binds the soul of man.

Christ, protect me today

Against every poison, against burning,

Against drowning, against death-wound,

That I may receive abundant reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me,

Christ behind me, Christ within me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ at my right, Christ at my left,

Christ in the fort,

Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

I bind to myself today

The strong virtue of an invocation of the Trinity,

I believe the Trinity in the Unity

The Creator of the Universe.”

Wow, powerful stuff, what an amazing thing to confess, lift as a prayer to living into Christ! This prayer struck me to be as powerful as today’s snippet from that beautiful Philippians passage from St. Paul.  Speaking from the heart of one who has experienced true conversion, Paul sees and expresses that Divine humility that of course, defies human logic but reveals the profound power of Christ’ actions for our behalf in being/ becoming fully human on that cross as the perfect sacrificial lamb.

Christ’ majesty and sovereignty comes from a place we still don’t really understand.  Much like missing the mark in how we view good and evil in the world.  Creeds, songs, declarations only begin to touch the tip of the iceberg of addressing how we are to realize what Christ gave to us through the Cross and what we must do.  We must die. In order for the Christ to reign in our lives and bear the fruits of Grace—our hearts must CHANGE.  This is not a doctrinal, intellectual change but inward and transformational.

The true power of the Gospel and our genuine Godly knowledge first begins in realizing Christ message and mission inwardly.  Only upon that taking place first, do we truly begin to see and know what the gifts are, that we can share.  The gifts of the spirit from a converting heart are genuine righteousness, mercy, peace, forgiveness and selflessness. They are also our greatest challenge that the Old Nature fights tooth and nail to avoid!

Continuing on that note of thinking prayerfully about the Old Nature, the irony beyond Jesus’ own realization of the sacrifice to come, is the reception he receives sojourning into Jerusalem to a wild and enthusiastic crowd who most likely just like those going to a super bowl party today, are just joining in the act of celebrating without really and truthfully knowing or caring who Jesus really is!

We have this problem today, as well, in understanding ourselves gathering as the Body. We often go through the motions of worship without contemplation and prayerful discernment.  We often do many things together without really stepping back and wondering why—Are we truly living into our discipleship calling?  Do we live into mission?  Do we harbor a goal—especially one beyond ourselves?!  Unfortunately today the Gospel and its calling is taken as a works righteousness, a transactional service to elevate the self but NOT CHANGE the self as Christ is calling us to DO and BE!

We are more or less exactly like those spectators at Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  The party and the celebration are only once a week and last maybe over an hour… Our lives are divided as well as divisive and not for the better mind you! Mind you—there is that old Saturday morning education cartoon from sometime in the ‘70’s where the character declares—the mind is a terrible thing to waste.  Yes the mind is a terrible thing to waste especially, as a disciple of Jesus!

As a disciple of Jesus—which you are, you know… the mind is that place that operates the actions of that internal church—the heart.  The heart as I’ve said countless times before, is that 1^st church where the New Nature has been planted by Grace and is THERE for us to reap.  The mind is the reaper—not grim, but joyous especially when we take Christ’ call to us seriously. Taking Christ seriously is revealed when we realize how radical the sacrifice truly was and how counter cultural Christ truly is to “our world.”

The mysteries of life aren’t there for us to try to justify and explain for often we naturally or simply elevate the self, period.  It’s like the whole notion of coming full circle within the journey of your life as a disciple of Jesus.  You’ve been down one road and are blindly casting out lines upon other paths… Letting go (of the line) and letting God (LEAD).  When maybe the path and journey Christ is truly calling you to walk down has been right in front of you, from the beginning!

This has been my reality recently in contemplating and applying to various ministries in order to answer God’s call to my heart to serve.  I am once again, experiencing an urban context of ministry with a new community in hopes for a potentially new future, horizon to serve in. It is looking through the past with a transforming heart.  There is no longer grief and sadness per say, but something NEW and calling me to grow even more!

We are wayward children, with perhaps attention deficit disorder to everything and anything except Christ Jesus, the Lord! The institutionalized church today has experienced a painful blow to gathering the flock together to witness and contemplate the whole of Holy Week…  Since many churches have had to eliminate Good Friday and combine it into Palm Sunday by referring to it as Passion Sunday.

It’s not only a matter of the fact that we can’t do the Gospel story justice by this truncation but that our wishing to avoid reflecting upon the crucifixion is frankly devastating to our spiritual growth!  Why do I consider it devastating? We can’t erase or sweep under the rug the things we don’t want to face… But we do it anyway and have even elaborated upon this avoidance by justifying it which is sin, period.

The matter of numbers in a pew or convenience to parishioners who feel they’re doing too much “church” is just plain and simply a grave injustice.  But hey, think about those spectators and supporters in the crowd in today’s Gospel, many of them may have even willingly participated in shouting a few days later for Jesus’ crucifixion! What?! Sounds completely ridiculous but welcome to being human.  This is no excuse but should be viewed through the eyes of prayer in asking God what can I do for the better?  Teach my heart the true meaning, purpose and accountability of love.

This reminds me of a favorite slogan of this full circle effort: Don’t put a period where God has put a comma.  God is and will always be speaking to us and most importantly through us while we conscientiously grow for the sake of the Gospel.

Come and Follow me wasn’t a suggestion, it is a command—commissioning our hearts for a glorious New path—the Kingdom of God.

AMEN

March 20th, 2016; Palm Sunday (Sunday of the Passion); Year C; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, FODM

Psalm 118:19-29; Deuteronomy 32:36-39; Philippians 2:5-11; John 12:12-19 

~Here's a video of this sermon delivered this morning at the Grace Hub Lutheran Orthodox Church's House service, 8am
https://youtu.be/m4v2W_P7iZI