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What heart knowledge has taught me from the day of my conversion to now is that the soul is the seat and seed of God’s work. The soul is both the essence of life and as a person of faith that very place where the Holy Spirit moves. Our lives are to be the mercy seat… And the fruit born from this place—full of Grace and New.
Voicing your faith, your convictions without the past or
the ego and being bold about it isn’t going to fit the mold of the world. In fact, it will stir the pot often to
violence and murderous intentions.
Welcome to walking in this world with agenda behind and backing your every
intentions and the ego’s accolades of your past puffing you up to not even hear
or respond from a place of Grace!
The world feeds and nurtures this gracelessness as an
artificial, intellectual transaction. In
fact it seems very logical to how we see ourselves to be built upon. A hollow of success, marker of years… while
all the while rejecting that one very foundational structure needed for our
very life: Christ Jesus the Lord. Jesus
is Lord and I’m not saying that through the label of being an Evangelical…. I say it, because I really believe it.
Witnessing as a disciple of Jesus today is not understood
too well in the eyes of the world and the things that we have puffed up and
built up as a barrier to the Goal and mission that Christ has for our very
lives! A recent witness comes to mind in
daring to speak of the heart’s transformation and formation to God’s will and
plans. This was another social media
conversation that revealed an interesting set of responses to what it means to journey
as a disciple and what the heart’s eventual theologizing looks like.
Where I am today is in a much different place than where
I was a few years ago. My faith is so strong these days that I feel I am seeing,
experiencing the Living Word come to life all around me as a “theology” of God
at work continually teaching and humbling my heart to see the Truth in the
world—His world—the Kingdom of God! It
is like walking through an empty town of tree-lined streets and window shopping
as we are always too involved with “want” and “need” and going past the very
thing staring right at us, under our very fingertips! But now, I am seeing Him
everywhere and in nearly everything!
Much like John the Baptist, who I’ve told you before I
admire in so many ways… His was the mouth that never stopped preaching… I put
it out there in saying what I felt. What
I had to say, however, didn’t mention or include the fact that I have 3 masters
degrees, 6 years of seminary, a conversion experience and that here’s a “pastor”
speaking…. I said what I said as a
person of faith—a naturally built response.
Well, little did I realize I would be verbally assaulted by the other
individual basically intellectualizing and doctrinally analyzing my response
and forming one that was, in essence, an antithesis to spiritual formation,
Christian development and witness!
At first, I didn’t respond with the New Nature at all…
which welcome to being human (& Italian…), only after a time of cooling
down and refocusing I responded in saying: “Spiritual Formation is the heart's
knowledge being built to see, do and experience Christ all around us. It is not
an intellectually man-made theology it is one built by the Holy Spirit and
prayer.” This has seen no response from said
individual whatsoever. In fact, I’m sure
after the initial exchange of battling words of spiritual formation versus
intellectual “systematic theology…” the ego drowned out the notion of prayerful
listening, acceptance and consideration.
The parable Jesus directs at the Pharisees in today’s
Gospel directly examples how we are easily led astray in developing and
realizing our natural, growing faith.
When it is something we don’t have enough energy to realize that we can’t
completely grasp or control an understanding of God… It becomes all too easy to build ourselves up
with an earthly understanding of accomplishment and be driven from a motivation
that is not at all fueled by prayer and humility but fueled by agenda, politics
and idolatry.
The vineyard workers who assault messenger after
messenger in Jesus parable are just like how we are when it comes to how we are
dealing within the “arena” of the world or world politics in particular… Yes, there is a presidential election taking
place right now and there are a whole lot of labels, generalizations and
semantics being hurled about as a violent circus of behaviors abroad. To what avail does all of do? This is what I have to ask. Passion is a two way street.
Virtue or vice is the forked road of passion we can
choose to walk down. It’s a matter of
avoidance and puffed up importance. As a Christian I say, don’t let the Son go
down and out of your heart. The heart is
that first church, that critical place we need to nurture to truly and
truthfully live! A life with no purpose but our own is very empty if you ask
me. Within that emptiness there are
shadows, darkness and eventual death.
The world is in turmoil over politics, wars and money.
Violently protesting against someone’s freedom of speech goes beyond the
Scarlet letter of partisan politics for they are merely labels of convenience
and condemnation plain and simple. Being
judge and jury seem natural for the ego though. But then… this is running
rampant in the “church” as well, these days for I even recall a former
colleague speak about Jesus as being a socialist. He called him—“His Socialist
Jesus…” I don’t believe Jesus is a
politician and I will never preach, teach and lead through any such voice… Being a person of faith in Christ Jesus is to
be so much more than our narrow-minded labels and divisionary thinking.
Living into a faithful witness as a transformationally-motivated
leader is building up a priesthood of believers who are anchored by Grace upon
the mercy seat of their soul, to Christ.
We are to die to our Old Natured ways—the past is the past and rise with
Christ in, with and through the New Nature, a glorious future harboring a much
greater horizon—one where the Son shines brightly through the natural fruits of
grace produced from within us.
Being a faithful gardener to that vineyard within our
very being is being open to God’s witness not just your experiences but from
others. A part of living into loving God
and neighbor is spiritually looking inward to how we accept, and receive one
another. Hatred, politics, agenda and
verbal slander do not address anything, do not serve anyone but the self. That is too lonely of a world, if you ask
me. What is there to live for, if
everything is all about us and our markers of “success?”
What are we really being successful for? The Evil One loves to play with us here. Transaction, greed and indifference have now
been incorporated to justify sin, every kind of sin where boundaries disappear
and labels begin. The true reality of
hell is an empty, lonely place or level of existence that equals nothing but
death. A death where the ground is cold,
hard, impenetrable and dark. It is as if
you are buried, with nowhere to go and no chance of the Son rising… You are like the lead character in the old ‘80’s
film ‘Serpent and the Rainbow’—trapped, and paralyzed as tears of feeling truly
lost roll down your face. This is the kind of bondage Satan wants us to be
eternal prisoners to!
I don’t know about you, but to live for Christ Jesus is
my goal as a child of His Grace and promise.
I want to live and I want to die to all that the world, sin, death and
the devil wish me to succumb to. I want
to break out of that Chrysalis; that hardened shell of formation to be that New
Natured Creation that Christ Jesus needs me to be! For His Glory and Grace—there
is so much more to live for and where it begins is in the heart.
Let us pray—
Gracious Lord,
Help us to realize the cost of discipleship
As New Natured Creatures of Grace
Help us to move beyond ourselves
Help us break away from the bondage of Sin, death and
evil
We are weak and we must realize what You are calling us
to
Help us to be a fire from Your Living, transforming Word
We must be and become bold witnesses with a renewed
purpose
Your Gospel of Light—the Kingdom of God
Amen
March 13th,
2016; Fifth Sunday in Lent; Year C; SOLA
Lectionary
Sermon by
Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, FODM
Psalm 126;
Isaiah 43:16-21; Philippians 3:4-14;
Luke 20:9-20
Below is a link to this sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub Lutheran Orthodox Church at 8am this morning:
https://youtu.be/7LQdyi95whs
https://youtu.be/7LQdyi95whs
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