Posts
I
found it interesting that both the ancient world as well as our current times
do not have a clear acceptance or understanding of the demonic, or diabolical evil
active in the world. Today’s Gospel
sounds like an amazing, surreal picture where a man possessed by a legion
(thousands upon thousands) of demons, calls out to Jesus and Jesus enacts an
amazing miracle of power by sending the demons into swine who then careen off
of a cliff to their death!
Today
we would probably have the same reaction, of not only unbelief, but would
almost not want to seek understanding of how this happened in the first
place. Which leads me to reflect upon
this past Sunday’s mass shooting in Florida.
Everyone has pretty much drawn up the initial assessment of the
situation choosing to polarize the evil/ sin into social, political sides, or choosing
to finger point to either religious fanaticism or gun control…
The
plain and most profound truth, however, is humanity and murder. Perhaps it goes beyond capping the story to
mere political religious fanaticism and thinking or entertaining for a moment:
this was an act of pure, unadulterated, and calculated EVIL. Evil standing alone working through a man’s
blackened heart to kill nearly 50 people and wound another 50 plus people in a barrage
of bullets. Looking at the nature of
evil and the accountability behind this man’s actions should help us not
clutter up our realizing that the power of evil is very real. It was real enough some 15 years earlier to use
two jet airliners to take down the twin towers filled with nearly 3,000 people!
Wasn’t it?!
Those
moments however almost don’t seem real though, we see the headlines, we watch
the news on TV… but do we think about the other active battlefields? These battlefields I am referring to is
spiritual warfare—the turf is your heart and you are fighting Satan. Yes this is using and looking through a lens
of faith not fantasy—definitely reality!
Harboring faith as a “post-modern Christian” against a burgeoning
godless culture is getting more and more difficult to do. This is because people are becoming more and
more divided where the new stumbling blocks to growing in Christ have become politics,
personal/ social agendas and secular control…
Some
“post-modern Christians” call this progress; is it really progress though when
we find creative ways to make Christ and His transformative work in our lives,
mythology and irrelevant to our own agendas?!
We are certainly a culture in love with the ‘Scarlet Letter,’ as a lens
to pigeon hole and alienate ourselves further away from the truth, the Gospel
is calling us to truly be accountable to!
Just
the other day, in praying for the victims of this tragedy among another bloody
weekend in Chicago… I found an
interesting quote online by the founder of “Wiki-Leaks,” Julian Assange. He says something very profound here: “Every
time, we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be
passive in its presence and thereby eventually lose all ability to defend
ourselves and those we love.” I then posted it on social media and someone
posted almost immediately afterwards that this man has been accused of
rape. Actually in looking up the current
views upon this man, it is speculative or as they say the court is still out
upon the circumstances of this case.
What
we have to be careful about is beyond the circumstances of the man who made
this quote. Did the person really hear
or read what was said? Going back to
what happened in Florida, can we purely strip away to the raw evil and feel
compassion and pain for our neighbors who were slaughtered in cold blood? Can we think about a human being murdering 50
people without the other labels? I don’t
think we can. Its’ been usurped most
successfully to Satan’s delight to be a tool to political and social agenda
fodder. Where maybe we’re blinded to the root causes of evil… active in the
things we do and say.
How
we return to seeing and facing the reality of evil is through being accountable
spiritually in how our hearts are being shaped.
Are we allowing our hearts to be shaped by and for Christ Jesus and His
Gospel of Grace and Promise or the Gospel of the world and its ruler, Satan? Are
we purely living into a false empire of “progress” as a kind of self-idolatry? The mirror of the law, St. Paul talks about
in this week’s segment from Galatians, leads to a beautiful promise of our
spiritual formation progress being how we realize not only what Christ Jesus
gave us at the Cross and through His resurrection, but how we live by faith to
know our true heritage as His sons and daughters.
The
battlefield is real and it goes beyond a physical, verbal plain of assaults we
inflict upon one another further dividing our hearts from reaching out to love
and care for our neighbor… It’s been
nearly 70 something years since the close of WWII, I wonder how many people
spend the time to think about the reality of evil and its consequences seen
through the rise of Hitler and in the hearts of many to commit horrible crimes
against humanity? Do we dismiss it easily to the consequences of history,
government and insanity? How many could
entertain it as “Satan’s attempt to rise and eventually fall” in this past
century to complete his rule over the world?
Yes, that’s a tall order, maybe we don’t want to think about it too much
and dismiss to something more comfortable and tangible we can understand…
Hitler
knew the power of the scriptures, he actually used a segment of Romans 13 to
start many of his propaganda speeches to a desperate people in Germany to
eventually sway to his diabolical path of death and destruction. The Legion of demons knew the power of Jesus’
words when He drove them into the swine.
Which to we choose to hear and BELIEVE more deeply in? The point of recounting these examples of
evil in our own history is to inwardly look within ourselves to test and
challenge our own beliefs. Have we
equipped and taken our developing faith seriously, or enough?
What
do we “pick and choose?” Is Satan
helping us inadvertently to choose to be indifferent to the truth? Is he helping us to build theological and
ideological walls against one another, where harboring faith, yet alone living
it becomes irrelevant to our own gospel?!
We are both Saint and Sinner, but this doesn’t have to be a “death
sentence…” You can allow the Gospel and
the Holy Spirit to open and prepare your heart for battle! I choose to grow in my faith, harbor a “lens
of faith” being living into the promise and Grace of God through hope and
prayerful action NOT for myself but to know and LIVE love for God, My Father—heavenly
parent and my Brothers and Sisters—humanity.
Compassion
is not a two way street—the Evil One, makes this appear so. Instead of living into the human label of “being”
a “post-modern” Christian; why don’t we live into the present as children of
God under His law of love? Why can’t we look all around us removing all the
labels Satan has created to become stumbling blocks to the real “progress”
Christ Jesus’ Gospel needs us to realize in the here and now of our
transforming lives of Faith?
This
needs to become a personal creed to fuel your daily journey as a disciple of
Jesus: “Jesus Christ is Lord to the
Glory of God the Father, upon the cross He, indeed, defeated sin, death and the
power of the devil to start our journey of faith as children of grace and
promise.” If we can truly confess and
reflect that evil is real, in this world… this is the first half of the
battle. If we can affirm and not deny
the reality of things only Christ and the Holy Spirit can shape—then we can
recognize and develop our faith’s spiritual formation to God’s Will, not our own.
In
order to realize the peace of Christ, we must go on that internal battlefield—it
is a battlefield where the turf is your heart and Satan is the force trying to
overtake it. We have this one solitary
earthly life; we must choose to live it beyond ourselves if we are to truly
survive.
Let
us Pray—
Gracious
and Loving God,
Help
us to prepare for that daily Spiritual warfare
Help
us to not be wound up in ourselves
To
the Evil One’s glory
And
lose the battle in loving and living beyond ourselves
Through
Grace, may we harbor a great hope
May
we live into that hope as Your children
For
Your Gospel and glory alone
AMEN
June 19th, 2016; Fifth Sunday
after Pentecost; Proper 7; Year C; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by Reverend Nicole A.M.
Collins, FODM
Psalm 3; Isaiah 65:1-9; Galatians
3:23 - 4:7; Luke 8:26-39
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at 8am at the Grace Hub's House church service.
No comments:
Post a Comment