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I don’t know how many of you have seen the 1973 musical
film classic, ‘Godspell,’ but there is a beautiful song in there that just
connected the spiritual dots for me to the heart of our lessons for today as
well as for our consideration of all of creation. The song is literally called, ‘Beautiful
City,’ if any of you recall the film, the cast begins this song by traipsing
through the empty streets of Manhattan singing this tune without a care. The pure expression of joy is more than
apparent.
A lot like the Psalm assigned for today, which is Psalm
100, they are praising God with what I would like to call, an “attitude of
gratitude.” Jesus leads the disciples in singing: “Come sing me sweet rejoicing,
Come sing me love. We're not afraid of voicing all the things we've been
dreaming of…everywhere we go… He continues to sing of our future hope: “We can
build a beautiful city. Yes we can! Call it out and call it the city of man!” However this is not the kind of building we’re
naturally disposed to imagine or think of… This is all around the spirit.
Jesus continues to remind them just like in His parable
for this Sunday about the foolish Rich man that to build this foundation… we
don’t need worldly things but we need and must focus upon spiritual things! I
believe this beautiful foundation begins not only in the believer’s heart but
in the family. We are God’s children of
Grace and promise. We have been freed by the beautiful gift of Christ saving us
in more ways than one. He freed us in order for us to spiritually grow to live
fully and give fully. Kind of the opposite of Ecclesiastes’ cynical rant of the
vanity of “eat, drink and be merry…”
Being at home with Christ at the center of your heart
creates a whole new perspective. This is
what I would like to call taking on Saint Paul’s challenge in today’s snippet
from Colossians: In order to live fully into the lifestyle of Grace which is
all around us, in all of creation—we must be willing to give. Giving here means being spiritually open to
shaping your soul to God’s will putting to death as Paul says—the Old Nature
and rising in the New Nature which is the seed of hope planted in our hearts by
Christ’s victory at the Cross.
What exactly is the New Nature? Well of all irony we can see a glimpse of it
in the innocence and beauty of God’s creatures.
Yes you’ve heard me right, the innocence in God’s creatures. This is what St. Francis of Assisi realized
as well as his female Franciscan counterpart Saint Clare. As some of you know, I am a postulant in a
wonderful order—the Franciscan Order of Divine Mercy which is a separate
community stemming out of the Lutheran Orthodox Church. They are definitely small in numbers but not
in faith or passion at all!
Each and every week, I am given wonderfully prayerful
assignments that are not worldly tasks but spiritually shaping tasks. And some of them come from this really scary
heavy book you see me holding here—the Omnibus of Sources—everything and
anything that exists in writing from or about St. Francis of Assisi and St.
Clare. These tasks are always looking inward and seeing or should I say
realizing where God’s guiding Grace is leading you and needing you to transform—change
for the better as a disciple of Jesus and truly for the sake of others.
For the sake of others, St. Francis and St. Clare founded
a guiding pathway or spiritual discipline in order to realize the foundation to
the Kingdom of God. This starts in
seeing the beauty of creation and in God’s innocent creatures. In short, that’s why this Sunday in
particular there are either pet blessings or foot washing rituals. They
not only remind us of our charge and commission to faithfully live into our
discipleship to Christ but faithfully remind us of truly the beauty of all of
creation.
One of the treasures I have acquired from my grandmother
at her passing in 2003 was a porcelain statue of St. Francis sadly missing the
hand that is reaching out to allow a dove to perch upon it. This artifact now watches over the urns of
all of my beloved former cats. I have
had a dynasty of cats nearly going back 20 something years. It is interesting as well that strangely
nearly all of my cats have passed away near to the date of my grandmother’s
death which was in February of that year…
February, the month of celebrating Valentine’s day as
well as for my husband and I, our engagement anniversary which was on you
guessed it, Valentine’s day. Valentine’s
Day in our culture has come to symbolize many things. It’s a real money maker for greeting card
companies, florists, candy makers, restaurants and so on. Our culture as well perhaps sees it more
often being about “eros” love which that is the Biblical Greek word for
romantic, erotic love. I don’t think we
picture all too often the other aspects of Love which are at the heart of
living into our faith. These are philos
(brotherly love), sergos (familial love) and agape (divine love or better
understood as unconditional love).
Agape love is something Jesus says in nearly every other
paragraph in many a Gospel text as well as His servant Paul preaches and
teaches in nearly all of his letters to the various churches he helped to
establish in building the foundation of faith for the sake of Christ Jesus and
His Gospel.
Agape love is a challenge for us—it creates a spiritual
tension for us. The world caters more often than not to enabling us to envision
a world swirling around ourselves. This world and its gospel cater more or less
to the unholy trinity of I, Me, and Mine storing up just as Jesus says empty
treasures that you don’t take with you when you die. And Ecclesiastes or better known as Solomon,
King David’s son expresses a bitter or cynical lament that these earthly
treasures and toil is purely vanity and is like chaff in the wind… For what purposes does it really serve? Greed and indifference are the substructure
to the ugly fruits of consumerism and selfishness.
Agape love however is what the Beatitudes of Jesus calls
us to incorporate not merely contemplate.
The simplified summary of that thought is in order to do “the do’s of
the Gospel,” we need to discipline ourselves to the Gospel’s selfless and
loving demands upon us. St. Francis saw
this as a natural, willingness or faith-filled obedience. Today we see this most simply enough in the
creatures we have chosen to adopt into our own human families, our pets. They show us genuine innocence and simplicity
in the joy of simply living and loving others or I should say their owners.
The treasures of heaven are living naturally into an
obedience to love God and neighbor which is or should I say can be the beautiful
life-time’s journey aspect of our faith—building that foundation of LOVE. It takes however, our painful perseverance
and patience. Those radical words,
painful words we really have a hard time owning up to, being accountable to or
simply faithfully adhering to. Some of us become crabby, lamenting cynics like
Ecclesiastes while others battle between hope and despair in general.
My journey with the Franciscan Order continually
challenges me not only as a disciple of Jesus but as a pastor. Am I nurturing my heart to be shaped by Jesus’
Living Words? Am I trusting in Him
during my moments of doubts and pain? Or
am I allowing the world and its temporal comforts to inebriate me with a false
hope that doesn’t truly care enough or at all for the sake of my neighbor?
There again is that statement: For my neighbor. Just the other day, I was in the midst of my
own spiritual rant to some close friends, not too unlike Ecclesiastes’ rant of
what have I really done and was it worth it?
This came out of feeling some despair in and around our favorite sin or
vice—money. All of my ministry with the exception of ‘Visiting Angels’ is
voluntary or very lightly stipended…
This as you can imagine makes things very difficult for both my husband
and I to merely “survive.”
Life has so much more to offer though… I realized that
later in focusing my heart back into prayer and seeing whom I must continue to
serve and fight for: God. I have been
truly blessed, I have been blessed to be on the ground floor of planting two
churches and now a third church which is my own house church and online
ministry, the Grace Hub. I have been blessed to have wonderful caring friends,
my wonderful husband and my wonderful children of another species, Louie and
Issy to help me stay on Christ’s path of service. I need to put my hope into Christ that He knows
my future, and I shouldn’t toil or worry about it but continue to DO and BE all
that I can be for His Gospel’s sake and for my neighbor!
I need to continue to be hopeful for the future beyond
the pains and anxiety the world interjects into it, to return to putting up
that foundation for the beautiful city of God as His disciple, as His child of
Grace and Promise and most importantly as my response, reflection of
unconditional, aspiring selfless love to Him and my neighbor. As I had shared this with Ken, my Bishop Abbott
of the Franciscan Order, he gave me a beautiful assignment to walk and reflect
in nature itself. Perhaps this morning’s
pet blessing is a happy medium between the two. But I’m sure I will find many
more occasions to wander into the wilderness of God’s fantastic creation!
We are gathered here as Christ’s family, a collective
Body of individuals with our own families and loving creatures sharing in that
joyful song of praise both the Psalmist sings and that Godspell song. We don’t need bricks or mortar, we need
commitment in the form of willing hearts and minds to live it in order to give
it—the Gospel that is! We are the beautiful hope of the Gospel the Lord is
hoping to teach us and shape us to realize!
It is not founded through politics, worldly idolatries or agendas… it is
a movement that begins in that first church—the heart. We make the change by faith. As our faith
grows the fruits of our labor are definitely not “vanities or chaff in the wind…”
but LOVE abounding as kindness, peace, mercy, compassion, innocence and much
more! The beautiful mortar to that
beautiful foundation is living Grace, our spiritual response to God!
Let us pray,
Most gracious and beautiful God,
There is so much we need to learn and grow from
Help guide and guard our hearts as we are daily
commissioned and challenged to serve
Help us to see the beauty of creation that not only
surrounds us truly
But dwells truly within us as that New Natured seed
planted by Christ in our hearts to reap
To Reap with joy, hope and spiritual riches our lives
lived towards Your Gospel
Faithfully reveal.
AMEN
July 31st,
2016; 11th Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 13; Year C; SOLA
Lectionary
Sermon by:
Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, FODM
Psalm 100;
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-26; Colossians 3:1-11 & Luke 12:13-21
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub's house church service at 8am.
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