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“Seek ye first the kingdom of God
And His righteousness
And all these things shall be added unto you
Allelu, alleluia
Man does not live by bread alone
But by every word
That proceeds from the mouth of God
Allelu, alleluia
Ask and it shall be given unto you
Seek and ye shall find
Knock and the door shall be opened unto you
Allelu, alleluia”
Truth be told this is probably one of my most favorite
Cursillo songs. It also happened to pop
into my mind this week when I was starting to spiritually chew on the texts for
this Sunday. Both the Gospel and Paul’s
snippet to the Colossians this week are about instructions in Faith. The spiritual instruction however this week
is digging deeper into opening that spiritual door in our heart. Opening that spiritual door is what we know
as truly incorporating your faith into practice. This is also known as living it to give it. This
begins as Jesus teaches His disciples to pray.
Prayer is a funny thing.
Why do I say that? It is
something that can be formal or it can be completely organic and flowing. Its power depends however, upon you. This leads me to share a profoundly spiritual
experience I had this past week in ministering for the first time to a
suffering man in a rehabilitation center.
For 40 years this man has been a bodily prisoner to this facility, which
is merely maintaining his “flesh.” He is
a sufferer from a severe traumatic brain injury. He can no longer talk, he can barely open his
eyes yet alone is vaguely aware of your presence in the room.
As most of you know, ‘Visiting Angels’ has been a
financial support to my pioneering church ministries. It has also been fulfilling in some areas God
has called me to serve which is to Love my neighbor. I visit people in their various places of
need, I am there to fill the gaps in the often empty places they suffer in need
to fill. For the elderly man I regularly
care for, his mind keeps fading away and I am there to remind him where he
is. My kindness and listening heart
reminds him indirectly however, whose he is. That is my goal anyway as both a
minister of the Gospel and as a disciple of Jesus, my Lord and savior.
This young man that I just started this past week, I
really didn’t know why the family needed me there at all. It would have been most tempting to merely
listen to the news on the television they had on blaring in the background… but the more I studied how not only the
pattern of care he was receiving was very neglectful at this facility… frankly
terrible…. I wondered and then I felt that prayerful empathy, grief come—as prayer! This man has been for all intents and purposes,
dead to the body for 40 years… but most profoundly I could only imagine,
drifting in a spiritual state perhaps walking hand in hand with Jesus at his
side already.
At first each and every morning I would come to visit I
would start to pray over him. I read
healing prayers from my occasional services minister book, then I read prayers
from my ‘For All the Saints’ devotional then there was Friday morning… This morning in particular, he was not in a
good place. No one it seemed had checked
his breathing apparatus and it was not only clogging but he was expressing
pain. I once again was out in the
hallway trying to flag down or “tackle” a nurse to come to his aid… Each and every time, a nurse would come
during these visits, they would respond with either: “It’s not my floor,” or “He’s
not on my list…,” or my favorite, “I’ll need to find a nurse who’s on duty…”
Meanwhile, he’s nearly turned blue and on Friday his face
contorted to express a silent scream. It
was at seeing this expression, I couldn’t hold back some tears and a real,
genuine prayer flowed forward… First I
began the prayer silently then I started to whisper it saying over and over: “Dear
Lord Jesus may he know Your love, peace and mercy!” I literally said this over and over and it
became a meditation. The tears
disappeared to a profound focus on praying.
I can truly say I felt like I prayed my brains out over this man! And I couldn’t help it but it felt
wonderfully freeing and it was like the Lord heard my cries of compassion for this
man!
At that point, I noticed something amazing, I kid you not
but he stopped his writhing and became silent and at peace. I also was shocked to notice that he must have
heard or understood some of my whispering prayers because a small line of tears
ran from his closed eyes down his face.
It was also at this point that finally a nurse came in to drain him and change
all these tubes and whatnot…
Think of all of what I mentioned so far this morning as
not only a real-life illustration but as a parable to the very fragile balance
we all are entwined in. This fragile
balance I speak of is life and death.
Christ Jesus came to me this week through truly ministering in a very
natural way—my heart was focused in prayer and it had to be my own prayer. It had to be the kind of prayer that knows
deeply as St. Paul was trying to teach the Colossians to spiritually hear—Jesus
is our completion to know and live into the lifestyle of Grace as children of
His prevailing mercy and promise.
This very fragile balance of life and death not only
encompass the physical reality of the body but also speaks to the spiritual
reality as the Body of Christ in the world with a mandate to spread and live
into the Good News! This is incorporation, being you incorporate the Good News—LIVE
it! You never stop learning. This is
something our current culture doesn’t really seem to understand or has made
more of a manifestation of intellectual progress… But is it “progress,” when we see the world
news and what’s going in even our own backyards… everywhere as a circus of
violence, murder and protests?
Has much really changed in the past 2,000 years? Are we beginning to see humanity return
perhaps, back to a primitive state of lawlessness and its ugly fruits of
violence—death? I wonder… and I
pray. We cannot lose hope, even if
things seem desperate and horrible… No matter if we feel, “who am I?” or “what
can I really DO and BE for my neighbor?” We must not as St. Paul said: “18…let
anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels,
dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking…” He continues to say what we must meditate
upon daily, he says: “19and
not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held
together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.”
Our spiritual formation is dependent upon Christ at the
center of our lives in faith. Faith
however is dependent on our taking seriously growing to understand and realize
God’s Grace which is abundant and connects us all together as a greater fellowship—Body
in the world for the Gospel’s purposes!
The Franciscan Order I have been spiritually forming under has been
wonderful here in being intentional in harboring a deeply connected life
through prayer. Ironically I wasn’t even
aware of that when I was praying over that man, I was just faithfully and
completely engaged in prayer, period.
This coming Sunday the 31st will be a
wonderful marathon of ministry for me after my house church service. First I
will be serving as the pulpit supply back in Chicago for a small church leading
as well their pet blessing rite! Then in the evening the Gathering North will
be hosting a foot washing rite and of course pizza night. Should be a condensed but wonderful day
nonetheless! No matter what God has
prepared for you, no matter how busy your days be compacted with… it’s what you
do through them and where you are spiritually engaged with them, that really
matters…
What really matters may not be where you think you need
to be, but this is how God’s guiding Grace works through your life. Just on the news this morning there was a
little blip of kindness shared in a story about two policemen noticing a
struggling elderly woman trying to make her way home. The officers helped her back to her house to
notice she had nearly no food left. She
didn’t as well have any food in her refrigerator. The police officers out of their own pockets
went to the store and filled her cabinets and refrigerator with food.
Perhaps the media aired this story as a “political tool”
to jar people to think about the latest attacks against policemen across the
nation… But instead of us always “assuming”
in our human understanding of things… couldn’t this merely be a wonderful act
of kindness, period? On that same
breath, being just merely a “paid” caregiver coming in for only an hour and an
half three times a week to visit a vaguely conscious man… just doing “my job?” Let me tell you folks, that WAS NOT “paid”
prayers! Those prayers came from a place
and reality of God at work in my heart to love and give compassion, mercy and
peace to my neighbor!
Whether you have a desk job or busily engaged in the “work”
of the world… Christ can motivate our hearts to do and be for the Gospel wherever
we are as the Body, through the spirit.
We need to daily reflect on our lives where we are, whose we are and why
we choose to truly LIVE. We then need to
confess to our Lord and savior Jesus that we want to truly “progress” as His
disciples… This progress however is not
to be built by any false Gospels’ agendas but by and through Christ alone. And through Christ Alone empowering our
hearts to serve faithfully, we incorporate faithfully God’s Living Word into
all we do and say as a natural response.
This natural response is what renews us transforming us into who God
needs us to be and become for His sake!
I can wholeheartedly say this is the truth for I grew and renewed myself
in praying over that man this past week.
All of us are called and gifted and we must not take that
for granted yet alone feel what can we really do to love God and our neighbor? From
a natural, and prayerful place… We just need to open that door…
Let us Pray—
Loving and Gracious God,
You alone, know where we faithfully are
Guide us to faithfully incorporate Your teachings
Help us to open the doors to our hearts and let You in!
Help us to give prayer and live prayer as well
May Your Love, Peace and Mercy
Teach us to live beyond ourselves for the sake of the
Gospel!
May we never not be grateful for everything You have
freely given us
May we become freely responsible servants to Your Gospel’s
goal.
AMEN
July 24th
2016; Tenth Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 12; Year C; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by:
Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, FODM
Psalm 138;
Genesis 18:17-33; Colossians 2:6-19; Luke 11:1-13
Below is a link to this sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub at 8am:
https://youtu.be/mYL4W5JsW38
This sermon's delivery at the Gathering North Church 7pm:
https://youtu.be/wQF3bjRl2DQ
https://youtu.be/mYL4W5JsW38
This sermon's delivery at the Gathering North Church 7pm:
https://youtu.be/wQF3bjRl2DQ
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