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I must confess that I just love this!: (the Message/ Colossians 1:1-14) "Lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope." "Being kept taut by hope;" what a wonderful encouraging and enlightening message for the heart to absorb and incorporate! Hopefulness is an aspect of being disciplined to stand firm in Faith and truly accomplish all God is calling you to DO.
Is it not truly the Christian Journey to be more or less
the strengths and struggles of harboring and building Hope? For if we have no
capacity to Hope anymore I would think that would be truly the foundation of
hell. Being is the first aspect of Grace,
we are alive through the Grace of God! We are alive in more ways than one, not
only the gift of life from creation, but we are truly made alive with the
Living Word, Gospel of Christ Jesus the Lord who saved us!
I normally don't quote from paraphrase type Bibles but
this week's letter excerpt from Colossians was best expressed in the Message's
version of the Bible. I love the notion of "lines of purpose."
Perhaps I love it because it brings me back to before my true experience with
Christ in my life wondering what purpose and being are to mean for me and what
I need to do, who I need to become! Doing the Do’s of the Gospel is looking
into and incorporating a new and radical law—LOVE. And this kind of love is
something we are challenged by, Agape Love or unconditional, divine Love.
I think it's important to look at those lines of purpose
in your life as God's guiding Grace along that path, those mountains in those
valleys and how you sojourn that road that is put forth to you. It is put forth
to you not only as a disciple of Jesus but it is painted in beautiful colors,
yes the artist in me is coming out, but again that is how amazing God's Grace
has been in my journey to Faith, Living Faith, Giving Faith, and being a
Shining Light of faith for others for the sake of the Gospel of Christ!
In some senses you could say this is how I realized an
aspect of Agape love. Agape love, if you recall, is that radical Gospel-based
love that Christ Jesus modeled for us as well as the man in His parable for
today’s Gospel—the Good Samaritan. You ask what is so radical and profound
about this kind of love. This kind of
love comes from developing heart knowledge.
The heart, as mentioned, in many a sermon I have delivered, is that
first church. This is the place the Holy Spirit works first to guide and
discipline us to use the Law as a mirror and the Gospel as our goal—reflection coming
from a deep faith that is always growing and going! We are like that vineyard in Leviticus with
the exception being that Christ taught us to live radically beyond it through
LOVE by Grace given.
Just reading those encouraging Words from St. Paul, had
my heart wondered what it must have been like to be a hearer of that letter in
the community of Colossae. Being a
pastor has so many things that you need to bear. Your fruit must be plentiful
and your heart must be ready to be challenged. The greatest gift of being a
pastor is to make disciples, who are to bear the gospel forward. This is truly
to be and become an encourager, one that shines light into others’ lives to seek
to develop their potential no matter where they are, no matter how they're
struggling and most importantly— no matter how difficult the road has been!
Your task is to be an encourager and if you are not an encourager as a disciple
of Jesus, then Christ is not active in your heart truly for you have not
allowed him to work in your heart truthfully. If you're saying you're an
encourager but then put down, shame and humiliate others you are preaching and
teaching from the other gospel and that's the one of the ruler of this world. The people who left the man on the side of
the road in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan were living into the gospel of
the world’s.
The joy of living into the lifestyle of Grace which is
that calling we ALL take as Disciples of Jesus, is the joy you can share when
you give love, peace, Mercy, Grace, understanding, encouragement, and
enlightenment freely from faith. It is
that altruistic (selfless) challenge that Christ gives us that is the most
radical and hardest thing for us to do because we must grow in wisdom, in that
heart wisdom to truly live into the New Nature. The Old Nature doesn't step
forward enough it will only go so far… it may give good lip service to say that
they are a part of the living, giving, breathing of the Gospel of life to
others, but if they do everything and anything to discourage, shame, humiliate
others they will never know what the joy of Grace truly means. I don't know
about you but I would think that is a very sad way, awful way to live if you're
not willing to open if you're not willing to grow.... how can you ever GO with
a gospel you really don't believe enough in?
Keeping taut the heart with hope is a part of putting on
that armor and battling against the Evil One daily. This past weekend my family
and I went out to Arizona to visit my husband's relatives and celebrate his
parents’ 60th wedding anniversary. On Sunday morning we went to their home
Church to hear their Pastor preach. What was interesting there is that his
sermon was profoundly long. I think he nearly preached an hour…. I think if I
tried that here or at the Gathering North, people would through hymnals at me!
All humor aside, it's always interesting to hear how
others incorporate, reflect, confess and live into God's Word as a witness to
others especially as a pastor. This pastor talked about a “failed” Baptism
where the family was more or less interested in just the ritual but had no
intention in believing in God, incorporating Him into their lives and even
being Christian for that matter! That's kind of scary when you come to think of
it. But then that's also the failure of the established “church.” The church
has become too much of its own entity and not really a place to grow beyond the
four walls or its becoming much more challenged these days. Here I am however
preaching the truth and you can't shy away from the truth… This is the same for
each and every one of us if we claim to be Disciples of Jesus and truly want to
live into being a part of The Greatest Story Ever Told! How about the Greatest
Story Ever Truly Lived?!
Here you see it once again is that struggle and that “Almighty
IF,” that we are challenged to face each and every day: “If I can only be and
become all things through Christ who strengthens me… How would the world change
with just my gracious acts of faith?
That humility is important it shouldn't be something that intimidates
you, however, to not see yourself on that mountain top as a bright Beacon of
light and hope to others because Christ Jesus is truly working in your heart,
has transformed your heart and you are living into that promise as a child of
Grace!
Christ Jesus is all around us. He is in the smile upon a
sweet and innocent child's face. He is in the bloom of the flowers that grow in
a garden. He is in the horizon where you see the sun starting to rise and that
bright white light stretches across in an array of many colors— those many
colors of Hope a brand new day! Can I hear a Hallelujah rise from your lips? I
feel like singing it but then that's how the Holy Spirit works in a heart that
is growing in that special heart knowledge that the New Nature tries to guide
and grow you in.
What is an amazing fact in Jesus’ parable to the lawyer
is that the Samaritan had no knowledge of who Christ was yet alone His Gospel
of Grace… but DID something radical and profound. This went beyond a radical hospitality that
of course defies human logic… but was the ultimate natural response from a man
to so selflessly share, express compassion to their unknown neighbor!
We’ve been hearing a lot of sad and troubling stories,
evil stories lately, of violence against neighbor. Just this past week, there was a horrible
shooting of several officers in Dallas.
In Chicago, as well, there were even more civilian deaths… the blood shed
is disturbing, period! Even in the
outcry for compassion, we have indifferently incorporated politics and agenda
into truly looking, contemplating… LOVE.
This is not the “catch phrase words of an idealist…” It IS the radical Word, message, calling,
lines of purpose’s goal of the Gospel to GROW and GO with!
Being “Good” in some senses Jesus was poking at the
weakness of our human failing to see the real point of the Law. For the Law for Christ Jesus are those lines
of purpose the Holy Spirit disciplines, enlightens and encourages us to remain
taut to. The heart is that place of
growth above and beyond the hands and feet…. They come later to serve the Body,
but as genuine disciples truly fed and led by Grace and its fruit—LOVE.
Who God is to you and for you—is your journey’s struggle
to grow in. Who is your neighbor, is
everyone around you sharing this beautiful floating rock in space… I will leave
you with a beautiful image. There was something I saw the other day about a
dementia sufferer who was brought wonderful joy by her granddaughter giving her
a life-like doll of an infant. This
elderly woman couldn’t resist holding and cuddling this doll at all hours. It was as if everything she was suffering
from disappeared with the simple kindly act of being given this doll… And I’m sure, as I have ministered to other
dementia patients, she can remember things that she has no idea of when and
where it initially took place in her life… BUT she is left to remember, relive
and renew in that JOY—which brings HOPE!
The next several evenings there will be prayer vigils
taking place across the globe for not only the fallen officers and their families
in Dallas but for the blood shed abroad.
Let us not look at this moment as prayers purely for this purpose… but
see them through a greater lens—as had that “Good” Samaritan and truly open our
hearts, letting that light shine and live into a Godly love—compassion that will
come naturally… as we strive to be kept taut by Hope!
Let us pray:
Loving and Gracious Lord Jesus,
Help us always to be taut by Hope
Taught by Your Gospel of Grace, Law of LOVE
May we strive to bear fruit from a natural place
One that has been formed and founded through our hearts’
growing knowledge
May we strive to live into that radical New Nature
Loving You and Neighbor with everything we Do and say
As long as we hold breath.
AMEN
July 10th,
2016; Eighth Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 10; Year C; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by:
Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, FODM
Psalm 41;
Leviticus 18:1-5, 19:9-18; Colossians
1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37
The link below is of this sermon being delivered at the Grace Hub's house church service at 8am:
https://youtu.be/KaxKMB5QagI
https://youtu.be/KaxKMB5QagI
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