"Moved Mountains;" Sermon for Sunday August 7th, 2016 by Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins, FODM

The other day the radio played a tune that at that very moment I heard it, it spiritually seemed like the voice of God sending yet another “footnote” message painting the journey ahead for me.  This was that old Rolling Stones’ hit, ‘Tumbling Dice,’ from their renown classic album with a fabulously intriguing name— ‘Exile on Main Street.’ Most of the lyrics truthfully were inaudible for me to understand… except for the refrain, which it seemed that God needed me to hear: “You got to roll me and call me the tumblin' dice, Got to roll me, Keep on rolling…”

Truth be told there is a lot of gambling that you do on your spiritual formation, faith journey.  This “gambling” is either sojourning and surviving those valleys or ascending joyfully a top and beyond those mountain peaks… These mountain top experiences are great moments in faith.  Treasure them and most importantly LEARN from them.  You may ask yourselves: Why did God put me in the here and now of this experience?  What is it to truly and truthfully mean for my life? This is where promise becomes a beautiful encouragement that does give life abundantly! The beginning of this week's lessons brings up that subject: promise. What does promise really mean? Do we really understand or appreciate the notion of promise today? Do we realize what God's promise through Christ really means for our lives and our Future's sake? In regards to our discipleship—trust and acknowledgment are key factors here.

Probably one of the most beautiful aspects of being a Christian is the Hope and joy Christ's promise gives our hearts to thrive and survive as His disciples in the world, but not of it...  Beginning to realize what Grace truly is, IS in living it. How you live it is in the same manner of how you've freely received it. You are given this gift freely but are accountable to the one who gave us all, New Life—Christ!  As many people know perhaps one of my favorite verses of scripture is from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians: “I can DO all things through Christ who indeed strengthens me.” For Paul to get to this point of spiritual enlightenment needed a trust and most importantly a faithful obedience—wonderful faith, that could and DID move mountains!

Think about that reality for the moment: A faith that can and indeed DID move mountains. Paul as we know, not only established the early foundations of the church but was the first theologian, the first pastor, the first preacher and teacher of the lifestyle of Grace better known as the Christian journey! It is a powerful metaphor to think about… our ability and willingness to receive, believe and incorporate the Gospel into our lives’ stories.  Often a time however, you may feel as if you are at that crossroads between the valleys or low points of your life and that wonderful moment of ascending that mountain top of all you have been holding in hope to accomplish as a disciple of Jesus.

Harboring and growing faith is a lot like a candle’s flame caught fighting the winds.  It does take a gambling spirit in order to strive and thrive for the Gospel’s mission. Being at that intersection of your faith formation’s journey is hard and transformative at the same time, but God needs us to experience things and be challenged in order to grow…  Look at his own disciples, they were ordinary people who through His teachings and guiding love realized their extra-ordinary capacity to DO and Become so much more as a people of faith. The Book of Acts if you’re ever inspired to read and study straight through, is an amazing testimony of faith. The Bountiful gift of Grace given is to be inhaled and Incorporated and lived fully renewing every ounce of your soul with a great New role and a great New purpose!

So far you have heard an abundance of reflections, this is however, how the Holy Spirit jars us to contemplate and become aware of God’s work in our lives and what we are called to do and become….  Just the other day, I came across a social media post from a woman I went to school with at the beginning of my first career’s journey at the School of the Art Institute some 29 years ago!  She posted a rather sad plea for people to come to a special exhibition for a wonderful instructor we both had for figure painting who is now dealing with the onset of Parkinson’s disease.

As we know from some examples in Hollywood, Parkinson’s disease is physically devastating for someone to suffer but also truthfully, spiritually devastating to one’s sense of being (living) and purpose (what can I really do now?).  For the actor and comedian Robin Williams, the disease took its toll so much upon him spiritually, that he basically completely lost hope and took his own life. I can’t imagine the spiritual turmoil that man went through…. On that same note, should I grieve or should I truly hold hope for others like my old Art school instructor, that science will one day find the best treatment to perhaps even bring a cure to this disease and most importantly bring peace to those afflicted with this disease?  I choose to be hope-filled.  Yes you heard that right—hope-filled.

Being hope-filled is keeping that spiritual flame a lit. This is basically living into our patience or hope-filled obedience through Grace.  There may be winds that blow very hard where it beats upon your face and causes your eyes to tear and you begin to wonder and feel despair... The fuel, however to keeping that flame going is our prayers. It is harboring a confidence and assurance in the Lord that He will see things through for us and in turn, our lives will reflect a natural fruit, those fruits are what make life beautiful!

The act of worry drags us down ... but then we worry all the time, our current culture caters to it. In order to satisfy our toils and concerns, we have constructed “quick fixes,” such as horoscopes or the “health-wealth” Gospel with its free rewards and no spiritual accountability to respond in love to God and neighbor… Another “quick fix” is relying on everyone else to step up to the plate and take spiritual action to enact change… this only creates more of a burden upon our lives to fully realize the Gospel and its dire importance—PURPOSE—all caps, for our lives! I've been finding it interesting to see how much violence there has been this summer.  Every other newscast for Chicago seems to be about itchy fingers, trigger fingers… that outside of it obviously being some kind of rebellion or lashing out, is also on the other end of that… really seeming as if it is becoming a disturbing bi-product of an even greater anxiety teetering upon the edge of worldly despair.

What is very important to understand here, is that despair is the enemy of faith. Despair is where Satan works the best. He wants to drag your spirits down and have despair rule over us, indenturing us to feeling purposelessness and grieve for better times… Despair as we saw with Robin Williams, brings death.  Despair is as well, a spiritual death that denies faith both for purpose and relevance and stunts our spiritual growth. Just look at Abe’s faith from today’s Old Testament lesson.  That man exampled fabulous faith in the face of impossible odds…  He and Sarah were very old yet God Blessed his faithful, faith-filled obedience by granting them a child in their nineties! We must remember, Abe’s faith was created before the law and before Christ…  It was simply in some senses an earned achievement of God’s promise for blessing.

The many reflections Christ speaks of in today’s Gospel are like those many reflections I first shared at the beginning of this message—they are a witness born from the Spirit to the reality of God all around us.  In faith-filled gratitude, we acknowledge God’s gift through Christ and spiritually grow to naturally bear beautiful, spiritual fruit that can and will conquer all those challenges that come at those cross roads of our journeys.

In the middle of the desert, a cactus can bloom beautiful large flowers… This is much like Jesus’ last Words at the cross to the two criminals next to Him lamenting… “Today you will be with me in Paradise…” He says this as the beautiful promise of the Gospel as hopeful assurance to them as they face death.  Perhaps for us in the here and now of our life time’s faith journeys Paradise is that flower in the midst of the desert of our transforming hearts. This is a transforming Hope, that not only brings us prayerful peace but DID move those mountains…

Let us Pray—

Gracious and Loving Lord Jesus,

You have taught us so many things…

Help our hearts to grow in awareness and faith-filled obedience

May our lives be transformed amazingly by that beautiful promise

That beautiful gift of Grace freely given

In order to inspire us to respond

Naturally in all that we Do and become

As truly Your children of Grace and Promise

AMEN

August 7^th, 2016; 12^th Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 14; Year C; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, FODM

Psalm 33:12-22; Genesis 15:1-6; Luke 12:22-40

Below is a link to this sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub's house church at 8am:
https://youtu.be/jAJcO5ngEVU