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In discerning the New Nature; we most often find ourselves struggling with God but it is His Living and Transformative Word that is, and does become, our plumb line to follow. God is truly a voice that continues to be speaking; our listening and doing is a whole other matter for us however… What is your life’s witness to the Gospel? Proclamation is a two-way street, for our lives are what sometimes speaks the loudest, bemoans more often and persists over and above our words!
Persistence
is one of those chair legs to the formation of the Christian’s journey. We can
choose to either be faithful or unfaithful. Our fate to a certain extent, is
painted in by how we make our way down God’s road for us. Fate can be one of
those kinds of words that harbor a sense of pain and suffering as well as
challenging us to cling to hope. Hope is the anchor of Faith. Hopelessness,
however, creates godlessness. Godless figures in the world’s past once said
that religion or organized faith is the opiate to the masses… This was atheist
dictator, Carl Marx who founded the “utopian” solution to the problems of the
world being the development of socialism or the communist manifesto. The 1984 Monty
Python movie Brazil holds an ironic quote to fit this “delusion of utopia,”
throughout the film, being: “We’re all in it together…”
For
the faithful, persevering Christian—God is our redeemer, our heavenly parent
and our true helper as we struggle our way into this world with a Gospel Hope,
that is not from this world—it is of the Kingdom of God. The Lord is certainly “no
Band-Aid” or “opiate” to our daily battle of choosing to live into that New
Life the Gospel is calling us to! Being a witness with the Word is living your
life with Christ at the very center… This is a spirituality of Love. While the
idolatries and manifestos of humanity drift by, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is
the same yesterday, today and always. We
are all called and commissioned to persist in a life of faith, this is the most
beautiful fate of the disciple, a member of the Body of Christ, family of faith,
can harbor for “We are all in it together”… but for a much greater purpose!
This
past week, I started reading a wonderful book about the Benedictine’s various
orders and lifestyles of those seeking to do spiritual formation as an Oblate
in a community. Oblate is a term for a lay person or outside pastor from many
different denominations who want to experience this kind of spiritual formation
activity. The title of the book takes you truly back down to earth in the
reality many of us face: ‘How to be a Monastic and Not Leave Your Day Job: An
Invitation to Oblate Life (Voices from the Monastery)’ by Brother Benet Tvedten. How do we live an intentional life of faith
with so much on our plates? We are constantly, daily drawn out to feel that we
have the whole of our lives segmented and controlled by simply surviving the
parameters of the world over and above God’s…
The
book goes on to share many wonderful insights such as the thought of moderation
and balance, soul work is Benedictine spirituality. I would go further to say
this is not just a Benedictine discovery more than it is the truth to all
Christianity. The Christian’s life needs to be balanced by living in moderation
and centered in a holistic well-being of your soul. The book further discusses
that following the ‘Rule as an Oblate of St. Benedict’ is a method of seeking
God through what is familiar and by rather ordinary means. I would say once
again, removing the titles and human distinctions, seeking God and living for
God in our everyday lives is being an active member of the priesthood of all
believers. If we take control of our lives, if we are intentional and careful
in how we spend the hours of each day as a priceless gift from God, if we
discipline ourselves to live in a balanced and grateful way, we will create
from our witness, the best possible life—the purpose God has in store for us.
The
reality of our Sunday morning experiences as “church” needs to move beyond that
broken impression that it is a Sunday only gathering to scatter—living as
faithfully persisting witnesses of the Gospel to the world in which we
live. Every day should be lived in a
Sunday frame of mind. What do I mean by
that? Both St. Paul’s lovely teaching message to his protégé Timothy and Jesus’
life parable to the disciples, and “ear-shot” Pharisees, is that we are called
and commissioned to prayerfully persevere, be strong in a weary world that we
cannot afford to lose heart in!
Injustice and evil reign only when we become indifferent to persevering
towards realizing that greater purpose for our lives as painted by God. The wonderful New Nature life is what living
into Grace through faith, gives us, leads us to see, experience as God’s
justice in the world we are prayerfully to be accountable to!
The
monastic culture has amazing things to teach all of us. It is a powerful witness to the Truth of the
Gospels—discipline for the Disciple. It is a way of life, not be considered a
series of pious rules or exercises. It is a lifestyle that takes persistence and
dedication. It takes a listening heart’s commitment to the human community—remember,
we are all children of Grace and Promise. Discipleship asks a great deal more
of us than being a method or way of living faith. It asks for a prayerful “attitude
of gratitude” and a way of relating that takes the “me out of myself” and
places one into the mind of God for humanity’s sake. Spiritual formation is your intentional
choice to be willingly shaped for God. You make this choice truly out of a love
for both God and neighbor.
As
pastor, I think it is very important to be “well-read.” Being well-read however
is seeing a humbling perspective of “knowledge is power.” I have been thinking about that often lately,
not only because I am in an Order for my own spiritual formation, but I have
recently begun another unit of what is known as “CPE.” CPE is clinical pastoral education. All pastors in formation either during
seminary, or after, have experienced completing a unit of this kind of
education. It’s very important for it
fine-tune’s the pastor’s heart to be ever more open to guiding their
flock. Knowledge and experiences should
always be seen through a humble perspective for that is what truly teaches and
shapes your future.
Faith
is both a learning experience as well as a lifetime’s journey of shaping,
forming the Heart for God’s purposes, mission. I think it is easy for us to get
lost in the genuine purposes for education on growing in our faith. When you think once more in another
perspective, our work together as the “church,” is a group learning and growing
process. Every single day of our lives
tells a story of where we are on our faith journeys. The empty promises of the Evil One working
through greed, indifference, try to tear down our spiritual formation. This is
done even to the point of persecution, through politics and consumerist agendas
that blind us to the TRUTH of persevering those enduring Words of faith—as the
fate of the Disciple of Christ.
Being
an “evangelist,” is not to be pigeon-holed to one defining role or label. Being Evangelical is an aspect I consider
myself to be! Boy, has that word become
attached to many understandings that people have declared in a negative way…. Do people think however about Jesus’
disciples or St. Paul and his fellow church planters? They were certainly evangelical in the sense
of fatefully living an active witness to the world about God and what should be
our reality of being and purpose in this one earthly life! We are to consider living our lives as never
placing a period where, perhaps God has truly placed a comma.
The
unethical, unscrupulous judge in Jesus’ lesson who lived by his own motto of
having no fear (or love) of God yet alone respecting (and loving) his neighbor
will never see his life define any genuine purpose outside of himself… For what
purpose is he moving towards? It is a
dead-life that feels it has learned all it needs to and sees no relevance beyond
itself. The Living Word of God as
exampled, written of Jesus Christ is very much alive and ever so full of
purpose! The poor persistent widow is
that voice of God still speaking in our hearts to grow and go with the Good
News! No matter where you are on that spiritual formation journey of your
faith, never forget whose you are and the promise which gives us light.
I’ll
leave you with one last story. In the
beginning days after my conversion, I became actively involved in
Cursillos. Cursillos are mini spiritual
formation retreats that more or less act like a short-course on
Christianity. They were and still are
powerful experiences. A few more years
down the road, I would serve on Kairos Outside retreats as well. These retreats were for family members of
incarcerated individuals. All of the
talks for this retreat were centered around perseverance and spiritual
empowerment. Cursillos are more or less
for developing and empowering Christian leadership. Both types of retreats and service address
faith, learning and perseverance but as well address the particular path one is
currently forming upon. The key here to all is how willing are you to grow for
love of Christ and your neighbor? How
willing are you to GO with the Good News in, with and throughout your daily
lives?
It
doesn’t matter what you choose to do whether it be devotionals, Bible studies,
retreats, spiritual Orders and so on.
What really matters is does it help your faith—does it truly strengthen
your fate? Striving for faith-filled
fate isn’t fatal but promising, enduring onwards as those beautiful Words of
Hope—The Gospel of New Life—Jesus Christ the Lord.
AMEN
Let
us Pray,
Gracious
and Loving God,
Continue
to teach us as we need to grow in order to go with Your Gospel
Help
us persevere against the empty temptations of the Evil One to lead us astray
No
matter what we have chosen to assist in feeding us Your Gospel Truth
Please
remind our hearts to listen to Your still speaking voice
As
long as we live.
AMEN
October 16th, 2016; Twenty-second Sunday after
Pentecost; Proper 24; Year C; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 121; Genesis 32:22-30; 2 Timothy 3:14 - 4:5; Luke 18:1-8
Below is a link to this sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub House church at 8am:
https://youtu.be/uBTtPmImmI0
https://youtu.be/uBTtPmImmI0
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