"Gainful Stumbling;" Sermon for Sunday October 2nd, 2016 by Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins

Saint Paul was a wonderful mentor not only for Timothy as we hear in this week’s letter but for us all.  We do have nothing to lose but everything to gain as we obediently and willingly “suffer” in our walk with God and in our service to humanity. I’m sure many of us have heard the saying—“you, yourself, can be your worst enemy…”  This is true however, I myself am more than guilty on occasion for beating up on myself when I feel the foundation of my faith being challenged.  God, however, is that anchor, rock under our feet and surrounding and strengthening our hearts to be and become so much more! 

This past week, I had a wonderful opportunity to write a reflection on a book I was reading as a part of my spiritual formation with the new Order I have recently gotten involved with.  It was a book about faith and discipleship around Mary, the Mother of Our Lord.  What was amazing to come away with about reading this perspective on her was that it gave me a new perspective not only on her role within the ‘Greatest Story Ever Told,’ but about standing firm in a godly faith, an amazingly ‘full-of-Grace’ type faith that did move mountains!

A lot of those mountains or stumbling blocks on our spiritual formation journeys as Jesus’ disciples, are there for a reason.  They can teach us wonderful things about ourselves. I never forgot, a number of years back, briefly working for AmeriCorps on a project for public schools called “Project Yes.”  This was long, long before my conversion experience and belonged more to my experiences as a college level art teacher and practicing fine artist and poet.  One of the days of our training, before we officially went out to these troubled schools, in order to bring them a little cameo of creativity, included a trip out into a horrible neighborhood on the west side of Chicago to help clean up a nursery.

Well, to say that the nursery was filthy, would be a great understatement!  In fact the glasses and sippy cups in the cabinets were most disgustingly “stuck” to the surfaces with dead roaches’ residue…  Sorry if any one listening may be weak in the stomach… but it made one of those moments where you wanted to be a million miles away from having to take on this task.  I also felt as well as others did; what on earth would this have to do with teaching art to inner city Chicago grade school students?  In retrospect, it had a lot to do with developing and harboring a new perspective of caring, serving others.  This secular, humanitarian project actually exercised a Christian perspective of service without you even realizing it at the time!

I was reminded of this nearly 20 year old experience, when recently going to take on caring for a person in hospice care.  This poor man lost his wife to two forms of cancer this past November, and now he is dying, in stage 4 of two other forms of terminal cancer.  He and his son live in truly filthy conditions quite similar to the one in my story…  At first, both the hostility from the grieving son and the squalor of the rooms of their home nearly made me want to call Visiting Angels and say—forget it, I can’t work in these conditions…  Day two of caring for this man, which was prayerfully listening, opened my eyes to the stumbling blocks I put in place, that in order to answer through faith, I needed to climb up and over these thoughts to look out from that watchtower to see God’s greater plan!  WOW, that’s all I can say for my mustard seed faith of the moment, was truly transformed into something much greater.

That is the beauty of being a willingly, intentional, obedient disciple of Christ!  Ministry is all around us in so many forms, we most often don’t even see!  The disciples are so funny when you think of it… They’re like, ok Jesus, just gimme more faith to help take it all on.  It doesn’t work that way, in fact that is our human delusion of the “meat-and-potatoes” aspect of living into the Gospel.  We do almost need a fire under our fanny to rekindle that faith perspective to keep us going and growing with the Living Word and Will of God!

There was a truly beautiful story, the other day, on the news about a group of ordinary people in Aleppo, Syria, doing extraordinary things.  The media called them the “white helmets.”  These men truly risked their lives being compelled to take out evil and attempted to rescue as many people as they could from the rubble and destruction left by the daily bombings against ISIS.  The picture that struck my heart strings to tears was one of these men taking out an infant with bloodied scars and scratches on her sweet head.  Dear Lord, another innocent little one was saved—thanks be to God, Amen!  It is always darkest before the dawn, the dawning of HOPE renewed: Grace overflowing with the beautiful promises of God—what a beautiful life it truly can be!

One of the statements of faith that the Gathering North, and my house church the Grace Hub, uses often when thinking, praying about discipleship is that wonderful statement from now a martyred Zimbabwe pastor.  The receptivity to this statement of faith has always been very rewarding for me to hear as a worship leader, pastor and disciple of Jesus.  It gets to the heart, literally as well, of what walking by faith, living by a Godly faith truly requires.  Remember, this is a Gospel for all people—everyone has the capacity to be and become an amazing example of the Kingdom of God throughout their lifetime’s journey!

Here’s the statement:

The Disciple’s Creed  (Based on a young Zimbabwe pastor)

ALL: I'm a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I'm a disciple of His and I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed. My present makes sense. My future is secure. I'm done and finished with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals. I live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by Holy Spirit power. My face is set. My gait is fast. My goal is heaven. My road may be narrow, my way rough, my companions few, but my guide is reliable and my mission is clear. I will not be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice or hesitate in the presence of the adversary. I will not negotiate at the table of the enemy. I won't give up, shut up, or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and preached up for the cause of Christ.

I am a disciple of Jesus. I must give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He comes. And when He does come for His own, He'll have no problems recognizing me. My colors will be clear!

Pretty powerful, right? Just hearing the handful of congregants recite this statement is like hearing the choir of the Kingdom of God sing its faith, share its faith for all to hear.  It’s also pretty tough stuff to hear…  In some senses, you could see the negative side of this confession of faith from this young Zimbabwe pastor got him killed!  But what a life this man got to lead and mentor others with!  Mentoring others is another theme floating in and through these texts this morning.  As we know, Christ is our perfect model and the Holy Spirit is our guide to keeping that ‘mighty fortress of faith’ in our hearts going.  We are also charged and commissioned by Jesus himself to “grow and go” with the Gospel—gathering and encouraging one another as what “church” is truly supposed to be and DO!  After this gathering and growing together—we are to DO ministry.

Everything in our lives can be seen as ministry.  Gathering to scatter as the Body in the world, but not of it, is taking our experiences, incorporating God’s Living Word and Will and sharing, nurturing and caring for our neighbor with its beautiful fruit.  This brings me to share one last memory of a two year anniversary of my first mentor into ministry’s retirement. Pastor Bill retired from Bethany United Church of Christ with a last service on September 28^th, 2014.  The things that man had to share and teach me at the very beginning of my post-conversion experiences, are still teaching me today.  He had a beautiful temperament and approach to ministering to others.  That is a difficult thing to develop for pastors.  There are many a pastor out there that can and have become stiff robots making sure to keep their boundaries hard and removed from those they are to serve and care for.  What his mentoring taught me way back then, is that being strong in your faith is also requiring you to be the most open as well.

I am now blessed to serve with another mentor that helped me mature to where I am now.  I am even more humbled to be serving alongside him, Pastor Dawson of the Gathering North. Pastor Eric, like Saint Paul always encouraged me and continues to encourage me.  He was even there to ordain me with a handful of friends at another friend’s beautiful church in January of 2015. All of these examples… are probably meriting a sermon in themselves, but that’s the point.  Our faith journeys, our spiritual formation, as disciples of Christ, are always in a process of growing.  This is a process of not only growing in Grace and responding in Grace but a process of living into Christ call to us to love.  Love fueled those men’s hearts to risk their lives to save men, women and children from the crumbling rubble of bombed buildings in Aleppo, Syria.  Love fueled that Zimbabwe Pastor’s heart to speak the truth of his faith and share it for all to hear.  Love is even behind the things we do seemingly unconnected to faith in healthcare.  Compassion is an expression of faith not just a clinical “skill” to develop—at least not for me anyway! Love is a gift of Grace and the fuel to our faith—gotta live it, to give it!

Let us Pray,

Gracious and Loving God,

We are those stumbling little ones

We often stumble over each other as well as are the cause itself

Help us to gain the insight of walking in, with and through Grace

With a Godly faith, not a worldly one.

May your Cross’ story and the beautiful witness of others

Mentor our hearts to be in sync with Your Living Word and Will

Throughout our lifetime’s journey

AMEN

October 2nd, 2016; Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 22; Year C; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins

Psalm 62; Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4;  2 Timothy 1:1-14;  Luke 17:1-10

The link below is to this sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub's House church service at 8am:
https://youtu.be/Y7Rd6B3SUAQ