"Impounding If;" Sermon for Reformation Sunday 2016 by: Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, boom, boom, boom…. the trembling, sweating hands of a troubled German monk begins to drive nails along with a solitary piece of paper into the hardened doors of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg on October 31^st, 1517. That solitary piece of paper was the "Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences", which came to be known as the Ninety-five Theses. The Protestant Reformation essentially sees its genesis at this very knocking upon those cathedral doors.  Some 499 years later we are to contemplate that “impounding if…”

Truth be told Reformation Sunday as well as Christ the King Sunday are my absolute favorite Sundays to preach on for the magnitude and efficacy of the Gospel is once again gratefully forged upon our hearts as the TRUTH of what it’s all about.  If you can’t handle the Truth… Then you will have a ‘hard’ time living into being a disciple of Christ as an ongoing advocate for His Gospel.  But just like the somewhat needling, gnawing speech given by Jack Nicholson as Colonel Nathan R. Jessup to Tom Cruise as Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, to wake up and smell the coffee—We, “Can’t handle the Truth!”

Jesus Words to the disciples are pretty cut and dry: ^31b…“If you continue in my Word, you are truly my disciples; ³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  Those solitary nails needed to attempt to pierce through those hardened doors… of that enclosed and quiet place, with shaded windows like the nails of the cross which pierced our sins to set us free! These are difficult things to continually reflect upon but that is the nature of realizing, struggling with re-forming our hearts to be and become freely responsible servants of Christ.

That impounding “if” holds all of our doubts and anxieties, for if we choose to keep that door closed we are truly in bondage to sin and cannot or will not free ourselves purely out of our own deceptive and shallow sense of righteousness!  The heart is that uncontrolled source of our literal life as well as it IS where “church” begins. The TRUTH is made manifest through the works of our hands and feet for Christ Alone, through His Word Alone, by His Grace, ever so-efficient(!) Alone— do we allow the Gospel to be written upon our hearts?  Do we finally allow those doors to be pierced through to OPEN to the Gospel or not?  The ball is in your court— Are you ready to play?

This past week, I have been buried alive in a very good way, in ministry.  Every square inch of my days have been filled and blessed for I have just officially started as a volunteer chaplain at Ballard Respiratory and Rehabilitation facility in Des Plaines, Illinois.  I am partially doing this as a fulfillment of my 3^rd CPE Unit alongside and around the crevices of time I am serving in care through Visiting Angels and my 2 church plants… A nice 50 hour a week schedule but one I wouldn’t give up for anything! Just the other day, thinking about that knock upon the door, I came into a woman’s room to hear probably what every pastor dreams of, being welcomed by someone’s complete and utter need. 

The woman was just getting off of the phone and with tears in her eyes pleaded for me to come in and spend some time with her.  She wanted prayers, she requested an anointing and even wanted me to read her something from the scriptures.  Thankfully I always have my ‘For All the Saints’ Devotional set in my daily book bag.  When we were done, she asked before I could ask, if I was going to be able to visit her regularly.  What every pastor dreams about, am I right?!  It is not only what affirms the pastor and their efforts to care for others, but thinking about the bigger picture metaphorically that is—isn’t this what God wants?  God wants us to open the doors to our hearts and allow him in, in order to work through us!  God wants us to realize just what those nails piercing into the wood of the cross mean for our everyday lives—His GRACE has set us free!

Luther was a tormented pastor to the all too human reality of church in the 16^th century…  Where many had strayed from God’s Word and were creating a whole new system of justifying their “indulgences,” over and above God’s redeeming, freeing Grace!  How horrible, how evil!  The inconvenient truth however, still needs to be told: We are not intellectual victors of righteousness today, but are in even more bondage to sin, death and the power of evil some 5 centuries later.  The Lord is at the door knocking away… are we listening?  Is He knocking on the door like Sheldon (from the Big Bang Theory) on Penny’s door dressed as the ‘Flash,’ some 33,000 times?  Well, we hope not!  We need to hope for, strive to open that door even if it is pounding upon our conscience to resist and say— go away! 

Which a lot like visiting “cold turkey” into hospital rooms is what you most often hear…  “I’m busy, I’m not religious, I’m an atheist, I’m not of your faith, not interested (which is another way of politely saying go away)…” and so on.  Out of a handful of doors knocked upon, there is an open heart with listening ears needing to hear and KNOW God’s presence is WITH them in their time of need, in their desperation to heal! People don’t realize more often than not, how the spiritual needs to be healed alongside their physical ailments… The person I’m caring for through Visiting Angels suffering from cancer continually needs to indirectly hear of God’s hope and promise… as a carrier and servant of Christ, I’m still knocking on that door.  Grace is a listening presence in more ways than one! This is living into your faith, speaking for myself, as a freely responsible, responding servant to the Gospel of Christ Jesus.  Where are you on your journey?  Who do you hear at the door?

Life isn’t easy probably it’s a lot like being a Cubs player or better yet even, a Cubs’ fan! Never been inclined to sports mind you, but you do have to admire the Chicago “Cubs’ fan.”  You have to admire their “die-hard” loyalty to a perpetually ailing team!  Their actions or support however uses the same energy and intentionality of having faith.  Faith is needing, living hope and BELIEVING in the promise of better things to come!  Faith is the wonderful act of harboring belief which defines purpose and ultimately accumulates into a final goal and destination.  That final goal, destination is the Kingdom of God where the everlasting Gospel is received, believed, incorporated spiritually into that 1^st church, the heart and gracefully, gratefully shared through the hands and feet of the disciple outwardly towards neighbor. 

The Gospel IS that inconvenient TRUTH knocking on, piercing through those indifferent doors of the Kingdom of the world…  It cannot and must not be imprisoned to a book or a building with shaded glasses….  IT must be freed!  Willingly as a natural law lived outwardly from the heart for all to see, hear and come to know. The Book of Revelation’s lesson for this particular Reformation Sunday really didn’t have too much to say more than to get out there and spread that everlasting Word.  Jeremiah as the Old Testament prophet and echoing voice to that of Jesus says much more about the Word.  For the days have surely come, where we are currently pressing hard against those doors to keep God away, and our self-righteous agendas/ delusions alive in graceless works, only to produce withered fruits of peril and impending revolution!

We’ve got to fling open those doors like Penny to Sheldon and perhaps yell back, lash out with our sins—realizing them to hopefully reflect upon them, confess the reality of hope and promise ALWAYS there for us and finally repent and renew to set us truly free!  Out of a love we will never fully understand or mirror its glory, the gift of the cross—its everlasting Grace… but we can and are most able to live into real “progress” by letting God IN and allowing His Holy Spirit to truly work through us—a most divine righteousness from a freely responsible, freely open heart.

Look at someone who was considered an insignificant failure by his father and more or less considered to be a dime-a-dozen monk, Martin Luther was technically a nobody till he couldn’t stand that nagging knock upon the doors of his heart to stand up for something that truly matters…  He never intended to have all that happened to happen, but it did.  The church did reform but still has a lot of work to do…  Its human nature though, the moment you think you’ve arrived and “solved” you will fail.  Being children of Grace and Promise isn’t easy, but just like the ‘Cub’s fan,’ we must persevere for a great purpose, hope and life to come.

Let us pray,

Gracious and Loving Lord Jesus,

May we open those doors of our hearts

To Your presence

May those nails driven, heard, upon that cross

Re-form and shape us to lived genuinely justified

In Your ever-lasting Gospel of Grace

As long as we live, love and serve You and our neighbor

AMEN

October 30th, 2016; Reformation Sunday; Year C; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon By: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins

Psalm 46; Revelation 14:6-7 & Jeremiah 31:31-34;  Romans 3:19–28; John 8:31–36

The link below is to this sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub's House Church Service at 8am
https://youtu.be/YW0dVS-qGTs