"Night and Day;" Sermon for November 27th, 2016 by: Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins

I don’t know how many people saw that strange GE commercial with a creature looking something like a ‘Muppet’ walking around representing an “idea.”  For an electric company advertisement, it was actually quite profound… It talks about ideas being scary and going against our human inclination, acceptance and comfort zone. The commercial goes on till concluding with someone accepting the idea in its “fragile” state and taking it, in to flourish, fully bloom!

What a wonderfully bizarre metaphor for helping our hearts wrap around these texts for this inaugural first Sunday in Advent. For a moment, if you took the time to replace the idea with the Word, love—I think you would find that we have the same problem there.  Love is the culmination of what the Gospel wants for us to spiritually evolve into incorporating and acting through.  This kind of love goes beyond our tempered “philos” love or brotherly love but dares to touch a toe into Christ’s challenge of agape love or unconditional love.  Love in the Gospel of Jesus Christ is no “flower power,” “warm-fuzzies” motif to living our lives in Grace, but a “full-monty” challenge to us as St. Paul preaches to the Romans to: “¹⁴… put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

When we sojourn to the heart of God on our spiritual formation journeys; it is there, that we learn and fully become awake to the notion of love bringing God’s peace or Shalom across the world.  Bridging the reality of an end, to a New beginning is scary.  Remember we don’t like change?  We don’t trust God, yet alone ourselves enough to step boldly into the future or dive off that proverbial diving board into New waters… But we must.  We must, if we are ever to truly taste the blessing of realizing the beautiful fruit the Kingdom of God has to offer us, to encourage and empower us with.  The peace of God is that reality lived from love in action! This is being and doing for the Love of God and neighbor.

It is fair to say that these past few months have been filled with everything, but peace.  In fact I would dare to say, that the American mindset is on the verge of civil war over politics, lifestyles, ideologies, agendas and so forth!  Coming from faith I believe that the notion of tolerance is merely an ugly bandaid born from the Old Nature’s way of controlling how much someone is to “give” of themselves in any given situation. Thanksgiving, being truly grateful has collapsed into angry, rowdy protests, gunfire, murder and other evil acts in the name of “justice” that only bear those withered fruits of anything but “love in action” and peace! Instead of “buying” into the same routine these past few years and now much more these past few months…  Why not come to the table beating down the swords coming from our mouths, and angry hearts… to reap a beautiful prayer together—live a beautiful prayer together, as the children of Grace and promise, we truly are!

For all lives, all of humanity, all of creation for that matter, matters to God—this is why we now await once more to live into the Greatest Story Ever Told.  This story is the coming of the Christ child—the hope of the world, coming in as the light of the world to shine brightly into our lives—the dawning of a Brand New Day!  Like that curtain being torn in two in the temple giving way to the light from beyond, we must rend our hearts with hopeful expectation to the coming of the King. Perhaps though as Luther once said, we choose to stay spiritually asleep with the curtains drawn tightly closed in our hearts to any in breaking of the light? Instead only choosing to sit in our sanctuaries, “safe-places” (of the self), crying on each other’s shoulders instead of waking up to opening wide those drapes… to the truth!

There is a lot of work to be done and technology, war-mongering and grandstanding is not the answer God is seeking for us to realize at all. Truth be told, using terms such as “post-modern” and “progressive” are not being realized as God is needing for us to step to action through.  If anything we are going backwards in time, recoiling into our intellectualized self-righteousness and warped sense of justice where the reality of a kinder and gentler world—the one Christ’ Gospel gave us over 2,000 years ago is being lost! For how can we harbor peace within the walls of our hearts if we cannot incorporate the Gospel’s command to love?

Love is scary just like the “idea” in that commercial. Love came into our world however through God’s only Son being born into humanity to live in example to us and die for us to free us from the darkness, night of our sins! 2,000 something years later how have we been truthfully accountable to real “modernity” or being truly “progressive” as Christ is counting on is to be?  The other day I donned one of my favorite crosses.  This cross in particular was the one I was given in serving a Kairos’ Outside retreat.  Kairos Outside is a wonderful program to prayerfully empower family members with the love of Christ, who have incarcerated loved ones.  On the front of the cross it says: Kairos.  The design is of the Christian fish symbol and the word Kairos which means in God’s time.  On the back of the cross it says: “Christ is Counting on You!”

Every time I feel compelled to wear that cross, I have been prayerfully struggling with being “patient.”  I have struggled with trusting towards a future yet to be revealed to me.  The moment though, I feel any sense of despair, I just turn over that cross and hear those words as a call to me to “buck up.”  I need to be stronger not just for myself but for others’ sakes, I need to be tougher for the evil in the world is only getting greater by my metaphorically sitting home with the curtains drawn crying in my beer!  John Lennon of all people has the best quote here—“life is what happens to you when you’re making other plans…”

Yes, life is what happens and continues to happen all around you without ceasing.  Life is continually moving forward truthfully, in time only, and more or less, backwards or stagnant thanks to our own stumbling blocks.  These stumbling blocks are our caving into the temptations of sin and intellectually justifying them from our own “little gospel,” that truth be told, does not really include God at all.  These sins are justified through our graceless behavior and unrest.  As we’re seeing daily all around us—an Old Nature victory of intolerance or better said—non-acceptance, condemnation, robbery in its many forms, and murder upon one another or new life.  Wake up and smell the coffee people!  What are we doing in the here and now of our everyday lives to be real with the Gospel to love and grow to learn, enact peace?

Are we being “real” out of a love for God and neighbor?  Can Christ truly count upon us to enact “real” progress as instructed through His Gospel alone?  With perhaps a tear or two in my eyes, I can only truthfully say that I do not know.  Perhaps, I just don’t want to go there and say or speak out my fears, that maybe we just can’t… We can’t look enough beyond our own noses to see a whole New world, brand New day outside that window within our souls.  Outside that window where Christ tore those drapes in two, in order to have us see—come truly awake!

The peace of Christ indeed surpasses all understanding.  Awaiting aspiring towards this peace is calling us as St. Paul says—to “¹¹… know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers;” He continues to say that “¹²the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; ¹³let us live honorably as in the day… putting on Christ…” This is putting on Christ as our hearts’ model—taking his commission to us all, seriously—love is our true goal to “modernity,” to REAL “progress.”

If we can’t come to that table, not only in letting the “dialogue” begin (beat down those swords!), but partaking in one another—truly giving towards each other the gift of acceptance over tolerance, kindness over contempt and intellectualized hate, mercy and compassion over indifference and greed, understanding…  The REAL fruits of Grace lived through faith in action(!)  How can we ever know, progress to love, yet alone know and progress to realize peace?  These coming days of Advent still hold great instruction to how we are to be spiritually shaped, prepared to truly become God’s children of Grace and Promise. 

Coming awake and keeping watch is the reality of faith in God’s sense of timing.  For we really don’t know that day or hour when the Son of Man will return…  What we DO know, however, is that we can’t close our hearts to what we need to do.  Love is all we need to be our “post-modern” goal to progress as Jesus’ disciples in the world, but truly not of it.  Trim those trees, open those Advent calendar windows, watch the remaining leaves fall… but don’t just gather those gifts for under the tree—BE the gift to others.  Be that peace—voice of Grace in the world for a brand New day is coming soon!

Let us pray,

Gracious and Loving Lord Jesus,

Your life’s story is our instruction

Your peace is what tore those curtains in two

Help us to awaken, to put on that armor of light

Help us to know and realize genuine progress as love being the fulfillment of the Law

You are counting on us to grow and go with Your commands

May we do so with a humble and open heart.

Amen

November 27^th, 2016; First Sunday in Advent; Year A; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon By: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins

Psalm 122; Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 24:36-44

The link below is this sermon being delivered at the 8am service of the Grace Hub:
https://youtu.be/SKzZM5MtO6E

'A Note of Thanksgiving;' November 24th, 2016 by: Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins

The Prophet Isaiah gives us somethings to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day, he says:

“All those who rely upon the God of their creation—in times of joy or sorrow, sunshine or darkness, calm or conflict—will discover that His Grace is sufficient; and He will sustain them…” (excerpt from Isaiah 31, from ‘Prophets Now!’).

Thanksgiving is that time of year where it is a spiritual moment of rest for many of us.  It is as if the week freezes for just a moment in time to try to encourage us to take the time out: not only reconnect with family and friends but to break away from the “blues” of those everyday things we continually lift up to God in prayer for healing. These many things range from:

Why do these things happen? Why am I in this, “here and now” and not where I’d really like to be yet? Why am I not “happy?” All these questions wrapped up into a ball represent what it means to be truly human.

Whether we realize it or are grateful for it, often enough; God’s Grace is both sufficient and does truly sustain us! God’s Grace is both sufficient and does sustain us even when we have our head in the clouds of our daily struggles. Even when for some of us, we are perhaps spending our Thanksgiving days alone.  Even when the world is more concerned about eating and shopping— God’s Grace is both sufficient and does sustain us.  Even when loved ones attached to precious memories of Thanksgivings past have been gone and joined to Jesus, for some several years now…  We must continue to be strong and feel deeply in our hearts: God’s Grace is both sufficient and does sustain us!

Thanksgiving day for the disciple of Jesus, should be that great agape meal before the “advent,” great expectation of a New journey ahead. A grand feast where the prize isn’t how many spoonfuls of stuffing can you down, or goblets of egg nog you can gargle while trying to ‘sing-along with Mitch Miller…’  The prize is knowing how far you have come and it is a POSITIVE and joyful realization because the true meaning of Grace begins to shine from your heart and fill those cracks, crevices of doubt, sadness, fear and anxiety in your soul!

The picture I have included in this reflection is from either 1980 or 1979.  Quite a long time ago with many of the members of this picture either past on to be with Jesus or are no longer willing to be in fellowship or contact.  One could choose to grieve those days past… or one could truly choose to hear Isaiah’s note as song for Thanksgiving: “God’s Grace is both sufficient and does sustain us” (!) And I would add the hallelujah and the amen to that. The Living Word of God is just that, it brings us life and instructs us truly in all that we are to do and say to truthfully realize that joyful feast before us.

So with this said, no matter where you are, no matter who you are—whose you are should shine joy over sorrow, peace over conflict and pain, to satisfy even the hungriest of hearts needing to be filled.

Let us pray:

With this simple day of rest

May it instruct our many days ahead

To be grateful for everything

Both good and bad as teachable moments

Movements of Your Grace in our lives

O most Gracious and Loving Lord

May we join at that table today

With love in our hearts and all else out of mind and body

For this is the Day that You have made

Let us rejoice and BE truly glad for it!

AMEN

"Faith is a Garden;" Christ the King Sunday 2016 sermon by: Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins

Jesus stretched upon that ‘Old rugged Cross,’ answers: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Paradise is a beautiful word of Persian origin meaning a walled garden. What do we think of when we think of what a garden is?  Is it purely functional or is it, could it be a place of refuge and peace—sanctuary?  Now with that painted as the backdrop to stepping into this week’s texts—we are officially at the end of the church’s calendar year—This is Christ the King Sunday!

Christian communities around the world take this very day to contemplate the sovereignty—RULE of Christ in their very diverse and unique lives. It is truly a time of Thanksgiving.  It is truly a time of being grateful for the capacity to struggle with harboring hope.  It is time of reconciliation.  You need to forgive others as you need to forgive yourself when despair takes hold of you and rattles your foundation of being grateful—keeping the faith. It is a Garden of many things we need to tend to, grow, from within!

Speaking of gardens, truth be told, I lament anyone considering upon buying me a plant because I have a brown thumb!  I don’t garden well neither can I dance well…but hey, we all are given certain things that we CAN do and others… not so much.  Such is the life or as the French say: C’est La Vie!  Such, is the life, the one that Christ gave as both sacrifice and as the ultimate gardener to the health and well-being of our souls—setting us free!  The culmination of the many weeks in the time after Pentecost or “ordinary time,” is certainly not Ordinary, more than I would say an extraordinary time of tending to that spiritual garden of faith, we were all given.

That spiritual garden is where upon the victory of the Cross—the Body and Blood of Christ became that spiritual food for that New Nature seed planted within our hearts for us through faith to tend to and reap for the Glory of God. Christ became that river of salvation set to flow through the veins of those who believe.  These are those who believe beyond themselves, beyond the pits and valleys of this world to know who truly carries them, watches over them, loves and forgives them especially in their willfulness and ignorance!

This past week marked the historic appearance of the super moon.  If you had a chance to see part of it either on the day it was to appear or the few days after… Let me just say that it was amazing to see!  The light cast had the intensity of a high powered floodlight shimmering through the thin veil of clouds, (as I saw it in Wheeling, Illinois), its beautiful silvery blue light.  It’s not something you see too often but you are made aware of it merely by the fact of it becoming “visible” to the naked eye.  Becoming visible is our human problem with reconciling ourselves to God.  Here once again is that “if.”  If God is truly with us and is at the center of our very lives, why do bad things happen?  Why are people fighting one another?  Why am I having a hard time accepting how things happen?

This is our cross to bear as disciples of Jesus, these questions are the very nails piercing the soul with anxiety and fear. Is fear purely an invention or tool of the Evil One or something we’ve built the foundation for? I would say both.  When I read up on some of the bizarre facts of the super moon, it has often be speculatively linked to being a causal factor to various natural catastrophic events in history.  As one colleague of mine said the other day over lunch, it kind of had those qualities of the moon from the snippet of scripture from Joel… He made this more or less as a tongue and cheek comment, but it brings up a key point to how we “see” things versus how God would hope for us to see, be and become for His Gospel’s mission.

We find ourselves teetering upon that fine edge of truly tending to the spiritual garden within us—that first church—the heart. The Holy Spirit has been guiding us in His usual invisible fashion but if we can’t see spiritually, past our own nose into the reality of this world with a committed and ready-to-suffer for the Gospel’s sake, intentionality—where do we put ourselves? We put ourselves into a place that is slowly being robbed of faith.  Everything good and bad that we experience in our lives have something to say, have something to be seen and learned from.  The true sovereign wisdom of Christ is only seen and known through an inward spiritual formation journey—one we all must take as His disciples.  As our Crucified Lord and Savior, He gave us the proverbial keys to the Kingdom—LOVE.

Love is that explosively powerful, living Word and action that is the ultimate gift of Grace from Christ for us to till that garden! Till the garden in our hearts to go out into this suffering and broken world to make a difference that truly matters.  This is making a difference not for our selves’ sake but as a loving and gracious response to a loving and gracious God—true reconciliation, true faith.  Reconciling who we are is hard enough, reconciling whose we are is where the healing begins.  This is where we can join the joyful peace that, that one criminal to the right of Christ truly understood when Jesus invited him to join Him in paradise—God’s garden. 

Faith is a funny thing, it is turbulent and often challenges us, but what it always does, comes from Christ—it is our invitation.  It is an invitation to a New Life and a New journey.  This is a New journey, not just the turning of the year but one that always reminds us to realize the things we are to truly be grateful for.  This past week, the one elderly woman with dementia,  I visit, has been getting hooked on the Hallmark channel’s “Everything Christmas” movies that are once again starting up. 

Having an hour and a half of time together every Wednesday through Friday evening has been very pleasant.  She reminds me a lot of my own little Sicilian grandmother, loves her daughter’s cooking and has many routines she loves to do or talk about.  She was an avid volunteer for the Chicago Cubs where she would help walk the aisles and do various tasks.  She a devout Roman Catholic and has a lovely collection of prayer candles and family heirlooms.  In many ways, walking into her world to merely keep her company, help her walk, and help put her to bed, has become a lovely ministry of care. Her garden is very well tended to, and that goes beyond the fact of her being a Cubs’ fan! 

I’m sure the Hallmark channel is most likely syncing itself to the marketing madness to officially begin after “Turkey Day…” but even I was pleasantly surprised by these simple plot/ Disney-style films featuring many an unknown actor and actress.  All of these films had one wonderfully hidden thing in common, and I would say that, that was being gratefully surprised by holding, keeping the faith that things will come together as God is planning for them to.  They were not only positive but motivating… which how often are we motivated prayerfully?  When the world seems to be submerged into a sea of chaos—with wars both civil and abroad, destruction both natural and human-made—truth be told, it is almost too much to bear… but we have to.  God is our sanctuary but not one for us to hide within from the world.

I may feel that when I leave her home, I am leaving a place of memories. A place filled with a life well-lived and that I was a witness to just a moment in time with this sweet little grandmother.  What keeps me strong is knowing that no matter whose paths I may cross on my journey to serving Christ Jesus and His Gospel—it is not to be a lonely road, though many times I do feel quite alone. It is not a lonely road especially when you truly begin to see Christ’ light shining brightly at the center of someone’s life. Shining and flowing through their Garden soon to reach out and touch yours.

When we think of Christ as our King, I send you the invitation to truly see His reign actively working in your life for the joy of many tomorrows—which is the true harvest from that garden: Hope.  Hope is the peace of Christ calming that storm surrounding you, the chaos and sadness.  Hope released from Grace—that invisible gift, refuge.  Even upon that cross, our Lord Jesus broke time and created that bridge to all of humanity by setting us from from sin, death and the power of the devil, in order to have us flourish—grow and go from that New Nature garden—for the Glory of God! AMEN

Let us Pray,

Gracious and Loving Lord Jesus,

You are our crucified Savior

You continue to be our refuge and guide

We realize Your complete Divine Nature as well as

Your Fully Human sacrifice for our behalf

Let us never forget the grand Garden to whom we all have access

On account of Your freeing, loving forgiveness and mercy

Help us to be a light to others

Help us to truly tend to our gardens

For thine be the Glory and the AMEN

November 20th, 2016; Christ the King Sunday; Proper 29; Year C; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins

Psalm 46; Malachi 3:13-18; Colossians 1:13-20; Luke 23:27-43

This sermon was delivered at the Grace Hub's house church service at 8am:
https://youtu.be/hT4_hNlTGcY