Children of Grace and Promise; Sermon for January 1st, 2017 by: Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins

What I love about these texts this week is that it really does speak to the meaning and identity of family. Here we have the prophecy of Isaiah complete in today’s Gospel— the shoot of Jesse sprung, Jesus Christ Our Lord and savior—God with us.  Jesus, the tree of life, is only hoping we would be and become the branches of His Body in the world for His Gospel’s sake— essentially we are to be and become the children of Grace and promise. 

There is this one image I have always appreciated from my days of studying Stephen's Ministry. This image is of considering Christ as the great tree. He is the great tree on the top of that hill with loving branches reaching down just near to the edge of the valley, the one you are reaching out from, in efforts to grab hold of, to pull you out of the pit. The task of reaching, in many ways, is the same as our response— our seeking of God's hand, guidance and rule in our lives.  Often though, we may be feeling as if we’re reaching out from that valley and are not able to grasp hold, be rescued from our circumstances or very present evil.  It is a sad element of coming to understand, why evil happens—why does God allow it? The great existential question that Job wrestled with and that we still wrestle with on our daily journeys as disciples of Jesus, still goes unresolved.

The rulers of the world, such as Herod in today’s Gospel, think in terms of destruction and chaos. It’s important to realize that the human inclination to sin, to do evil often begins with that element of fear which then couples and embraces greed as well as is rationalized through, carried through by our grave sin of indifference. There is no meaning for them to the concept of “preservation or restoration,” they would rather grow in the wilderness, under their own control. This wilderness of graceless behavior is nothing less than an empty promise, also known as the reality of hell.  For Herod, the hell, he would create is the slaughter of the innocents.  In his sick and twisted mind, the massacre of hundreds of infants would preserve his "political machine" and thus control (he thought) the Messiah’s return…

In today's Gospel we hear of the Magi who have been historically speculated to have numbered somewhere between 15 to possibly 30 travelers, but the only ones we hear about are the three. Their importance is fairly significant and we will even acknowledge this further, next week, when we celebrate the Epiphany of our Lord. The Magi were basically instrumental in helping to save the Holy Family in this week's Gospel.  They knew the treacherous heart of Herod was seeking to murder a possible rival or ‘King of the Jews.’  But they outwitted him, as we know however, the cost, would be great, if not dire, for many mothers and families in the region of Bethlehem…  For the voice and persona of Israel’s mothers’, Rachel, was truly never to be consoled…

Currently these days it's hard not to keep your eyes and ears away from the news, especially in regards to hearing about the ancient land of Israel. There is now a complex divide and ongoing war that has yet to find peace between many different parties.  All of these parties, ironically come from different root-age, but are a part of a much greater family. This would be the peoples of Palestine and the peoples, descendants of the original ‘chosen’ people, the Israelites or in common understanding—Israelis.  Like their ancient ancestors, they have been trying to come home, from an exile of circumstances that human frailties throughout history have created a complex web, they still feel in bondage to.

There are many countries who have invested interest in putting their “politically-stained” hands of control upon the already weighted shoulders of a people who have not found real peace in something like five thousand years! These are people who still have not seen or realized, to their understanding that the Messiah has come. How could they really have much hope to go upon, how could they feel genuinely encouraged? I think that their courage is challenged, their faith and resolve is challenged especially with so many people interfering for other reasons and agendas, which really have nothing to do with reclaiming what they have called home.

We know from that metaphor of simple gardening again, that if you don't successfully root, plant a tree into the ground it will wither and die. Jesus is the root of our lives and His Holy patronage and human roots are planted in the town of Nazareth. It is here, that He would be known as the Nazarene, where His family would return to, once they came back from Egypt, upon Herod's death.  I read some commentaries for this Sunday where they talked about or considered, Jesus and the Holy family to be refugees. I would go a step further and say that we are all refugees especially in a spiritual sense when it comes to how we are growing as children of Grace and promise that we are to be and become upon our Father’s commissioning (our baptism).

I know you've heard, in many a sermon I have preached, the concept of being and becoming the children of Grace and promise. There's two aspects that you will always see the New Testament hearken to and that is the majesty and magnificence of the reality of Grace as well as the spiritual challenge and hope of promise. The word promise maybe something we have a hard time leaning upon or feeling hopeful for, since we are frail humans. We are both aspiring saint, and at times, the willful sinner… Promise beckons our trust and our capacity to hope, specifically, beyond ourselves. It is our gracious and faithful affirmation of trusting in God and His sovereign purposes for our lives.  Think of the wonderful lyrics for a moment, from Handel’s Messiah—for unto us a child is born, a savior and a king…  Just acknowledging with joy and thanksgiving, through our faith, the hope of the Messiah, entering our world—a God who indeed came down to us—gives us our identity and grounds us— and plants within us, into that good soil of Grace, the seed of the New Creation!

One of the educational notes, I have to share from assisting once in blessing a congregant’s home, was that incorporating the name of Jesus especially saying: ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ helps to not only cleanse the home, but to make it safe against evil. As St. Paul said in that beautiful hymn from his letter to the Philippians, chapter two, at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. This creedal hymn encourages our lives cling to that promise—God is with us, just like those leaves upon those branches to the Body of that tree of life that is Jesus.

Isaiah as we have come to know from many a study and many a hearing, had the clearest prophecy of the coming hope and the journey of the Messiah. This is something we've needed to hear and we've needed to cherish. For thousands of years the chosen people may have felt or thought to be chosen but never felt that they were allowed to come home. In many senses they are still refugees within what should be their home, Israel. We have heard from the beautiful poetry of many of an Isaiah text, the challenge of living through the Exile and coming home. And as Disciples of Jesus we have dealt with the challenges of another kind of Exile—spiritually, as our lives Journey to respond to God's grace as His children.

This very first Sunday within the season of Christmas, is to teach our hearts the true meaning of Christmas.  Christ Jesus gives us our identity and a real sense of home.  He gives us our hope and is God’s promise—here and now—with us.  We should never feel lost or in bondage.  We are made a prisoner only to the Evil One’s empty promises and temptations upon us to lure us into a willful exile away from God and any genuine hope we could have for righteousness and peace.  A lot like making those “new year’s resolutions,” why not start the journey of peace by reconciling with God—begin to tend to that spiritual garden—reap that New Nature seed—to rebirth? Be the gift of peace to love God and neighbor—unite the world—grow love.

There is a lot of uncertainty and fear, thick in the air these days—the life of the Christian is not an easy road yet alone makes sense to our human rationalizations… but we must carry on.  The faith of Joseph, to realize God's voice in a dream rescuing him, Mary and the Infant Jesus is a wonderful testimony of faith in action. We will realize our true role in the family of God, once we put our faith and trust in God's work active throughout our everyday lives. God With Us and His New Nature promise is planted for us to merely reap.

Let us pray, 

Heavenly Father once we realize our task of growing with Your Holy Word and Will

We will reap with joy that New Nature seed planted within our hearts to establish our adoption as Your sons and daughters, truly the children of Grace and promise.

It is true, we are refugees in our journeys to loving You and neighbor.

Help us to escape from our spiritual exile and return to our true home trusting in

Your love and mercy to always guide us. 

Amen

January 1^st, 2017; First Sunday after Christmas; Year A; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins

Psalm 111; Isaiah 63:7-14; Galatians 4:4-7; Matthew 2:13-23

The link below is to this sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub on December 30th, 2016, 9pm
https://youtu.be/1Zt9RkyOoZo

"The Sound of Christmas;" Sermon for Christmas Day 2016 by: Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins

One of my fondest and most early memories of Christmas as a child was hearing, waking up to the Ramsey Lewis Trio's— ‘The Sound of Christmas,’ early on a Christmas day’s morning. It was quite sad to recently hear that it was stolen from my parents’ home, during in their last move, since it was a highly cherished family memento.  I even miss what it looked like for she only had the white insert sleeve remaining and it had a blue record label. It's not only just an album, but the song itself—The Sound of Christmas,’ has become both a point of grief as well as Joy as it is so much a song of looking back, at people, places and things long lost. This song as well is a song of looking forward with hope. This song is purely an instrumental Jazz tune of many instruments but the sound itself is “awakening.” It stirs something in my heart much like how the Spirit stirs us and opens our eyes to the reality of God working through our lives!

The sound of Christmas on that very first day of creation was the Word. In the beginning, as we know— was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him and without Him, not one thing came into being. What is come into being in Him was life and the life was the light of all people.  These words are just the beginning of that beautiful suspected ancient hymn, prologue that begins the elusive Gospel of John. Here was a gospel writer whose primary focus was everything and anything in discovering Christ. You could say that his perspective upon Christology, (one of those $20 words) is the strongest of all the Gospels combined.

It was fascinating to read some historical accounts have him depicted as a young troublemaker at times before joining the disciples as one of the sons of Zebedee. By the time the Gospel was penned it was suspected that he may have been something like a 100 years old and that the younger John recorded his witness to Jesus and what Jesus was to mean for the sake of the world.  Witness is a powerful thing especially when it is seeking an understanding to a faith that comes from that very witness!  Much like those “Pavlov tears,” mysteriously sprung upon hearing that Ramsey Lewis tune, ‘The Sound of Christmas,’ there is a rustling in the heart, where God is working upon our human frailties….

The Word was that light that entered the hostile Darkness... the hostile Darkness of our world, where seeking understanding has become something more or less around the self instead of seeking the light of God to transform the heart into that TRUE marker of ‘progress’—the New Creation.  Often times, the things our faith journey has us see and live through are those dark obstacles, those stumbling blocks. These are those very places where the Evil One has you feel that grief, or despair or looming sadness that tries to do more or less what the Grinch did—rob you from the TRUE joy of Christmas.

When that light does affect us.  When we truly allow it to shine and burn away that darkness… It, indeed illumines our hearts to reap that New Nature—that longed for restoration of that genuine childhood—the one God wanted us to live and grow forward from.  Much like a seed planted in the earthiness of our hearts, the Son shines His light there and thus it begins to germinate our conversion or transformation into a New Creation! Where the beauty of the small things we do in our lives out of a love for God and neighbor inspire us to know real joy—to live GRACE upon grace! This is the TRUE  joy and meaning of Christmas!

Speaking of the joy, of the season of Christmas, I'm sure many of you have send out many cards, emails, gifts and so on to friends, family & coworkers. This year, my husband and I decided to send out an electronic Christmas message. The reasoning behind this was not only to save a tree but that it could reach more people quicker. One of life’s hardest lessons to be taught, however, is to be careful who you send to…. Let’s just say that sometimes that New Nature can get us into trouble especially when we simply try to reach out with that olive branch of peace and just send a friendly message to someone who perhaps thinks of you now as the enemy. This was the case for me this year in perhaps making the grave mistake of sending my Christmas card to a former friend who basically verbally shot down my kindness by trying to start a war over politics. The context was simple enough, a few years back, our friendship simply ended because my husband is in politics and is not of the “preferred politics…” of this former friend… Ridiculous, but true.

One of the tragedies of our current culture is how we have come to politicize everything and anything in view. What this has created however is that we are now polarizing people, basically categorizing and alienating them (putting them into exile) purely out of our self-righteous judgmentalism. Those that we should be considering our neighbor, we condemn with words of intellectualized, and self-justified hate. What we must recall is that we are to love God and neighbor with all of our heart, soul, and mind and this is a part of “The Growing Pains” of dealing with our Humanity..... Here, basically, is where I have shed my tears this year. 

Much like the Grinch who tried to steal Christmas, this man's scathing rebuke to the audacity of my innocence of sending him a Christmas card, did try to snuff out that light. For a moment I did see the darkness of this man's hatred purely invented through an intense self-righteous judgmentalism to someone he really doesn't truthfully know too well at all.  As we hear the sounds of this very Gospel for this most blessed Christmas day—“⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him; yet the world did not know Him. ¹¹He came to what was His own, and His own people did not accept him.”  

The greatest irony about this former friend, is that he is studying to be a pastor as well. He even has a GoFundMe page with something like almost $12,000 collected towards his efforts to finalize serving “Justice” for Jesus... If someone wanted to be very Old Nature, I could have taken that whole dialogue of blatant hostility I received in that email and posted it on his GoFundMe page saying: “Look at this, here's your future pastor you're giving money to….” I don't believe in an “eye for an eye,” in fact it saddens me to have nearly caved or even felt tempted to live into an Old Natured solution.... Satan makes these kinds of reactions though, seem very easy and “logical.” What it really does, however, is challenge us to abandon living into being children of Grace and promise.  Instead this dark attitude helps us to become a graceless people in perpetual exile to God’s grace only set to wandering in a purposeless and dark wilderness of our self-justified sin!

This is why Christmas is so important it's not just relating or reliving “Jesus birthday” but it is rethinking, reliving, replanting and realizing a God who came down to us. The God bearer—Mary and her betrothed husband Joseph, survived the slaughter of the innocents as ordered by fearful political “leaders” (rulers in the world…), in order to bring forth the miracle of God’s Son born in a manger of wood and straw.  This is a God who chose to put on our flesh in order to love us and open our eyes to a whole New world, which is kingdom of God. His glory would be realized of course through the wood of that cross where our sins were nailed there with Him.  

I’ll leave you with a beautiful image of when you have moments of seeing and hearing God at work in your very lives.  I have been blessed to be working at the moment, in full-time spiritual care.  I have been caring for someone who has just started hospice.  If you’re not familiar with the term it literally means end-of-life, process care.  It is process care involving nurses, chaplains such as myself, doctors and families.  It is a painful road where being “hopeful,” is more than a challenge.  How do you reach down to those in despair and bring them into the light of Hope?  How do you even begin to remotely help them to find peace and reconciliation? Wanting to rebel on both the patient and the families’ ends is natural and is welcomed, for they need to vent coming to understand where they now are…  You can look at all their pictures on their living room walls and cry with them or you can as well, be and become that light of strength and loving understanding—compassion—that they truly need to hear.

Being a disciple of Jesus, whether you are a pastoral servant leader in His church or one of the many of the cloud of witnesses to His Gospel from the very beginning to the very end—is realizing the Shalom of His creation and recreation in the here and now of our lives. The love I felt the other day in my simply serving God and neighbor was the work of the Holy Spirit in my heart to recognize and trust Jesus at work.  That, is the New Nature seed begun to be reaped.  The Son has shone His light upon that seed, the darkness has been cast aside and the germination of love, peace, mercy, compassion, forgiveness and so much more, begins to be born!  Here’s my joy to share with you to hear….  Now it’s your turn.

Let us Pray,

Most gracious and loving God

There is Joy in the world this very day

For Your light is shining upon our hearts

For peace, love, mercy, compassion and all goodness to germinate and come forth

In this very dark and broken world, help our hearts to reap this New Nature

For the dawning of a New world

Help us out of our self-imposed exile of sin and darkness

To hear the very sound of Christmas

God coming down to us

AMEN

December 25^th, 2016; Christmas Day; Year A; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins

Psalm 98; Isaiah 52:7-10; Hebrews 1:1-12; John 1:1-18 alt. Titus 3:4-7

This link is to the song, 'The Sound of Christmas,' Ramsey Lewis Trio 1961

 https://youtu.be/1zHZSGYJEWw

The link below is from this sermon's delivery at the 8am service at the Grace Hub
https://youtu.be/xIQAMJK4ic0

"A Leap of Faith;" Sermon for December 18th, 2016 by: Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins

Well I don't know how many of you have seen the Ben Stiller classic—‘There's Something About Mary?’ In this case for these texts, there truly is something about Mary but in no way connected to the film’s plot or content, just in name only. It was the hottest day of the year (in Chicago anyway), August 15th 2009. This was when my husband and I got married at Bethany United Church of Christ. The date itself, I came to find out is also known as ‘Mary, the Mother of Our Lord day.’ I thought this was a really interesting coincidence for like most of the Protestant world, we appreciate her role in the 'Greatest Story Ever Told,' but we do not attribute anything more truthfully beyond this fact.

One of the most recent pleasures I've had in the past few months was getting involved with another spiritual formation group for clergy, or order called the order of the Most Holy Mary Theotokos. That wonderful word, Theotokos, is a very ancient term meaning quite literally, the God Bearer. The Eastern Orthodox Church basically holds the same perspective of her as do most Protestants. No matter what century we are in now, and how many years have passed, I think it is still something to marvel at—the God Bearer, this is a significant aspect of our faith: God, who came down to us. We have come to understand this further, through the ecumenical Creeds that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine… But even saying those words next to one another; are we able to understand that fully? Do we go there in the “here and now” of our lives to understand this? I think it is a sad thing to hear on occasion, that some people challenge the relevancy of Christ and the Gospel. Our whole entire lives however are shaped by our creation and purpose which we know the truth from our faith.

What all of today's text have in common is talking about taking a grand leap of faith, as well as harboring a profound trust in God. Here, we have a young 13 or 14 year old peasant girl in ancient Palestine basically selflessly and fearlessly saying “YES” to the call of God.   On the other side of this picture we have a young man, a simple working class man, who is now in the mist of being betrothed to Mary.  Being betrothed is only the 2^nd stage of the 3 stages of carrying out the Old Testament custom of Marriage… It isn’t until he has a dream where God sends him, the angel Gabriel and tells him that he must stay with her that she is the bearer of God: God With Us, our Emmanuel. Jesus is the Greek word for Joshua which literally means YHWH sending salvation.  Both understandings and mention of these names for God’s Son should enliven our hearts to truly know the kind of God we have.

The understanding and relationship of the Holy Spirit for both Mary and Joseph were not ‘New Testament,’ in fact they came from a Jewish understanding of the Spirit being both of creation and re-creation as well as the revealer of Truth.   The Holy Spirit was not only, ‘The Giver of Life’ but it was the very revelation to those to come to realize what God needs them to know and share.  What we have come to understand about the Holy Spirit comes after the fulfillment of the Cross and the Resurrection.  

The one thing that we have to be careful of as the quote “modern Church” in the world (but not to be of it), is to mistakenly tear down tenants of faith that DO need to stand and remain those firm pillars.  One of the firm pillars of our faith, is that Jesus is Lord. Perhaps a little known fact in some of Paul's letters, to take note of, is that he, in essence, penned the very first Creed: Jesus is Lord.  Philippians 2 examples this best.   In today's letter from St. Paul, this particular snippet from Romans, has him basically speaking to a group of people he never met, he never even visited their church!   It is apparent however, how his devotion to Christ and living into his calling to spread the gospel, essentially has him to develop a beautiful confession, theology that we still look towards today in understanding ourselves in our Journeys as Christ's disciples.

Paul wasn't just starting with credentials as it seems to sound, but he was making a creedal statement of who he was and his role in carrying out the Gospel. Some of those words that we see we may dismiss on first reading and think maybe perhaps Apostle and disciple mean the same thing. They really don't mean the same thing. Apostle was a very specific title of indicating someone who is a servant leader as well as someone who was definitely given a task to carry out. When we see some of these older terms being used in different church bodies, it's important to think about what they initially meant. This can also be said as well for how we even touch the subject with any kind of understanding why God chose to come down into this world to save us. Why on Earth would He pick a young girl in the midst of a complex arranged marriage setting to basically implant her with God's son?

I think one of the most important things we need to keep in the back of our minds, at all times, with anything we do when we are journeying in our faith is to realize that we are truly— a faith seeking understanding. When I was in the Diakonia program over 10 or so years ago, I read a wonderful book that was talking about our struggle with rationalizing or “coming to terms” with why God came down to us. Today is a profound revelation for our faith in these texts: God incarnate. God comes down to us to be born of a peasant girl, in the middle of nowhere Palestine, in order to begin a very fully human life, as well as a carrying, and living into, a fully Divine task of taking all of our sins, everything and putting them to death through that cross.  

What was it about Mary that made God decide to choose her to be His vessel? It goes beyond what the concept of Virgin means, in fact in some senses, you could say that is being trivial about it. Her purity was something that God felt could be used for His purposes of realizing or becoming incarnate fully human and fully divine. I know one of the text we may be reading at some point during this Advent season going into the Christmas season, of celebrating Jesus; we will hear the words of ‘The Magnificat.’ A wonderful fact I came to discover in reading up to join in discussion with my colleagues in this particular order, was what is known as Mariology.

Mariology is completely a Roman Catholic “phenomenon” that grew out of the Middle Ages, and in specific, from Luke's Gospel. These medieval monks, theologians, Bishops, Friars, Deacons and Nuns, in their journeying to understand Mary’s role, created a wholly unique theology around her. They, in Essence, elaborated an extremely creative perspective or to use one of those $20 words, a hermeneutic lens of why and how the Holy Spirit came to choose her and made her the God Bearer, the Theotokos.   So maybe, in essence being an even greater leap of faith, we need to return to leaving some things, as the mystery of God and not try to explain what we don't understand completely or may never understand till we meet Jesus face to face someday.   Why we consider the Bible the Living Word of God is that it does reveal profound truth deeply within it especially when we come to study it on many levels.   

Keeping this in mind just imagine poor Joseph here… okay he's been placed in this arranged marriage to a nice young girl, sweet and innocent, he just passed the first stage of the engagement and he's in the betrothed phase of the marriage and she comes back from seeing her cousin Elizabeth and she's already 4 months pregnant! In a dream God's spirit came to him, gave him a message and said, you must stay with her, she will be bearing the savior of the world, the light of the world and you are to name him Jesus.

This past week we heard and saw God's messenger for the coming of the Messiah, being made through John the Baptist. The wonderful transitional figure of Hope from the old, to the new, pointing towards a New Creation, re-creation of a people longing to be restored. This week, now we hear of that very moment when reality strikes and it is apparent that, God is here with us, will soon be born, from this young virgin girl to grow up and lead in a ministry to save the world!  Here we have one of the gracious mysteries of our faith, the Incarnation. This text calls us to rise and follow God's call not knowing where the journey will take us or the path that God has set before us.

Let us Pray,

Gracious and Loving Lord Jesus,

We are truly thankful for the reality of You

God is truly With Us

May we be disciples, seeking to build our Faith

May we be grand leapers, in this very gift of Faith

A faith that You have established through Your Grace

May we come to appreciate the mystery of the God Bearer

Be in awe of how Your Holy Spirit has come to work in our very lives

May we always be grateful—

AMEN

December 18^th, 2016; 4^th Sunday of Advent; Year A; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon By: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins

Psalm 24; Isaiah 7:10-17; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25

The link below is from a special evening service at the Grace Hub's house church on Thursday December 15th, 2016, 7pm:
https://youtu.be/M9GMh04uiRk