"Stumbling Into Grace;" Sermon for January 29th, 2017 by: Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins

¹If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from Love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy…. Why then, can’t we make God’s Joy complete? Luther said that the Beatitudes are more or less an impossible ideal for our humanity to spiritually incorporate God’s Grace, yet alone, share in the manner that it radically calls us to do! It radically calls us to acceptance, compassion, forgiveness, love, kindness, etc.! But then, all those virtues, ideals, blessings to be heard through the ears of the heart, are perhaps looked upon as foolishness to our crumbling civility and self-righteous “wisdom…”

Leading a cross-shaped life in the loving, transformative shadow of the cross with its treatise upon humanity to grow and go with the Gospel, takes building that foundation of faith through the heart’s reception of Grace.  The heart is that first church—again, even there, Martin Luther agreed with what I saw before I even read his view about the Sermon on the Mount… We should evaluate things on the basis of the heart.  Here, is where the Holy Spirit stirs our learning and growth as disciples of Jesus to ‘Kingdom-thinking,’ righteousness.  The purity of heart created from allowing the Holy Spirit to teach us gives us, blesses us with that divine humility that lays that foundation our faith is to truly grow from.

As you heard in the beginning of this sermon, I quoted the very first line from Philippians 2.  Every single time I have preached and pondered upon the Beatitudes, my heart hears, actually, most of that chapter in Philippians 2, detailing Christ’s example and humility which was that spark to an amazing Grace, a boundless grace— we still have yet to fully understand. Perhaps one of the best suggestions out of my studying this past week said, that perhaps, the most ideal way to look at the Beatitudes would be to simply, and in an unencumbered manner, read them, taking them in, on first reception to what they are saying.  I would say that you need to do that as well as look at them through the many lens humanity has sought to come to understand God… The most important lens to look through however, must be, beyond the self.

The pure promise of the Gospel is that New Nature waiting within the walls of our heart planted by the Grace of Christ to be reaped!  It sure won’t be reaped by narcissism, “tolerance,” animosity, indifference, greed and self-righteousness. That was the one thing that was a sad realization as I read the Beatitudes again and in that first simple reading as that one commentator suggested…  For every Beatitude I read, I saw little vignettes of where we are as a society, culture, in the world news, national news and local news, I saw the darkness, the graceless attitude, sin—revealed.  For nearly every Beatitude, we are living into a reality that is quite the opposite of where God is hoping for us to be.  We are neither “happy” nor blessed to be a blessing to others.  We are divisive and judgmental ready to persecute and condemn our neighbor.

We are certainly not spiritually humble but are more or less, intellectually arrogant and self-righteous about nearly every facet of our daily lives! A life lived curved inward cannot bear the fruit of the Gospel Jesus called us to do! What we are “poor” in is, spiritually, in regards to our faith.  We are poverty stricken in developing the heart to incorporate God’s grace and live into it through our faith! Humility is a blessing, not a curse, for we see even, our Lord Jesus, in that beautiful letter of St. Paul to the Philippians, give an example of a “perfect” humility.

Perfection has been distorted by the ego—when the ego is stripped bare, however, and crucified to that cross with Christ—we see the pure wisdom of God: GRACE.  At least, if not, a glimpse of it!  Perfection as far as the Gospel is concerned, is our first stumbling into, or perhaps over, Grace. What you’re hearing proclaimed from my lips are the notes, the silvering to that mirror of the Law set before us to expose and convict us of our sins much like the literal voice of God complaining to His people in the “courtroom-like” setting in today’s Old Testament lesson from Micah.  Christ as the end of the law reveals His Gospel of transformation as a radical internal change of heart through Grace to give voice, hands and feet to love.  Believe—receive, incorporate and share! 

The pastor I studied under, interned and helped to plant 2 churches alongside, taught that beautiful spiritual understanding of the process of growing, learning through faith.  First you must believe, receiving God’s Grace fully into your heart—incorporating that further by turning, transforming your heart to God and reaping that New Creation within you planted by Christ ,to fully love Him and neighbor, by bearing gracious fruit: Love, Kindness, Mercy, Compassion, acceptance, patience, etc.  The Beatitudes are not a Christian ethics class, neither are they to be simplified into being the New Testament commandments; they are blessedness to grow towards, period.

Can you imagine sitting on that mount or plain, as mentioned in the Gospel of Luke, and hearing this teaching sermon from Jesus?  What would go through your mind at the hearing of each verse we now, know all too well as classic Christianity? Jesus continues in saying: “⁵“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Who are the meek and mild?  What does that even mean to us today in this “overly-arrived” mindset? Well, it certainly doesn’t mean the status quo.  It certainly doesn’t mean anarchy, ambivalence or malice and “tolerance.”  It is a spiritual discipline designed to curb the heart to adopting a gracious attitude.  This “attitude of gratitude” is a prayerful, faith-filled response to the turbulence—trials this worldly life throws at us daily….

I think of that beautiful passage from Isaiah 50, when I think of this beatitude: “⁴The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning He wakens— wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. ⁵The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward. ⁶I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. ⁷The Lord God helps me…”  This speaks towards the suffering aspect of the disciple’s journey as well to how Jesus’ finishes His ordination address to the disciples within the Beatitudes.  For it is faith that is shaped by our willingness, our fortitude—more or less our “attitude of gratitude”—Be(ing)-the-Attitude (of Grace)!

Now here’s a Beatitude we are surely stumbling over currently… “⁶“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Just what kind of righteousness is Jesus talking about here? The Old Nature perspective of the world and our “wisdom,” always has us go into some form of self-righteousness and or works righteousness.  We just can’t seem to go beyond the self when wondering, trying to act through our understanding of righteousness! We are more often, than not, hungering and thirsting to cater to ill will and violence against neighbor.  We are more willing to pack up and leave, disconnect with the rest of the world into our own self-righteous (graceless) wilderness!

To come to the table of true righteousness, that only God can reveal and we grow from, takes these next two Beatitudes as a faith-filled incorporation of Grace: “⁷“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. ⁸“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Mercy is compassion and forgiveness and are the fruit of a heart that is obedient to washing away any temptations Satan plugs in there that appeal to our “wisdom” and discernment over and above God’s. Greed and indifference I have come to understand through my own spiritual formation journey, are the two greatest systemic sins to which a lot of ugly, withering fruit of the world is born. These are everything from narcissism, idolatry, bigotry, racism, politicking and all forms of divisive judgments and pronouncements, we levee against one another in the “guise” of “Justice.”

The closing Beatitudes of Jesus speak about peace—living it, making it and dealing with persecution.  He said these not just for the disciples gathered on that mount, but He reveals a profound truth, reality to what we can expect the Kingdom of God to truly be, once we take His teachings here, seriously.  This profound truth is a heart, soul and landscape in harmony with God and the whole of creation—an unfathomable peace! This peace follows that wonderful meme: Know Jesus, Know Peace.  For as we know—when we live unto ourselves—curved inward in a self-justifying reality—there is No Jesus and No real peace.  There is death, destruction, anarchy, divisiveness, politicking and a myriad of other evils Satan is using to tear down the foundation of the Kingdom!

Being a Christian in this day and age is going to put you into those shoes of Isaiah 50.  Being a Christian who truly believes, receives, incorporates and shares—living and blessed to be a blessing to others will have other pull at you, labeling you with their politics, and other “tolerant” judgments… Being a Christian today, takes a brave but gentle heart—built by LOVE!  At the very beginning of my journey was a pastor who truly lived into kindness and more or less harbored a beautiful attitude.  It had nothing to do with beauty as we understand it, but where his faith shined literally through everything he did and said.  As a brother in Christ, I could actually say that I loved him for his attitude alone.  Isn’t this, what it’s all supposed to be about?

Let Us Pray,

Ever Gracious Teacher are You, Lord Jesus

You continue to encourage and love us

Even when we act through our foolish wisdom

Your Beatitudes are a challenge for us

But we must be ready and willing to grow

If not out of Love for You, Love and compassion for one another

To KNOW YOU and KNOW PEACE!

To Thine always be the Grace and Glory—AMEN

January 29th 2017; Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany; Year A; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon By: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins

Psalm 15; Micah 6:1-8;  1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Matthew 5:1-12

Below is the link to this sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub's 8am service:
https://youtu.be/LyYd7Alv32o