"Morning Star Rising;" sermon for Sunday February 26th, 2017 by: Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins

When I started meditating upon the texts for this Sunday, I started hearing bits and pieces of a song by Sting called ‘Brand New Day.’ Mostly the lines from the refrain echoed God’s spiritual treatise upon us: “We're starting up a brand new day… “I'm thinking in a brand new way”... and the song concludes in saying: “Stand up and be counted”… “Stand up all you lovers in the world”… “We're starting up a brand new day.”

Perhaps this is another way to look at the culmination of the Beatitudes of Jesus teaching the disciples.  How could He have taught them a clear enough vision for what their work in the world would bring, once they adopt and incorporate all that Christ needs for them to DO?  Every New day is a challenge and a promise that the Spirit will guide us to truly live into being faithful witnesses, “DO’ers” of the Gospel!

Being a “DO’er” of the Gospel in the world takes a strong commitment to witness.  It is no easy task in actuality as well as spiritually.  When we do begin to, not only see, all that God needs for us to see, happening along our lives’ journeys; we begin to intentionally live into that New Way. This is living into every day, in a brand new, hopeful and blessed way… Just think how much we could begin to change?  Not only our hearts would transform but our lives would transfigure the face of the earth for the Glory of God through the New Natured fruits of our voices, hands and feet!

Poor St. Peter, Jesus nearly scared him to death, on that mountain side….  It was as if he was grasping for straws in thinking what on earth to say to Jesus, Elijah and Moses!  What an amazing thing to eyewitness! What a miraculous event to invite all the disciples into beginning their ministries around the art of witnessing. Most likely when we hear these texts this Sunday, they seem too fantastic to even begin to understand yet alone perhaps want to.  Why did Jesus need to reveal Himself this way to the disciples? How is He revealing Himself to us in the here and now?

Can we say today, we have moments of clarity, in vision, that is God’s manifest work in our lives? That has been a question floating in my mind during the arduous, but meditative task of packing.  The last time my husband and I moved, a friend who helped us move, counted something like 75 boxes of books to my library!  What each and every book, gathered to compose my library, truly means, are moments of learning—trial and error, memories of where I was, who I was then and who I am now—where God is leading….  My life as an artist and teacher takes one sizable chunk of this library as well as in the past decade of formation into ministry, belong most of the rest of my library.  I know once my husband and I make that amazing new journey into a new frontier and settle in… opening those boxes is going to feel like how Peter felt in the flash of a moment—the glory of God’s guiding presence and purpose unto you, revealed by opening each and every box!

Peter gives us something profound to spiritually chew on about our work as the Body, he says in his letter excerpt here: “¹⁹So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”  What he’s telling people here, is that he not only witnessed God literally at work in his life but knows the power of the Living Word of God as that motivation to encourage our work in the world as disciples of Jesus.  Encouraging our lives to take shape willingly and prayerfully to the Holy Spirit’s guidance in order to become those guiding lights to others.  Realizing God’s work in our very lives is like a bright star rising in our hearts—Epiphany.

We’ve used that term in creative ways—“having an epiphany.”  What does it really mean however beyond ourselves?—that should be the question building up the foundation of one’s faith journey.  I believe the way to begin is to look upon each New day as mentioned, at the beginning of this message, as starting something truly New.  Each and every day is a New beginning to some aspect of your life, God is needing to reveal to you.  The sense of Promise and Hope are glorious—they do, reveal the Glory of God.

Speaking of the beginning of days, I’m sure waking pre-dawn for most of us is a grueling effort especially when we don’t perhaps sleep too well the night before…  We wake up cussing or grumbling at the alarm clock asking it why it had to ring… We crack open a bloodied eye to turn on the local news and start the day.  Perhaps our Old Natured tendencies don’t wake up singing, “Good Morning Sunshine?” Perhaps our minds are just seeing the weight and burdens of the day ahead and feel as if nothing has really changed except for the days moving seemingly, aimlessly forward?  How depressing! That’s how the Evil One works upon us in the sense of causing us to stumble over pessimism, anxiety, fear, hopelessness, doubt…  Once the day is deadened by those layers of clouded thoughts… it’s hard to see God’s work, revealed, in the every day.

Just the other day, in providing spiritual care through Visiting Angels for the elderly man with advanced dementia; revealed God at work in a special moment between a father and a son.  The elderly man I have been caring for, is currently experiencing a new stage of feelings and memories.  The day before, apparently, his son found a photo album of pictures of the man from his childhood immigration from Sweden to America.  What this triggered for him was an elaborate dream which once he woke up, he felt as if he was still witnessing this very moment.  It is often called Sun-downing. Beyond the medical, technical terms of his affliction, he was also experiencing being down on his son.

Upon his waking and walking forward into this continued vision, he broke down and started sobbing looking for those lost.  For a moment, it was almost as if he was in panic wondering where the rest of his family was and if they were coming with. A few moments after this, it was as if he experienced a glimpse of reality and began to cry over the loss of his family, in the here and now— they were no longer really there for him, anymore. They, as well really couldn’t understanding what was happening to him….  It was very sad to witness. 

Once I calmed the elderly man down to a degree, I walked towards the son’s room, knocking on his door and told him that he should come out to comfort his father.  At first there was the rumblings of impatience, frustration and a moment of blurting out anger since he really didn’t know what his father was experiencing.  In some senses his vented anger was one of doubt and perhaps of fear.  Once he realized what he needed to do, why he was truly there, his whole attitude changed. Not only was he sorry for his release of emotions, but he felt affirmed in the clarity of the moment—this was God’s purpose revealed to him that he now must care for his father—he was truly home.

They say that if you dream a lot about homes or changing rooms, you’re really spiritually working on yourself.  The son, before his father began to require 24-7 supervision, was homeless.  His brothers and sister cajoled him to moving into care for his father at night alongside a ‘Visiting Angel’ by day.  For the past several weeks, I have witnessed their relationship change as well as how they’ve individually changed.  There’s that word—Witness. It is amazing how the human mind works.  For one moment you are grounded in a sense of self and then, God brings you beyond the self, to turn your heart down a glorious New path!  Father and son renewed—this could be likened to our renewal as God’s children and our formerly estranged relationship, now made right by the concrete reality of Christ Jesus’ Divine intervention in this world.

Jesus’ needs us to be witnesses to not only what the Living Word reveals, day by day, but how we are affected by it.  Whether you like it or not, you are in a constant flux of change.  The greatest change is the one needed in the heart—the heart creates faith by and for God’s Grace and is most profoundly lived in some form or another by our very reality—we “fleshy” humans, God’s creations struggling and defying, the very notion, of loving God and neighbor!

As said once in one of the Gospels, as to when the son of man will return, you will not know the day or hour… 2,000 something years may have gone by but it is hardly an eternity yet alone a reason to avoid the awesome, sovereign presence,  God with us, truly brings.  In this message, you have witnessed a lot of introspection and witness of faith…  Church is the building within us— the heart—that sanctuary home God needs us to grow from.  It may not be a mega-church, or a store front or a hotel meeting room, or a Sunday school room of another community…  It is your very self, making Christ Jesus’ Gospel known—being a friend to someone who you sense is hungering and thirsting for the Good News!  Bringing the Good News naturally from a heart that has transfigured itself beyond its capacity to LOVE.

It’s the little things, as it’s been said, that truly matter…  The other day, I was caring for my evening “granny.” Truth be told, she reminds me a lot of my own grandmother, shrinking in height and everything else.  I have been branching out in cooking more elaborate meals for her before I help her settle in for the night.  She turned to me and said: “why do you do this?  I don’t think anyone has ever done something so nice….”  I answered her in saying: “the Spirit led me to do it for you. Besides, I love cooking it’s fun!” No matter where you are, the very present, reveals God—He walks with you every step of the way. Like the sun rising breaking forth that New Day, the Son shines in our hearts—revealing an ever-transforming New Way!

Let us pray:

Gracious and Loving Lord Jesus

May we allow that morning star’s light

To start a New Day in our life of faith together as Your children of Grace and Promise

May we cast aside all layers of fear, doubt, sadness, pessimism and so forth…

To have that spiritual epiphany to be and become your great shining stars, witnesses to Your Gospel

Living Your Word for Your glory and our regeneration.  AMEN

February 26th, 2017; Transfiguration Sunday; Year A; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon By Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins

Psalm 2:6-12; Exodus 24:8-18;  2 Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9

This sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub's 8am service:
https://youtu.be/dKMf24ucyXg

"Reigning Grace;" Sermon for Sunday February 19th, 2017 by: Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins

Holiness, piety, responding to God is a uniquely personal journey.  It has been said that when you are holy, you are true to your purpose.  When do we truly know when our purpose is defined to where God needs us to be? These are tough questions but Jesus in this week’s excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount has us turn face that mirror (of the Law) and basically stare down upon our humanity (warts and all…).  He is basically teaching the disciples about building upon that foundation of faith—“walking the talk,” living faith as authentically real as possible, as we are capable. Capacity and willingness as discerned by a changed heart to God, is the key goal and our struggle.

Faith is a touchy thing though….  What do I mean by that? It is personal yet Jesus radically invites and challenges us to share it beyond ourselves, beyond our “rational” capacity to be children of Grace and Promise, with the world. It is here, that I believe promise is something we so definitely, spiritually cling to as a means of understanding how God would like us to respond through Grace. Perhaps the Beatles said it best: “All you need is love…”  Jesus says this too in one way or another but when He challenges us to incorporate it into our faith in action, (doing the Do’s of the Gospel), it becomes too much for us to handle spiritually and otherwise.  This is our daily battle.

The other night I was caring for an elderly woman, I regularly care for Wednesday through Friday evenings from 5:30-7:30pm.  She’s delightful, reminds me of my grandmother, God rest her soul.  When I came in the other night, she was well engrossed into another one of those Turner Movie Channel classic films.  This evening, it was the story of Our Lady of Fatima from 1952.  Outside of all the markings of a stereotypical 1950’s Hollywood perspective of religious stories, it was interesting what it had to impart in a rather overtly simplistic way.  Three young children shepherding sheep wander off to a cove on a hill and have a supernatural encounter with Mary, the Mother of our Lord.  The film dances back and forth with the secular, oppressive government leaders and townspeople persecuting these poor children to recant what they experienced…  But they could not and they would not.

They could not recant what they were so convicted by, since it was the truth, it was their faith.  It goes beyond witness and becomes a matter of when you must take a stand in what you know is right to Do (because God’s grace leads you there).  That’s what these children chose to do!  Children—the irony of what we all so conveniently forget about ourselves, spiritually.  We will always be God’s children with that ‘Imago Dei’ imprinted upon the heart by the Cross of Christ! Knowing and doing what is right, however, is that nebulous area of our faith journey, Christ is challenging us to think about this week.  These children were just a sample out of the multitude of the centuries of disciples who did indeed, lay down their life for the sake of the Gospel.

That’s the one thing that was amazing and profound to think about during those long, arduous early church history studies when I was in seminary…  Look at how the martyrs and pioneers persevered, suffered and sacrificed their very selves to carry on the cause of Christ!  Even where we are now as the quote “post-modern” church, how far would Christianity have come if it did not have this powerful cloud of witnesses, loyal priesthood of dedicated believers?  This is something we should not take for granted but be grateful for!

The film had a happy “G-rated” ending where the townspeople and the “villainous” government figure heads witness the miraculous appearance of the talking cloud of Mary, magnified sun and the dried up rain—which exonerated the children from imprisonment and peril… The young girl or lead character in the film carried through her witnessing and in essence her ongoing ministry, by helping the country to establish a shrine on the spot of where these supernatural experiences occurred.

In the face of conflict, she basically DID what Jesus is teaching the disciples to DO in this week’s Gospel: She did not resist the evildoers… and she DID indeed go the extra mile, fighting seemingly perilous odds and she DID indeed pray for her enemies—those seeking to persecute her and her cousins.  Her resistance was built upon a firm foundation of FAITH. Her life’s witness exampled and incorporated love, this was apparent.  Her faith story both won over her enemies, the entire town and her family, as well as converted them bringing peace and unity.

The innocent humility of these children connected for me in contrast to St. Paul’s challenge with his wayward Corinthians. The Corinthians became wrapped up in a self-concerned pride, puffed up with a worldly wisdom, which in turn became a problem for their spiritual foundation building as a people of faith.  The temple of the heart—that first church where God works, was getting rattled and conflicted by the ways of the world.  You have probably heard on occasion, of the saying—having your heart in the right place… This is exactly what Christ and St. Paul are teaching us this week.

Striving towards a right relationship with God goes back to that “Golden Rule” of Love the Lord Your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength as well as love your neighbor as yourself.  This Golden rule is transformed and brought to New life through Christ who indeed, helps us to see what “perfection” is to God and it does not relate to this world well at all…  It is too radical and seemingly foolish to our humanity. The Kingdom of God and its’ call upon us to adopt “Kingdom-thinking,” is a radical call to believe, receive, incorporate and share God’s Grace through the fruit of our hearts humbly and spiritually shaped by this first ‘Law.’  Faith is a process, calling, commitment and a journey that is to most beautifully play out through the stories of our lives well lived, travelled with the Holy Spirit as our guide.

One of the first thoughts that popped into my mind when thinking about God and the notion or understanding of “perfection” comes from the creation story. Adam and Eve were in essence, to be the ‘good and perfect’ creations of God, made in the image of God. Well, we know what happened next… which the ironic aspect of that is captured further for me by, of all things, a Far side cartoon depicting God accidently dropping and breaking the specimen jar of humans to the earth saying oh oh! All humor aside, we are and will always be in tension with the Old Adam and Eve—Old Nature aspects of the self that Satan uses to tempt us to justify and commit sin.

Jesus lays it right out there in saying that vindictiveness, retribution—an eye for an eye, as a form of self-righteous wisdom is sinful, period. But our human nature or Old Nature, in contrast to the New Nature, that Christ implanted in our hearts by Grace to reap, seems so natural, logical a choice for us to jump to.  One of the funny elements of the film I saw with the elderly woman the other night, included a scene where the stoic faithful children, in the midst of the “villains” interrogation, were being bribed with candy and gifts to recant their faith—to which of course, they did not.  Another image here is picturing on one shoulder a demon telling you what to do and on the other shoulder, is an angel guiding and leading you to DO the right thing.

Sometimes though, doesn’t it seem like the angel who’s supposed to be on the other shoulder, is stuck in traffic coming down from heaven to talk to us and the devil wins over our seeming logic to DO what “feels the best” for ourselves? I believe this comes from another cartoon that I can’t recall at the moment… but in humor, we see our folly here don’t we?  By living into doing what’s best for the self, in no way considers God or neighbor at all—in fact, it is a turning away from God, period.

One of the earliest Biblical concepts I came to learn and still find profound, is the concept of a heart turned to God.  This is just another understanding of spiritual transformation—faith formation.  Turning the heart—that temple where God first works through, into a solid foundation—GROUND to build the engine for the New Creation—the New Adam, the New Eve, as exampled by Christ. The Cross of Christ we must remember, as well, is the cornerstone to this very foundation, this very engine!  Once that engine is built, we are called to maintain and build it up through—prayer, generosity, compassion, forgiveness, kindness and so forth, lived graciously and responsibly through our hands and feet as the Body, in the world, but not to be of it.

The lead young girl in the movie, was told early on by the vision in the cloud of Mary to GO forth and spread the Gospel, commit her life to the cause of Christ.  She DID just that, the calling never left her, it was never tempted enough away from her, to turn away…  Here’s some thoughts to meditate upon for this coming week:  What does the Gospel call you to commit to?  What does love God and neighbor mean to us today?  Are we holding fast to persevering Promise—building upon that foundation of faith by living Grace or is it becoming a fading relic to our own agendas, ways of the world?

Let us Pray,

Gracious and Loving Lord Jesus,

Help us to see Your reigning Grace

As that radical wisdom we must believe, receive, incorporate and share

Out of our Love for You and our neighbor

Teach us to realize Promise and be grateful, responsible children

Answering the call and command upon our hearts to follow You as Your disciples

We ask this through Your most precious Name—AMEN

February 19th, 2017; Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany; Year A; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon By: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins

Psalm 119:33-40; Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18;  1 Corinthians 3:10-23; Matthew 5:38-48

Below is a link to this sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub's 8am service.
https://youtu.be/cPTZLashR9w

An Inconvenient Truth; Sermon for Sunday February 12th, 2017 By: Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins

Today’s Gospel has Jesus teaching the disciples about the heart and the conscience before God.  In essence, He most profoundly exposes the Law as both a necessity (That mirror) and it’s loopholes that the Evil One works upon to have us stumble.  I believe that Jesus is calling us to reconciliation, acceptance and accountability as His disciples. This seems to be the strongest theme coming through today’s Gospel.  We strive willingly towards this goal as we journey in growth as His children of Grace and promise.

 As I read these wonderful teachings of Jesus, from the Sermon on the Mount, once again my heart is reminded and troubled where the world has been going these days. Perhaps it started as early as the beginning of the week taking the elderly man I have been providing spiritual care for, through Visiting Angels, to the daily 11am Roman Catholic Mass, he regularly likes to attend.  The priest there, actually really gives good “mini-messages.”  This particular week, he preached on Genesis and the creation story.  The Catholics have, for the most part, a completely different lectionary than what the majority of Protestants follow.  What struck a spiritual cord for me in his message was the thought that we have utilized culture to not only change our identity (needing faith, etc.) but to in essence begin to erase the image of God from our spiritual awareness.

Awareness is a key concept here—for we are all too aware, way too often of that microcosm the Ego forms around the self…  The Old Nature loves the comfy, self-justifying, self-righteous cocoon that the Ego (with Satan’s help) builds. Which when I was meditating around some of the Old Testament Commandments, Laws some of which Jesus was carefully going through—I saw three key things: Reconciliation, Acceptance and Accountability.

Each one of these concepts are beautiful and radical goals that are dependent upon owning up to the reality of Spiritual Formation.  One of the things I greatly enjoyed when I had transferred to finish my seminary studies at an Evangelical school, was that they most certainly taught how to incorporate, reflect and share not just Biblical truths but Spiritual Formation truths on how we are to “develop” as disciples of Jesus. Today’s texts seem to speak to the notion of: Do you have the right stuff?  Do you have what it takes?  In fact, each and every pastoral care and ministry related practicum courses I had at TEDS, focused upon what has been diminished and nearly lost: Our spiritual reality!    

Having recently served as a Spiritual Formation pastor to a pair of successful church plants, let me tell you, it IS very important.  If you indeed ARE, being led and fed by your pastoral guide in a given congregation, you truly LIVE into naturally reaping the New Nature. This is that New Creation planted within you by the Grace of Christ.  You naturally begin to bear gracious fruit—that slowly and surely centers in service beyond the self, and is prayerfully, most powerfully delivered as Love to both God and neighbor. This is the righteousness and justice God seeks from us.  It is an altruistic, “works in progress,” it is a transformed heart—made pure by the Holy Spirit shaping you spiritually to say YES to God!

Reconciliation is one of those beautiful fruits born out of this intentional, inner motivation to Know Jesus, Know Peace.  You heard me mention this a sermon or two ago—Know Jesus, Know Peace and No Jesus, No Peace.  It takes two to tango as the saying goes and perhaps we’re more often challenged to the point of sitting back like Michelangelo’s David with his finger apathetically reaching to touch the tip of God’s finger…  It is in those areas of challenge that we have developed, patented, homogenized and justified convenient loopholes in the natural “Law” and Gospel that Christ call to us to be accountable to.

One such “inconvenient” truth is a word, a word that I have prayerfully come to spiritually despise—Tolerance. "Tolerance" is nothing more than a spiritual loophole and an empty, worldly promise.  Basically it does and says two things—I am “conditional” around the ego and its justification, its own Gospel alone, as well as I am not willing to even strive towards working, growing, learning how to incorporate, reflect, confess and share acceptance as a means of Grace to create peace, forgive and work together!  In fact it is a word that rejects God’s will to strive for peace and merely justifies the heart to willfully protest and condemn what it sees fit for the sake of the self, not God or neighbor. But then these are one of those scary, radical concepts coming from the Beatitudes of Jesus that perhaps our humanity just can’t handle or won’t handle!

The word Justice has suffered being “spiritually battered,” as well, since we more often than not, use it as a political tool to social constructs and self-oriented agendas. The kind of Justice that both Jesus and St. Paul illustrate in this week’s Epiphany texts is to CHOOSE the New Life path lying in wait before us all as God’s children of Grace and promise. The New Nature given to us by the sacrifice and offering of Christ on our behalf, is the ‘Genesis’ of the Kingdom of God within us to bear! It is life abundant—a gift of Grace and the promise of God’s Kingdom.  It is an image of God upon our souls to look upon, take in willingly and share—being a blessing to others, because you yourself, have realized at moments on your journey that God has not only BEEN there with you, but has blessed you.  He has blessed you through many things, little things daily—these are the mysteries of our faith, our life together as His disciples.

When Jesus discusses some of the commandments and the sources of sin, I think it is interesting how He basically talks about the spiritual surgery we need to do to cut it out of our lives.  I immediately thought of wonderful Cursillo song called: ‘Here’s my life, I lay it on the Altar…’  It’s truly an oldie, penned one year before I was born!  Google however was not successful in finding its lyrics but from what I little I remember, they were profound and carried on the whole of teaching, the Sermon on the Mount was to impart to us. Here is my life (& all Old Natured ways) given up to You, God.  I lay it on the altar as a spiritual sacrifice in order to grow—transform.  That very first Cursillo I made, in 2003, is where I heard this Gospel hymn.  I don’t really remember any of its words but I do remember how it moved my heart to say YES to God!

Isn’t that a funny thing?  Ok, so you don’t remember hardly any of the verses at all… but the moment—a time with God in worship and reflection left a profound imprint upon you, motivating you to persevere through your faith journey. The Gospel of Jesus sometimes does and doesn’t use words but like that other popular church wide statement goes—never put a period where God has placed a comma.  So, are our lives more or less like long, run-on sentences?  It depends on what you’re “running-on.” Do you feel your faith is moving forward, if not, what is really the cause?  Are we gazing into that spiritual mirror of the Law, but perhaps not really seeing what’s actually there?

Being, living as a disciple of Jesus is complex stuff.  We make it even more complicated when we internally battle with the image of God imprinted on our souls as His children and the image of the world that the Evil One tempts us to build upon. That exactly was a part of the many dysfunctions, at the Corinthian church St. Paul had to mediate and instruct upon as their pastor.  Getting that kind of humility that St. Paul preaches and teaches upon, not just to the Corinthians, but to many of the churches he was encouraging, takes reconciliation and being, becoming prayerfully accountable.

Forgiveness and Accountability are the spiritual Brussel sprouts our worldly selves shrink from.  Ok, I’m sure someone out there just LOVES Brussel Sprouts, I’m sorry but I guess, speaking for myself, no amount of butter, bacon or spirits are going to improve the taste for me! To build upon, grow that ever-slowly transforming heart dedicated—laid at the Altar of God… We must prayerfully seek to reconcile.  It is a beautiful thing, to reconcile within the soul—where it first, should begin—is finding and building upon an inner peace.  I have laid aside the Old Nature—it’s on-going, this is true, but I am striving to reap, the New Nature! This is the heart saying YES to God by confessing our natural problem—we are both saint and sinner.  This is our tension, our challenge that we continue to do battle with.

Reconciling ourselves to God yet alone reaching out in love to reconcile with neighbor is divine Justice.  It is truly making right with God in the heart and truly serving neighbor in a prayerfully accountable way that imparts the truth of the Gospel: LOVE.  The kind of Justice God seeks for us to reflect upon, incorporate, share and renew from is all New Nature stuff.  It is living a cross-shaped life built by faith through the Grace of God to be gracious children. What you do in this life needs to come from a genuine awareness of self, growing from the New Nature being reaped—this is what Jesus keeps grating upon when He mentions Gehenna. Gehenna is an understanding of hell—a graceless wilderness, filled with empty promises, lacking in missional purpose.  As mentioned before, living a life curved inward bears no fruit.

Instead of laying the treatise of Christ aside and merely “tolerating” what He needs us to own up on—how about accepting His challenge, willingly, prayerfully and most beautifully? It is an inconvenient truth to what the Gospel is calling for us to DO and BE but this is the reality of the Kingdom of God.

Let us Pray,

Gracious and Loving Lord Jesus,

Every day You teach our hearts beautiful things

We must lay aside our willfulness and self-seeking tendencies

If we are to become a people of Peace with a purpose grounded in Love

May we daily strive to become a people of reconciliation, acceptance and accountability

You have poured out upon us grace upon grace—an indelible image of You

To be incorporated within our very selves

May we thank You Lord for each and every day—AMEN 

February 12th, 2017; Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany; Year A; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon By: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins

Psalm 119:1-8; Deuteronomy 30:15-20; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5:21-37

Below is a link to this sermon's delivery at the 5pm Grace Hub's service
https://youtu.be/Zq7KLUQ4RsA