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It’s hard to imagine but it took something like 500 years
for the Roman Catholic church to come to realize an ecumenical accord with the
Protestant movement upon the very concept of justification by Grace through
faith. Four simple enough sounding words,
but how do we understand that today?
Where do we stand as Christians in the 21st century, within
this post-modern, dare we say, “post-Christian” world? The past two Sundays we
have been introduced to thinking about Jesus’ commission to us and how we
should take heed to the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives for the Gospel. This week has us define the difference and
the path between naturally responding to God through a gracious faith and that
ugly misunderstanding of response being, “works righteousness.”
Today’s extended snippet from Paul’s amazing letter to
the Romans clearly helps us to see, what he even mentions two chapters earlier,
to keep us in perspective: “There is no distinction… we all at one time or
another, have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God…” This not only helps us to see that we are
called by God to live faithfully into His Grace, but we are called to live into
that aspect of promise as God’s gracious children. The Israelites in today’s reading from Exodus
are not only witness to God’s covenant with them to be His “chosen” elect
people, but they are called to be obedient to this covenant as well.
How we are called into discipleship today, is living into
being, becoming a freely responsible servant to Christ as a constant spiritual,
life-long process of reflection, confession, repentance and renewal. What is this?
If you think about the Words of Jesus you just heard from today’s Gospel,
it is an ordering or discipline of responding graciously through faith,
naturally. It sounds like Jesus is
giving the disciples a “how-to guide” on evangelism but it is much more than
that. It is a way of life—not only in
loving service and sharing of the Gospel but while this continues, it does
renew the giver and those who receive:
Blessed to be a Blessing to others, out of love for God and neighbor—Amen!
This past week it was delightful to talk with several
people about outreach ministries in various settings. This was in attending an
Ultreya this past Sunday for the Light in the Desert Via De Cristo Cursillo
Community, and the other was in attending my first meeting of the Clark County
Ministerial Association. One of the ministries I have come to hear often of,
was your former food pantry. It wasn’t
just something my pastoral heart heard in the fond recollections of those I
talked to, but this connected with what Jesus says about seeking the lost sheep
of His pasture…
Weekly the church office phone gets calls not only from
other churches asking about our former pantry but far too many calls from
desperate individuals sobbing and pleading for help. Many of these people are
suffering from addiction issues, financial woes and often both an actual, and
spiritual hunger… I have spent some time talking with these individuals, being
that prayerful ear, in order to help them to find peace. For what the Grace of
God has freed my heart to ‘feel’ for my neighbor… I cannot help but share! This is the Holy Spirit—right there at work
within me! Creating a response from my
first church (the heart) to reflect, confess Jesus is my Lord and savior, and
repent or grow from my mistakes on my faith journey to be prayerfully,
naturally motivated to inner peace, renewal in my soul to serve.
The Protestant Reformation found the words of St. Paul’s
treatise on justification explosive to freeing the Gospel from empty accolades
of service being righteousness fulfilled by a willful agenda to elevate the
self to God. Being and truly living into
this freedom of Grace through faith refocuses us on what justice really
means. Restorative Justice is something
not implemented much in this current culture, for it is not “cost-effective”
for the parameters of the world, to choose to do… What’s really sad about that though, is that
implementing anything else, doesn’t truly and fully look at how we should love
neighbor… in fact, more often than not, the neighbor falls between the cracks
of our greed and indifference.
It bears to share here that greed and indifference are
the ultimate substructure to what we have come to understand as creating “sin”
active in the world, we share. In the many writings of St. Paul we could say
that the Old Nature or our human instinctual, “ego-bound selves” gravitate
naturally to some form or another of greediness. Indifference is the consequence of the world
revolving around the self and its justification over and above that of
God’s. Going back to that Biblical Old
Testament covenant with God, made through Moses for the people of Israel, God,
our loving parent is seeking for us to turn our hearts and lives, to His will,
not ours. That call to selflessness or
compassion for the other is still really hard stuff. It is especially hard in a “post-modern”
world where perhaps the boundaries between individual autonomy and idolatry
have become blurred. Just who are the real wolves and who are the real sheep?
Being a 21st century Christian needs us to
daily go back to that source of New Life—Christ. It was through Christ, we were restored to
God… This restoration is what we need to
stay encouraged by and live into this hopefulness. I can say that every time I answer the
church’s phone or respond to messages and inquiries from people online seeking
counseling or other aid—I am even more encouraged for our work together on
behalf of God and neighbor! I am truly
encouraged by the Holy Spirit’s vision bubbling forth the motivation to realize
the potential possibilities for a new space in the coming year and to revive
our once active ministries, such as our food pantry.
I am seeing the Holy Spirit lay that foundation of not
only where we stand but where we individually stand as disciples of
Christ—those children of Grace and Promise. We were “elected” but definitely,
not in an exclusionary sense of the word at all. We have been chosen, commissioned and sent forth
to live into a much greater purpose, mission for our lives. This may take shape
and transform over the years. Some
things may be lost, while others will be found!
Some things will be planted, while others may be seemingly
uprooted… Every day is a new
beginning. It’s ending should burgeon
hope, as Christ is our hope and our reason above it all!
I’d like to leave you with the story of a missionary
pastor who not only revived an existing congregation but incorporated into it,
a mission start community. The church he
would come to revive is another “First Congregation.” This church is where I would do my multi-cultural
field education at when I was in seminary, First and Santa Cruz Lutheran
Church. The pastor there was formerly a
long-time pastor serving in a really, rough urban area on the west side of
Chicago. You could say that he was
basically situated within the “frontier” of lost sheep. What was amazing and impressive for me to
learn from him was that he realized he had to adapt to the area being that he
took on learning Spanish fluently. This would be, in order to, reach out to
those around his church at a much greater level. After about 20 years of service there, he
decided he wanted to take on “mission-start” church planting and help struggling
churches. So, he was sent to plant Santa
Cruz in Joliet, Illinois and eventually brought that ministry into First
Lutheran church.
Some 13 years later, this congregation is thriving
because of its outreach. Their food
pantry, the Blessing Bench, previously secured federal funding to operate as a
recognized significant ministry to the downtown Joliet area. One of the joys I had, in serving in study
there, was volunteering at that pantry.
They would get so busy that now they have two police officers regularly
assisting on helping the crowds remain orderly while they wait to be served by
the pantry. The volume of people they
would serve would be well over 200, each and every Wednesday… That, I think is amazing. They are by no means a large church, but
their efforts into what they do are fueled by faith and truly bring God’s love
into the world!
The bigger picture, that I hope this message is painting
in for you today, is that in realizing where we stand as a people of faith,
individually and corporately, ministry is the “work” of the Gospel together, as
God’s children of Grace and Promise. It
is going to have its challenges, but through Christ we are called to overcome
them. We are called to live beyond
ourselves and live into the promise of loving God and neighbor. We couldn't even fathom that, if Christ
hadn’t saved us…
Let us Pray,
Gracious and Loving Lord Jesus,
It is on your account, we have been freed
We have been freed by a Grace that calls us
To faithfully respond
A faith that continues to encourage us to live into the
Truth
A truth that continues to shape us by Your Word, Mission
and Will
For our lives, now and always—
AMEN
June 18th,
2017; 2nd Sunday of Pentecost; Year A; Proper 6
Sermon by:
Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 100;
Exodus 19:2-8; Romans 5:1-15 & Matthew
9:35-10:8(9-20)
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at First Congregational Church, 9:30am:
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