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It’s in the smallest things they say. Could be, but a moment in time. When you are at peace with a purring cat
resting by your side or watching an infant taking its first few steps… Those are moments, out of millions of moments,
where we wonder in our heart of hearts—is this a glimpse into the Kingdom of
God? Is this what joy truly is? Jesus
leaves us with a lot of introspective questioning this week. What is the Kingdom of Heaven, truly? Are we “predestined” by God to find His Kingdom
or are we in the midst of a spiritual wilderness whereas St. Paul says in
today’s snippet from Romans—the Love of God is what keeps us truly alive and
moving forward! We have to be careful with loaded words like predestination or
justification; they have been gravely misunderstood theologically in how God’s
loving Grace reigns over our lives.
Sometimes, it is more than easy to be lost or stuck
between those spiritual steps, as a growing disciple of Jesus. Satan helps us to stumble and fall into a
wilderness of wondering, feeling hopeless at times and disparaging about why
things are the way they are today. God doesn’t predestine failure, does
He? God doesn’t predestine sin? Again, as with last week’s message, we have
ourselves confronting the murky paradox and problem of evil, and truly, the
problem of humanity’s willfulness. When we think, we are striving for
righteousness at times, we become what Jesus cautions us against—judge, jury
and self-righteous. But then, there were
so many things that Jesus said, that we just can’t deal with. You would think, that someone talking about
love, peace, the treasure of God’s sovereignty over us would be welcome… As we know, the cross became our answer as
well as it became our point of salvation and return.
Last night, Phil & I watched a new TV series show
called ‘Salvation.’ It is another of
those— “end of the world type TV series” where scientists and the government
are working feverishly to create the perfect weapon to take out the giant
asteroid coming straight for earth. Of
course, there are two groups of scientists and government officials, where one
group’s plan is to immediately fire one weapon into it, where it will break up
into pieces, but still kill millions of people in Russia and central Asia. The other group can’t seem to get their act
together quick enough to use a relatively untested prototype weapon to
completely destroy the asteroid with no loss of life. At the end of the
episode, the cliff hanger was that the second group resorts to sabotaging the
first group’s launch… Can you hear the struggle? One side, is in a hurry and is justifying
indifference to the grave consequences, it will have towards their neighbors.
The other side wants to save everyone.
It is fairly predictable, but why do we even have TV series like this in
the first place?
Beyond the elements of our human struggle between good
and evil—how do we approach truly taking those Kingdom steps Jesus and St. Paul
are trying to teach us about this week in discipleship school? The power of
God’s love, I think at times, we aren’t fully aware of, and when we have
moments like that, we are amazed at how love truly disarms and creates that
Kingdom step forward into the spark, mustard seed of Joy, that is a treasure
from God! Just the other day, I was counseling a colleague of mine, where they
were sharing how their life was dragging them down, and his perspective on
where he was going was getting rather heated and ugly, since he was despairing,
wanted quick answers with little to no consequences. Right in the midst, of that conversation, I
had someone call the church phone, they needed someone to talk to about God and
their struggling faith. The passion in
their voice to find God was beautiful to hear.
This seeking person arrested the railing anger and despair that I was subjected
to, in counseling, with this colleague of mine.
Like night and day are our emotions, when it comes to
realizing where we are on our faith journeys. The very first verse from St.
Paul’s snippet from Romans this week says so much about trust and confidence in
God’s guidance in many forms, ways in our lives: “28We know that all
things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according
to his purpose.” Faith in God is growing to love life, to live your life,
through utilizing love as that arresting passion to all evil’s divisiveness. This
is what creates that spiritual treasure, in the heart, of Joy—which is “Kingdom
thinking!” “Kingdom thinking,” is
actually an understanding coming from our Evangelical brothers and sisters. An
aspect of how they see God’s Word as living and transformative is quite
powerful Biblically and spiritually to contemplate. We need to be more open-minded spiritual learners
as well as leaders for the sake of the Gospel.
Speaking for myself, I have learned many wonderful things seeing both
extremes in thought or philosophy of faith from differing Christian groups.
A part of those
Kingdom steps for my life, have been growing in a diverse spiritual environment
that had me see our world from a greater perspective. This is what God is calling us all to. He wants us to grow beyond ourselves to see
the world’s potential, to not only grow from humble beginnings, but grow
spiritually towards His greatest destination for us—heaven. He wants to see us
arrest anger and despair with going up to someone and giving them a hug. He wants us to smile and hold back tears
towards those who are railing against us. He wants to have us love our neighbor,
not be “tolerant” of them. Our hearts
have to be open to Jesus’ teachings, no matter how radical and perplexing they
are against our human nature’s inclinations.
Remember, that human nature is our old nature—the place of ourselves,
God truly needs to have us transform away from like the Chrysalis into the
butterfly. We are to reap that New
Nature, His grace gave our hearts to live for.
God needs us to
cry, not bitter tears at where the world is today, but hope-filled tears that
baptize the soul into fully committing to God’s Will and purposes for our
lives. As Reformer Martin Luther once said, regarding, this week’s passage from
Romans: “Faith is a living, unshakeable confidence in God’s Grace; it is so
certain, that someone would die a thousand times for it.” That treasure hidden in a field, that pearl
of great price, is realizing those “Kingdom steps” on your own journey. When you send a kind letter to someone you
haven’t talked to in a while. When you are naturally driven to compassion in
hearing about the plight of others and so on, and so forth. Those are those
Kingdom moments God needs for us to realize, incorporate and share.
A couple of years
ago, there was a family whose entire 3rd floor apartment burnt down
to the foundation of that floor. The
mother was the only one working at the time, for father had a drinking problem
and wasn’t able to contribute much to the family’s issues of survival. Everything they owned, from all of the
mother’s art work, poetry books to her daughter and son’s belongings were
gone. Thanks be to God that the firemen
were able to rescue their cats. At the time, I was just beginning to serve the
church and didn’t know too many people who would consider helping her and her
family to get back up on their feet. So,
I appealed to those I didn’t have much hope in stepping up to help them and
frankly was blown away by the response received. Not only had I misjudged people from the Art
and Poetry world to come through, but I saw a glimpse of the Kingdom in my
pushing beyond my comfort zone for the sake of someone in need!
A few telephone
calls and some meetings later, had one family offer her family a place to stay
for several months while they have their home rebuilt. Others contributed clothes, bought dishes,
appliances, groceries and amazingly so much more. The treasure that, that family found was in the
people coming forward to truly help them. The treasure, I found, from that
experience, was that God helped me to see where I needed to grow spiritually in
having faith not only in Him but in others.
Truth be told, the people I least expected to donate, help, this family
helped them more than from my own church’s flock! Yes, they didn’t know this family, and others
knew them, but does that really matter?
No, what really matters is love—God’s Kingdom step aide to helping us
truly see, know what’s right in the heart to do, be and become.
The moment, we,
as the children of God, realize His Grace and Promise active in our everyday
lives—we are growing the Kingdom of God in the here and now. Paradise is not a delusion only through the
evil one’s eyes, temptations to prey upon us.
The Kingdom of God and all its’ righteousness is beyond that spiritual
door we need to open with God’s loving help.
With God’s loving and living help in my heart has placed me here to
serve you as your pastor. Predestined is my hope in our work together as the
Body. The Kingdom of Heaven as Jesus
said is the smallest of seeds… but when it truly grows—it becomes a mighty
tree, where many come to flock…
Let us Pray,
Gracious and
Loving Lord Jesus,
Continue to
strengthen our hearts to take those mighty Kingdom steps
Those Kingdom
steps are Your path for us to the New world
The New World
were joy abounds, love binds us together and peace reigns
It is in our
midst and we must harbor trust and confidence
If we are to
truly progress.
For Your glory,
here and now
We boldly pray to
You
AMEN
July 30th,
2017; Eighth Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 12; Year A; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon By:
Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, OSST
Psalm 125;
Deuteronomy 7:6-9; Romans 8:28-39; Matthew 13:44-52
RCL:
Psalm 119:129-136; 1 King 3:5-12; Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at First Congregational Church at 9:30am
https://youtu.be/gG8RBcFPyqA
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