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I
don't know how many people know the interesting fact about the name Adam, but
it literally means Earth. Eve literally means “life.” What do we think of, when
we think of Earth? Probably we first picture soil and plants. And if you’re an
adept gardener of “earth”, you know all the intricate things that it takes for
plants and such to thrive and flourish… Today is all about “good soil,” but it
is the spiritual soil of your heart that God needs to plant, within. This
spiritual tilling of the soil of our hearts, we must come to understand, is
God’s invitation to us to trust and surrender to the beautiful truth. This
beautiful truth, He will reveal to our renewing, reconciling hearts.
The
Prelude you heard this morning is a wonderful hymn called: Lord, let my heart
be good soil. The verses are quite lovely, actually: Lord let my heart be good
soil, open for the seed of Your Word. Yes! Lord let my heart be good soil,
where love can grow and peace is understood. When my heart is hard, break the
stone away. When my heart is cold, warm it with the day. When my heart is lost,
leave me on Your way. I think the poetic verses of this song basically match
that wonderful old saying of: “let go, let God.” Paul echoes this, by basically
saying, let go of the Old Nature which is death and of the flesh and let God’s
Holy Spirit assist you in reaping that New Nature seed planted by His Grace
within your very self.
Letting
go and letting God work in your life, we know, is a big challenge for us. The
last couple Sundays talked about that spiritual struggle, which at times is a
spiritual war against good and evil. Saint Paul is fine-tuning this
conversation in today’s lesson, by truly looking at the whole concept of living
victoriously in the spirit. It is through the Holy Spirit, who leads us to greater
faith and certainty. We must always know, that the Spirit, is what gives us
life, and is indwelling. That first church is our heart, where God makes His
home. The whole story of Adam and Eve and their fall from Grace is what Saint
Paul is talking about when he speaks of “things of the flesh.” He had to be
careful here, because there was a strong heretical movement, that the early
church battled, coming out of St. John's gospel, about whether or not, the
flesh is evil and the spirit alone, is good… This ancient heresy was called Gnosticism.
All
of God's creation is good. This was said from the beginning, in the Book of Genesis,
where God said, it was good. Literally in the fifth verse of the first chapter
of the first day of Genesis; God declares all of creation, as Good. This first
chapter closes with the sixth day, with once again, God declaring all as good. It
is through this Fall from Grace, that we came to realize what was needed to
make right the situation. When sin entered the world, we have been held captive
to it, ever since. Our journey of
reconciling with God takes our realizing the gift of freedom granted by the
Grace of Christ, on our behalf. ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told,’ has Christ
Jesus, our lord, sent by the heavenly Father to put us in a right relationship
with Him, once more.
This
“extra-ordinary” time of Pentecost, which seems to be an endless number of
Sundays, is, as I have mentioned before, our time in “discipleship School.” I
think, as history has shown us as well, that even with our “tutors,” being the
church, we still have fallen short from understanding not only the promises of
the Gospel but truly what our role and purpose is as God's Children of Grace
and promise. The forbidden fruit from
the tree of knowledge was our first test.
It was a test upon the ego—this being our will, over and above God’s,
basically. Eve, the first woman or
“life” as she is known in the ancient Hebrew—had to find out things for
herself. As we know, the blame game
weight upon her being the inaugural “chooser” of sin, did win her character or
nature, an understanding, verb and title of “wisdom” or Sophia, as known in the
Biblical Greek.
Our
heavenly Parent, creator, gave us, not only the gift of life, but gave us, the
gift of “wisdom.” The caveat was to
develop wisdom, however, in obedience to the Will of God through the help of
the Holy Spirit. We can see this or
better understand it, by looking closer into Jesus’ brilliant parable of the
seed and the sower. As a wonderful,
compassionate teacher, that He most certainly was; Jesus preached this sermon
by the sea shores… Water, the only
“miracle grow” at that time for reaping crops.
In order to preach to the Truth of God, Jesus had to reach to our
humanity by drawing out our internal discernment to draw our own conclusions…
to find the Truth beyond the symbolism, He shared.
Just
the other day, I was looking through the great collection of sermons and notes,
I received as a gift from the first pastor I had at the beginning of my faith
journey, Pastor Bill. What was so
amazing, is that I then, could see and remember that message, when he delivered
it on the front lawns of Bethany United Church of Christ, the summer of
2003. He took off with the whole concept
of how water is a huge building block, necessity to all life as we know
it. And yes, in today’s Gospel, Jesus
was being very clever here, because He had to reach out to us to hear where we
truthfully are, in our receptivity to faith. Reaping our faith and responding
naturally with the fruits of Grace is our realization of being, the children of
both Grace and Promise. The second “tutor” I studied under was Pastor Eric. His take on understanding this whole
spiritual process, of from seed to fruits of Grace, was “believe, receive,
incorporate and share.” The funny memory
there, was when he passionately acted out those four words.
Our
life on this little floating rock in space, is just a speck within the whole
cosmic eternity, we have yet to even remotely understand… but it doesn’t mean, we stop striving to! The first and greatest church is the very one
within us—the heart. When I first, was
finding myself spiritually, as well as trying to articulate this faith growing
within me… It honestly didn’t fly too
well, not only in seminary “academia” but when applying and striking out in candidacy
meetings. I was that baby Butterfly just
emerging from my Chrysalis and “the talk I was trying to walk,” just wasn’t
there yet. How could I get someone to
understand or find the right words for someone to hear, experience what my
heart’s foundation was beginning to formulate?
A good teacher would’ve been able to realize that I was spiritually
learning. Academia sadly, on many
levels, doesn’t go there, well enough, on understanding how the Holy Spirit is
building the person, disciple of Christ with what they need to go forth, with
the Good News.
The
Good News, and its truth, within these pages, is not easy stuff at all! It is a whole Pandora’s box of many things,
the mysteries of the life of faith to be revealed by those who can truly
hear! Just like that serpent in the
garden, we are all too easily swayed to listen to other things that only
distract or distort the Will and purposes of God’s Living, Transformative
Words. Returning to that gardening
parable, and seeing it through the lens of the here and now… We don’t water our plants once a week, do
we? I certainly don’t think they’d do
too well… out here anyway… but then, I am not a good physical gardener, in fact
I beg people, to NOT buy me a plant! I am a spiritual gardener, God’s tutor,
for your spiritual formation as His disciple, child of Grace and promise! We can’t treat Sundays as our “miracle grow”
treatment once a week… It needs to be
every day and in every way incorporated, laid upon that foundation of Christ
within your very soul!
Just
the other day, I received an email to the team training schedule for serving on
this coming September’s Via De Cristo retreat.
It was a wonderful joy to recall how that very first weekend, I made,
back in the fall of 2003, was like the jumper cables, miracle grow aid, to
growing past, and into that conversion experience I had where Christ called me
to serve Him. I am looking forward to
seeing some of you join me this September in making a spiritual retreat,
Cursillo, for your benefit to be enlivened by the Spirit, to hear the Spirit,
to incorporate the Spirit, and share it through your renewed selves.
The New Adam, the New Eve is within us—We just have to,
faithfully be obedient to discerning the truth.
God’s Living and restorative Word is our guide. God’s Living and Transformative Word is
always relevant as well as it should, like that voice of God speaking into
being, the world, have sovereignty within our everyday lives! The New Nature
has been planted by the Grace of Christ’s gift to humanity freeing us from sin,
death and the power of evil… It is now,
our turn to reap that New Nature by letting God’s Holy Spirit work within the
Good soil of our hearts, in order, to grow something grand, something
beautiful, to change the world, as is the mission of the Gospel, for the
better! The Genesis of a New world is on our very grasp—the Kingdom of God; we
just have to open ourselves up to the Truth, incorporate it, and live it.
Let
us Pray,
Gracious
and Loving Lord Jesus,
There
is so much we need learn
As
Your children of Grace and Promise
Exercising
Faith comes from receiving Your invitation to spiritually grow
We
need to be obedient to the task at hand
In
order to be ready to share Your Good News’ Truth with the world
May
we fully be open to Your Holy Spirit’s gardening to our very soul
For
a here and now that bears the fruit of Your Kingdom—AMEN
July 16th 2017;
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 10; Year A
Sermon by:
Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
SOLA Hybrid:
Psalm 65:1-13; Isaiah 55:10-13; Romans
8:1-17; Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at First Congregational Church
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