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This morning’s texts are all about incorporation. If you remember what I’ve shared before, this
is believing, receiving, incorporating and sharing. These are the marks of the Christian journey,
truly a lifestyle of Grace. This is our
willingness, grateful, natural response to God’s great and wonderous invitation
to a New life through His leading and His Word! It is with trembling confidence,
the time and the place to say: I can do all things through Christ who indeed
strengthens me… for many may be called but few are chosen. That ending sounds paradoxical but it’s
actually a spiritual challenge for us to strive towards getting the right
stuff.
That trembling confidence, could be seen as perhaps, what
we commonly fall prey to being “spinning our wheels,” procrastinating or maybe
not feeling encouraged much about the self, at all. The Pharisees had the opposite problem you
could say… they were definitely, “encouraged in themselves…” but it hardly had
anything to do with being humble yet alone with truly incorporating God into
their “showy” piety. Would it be fair to
say that perhaps they were what we would call works righteous? Everything they did followed the letter of
the Law but their hearts saw no real action.
The one most amazing transformation we could say for the Pharisees would
be seen through St. Paul. Here, a former
Pharisee, man of the Law allowed the Gospel of Christ to completely resurrect
His life into a New person!
Truth be told, but that one verse from Paul’s fourth
chapter to the Philippians, is one of my all-time favorites! “I can DO all
things through Christ, who has strengthened me.” Think about that, this is something hard to
begin to claim, isn’t it? I’m not saying that I don my Super-pastor’s cape
because of Christ… thought some Friday’s time-tables challenge that. What I’m saying is, that the whole person
within you, can bolster that genuine mustard seed of faith and reap it! It’s there, you know, even it is seems, at
times, like its hiding. Things going on
in the world can make it feel that way.
We definitely, as well don’t want to fall prey to thinking darkly, but
sometimes we can’t help it.
Just this past Wednesday, we had two speakers from the American
Red Cross talk to the Clark County Ministerial Association, about keeping a
spiritual eye open for signs of people coming out of shock from what happened
October 1st here. Coupled with what all else has been going on
around us in the world, frankly the woman’s words sounded apocalyptic. Yikes… Yes, but now more than ever, we need
to find unity spiritually, holistically within and beyond ourselves to, as the
saying goes, “stay strong” in the face of the unknown. We need to use the gifts God has blessed our
lives with to be productive in helping to change the tide of the future.
As some of my closest friends know, God transformed me
into who you see today and my former self, I have come to see as the
artist… But just like that earlier
paradox, we can’t forget the past and who we once were, but begin to see them
anew. That mustard seed of faith was cracked open for me 14 years ago, when I
said YES to God and stopped spinning my wheels on answering His calls to me to
a New life. The battle or spiritual growing
edge for me, however is ongoing: “Help me Lord to incorporate truly, everything
You’ve been trying to teach me as well as Help me use my past to make the
future brighter for my neighbor.
As you may recall from what I said at my installation
service, never say never to God. Even if
every pessimistic bone in your entire body is screaming to want to run off and
hide into your doubts, fear and insecurities… I say, Fight it! Paul says it best here: “8Finally,
beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is
pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence
and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9Keep
on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in
me, and the God of peace will be with you.” He’s truly being a great pastor to
his flock here in Philippi. He’s
shepherding them with the wonderful encouragement we can only get from Christ
alone and His ever-empowering Word!
The initial spark, to never saying never, was to stop
lamenting over the seeming loss of hope for a kinder and gentler world and as
Captain Peccard from Star Trek, the Next Generation said: MAKE it so! Be the progress in the world you would like
to see come to fruition. Please don’t
take these lovely phrases of optimism lightly, hear and feel them deeply in
that first church, the heart. This is
where you need to incorporate not just what I’m trying to share with you here,
but incorporate those learning moments God opens up daily, to you in your
everyday life. Much of this week, I’ve had a lot of time to open myself up to
God especially fighting this horrible sinus/ ear infection. I’ve had to live
behind my desk most of this week.
Living behind my desk, however much this delighted my
cats, I made that time productive by spiritually taking on God’s challenge to
me again to reconcile my past to my New self, found through Him. I know I’m a “newbie” here to Las Vegas but I
am someone as well, who felt the pain from others beginning to express their
feelings about what happened October 1st… So, what did I decide to do? I decided to make some art again. I decided to put the call out there to some
artists, poets and clergy friends of mine to help me put together a small artbook
to benefit the American Red Cross’ efforts here in town. It hasn’t taken off like I’ve wanted it to
yet. Probably because a.) I’m the new
kid on the block and b.) my friends in the art and poetry world can’t take me
seriously yet about it.
What I need to say to all of those discouraging “gut”
feelings I’m having is, that I must remember: “I can DO all things through
Christ who strengthens me.” I can move
those obstacles out of my way, if I wanted to.
We need to say this as well about our fellowship here and our future
going forward together with the work of the Gospel to DO at hand. After worship today, there will be a
wonderful meeting of those stewarding the search for a new building. My joy in hopefulness for your efforts has
been ongoing since your board’s inception.
I am hope filled and joyful for the Vision committee’s meeting on Sunday
October 22nd to wrap up our brain-storming for marketing material we need to
get out asap for November. Every phone
call, our church office gets, fuels my hope for where God will soon be leading
us.
I’ll leave you with one last story. Before I came to find God, I met and dated a
writer whose home church was Bethany United Church of Christ. He cajoled me
into coming. That was the first church I
came back to after 15 years of being agnostic.
That first day was back in the summer of 2002. This young man gave me a great gift. I still think about that first day filtering
through old memories and prejudices about having gone to Catholic grade schools
and then 2 years at a Catholic high school…
I wasn’t too open-minded yet. It
only took till the following Summer of 2003 for God to take a good whack at my
heart to open to finally hearing Him!
Where that Chrysalis shell broke and my life took off
however, didn’t happen, for the young man I knew. He is still a somewhat tortured soul. Living in the same apartment he’s always
been. Struggling to survive off of his mother’s death bed annuity funds.
Struggling to write anything new and basically a very sad man. I thought, a number of years back that when
he had an “out of wedlock” child with another poetry world person, he would
start to find God’s lead. That perhaps,
he would begin to be truly encouraged that he can change and move forward… This is still not the case, I have sadly come
to find out. The other day out of the blue, he emailed me and asked if I would
release the rights to the book I published for him years ago under my art
press. I, of course said that it was
fine.
After a few emails back and forth in conversation, the
thought occurred to me, the ironic coincidence that I was just beginning to put
together this art book here for the Red Cross and the one person at the pivotal
start of my journey contacted me. It
wasn’t coincidence, I think it is what is called a God-incidence. This was
another growing edge and truly a great invitation Christ opened the eyes of my
heart to see! Here was a man still bound
to and lamenting in his past. One, he never felt those words—that he could DO
all things through Christ who strengthens not only him, but us all. Those same
windows he would peer through watching the sun rise… but he could never really
see the “Son” rising before his eyes to move forward. Just like those Pharisaic laws putting
permanent blinders upon the Pharisees to see beyond themselves… He is not not donning that robe Jesus talks
about in His parable. He has let his
past bind him, his sadness has left him in darkness and his soul is crying for
change… but he won’t do anything about it.
Let us Pray,
Gracious and Loving Shepherd,
Help us to follow Your lead in our lives
Help us to realize that we have all been called
But the chosen-ness comes from our willingness to grow
We need to grow from the past through the tears and its
hardships
We need to stay strong in living hope for a kinder and
gentler world
May Your ever-lasting Love bring peace and confidence to
us all to say:
We can DO all things through You!
AMEN
October 15th,
2017; 19th Sunday After Pentecost; Proper 23; Year A; SOLA
Lectionary
Sermon by:
Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, OSST
Psalm 23;
Isaiah 25:6-9; Philippians 4:4-13; Matthew 22:1-14
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at First Congregational Church at 9:30am
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