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This has definitely been a week to challenge many. The outpouring of discussions, aide and consolation haven’t stopped since this past Sunday’s massacre at Mandalay Bay. Once again, things hard to fathom, yet alone begin to understand… I remember waking up to my roommate at the time, the morning of 911, to him turning on the tv and another plane had just gone in the other World Trade Tower. When the towers fell, no one could imagine or want to imagine that the dust coating nearly a half mile radius to the two towers was the incinerated remains of thousands of people… it was literally a shroud of death.
Here would begin a great valley in the American psyche,
of what does cause and effect really mean?
Briefly for a time after 911, people made the effort to look spiritually
inward in almost a Gospel-like fashion.
The faith of the past, inspired for a brief moment, people to tend to,
the care of their soul or spiritual self.
Sadly, however, in what some saw as a moving forward progress, once
again became an external intellectual pursuit over and above working upon the
heart to change. This kind of change was to develop as God was originally hoping we would
choose to pursue. God was once again put
on the back burner and humanity, perhaps once again, arrogantly assumed they
could control every situation, every outcome through political ethics and its
partner, manipulation.
Returning to cause and effect, what does this spiritually
mean? Cause—the will to choose to follow
God’s path or cave into sin. Effect—our
most favorite thing to avoid being held accountable to, or even truthfully
acknowledging. This week has seen a
barrage of denominational vigils across the city. This past Thursday, was one being sponsored
on behalf of all local Las Vegas UCC churches at Metropolitan Community Church.
Scriptures were shared and reflections were shared, then the event was closed
by a political campaign. The names of
the victims which were read and to be felt deeply in the heart by the small
crowd who came, were washed away by an angry tirade of out of place politics.
My heart sank and I spiritually held back tears… inwardly wondering when would
we ever get out of this valley?
Jesus yes, is a great teacher but we must hold to the
truth and never forget that He is the Son of God—fully human, fully divine, and
the Son alluded to in Jesus’ parable to the Pharisees as the one to be
disrespected, rejected and murdered.
Paul this week comes to the rescue for us to see that hope in the
horizon as resurrection, our own resurrection, in essence, as we struggle to
peer out of this wretched valley-wilderness, we are willfully wallowing in! A few years back, a friend and I noted how
some venues of social media were trying to hide the posts of those trying to
honor and remember the horrible terrorism of 911. Posts were blurred and members were blocked
from trying to re-share those horrible images.
What was the purpose of doing that?
The social media site claimed a vague statement saying that it would
offend others. At this same time, there
was a post circulating of a nude woman in the process of being beheaded by ISIS,
bound, but still alive. According to
this same social media site, they did not find this post offensive and horrible
to be exposed to.
Humanity has this one solitary life on earth, to not be
bound to willfulness, but be bound to strive towards a willingness to
spiritually acknowledge, the care and need for the soul to be shaped by God. This past Monday, in my doctoral class, we
talked about this massacre and we talked about the soul. The soul is one of those most complex things
that philosophers and the like cringed at the troubling reality of trying to
understand it. What is it? Is it the spiritual self? Is it the
person? Is the voice coming out of my
mouth, the voice of the soul itself?
Truth is, we don’t know or better said, we really don’t understand. This is God’s mark of life literally within
us, upon us as His creation.
We are the vineyard Jesus alludes to, that the master of
the house (God) needs to have tended to. We were,
one nation once under God, now divided with the illusion of liberty and justice
for some. The prophetic words of Isaiah are profound, in regard to, our current
reality—being wild grapes, sour and bitter…
Is this real progress? Jesus
isn’t our socialist Marvel comics superhero…
He is the Son of God, get that straight.
We choose to be swayed by the illusion of development or progress as
being intellectually in control through the lens of politics and an arrogantly
outward sense of self-righteousness.
The last movement in the history of humanity to think
this way, were the Pharisees. The
Pharisees no longer exist in Jewish culture, they disappeared hundreds of years
ago. Their disappearance was because
they were completely unable and willing to accept Jesus yet alone His
messengers. In essence, they indeed, became those crumbled ruins around the
pillar, rejected cornerstone, that Christ truly was, and still is. The Gospel writer Matthew, spent some time
trying to get our hearts to hear his need to stress Jesus, as the true Messiah
and the one who would not only resurrect, but as we hear more in depth from
Paul, afford us to see the possibility of resurrecting spiritually
ourselves. From Paul’s own lips we hear
him say that what were his accolades and comfort zones of knowledge, didn’t
mean anything next to having Jesus in his heart and transforming him beyond the
self—reaping that New Nature, as a lifestyle of Grace.
The massacre of Mandalay Bay is a cry for the world to
see, that the vineyard is being dismantled and deconstructing. The cause here,
goes beyond a madman, domestic terrorism, etc.
This is a sign of being willfully lost in the wilderness, not wanting to
reach out a hand up to God and ask for His help to make us spiritually whole
again. Eye for an eye politics,
speculation, ulterior motivations shroud us away from God and cover us with
death. Wednesday morning, I was leading a board meeting for the Clark County
Ministerial Association at Sunrise Hospital.
This was the same morning that the President was going to be touring
several local hospitals to meet with the hundreds of people hanging on to dear
life in ICU or recovering.
The hospital was crawling with cops, reporters and
bustling with visitors. It was the
craziest I have ever witnessed that hospital to be. The head chaplain belongs to our executive
board as well, the brief moments he sat with us, his phone was continually
vibrating. He was consumed in his
ministry of care and still hadn’t come up for air yet there. We knew he was suffering in silence, with
being overwhelmed with trying to care for so many. After briefly going through
our meeting, we all decided to volunteer, renew clergy badges to help out at
the hospital when we can. We had to get
blood tests, then wait to take a TB test as well as fill out applications for
the hospital’s file. I was grateful to
be able to truly do something, begin to help. This wasn’t a political crisis,
this was a human crisis. People need
spiritual care.
That pillar, cornerstone of Christ in my heart felt Satan
shaking it this week. There is no doubt
in that, at all. As one of the speakers
giving a reflection at Thursday night’s vigil said best, how do we stay strong
after this? Will Vegas be forever changed and not in a good way, from this evil
that touched this town? Do we truly see this
as it is, as the effect of a spiritual depravity, as those wild grapes, that
have not only soured but have utterly decayed?
Clinging to that pillar of strength in the heart, Our spiritual self, Christ
Jesus, the Messiah, Son of God, sovereign of Grace—we should begin to hear and
see that light of Hope as the Psalmist pleas.
He says: “14Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from
heaven, and see; have regard for this destroyed vine, 15the stock that
your right hand planted. 16It has been burnt with fire, they have
cut it down… 17But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand,
the one whom you made strong for yourself.”
The Psalmist finishes with an encouraging note: “18Then we will never turn back
from you; give us life, and we will call on your name. 19Restore us,
O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.”
We are the New Natured tenants within this vineyard of
humanity, valley of America… Our spiritual garden of the heart is tended to by
the master of the house—God, the Holy Spirit.
It is up to us to press on in hope and perseverance towards the prize of
a heavenly call from Christ to live into who we truly are: children of Grace
and Promise! We are not to be grapes of
wrath, moral legalists, intellectually bitter or indifferent to the truth of
God active in our lives. We have so much to gain when we open our eyes to all
of what has been taking place in the world these days as a great spiritual
crisis for humanity. A spiritual
black-hole, convenient denial of the true life given, resurrected and available
to be reaped—Jesus Christ, our Lord.
I’ll leave you with one last closing note, I’ve had some
new colleagues wonder why I am so spiritually focused, why I am even in an
Order for my own spiritual formation, piety…
What I had to say in reply, is why not?
Beyond the Biblical truth that all of scripture is speaking towards
inward reflection, confession, incorporation and a call to be shared; I need to
continue to grow, not in worldly things, knowledge and possessions… But I need
to be a faithful tenant to that garden the Grace of Christ Jesus planted in my
heart to reap. It is that New Life lying in wait, for me to be completely
realized. My life, as your life is, is
an ongoing journey of growing. We must
realize that the Pharisees path didn’t work neither does political
divisiveness, eye for an eye morality work either. We must aspire to be a vineyard of Grace and
truly children of promise.
Let us Pray,
Let us see the light of hope in humanity’s horizon
We shall overcome this valley
But only truthfully as one Nation
Under Your sovereign care, indivisible with real liberty
And real justice for all.
Amen
October 8th,
2017; Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 22; Year A; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by:
Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, OSST
Psalm 80:7-19;
Isaiah 5:1-7; Philippians 3:4b-14; Matthew 21:33-46
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at First Congregational Church at 9:30am
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