A Stumbling Hope; Sermon for January 28th, 2018 by Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins

Today's Gospel begins with an amazing as well as bizarre scene of Jesus rebuking an evil and unclean Spirit to come out of a man. He has done this just after he was teaching and preaching in the synagogue.  Both the disciples and the scribes and Pharisees were amazed at what he had said. In essence, we are to see the poetic verses of Deuteronomy come to life, where God says: “I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet.” The prophet is here in today's Gospel and it is God himself, the Messiah—Jesus Christ.

I am recalling that wonderful scene in Franco Zeffirelli's 1977 TV mini series’ version of ‘Jesus of Nazareth;’ which I like to watch each and every Easter. They portray this scene, and the intensity of it, and it's hard for us to imagine the reality of evil possessing a person. We do not live in a frame of mind that gives much credence to the reality of evil yet alone, the reality of Prophecy in the world.

I think in many ways however, this is our stumbling block, when we have tuned out awareness to things we have rationalized away through our quote worldly knowledge... We have another day in the life snippet of Saint Paul preaching to his wayward Corinthians. This time, he is trying to teach them that knowledge puffs up the ego (which is the Old Nature) but love is the building block of the New Nature, New creation, God needs us to evolve to.

Next Thursday, I'm going to be giving a talk on the importance of lay leadership and it's training through spiritual retreats. Doesn't sound like the two words go together— leadership and retreat. But what's important is that, in order for us to grow, we need to step back and listen not to our standards of wisdom, but truly listen and faithfully incorporate God's wisdom. God's wisdom is through His Living Word, and His Living Word, as we have come to learn, is the Gospel of Christ Jesus.

One of the joys I have had in the past that I am hoping to continue to weave into my ministry here, is being an advocate for Spiritual formation. Spiritual formation is critical to the survival of the quote Church. It is critical for humanity to develop towards the truth and will of God. How we are spiritually shaped, is with a new kind of wisdom. Just this past Saturday, I was experiencing another team meeting as a spiritual director for the Via de Cristo Retreat this March. I am one of six spiritual directors, but we all have our gifts to share and wonderful things to do in order to begin helping to reach out to all who come to engage in this experience.

As what I mentioned last week, in regards to, “better laid plans of mice and men,” Ministry is full of challenges and remember as well, that we are all in ministry together here. We are all engaged in things we do in our own lives that are beyond ourselves, and for the good of our neighbor, and the love of God.   A lot of times though, we get hung up on the details of things that are all around us, these worldly issues, troubles, etc. This was the Corinthians’ problem, they were divided by politics, by superstitions and by their own misunderstandings of what Christ is to mean for their new lives through Him. Paul had his work cut out for him, these “day-in-the-life” conversations in both 1st Corinthians and 2nd Corinthians are his pastoral efforts to get through their thick heads that the ways of the world are not the ways of God and that is why they are not moving forward, but staying stagnant and not growing spiritually much at all.

Growing spiritually is a funny thing, that is why I have been so involved with studying and practicing spiritual formation because I don't think enough is done in this area.  Spiritual formation is crucial, to not only churches’ survival but to our survival as a strong marker of Christianity in the world, the 21st century world. This coming Monday, I will be starting my second doctoral class online, which talks about ‘models of Engagement.’ What a profound topic! These models of engagement are to be a springboard for the pastor to contemplate incorporating into their coaching. How do I help someone find the path God is leading them to?  How do I coach them to deepen their faith and commitment to not only God but to make their commitment and action a viable strong force?

It is often a lonely and thankless task. The pastor has to try to reach out to someone and to help them see beyond the “Sunday frame of mind” that is probably the greatest stumbling block of being and doing, “Church” in the 21st century. There is one film that I think completely expresses that continual hiccup we have in our daily lives. These hiccups are when we have a hard time listening to the Words of God, yet alone, acknowledging, seeing prophetic things revealed to us in and throughout our daily lives. The Holy Spirit reminded me of one of my favorite films about our stumbling, this is Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. Hard to believe it came out in 1993... but what I love about that film outside it's fantastic silly humor, is that whether Phil Connors’ character wants to change or not... God keeps forcing him to relive the same day over and over until he finally has his own epiphany and begins to see the new path before him.  His character literally realizes the inward change, metanoia, he needs to begin.

Today's Gospel has Jesus in front of his critics, and his impressionable disciples... He reads and preaches from the scriptures before Him. Those who are the legalists and very puffed up in their own knowledge are both impressed and offended by Jesus’ Authority. You could say that His leadership, offends them. Authority is a funny thing, especially, in regard to, its understanding Biblically versus its understanding and worldly implementation within the church. The pastor is to be the life coach to their flock. The pastor is someone who has had God's Word put in their mouths, put in their hearts, to share in a most selfless, accountable and most gracious way.  I'll bet you any kind of money, that more than half of the pastors of today's churches don't ever think of themselves as being prophetic, or give up before they are encouraged enough to feel that their voice can make a difference to their flock into the world that they live in.

Those who do feel prophetic, but really aren’t… are like those that St. Paul was trying to reach out to, who were being puffed up by their philosophical and political pursuits. I knew someone just like this, he literally “crashed” my ordination... That was a funny one right there, we were always at odds spiritually and politically, since I don't believe in incorporating politics in Ministry. He was quite the opposite, as well as very opinionated about that. The other day, out of the blue, he reached out to me and we had an exchange of pleasant text messages about our Ministries and where we're going and what we're doing. He shared a link to his YouTube channel with one of his recent sermons and of course nothing has changed. Everything about his message was all politics, anger and hostility and very little to do with the truth of changing people's hearts. Helping and encouraging people’s hearts to change is what pastors are truly called to do. I wondered about who he would be ministering to I wonder how many people are there just for the politics, or are there to grow and understand God's challenge to us and all that we do and say as his children of Grace and promise?

Our conversations ended peacefully… and I just was left with those thoughts, moving forward in my own way and what I have been doing to serve here, and to listen to God's challenges to me about not being a stumbling block to others.  We can all be like the character in Groundhog Day though we all have those moments like Phil Connors where we just need to keep having it mention to us, revealed to us over and over that we are being a stumbling block not only to ourselves but to those that our own lives meet up with minister to. I bet many of you here don't feel yourselves to be doing a Ministry but when you reach out to your neighbor, when you do something nice, when you do something that's not all wound up in yourselves— that is Ministry!

Leadership takes a certain sense of motivation. We know, as Disciples of Jesus, this motivation is His gospel and for the truth of spiritual formation that St Paul brings, it is the new nature. This week's message for the fourth Sunday after the epiphany is challenging you about that $20 word I talked about last week, metanoia. Are you changing for the greater good, love of God?  And this is a change that takes that reflection, that takes that time, and needs that awareness. We can't have that awareness muddied up by our expectations, in our sense of worldly knowledge. We must be open to a greater truth beyond ourselves and this is the Gospel! The demon knew who Jesus was. The evil that had overtaking that person knew who God's truth was and is.

The scribes and the Pharisees were too wound up into themselves and their puffed-up knowledge was what prevented them from really hearing Jesus’ Authority. Saint Paul had a similar problem with the Corinthians, he was merely trying to be a humble and faithful pastor to this very divided flock... If you have ever read both letters of Corinthians in their entirety, he had more than his fair share to deal with... Not only often, did they not appreciate him, but they did not even make the effort to understand what he was trying to steer them to see, which was God's truth!

My challenge to you all the next few weeks is to look into your own lives Journeys and see where you are as a leader in the gifts you bring in discipleship to Christ.  We all have many gifts to share, many stories to weave into the tapestry of God's Great plans for humanity. Stay encouraged, let me help you to be a freely responsible servant leader to the Church of Christ.  We have a great and bright New Horizon ahead of us! With that said, let us roll up our sleeves together and let us go forth living into the good news getting our hands and feet dirtied but our hearts growing towards a brand New day!

Let us pray,

Gracious & Loving Lord Jesus,

Help us to stumble into living hopefulness

Help us to love You and our neighbor by getting down to work

Getting down to work within our hearts spiritually

As well as with our voices, hands and feet

For Your Gospel goals, plans for all the world

May we tap into that New Life by faithfully becoming witnesses to Your Words.

AMEN

January 28th, 2018; Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany; Year B; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, OSST

Psalm 111; Deuteronomy 18:15-20;  1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28

 The link below is to this sermon's delivery at First Congregational Church at 9:30am

https://youtu.be/ORDeG08mpbM

Trusting the Net; Sermon for the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany by: Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins

Today we have that wonderful Gospel, that famous Gospel line: “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” Jesus begins his campaign of gathering disciples into His net, which is His Word! I don't know how many people here, remember that song by The Beatles, ‘The Word,’ from Rubber Soul, but that started playing in my head when I started reading these texts and thinking about what the Gospel really is, what it means.

“Say the word and you'll be free, say the word and be like me, say the word I'm thinking of; have you heard the Word is love? You would think that John Lennon is being an evangelist here, kind of sounds that way, but we know this was their “flower-power” music for the 1960’s era. The song continues in saying: “Spread the word, and you'll be free, spread the word and be like me, spread the word I'm thinking of; have you heard the word is love? As we know Christ Jesus’ Gospel truth is the spiritual fruit that the New Nature produces, being to love life through loving others which in turn loves God in response—the lifestyle of Grace.

There's many wonderful images in today's scriptures that say so much about the discipleship Journey. We once again, have another chapter of Jonah. I think it's hard for us to imagine that there's different genres of writing in our Bible. The book of Jonah is actually considered to be a satire... Today’s scene is where he just got barfed up from the fish, which God sent to save him from drowning in the waters, and he's the reluctant prophet. Jonah didn't want to go tell somebody hated, the Ninevites, that God needed them to repent, Jonah frankly, wanted to see them be crushed. We have other text in the Bible that speak about turning the other cheek to our enemies, on a more serious note, as seen within the prophet Isaiah. Here, however, with Jonah, he really didn't want to go do this, he wasn't up for it. In fact, you could say he was mad. He thought God would have him do more important things, but then he was operating through what he expected, and what the world has taught him to see and do.

When you think of it though, the world is like an ocean: there's so many things in our path, there's so many decisions and choices to make we could get lost in it and think of it as a Wilderness… Or, we can have God, as that guiding net to help us stay in focus to our true spiritual priorities. The Prelude music we heard this morning, is one of those Christian rock songs called, ‘He Knows.’ It has beautiful words about God's guiding presence in every facet of our life which perhaps we don't really think about enough at all. Perhaps we have our own sarcastic understanding of God when plans change, and think in terms of Murphy's Law.... As one of my commentary’s said: “when we say we have plans, God laughs.” That's the hardest thing to do though, the hardest thing is to trust the net, trust the net of faith that God's Grace has enveloped us with. Jonah didn’t escape God’s call to him, the fish caught him and brought him back on track, whether he liked it or not!

There was another wonderful image, I thought of, when thinking about today's Gospel.  This was picturing God's hands as that great giant net sweeping us out of the ocean of indecision and worldliness and literally placing us in the palm of His hands to teach us to truly be, become children of Grace and promise. His disciples were ordinary people, never forget that. They were men and women, fishermen, carpenters, salesmen, tax collectors, sinners and the like. Christ Jesus’ Gospel was and is, by no means, an exclusive Gospel but one that is for all people to be swept into the Nets of the kingdom of God and its gracious teachings!

Here's another wonderful $20 word, that'll make you see and think in a different perspective, then just saying the word repentance. The word is metanoia. Metanoia literally means to change one's mind. To have a change of heart, to have a change of direction, to see things clearly from a much more enlightened path—this is the Epiphany message for this Sunday. It's definitely not, “fire and brimstone…” more than it is keeping that mirror silvered, to look upon yourself and see things in a New way, where God needs you to grow and go. I had a wonderful conversation with another colleague earlier this week when we were talking about Christian education and in talking about the scriptures. We talked about that old concept of “Law and Gospel.” These are ways of seeing the scriptures, to understand where God is needing to lead us. The law is simply the mirror to ourselves to see where we need to grow and go forward.  The mirror of the Law is not punishing, more than spiritually convicting or helping us to find that net and not be lost in the ocean of the world. That's what's so funny about the start of the Jonah passage, as hear, the fish just barfed him up on beach and he now has to make the effort, to go to the Ninevites and preach the word God needs them to hear, which is to repent from their evil ways and divisiveness and they did, they listened! Now on an even funnier note, God had a change of heart and didn't become the punishing parent, flattening the Ninevites for their wayward lives... He showed them mercy!

St. Paul’s snippet today, shows us a day in the life of his many moments of pastorally lecturing and teaching his wayward Corinthian flock to get their priorities together. And it's a shame that in some lections, the last few lines are left out from this snippet of Corinthians about marriage. Yes, it's true that context is everything and we must realize this is a 2000 plus year old scripture, a letter of pastoral guidance to a church plant in Corinth... But he is saying something very classic here: where are your commitments, priorities? If marriage is a commitment and relationship to one another; where are we in commitment and relationship to God and our neighbor? He's speaking about accountability. He's speaking to responsiveness and he is getting them to think beyond the “legalese” of I'm obligated to do this or that, but see something as a vow of of commitment! 

And let's face it, we do not live in simple times anymore. Everything has become needlessly complicated to the point of almost becoming nihilistic in my opinion.... Time is fleeting, in our sense of understanding time, but God's time is something that doesn't hold to the parameters of what we expect. You’ve probably heard that saying before: “better laid plans of mice and men,” but that happens a lot doesn't it? It would be nice to have every single crevice of every day planned to the last seconds but outside of that possibly qualifying you for a rubber room and a straight-jacket, it's not possible! God's plans are that overarching net, and he has laid the path to us, to stay connected to Him. Grace is our great connector. Jesus begins preaching Grace. Grace is the Gospel. The Good News, the Evangelical news of Christ is that His Word brings the fullness of life. We find our completion when we have that metanoia of change, to embrace and live into that New Nature where Christ is at its Center.

The last few weeks I have been trying to reach out and help my friend back in Chicago who is on the verge of homelessness because the building that he's living in is being sold. For George, change has always been a very hard thing especially since he's a very stubborn man. He's probably the most stubborn person I've ever met in my whole entire life thus far. Once he gets his mind stuck on something, good luck changing it. I had a talk with the new pastor at the church where he is the groundskeeper to. During the conversation, I genuinely felt that his story was not really heard, for the pastor kept saying— “it's not in the mission of the church to be landlords or have that kind of responsibility...”  Then when I asked, as well if my friend was going to be given money to move, or if they would raise his salary to help him to stay in the area… he seemed to ignore and not really care about how his situation, and all that he has done for that church. Yes, I am personally connected, but then that’s 31 years of friendship speaking. Several pastors back, I knew the former pastor truly did have a compassionate heart, and did have a way of seeing things in a light that reached out to care for others.  He knew of God’s priorities.

This new young pastor, I know has other priorities, since he's moonlighting in another church that is at a bar on Saturday nights... He is eyeing that million dollars plus of selling that property that he could get the Association, to use towards his plans and priorities.  The building that my friend is residing in, is just behind the church. It is an eyesore to the neighborhood that's all gentrified with million-dollar homes… but it should, as well, be a point of conviction, a great mirror to this pastor that if you are fishing for people with the Good News and you call yourself, a preacher of the Gospel, a teacher of Christ you're turning your back on neighbor?  You are being a hypocrite to what you have made a vow to carry. Whether it be my friend, who's in that house, or whoever had lived there, you're sending them away because of other priorities you see, that are truthfully worldly priorities. I would say that you can almost think of that house, as that gigantic whale carcass on the beach.... the lake gulls have not taken care of hiding the evidence and the dirtied waters are still there to see... 

Truth be told, I probably would be excited about a million dollars plus to put towards new churches, new facilities and resources, new activities etcetera… but if it was at the cost of hurting my neighbor, then you are not turning from the ways of the world, you are living into the ways of the world, and you are living against the Gospel! Trusting in the Nets of God for this situation, would require this young pastor to see that his priority should be to help and care for his neighbor and that by trusting in God to find other means to pay or provide for his other ministries will come forward, if he has enough faith and trust in God for it to come to fruition.  We have to stay netted here, wedded to God’s trust and loving care.

We all have our anxieties about planning. We are doing many things for the future, and our new space, and it is scary… You know what, though, I am so hopeful and I so trust the Lord completely that He will reveal that path even if we're not seeing it go exactly in the right direction yet. Even if we’re not opening at exactly the right time that we want to, we have to trust in God's sense of timing. Trusting in the promise of God that His kingdom is near, is incorporating Christ into our hearts, into our lives. It is that loving net of hands up holding us and guiding us along to a glorious New Horizon. The fishermen in today's Gospel, they obeyed and they listened to Christ’ Word.  These are the Words that called them, and they followed, and they trusted, and they led amazing lives with Christ and after Christ, spreading His Gospel for the world to hear!

Let us Pray,

Gracious Lord Jesus

Your Gospel is the net, that we are to cling to

Help us to trust in Your promise and know that Your sovereign love

Are Your hands upholding and encouraging us

To be committed to sharing and living the Good News

In all that we do and say, as Your disciples.

Help reign in our hearts to Your spiritual priorities for us

As long as we live—

AMEN

January 21st, 2018; Third Sunday after the Epiphany; Year B; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, OSST

Psalm 62; Jonah 3:1-5, 10;  1 Corinthians 7:29-35; Mark 1:14-20

This sermon was delivered at First Congregational Church at 9:30am
https://youtu.be/Wel855MU0hY