Posts
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
No comments:
Post a Comment