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I must confess, I actually love this story from Genesis,
though it is quite a long passage this morning. It is basically the story of
Abe's “walk of faith.” Here is a man who is faithful to the point of nearly
killing his son Isaac. There's a great Christian rock song called, ‘Walk by Faith.’
I thought of that song and saw Abraham walking off into the wilderness going to
start the journey of planting faith. I don't know how many people know, but Abraham
is considered one of the founding fathers of the other ancient faiths.
Here is this wonderful scene of God testing Abe and seeing if he will be
obedient. Abe’s obedience surprises God and God stops him from harming Isaac.
The “punishing parent” god of the Old Testament, always
paints an interesting picture between the notion of blessings and curses and
here he concludes his time with Abraham by commending him for his faith and
blessing him and telling him that his work in the future will be a blessing to
many. The wilderness ahead for Abraham, will be what we know as the Mesopotamian
Delta and abroad. His Wilderness we don't hear about here, but we do hear about
Jesus’ time in the wilderness.
Mark's once again “quick news commentary Gospel,” begins
with Jesus just being baptized by John in the Jordan. Baptism here for Jesus is
His ordination. This basically is the waters of His commission to answer and be
obedient to the great task at hand. Some of the controversy of Jesus's baptism
here, is that He was and is without sin. The waters of baptism are to cleanse
from sin. These Waters however, where an affirmation of a new journey ahead.
You're probably heard of the saying: “dive right off of the diving board into a
new thing…” Well, Jesus literally did
that here with this baptism being an ordination. The Holy Spirit a lit-on top
of Him confirming His start. Perhaps you can think of the Holy Spirit as Jesus’
stole being placed upon Him to begin His true task. Now the next scene, we
obviously don't get much details at all but that's Mark for you. Remember, just
the facts ma'am?
40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness. This Wilderness
was the desert, and within this desert, the New Adam was truly tested. Jesus
tested the Wilderness by not only His faithfulness to the cause of saving
Humanity, but that He knew the devil's weakness. This is probably the best
formula I came up for us to understand what exactly this first Sunday of Lent
is all about. Cause as desire plus no accountability equal effect sin plus
indifference.
There in a nutshell you have the human condition. We don't
necessarily go there in talking about “spiritual warfare” these days… but this
is what we daily battle with. I'm sure many of us have seen that cartoon or meme
once or twice sometime in our life with the character with an angel on one
shoulder and a devil on the other... It's become such a classic that it has gone
from ‘The Far Side’ through ‘The Simpsons’ & Beyond, in use.
Lent is a funny time for us spiritually. Let's face it,
some of the things that we do have to talk about and think about sort of seems
like we're getting ready to go for root canal at the dentist... All that
unpleasant stuff sinfulness, needing to repent, obedience to God, sacrifice…
I'm sure many of you are getting a little tingle in your shoulders perhaps
recoiling at the thought. Some people may go there however and say let's just
avoid the whole season of Lent altogether.
Ok, why not just go for cake, cookies and ice cream? Well let's see
there's tooth decay, diabetes, weight gain, heart problems and so on.... to
name a few anyway.
Earlier this week when we were having our texts study
time at ‘Coffee with Jesus,’ we talked about the Body, the church, gathering.
We talked about Humanity. What became interesting was to think of the Body now as
more less like Frankenstein! Perhaps maybe these texts should be around
Halloween instead? Can you imagine, for a moment, the Body of Christ as
that Frankenstein creature? This is where some of the members are deadened to
the concept of working together as a team. This where we may not be motivated
enough to reflect upon our lives to enact that Word we have been learning about
these past few weeks— metanoia?
Metanoia, turning the heart to God, living willingly,
faithfully into change plus accountability. Turning the heart to God is that
willingness that helps you to find a pathway out of the wilderness. I
never forgot a couple of years back, when I was doing some interviewing at
different places, and in one place in particular, I had my car key break off in
the ignition of my car, when I parked. So, of course, I went into the interview
with a knot in my stomach and a lot of anxiety about leaving my car open. I was
surprised at when I shared what had happened with the person I had interviewed
with. Basically they were very
indifferent about it, and actually annoyed by it. Let's just say I didn't get
the job which was fine with me (!) but I couldn't help thinking about the world,
and some senses, in some ways, feeling stuck in a graceless wilderness.
As some of you know, I went to a wonderful retreat out in
California as a part of my awareness and training to be compassionate to all peoples
to be welcomed in Christ's Church. Many people shared their “Chrysalis shell”
of their former lives before they came into Ministry and talked about their new
life which was now profoundly new for them in what they were doing in serving
others. There were many things that I loved about making this retreat. The
first of them being that once again I was on a Mountaintop and this mountain
top was in Sierra Madre California at the Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat
Center. The Passionists are another type of religious order that's focuses most
intensely on what Jesus would do after His journey in the desert in that
wilderness. We know this to be the embrace of the cross.
There again, is that dentist chair and thinking of the
drill… I think many of us have a hard time going to the foot of the cross and reflecting
about what Lent is to truly teach us. A few years back ISIS was crucifying
Christians by the hundreds in Syria. What few people knew is that they were
already dead and tied to the cross in a mocking fashion. Perhaps, at first
glance you wouldn't think of the double meaning with the dead person and the
cross, but it made a disturbing statement about life and death. The problem with
evil is that it is not cut and dry, though we certainly would love it to be
that way. We certainly would love to feel that we know everything and can
easily rationalize every aspect of the world around us. But then there is that
great confrontation ahead, the foolishness of the cross... that great Scandal
of God, the Cross of Christ to finally begin to teach us— choose or perish!
Faith is what teaches us to be and prepare for battle
spiritually between the two natures of Good and Evil. Choose to live into
the life of Grace, or perish into the lies of this material world. This
is not an easy road, we know this more than ever these days, since the
boundaries between both worlds have been blurred by our willfulness. The “Epistle
of straw,” as it has been named by an early Reformation reformer, has a lot to
teach us this morning. “Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one
has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has
promised to those who love Him.” What a wonderful direct way to begin to talk
about working our way through the wilderness of the world with the Gospel of
Light.
Just what does James mean by the Crown of Life? Kind of
sounds like a reward, but perhaps maybe we're not hearing that right. We need
to think about priorities. Just what are our priorities, in light of others, beyond
ourselves? There is that selflessness again, that need to grow and learn from
being compassionate, that is that New Nature gift Christ gave us through Grace.
I heard a beautiful thought the other day where someone said that true
happiness is learning truthfully, living faithfully, compassion.
Making our way to that point through the wilderness of this
world is a battle. It is a battle between the good and the evil, our saint-sinner
selves. It is a battle that does wrench the heart to respond. Sometimes that
battle could be looking at your past and walking through it, seeing what things
meant and choices you've made, many that you have come to regret and others
that you cherish. What was really testing going back to Chicago just two weeks
ago was seeing everything as the interior world of that Chrysalis shell—that
old former life.
As I mentioned the Sunday before I left, it was not going
to be a vacation more than it was going to be a lot of hard work and a lot of
things to pray about. Looking upon, and into that old Chrysalis shell, was very
painful for me. Why was it painful? The answer was quite spiritually profound,
the more I thought about it this week, back home in my new home. My life has
grown so greatly and has been renewed by being somewhere so completely new.
It's even beyond living here in Vegas after 48 years in Illinois, everything is,
seems new for me spiritually, in a good way.
I forgot who the comedian was who said that they'd love
to take their 40-year-old brain back into their 20-year-old body... When I
thought of taking my 49-year-old brain back into my 25-year-old body… I thought
of what I did 25 years ago or almost 25 years ago and I don't think I'd ever
want to go back to that. But these are the things God teaches your heart to grow
from in a most beautiful and healing way.
Many of the pastors at the retreat share their journey’s
vision into Ministry. Coming out of that Chrysalis shell of their past, they
truly saw God's plans and purposes for them as well as they had enough faith to
be tested and to persevere for the greater good. This persevering for the
greater good is what helped them to see their mission in not only reconciling
themselves to God, but helping others to live into that change of heart,
metanoia.
On the very start of our Lenten Journey, Ash Wednesday,
we heard of the terrible tragedy in Florida where a troubled 19-year-old gunned
down 17 people. The flurry of reflecting and commenting on this tragedy,
didn't necessarily talk about the victims or this teenager, more than it did
politics. The blood-stained floors and the bullet hole casings have now once
again been washed away through politicking with its name calling, pointing
fingers and everything and anything but the pain itself. We're not hearing
about or grieving with these people, more than we are hearing about political
platforms and divisiveness.
The problem of evil is still very much there, but we're “walking
and talking” carefully around it. Welcome to human nature once again... The
letter of James is reflecting some of this problem we have, as well as, he is
trying to enlighten us to what we need to do. The reformer who hated his letter,
who called it an “Epistle of straw” was Martin Luther. Why he dubbed it this
name was that he thought perhaps James was teaching us “works righteousness.”
And in some senses, we do teeter on that fine line, where gracious response, a
natural response, is sometimes swayed by our need to “please.” We miss the boat,
however, on living fully into our faith, “walking and talking” within the
lifestyle of Grace.
When Jesus comes out of the wilderness and goes into
Galilee, He gives us our great challenge for this Lenten season: “… the time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near! Repent and believe in the good
news!” Wake up and smell the coffee people, just what are you spiritually
preparing yourself to do, once you get through your challenges in that
wilderness? Speaking for myself, I would like to feel like a bloom in that
desert or more Faithfully like that butterfly sitting on top of this bloom upon
the Mountainside looking forward into the Horizon to see what God needs me to
truly do next.
Let us pray,
Gracious Jesus,
Help to guide our discipleship through the Valley of Lent
May we be renewed through realizing the spiritual battle
is ongoing
May we look upon our past with faithful, learning eyes
And grow ever so beautifully into a faith that came bloom
within the wilderness of this world
For Your Gospel’s sake.
AMEN
February 18th,
2018; First Sunday in Lent; Year B; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by:
Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, OSST
Psalm 25:1-10;
Genesis 22:1-18; James 1:12-18; Mark 1:9-15 ||| 1 Peter 3:18-22
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