Posts
From the lips of a converted man. A converted man who once a
persecutor of early Christians, now completely and utterly transformed into a New
man. “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who though he was
in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be
exploited… but emptied himself taking the form of a slave. Being born in human
likeness and being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient
to the point of death, even death on a cross(!) Therefore God, also highly
exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name
of Jesus, every knee should bend in heaven and on Earth and under the Earth and
every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the
Father.
Yes, it's an incorrigible temptation to perform this passage
each year for that initial experience of studying that scripture in my ‘scriptures
by heart’ class, years ago, left a profound imprint upon my heart. It left a
profound imprint on my heart, and drove me to truly see the miracle of a
transformed heart. We heard a little snippet from the book of Acts, of what a
brutal persecutor St Paul was before his conversion experience, coming to
Christ. And boy what an experience that man had! Those words that I just
performed for you from Philippians chapter 2 is just a snippet of a beautiful
passage that I even memorized more of, at the time that came from that man's
heart.
In that same train of thought, coming from the heart, change
of heart, movement of thoughts... the irony of Palm Sunday what happens which
you've saw I’ve reflected upon in this month's newsletter. The irony is that
these same people who were cheering, throwing down their palm fronds and
cloaks, singing and praising Hallelujah to the one they had hopes in, an
inkling of hope that Jesus is the messiah would turn around and condemn Him. In
a mob fury and action, they freed Barabbas, a horrible Criminal who did deserve
the gallows and they threw Jesus under the bus as they say.
They threw Jesus under the bus and didn't even have the
chance to hear his quiet conversation with Pilate. Pilate asks him point blank:
what is truth? Jesus’ silence lets his
own thoughts, Pilate’s thoughts convict Him. The Triduum is a very important
experience not to miss... right now we are too small a church family & we
can't experience all of the days of Holy Week. Holy Week starts with the Seder
supper on Wednesday, then we have Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the Holy
Saturday Easter Vigil and sunrise Easter morning service...
As I shared in my newsletter article, I am a critic of
diluting Palm Sunday into Passion Sunday.... we must be able to grasp that chasm,
that in-between place that is lost. Sometimes this place is lost for the convenience
of pastors, who don't want to go there and have us see the “black hole” of the
Cross— absorbing sin, death and evil. That led me to think about science of all
things. This was especially when I started thinking about the profound power of
the cross, that radical contradictory power that we human beings don't
understand, but is the Hesed or steadfast, unconditional love of God.
That unconditional love of God were those two pieces of wood
cruelly assembled by sin, hate and evil that absorbed and took away all our sin,
hate, evil and darkness. When a planet or star, supernovas, according to
scientists, the star collapses in upon itself and forms a black hole. A black
hole is a place that nothing can escape its gravitational pull. Everything is
pulled into it and eventually it explodes to create a brand new solar system
another “big bang,” if you will.
What a profound thought— out of death arises New Life! Then
why do some people not believe in the resurrection? Why do some people not
believe in the true Divine and Human Natures of the Messiah, the Christ Jesus?
We are living into a resurrected life. It's only Satan who deludes us, and
clouds over our clear path ahead to reaping the city of God. I thought about
one of my new friends in thinking about the ways of our world today where we
are in Science & Faith and so on. He is a scientist he is also a devout
Christian and lay leader. My friend Roy, gave a wonderful talk about community
and what you need to do, to “go and grow,” beyond the church. He did this by
talking about one of the things that he studied, he talked about this protein
called Laminin.
Laminin is this protein that connects everything together. Your
whole entire body is connected with Laminin and all the other elements that
comprise the flesh. The most wonderful and curious thing of Laminin however, is
that it looks like a cross. Of course, seeing that, created a lot of
controversy between the secular world and the world of faith, because the
thought of God truly being involved in our “little worlds” for some people is a
huge threat.
The huge threat at the time in the Gospels, was Jesus. He
was a threat, to not only the political power of the scribes and the Pharisees
as well as the Sanhedrin, but Jesus was a threat to the Romans. This “troublemaker,”
who is He?! Why is he deluding the people with visions of hope, love and peace?
Pontius Pilate didn't even really want to deal with Jesus. He just really
wanted to get his work done and get his small little Denarius salary at the end
of the year. He was just a minor government employee! He didn't know what to do
with this troublemaker. All he knew was
that he was an innocent man… but he sent him to the Cross any way. to keep the
peace.
We all know how the Passion goes. We've seen it in all the
Gospels from Mark, our shorthand, “just the facts” news reporter version to
Matthew speaking and reaching out to the Jews, to our true novel writer, Gospel
writer Luke speaking to and trying to reach all the Gentiles, to finally John's
mystical Gospel that tries to get people to see hear and feel the Divinity of
Christ and that black hole, supernova, profound experience of
Grace.
The only thing the Gospel writers seem to have an issue with,
was Jesus last seven words. That finite moment on the cross, where the cross
absorbs all of the reality of sin, death and evil and it collapses into itself.
Jesus dies and is put into the tomb shortly after. I wanted you to
experience today's call to worship as if it were scenes in a movie or beats of
the heart, slowed down and separated. I wanted you to hear each second, and
then I want you to think about why did the Gospel writers pick out these
certain words of Jesus to be His last moments upon the cross?
Luke has Jesus saying: “Father forgive them for they do not
know what they are doing.” He also has him talking to the two criminals next to
him: “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Forgiveness
and salvation, those aren't the only messages at the heart of the Triumph of
Easter. They are at the heart of our human struggle. They are at the heart of
our “on and off” relationship with loving God and loving neighbor. They are
part of the heart, which is that place the Holy Spirit has been guiding us to
work within to transform. Changing the heart is just a few words that equal a
lifetime's journey. Faith and Hope are like those Laminin cells they bind us
together and keep us journeying onward.
The Gospel writer John, has Jesus saying: “Woman, behold
your son. Son behold your mother.” He is obviously speaking to His mother Mary,
and to John, the disciple. The next words he has Jesus say is: “I thirst.” The
original writers who looked at all of the Gospel writers sets of Jesus’ last
words has these two sentences as being about relationship and distress. Perhaps
the Gospel writer John, was once again trying to connect people to the human side
of Jesus, for it is hard for us to understand that paradox of Jesus as both
fully human and fully divine but this is what we confess; this is what we
believe.
Staying on that thought and thinking about our Gospel
reading for this morning… Which is the tail end of the “two-mile long” Passion
reading from the Gospel of Mark. But I wanted to take you straight to that
moment. I wanted you to imagine that sign over his head with his charges. I
wanted you to see the two criminals, the one on his right and on his left. And
I wanted you to feel the evil indifference and cruelty from those who were
called priests and scribes demanding that He save Himself and come down from
the cross. Most importantly, which even our shorthand Gospel writer here makes
quite clear; I needed you to see those repeating sentences— do this, so that we
may “see and believe.” “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take Him
down...” Then I wanted you to see the irony of the Centurion, who came to
faith. Plus, I wanted you to think about Jesus’ last words here: “My God,
my God why have you forsaken me?!” Why would they give him sour wine, was it
more or less a cauterizing element against His miracles of turning water to
wine?
I needed you to experience that moment… not the Hollywood
grotesque version of Mel Gibson's Passion or anything else that takes away from
the true gritty reality. I needed you to think about that last moment. I wanted
you to see the curtain torn in two, in the temple. The last few sets of
sentences that we heard in our call to worship you needed to hear, in that
order. You needed to think about abandonment: “My God my God why have you
forsaken me?” Was this just purely Jesus human side crying out, once all the
sin, death and evil absorbed into the cross? The gospel writer John has Jesus
saying: “Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit.” That reunion of Father
and Son, that moment of the end soon to go into the beginning, once again. “It
is finished.” This is the Triumph of Easter as our Big Bang Theory, the New
beginning.
Back to the beginning, through realizing the end. Well, so
does chicken go back into the egg? Does the butterfly go back into the Chrysalis?
No, it is a New beginning. We've had two thousand years of New beginnings… What
have we done with them? What have we done with thinking about the gravity of
the cross? We just want to go to the chocolate bunnies, and the sugar filled
peeps… am I right? We are still like those Israelites stuck in the wilderness,
wandering complaining and belly-aching wondering where is God, when God is
right there WITH them! We can read the beautiful thoughts of St Paul, but are
we experiencing the gravity of that pastoral pleading he gives to his beloved
Philippians: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
I saw and read a beautiful but tragic story about a Polish
man who ran an orphanage during World War II and when Hitler decided to turn
Warsaw into a ghetto and began exterminating people… his orphanage was on the cutting
block. He had many opportunities, and was offered many opportunities to run
away to escape the Nazis, but he chose to stay with his children instead. This
diabolical evil of what the Nazis did to millions of men, women and children is
something that is going to haunt us, because it is Satan's work in the world.
He stayed with these children as they were all being prepared to be gassed.
Staying to the bitter end, there would be no victory from the close of that war
and the death of Hitler… just looking back and learning and hoping, that we
would not repeat the same evil or ever allow it to happen again.
That hasn't worked either. We've had ISIS right? We've had
many things happen, the Vietnam War… Humanity just keeps stumbling over itself
to Satan's delight. It's only been two thousand something years, and we've not
been able to solve the problem of evil, as Humanity. Perhaps, we're not looking
enough towards the Hope in Christ and what Grace has to impart to us to become
non-violence resistors, to become beacons of light, that harbor and work
towards restorative justice for all?
The hippies from the 1960’s had the best thoughts. I don't
recall who did that song, but it has the words: “reach out of the darkness.”
Are we reaching out of the darkness with the Light of Christ and giving it to
our neighbor from a selfless heart? Are we allowing Christ to rule in our
hearts? Those Laminin proteins should make us think about that if that's
already holding our whole body together as a scientific protein… Spiritually,
the Cross of Christ is to hold our soul together, to be New Natured disciples
of Grace and Promise.
I would like to challenge everyone here to set aside a
little time this week. We can't have all of the services of Holy Week, but make
your week Holy in solitude with God. Do this in your homes, in your backyards,
in your kitchens at a Starbucks… it doesn't matter where you are but take the
time to think about one of those Gospels. Read the Passion, from the beginning
to the end. Put yourself in the disciple shoes. Perhaps even put yourself in
Pontius Pilate shoes? Now there was a man, whose conscience was truly troubled,
but he didn't have enough drive or motivation to stop it, he let the mob take
over. Don't we do that though, when we don't want to deal with something we
give it to somebody else or turn an indifferent eye towards it?
What is truth? What is the truth for us as 21st century
Christians what are we doing with our discipleship? My seven last words before
my prayer to end this message is this: Christ is counting on you, to
change. Be the change in the world for the glory of God, because of the Grace
of the cross that freed you from sin, death and darkness.
Let us pray,
Gracious and loving Lord Jesus,
May we know that the center of our hearts is to be ruled by Your
cross.
May we truly become children of Your Grace and live into
that Promise.
May we be “prisoners of Hope,” for the sake of the Kingdom
of God.
To thine be the glory and the Amen
March 25th,
2018; Palm Sunday (Sunday of the Passion); Proc. Jn. 12:12-19; Year B; SOLA
Lectionary
Sermon by:
Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, OSST
Psalm
118:19-29; Zechariah 9:9-12; Philippians 2:5-11; Mark 15:25-39
Below is the link to this sermon's delivery at First Congregational Church @ 9:30am
