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“The days are surely coming says the Lord, when I will
make a New Covenant promise with my people. I will put my law within them and I
will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be my
people.” What a beautiful passage, what a wonderful way to start to get into
what these texts are for us this Sunday, this very last Sunday in the season of
Lent before Palm Sunday. You could almost squeeze the Hope out of those words!
But perhaps that's what the Prophet Jeremiah was aiming to reveal to his
hearers. I love those images, as well… “I will put my law within them, and I will
write it on their hearts.” I've said this before, but the heart is the first
church. It is that place where the Holy Spirit does His work to aid us in
turning to God. The Holy Spirit begins our process of “no turning back.”
That title came to me when I started seeing the images,
in today's Gospel, as so vividly real. One of the challenges of lectionary
preaching is that sometimes, there are two gospels assigned. One is an
alternative, and the other is the lesson for the day. My dilemma was, that both
readings were excellent, but the Gospel of Mark, the reality revealed in Mark,
for this Sunday, seem to resonate the most.
Whether you may have realized it in first hearing my
reading of this gospel, this is one of the very last few moments Jesus has with
His disciples, before the ultimate betrayal and the cross ahead. If you think
about it, it is kind of funny as well, James and John, typical ordinary people
asking kind of a stupid question, that's a very human question: “Hey Jesus can
I like sit next to you at the throne and enjoy your glory too?” Of course, the
other disciples were kind of annoyed with them. I would’ve loved to have been a
fly on the wall in seeing the expressions on the other disciples faces at James
and John asking this of Jesus. Jesus, in his very loving way, is not angry, but
is really trying to get it through their thick heads that they don't understand
what's going to be happening to Him.
The way of the cross, the cost of discipleship… these are
very hard lessons that are at the heart of the Christian faith, the Christian
journey. I can hear the love in Jesus voice: “you do not know what you're
asking... are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the
baptism that I am baptized with?” They still were bewildered and not
understanding— they said: “yes of course we can do it!” And probably the other
disciples started murmuring under their breath...
Verse 43 is very poignant: “Whoever wishes to become great
among you, must be your servant and whoever wishes to be first among you, must
be slave of all. We have a very wide understanding of the concept of service.
Perhaps that's even become an understatement, since everything is so connected
with bartering and money. Service is not really looked at with the same
heartfelt eyes, commitment as it once was. I say this for the other day, I was
going to get my cell phone upgraded and I had this very young woman help me.
What was very amusing being that every little thing that I was hoping she would
be helpful on, she really didn't want to be helpful on. I've heard the jokes about
this before, that Millennials are like this, or many of them are… but we
shouldn't judge, and we shouldn't assume. But it was funny none the less, just
to simply get my phone changed over and upgraded was like “giving birth” for
this young girl who really just wanted to have me give her money and do
everything myself, on my own at home.
Just the other day I had seen on the news that a university
pedestrian bridge in Florida collapsed and crushed a number of people driving
on the highway, underneath. Probably what was a sad thought to have gone
through my mind right away, is wondering if someone cut corners and didn't put
enough cement in certain places or didn't put enough support bars in others or
perhaps just really did, what they say or call, as a half-ass job. I really
pray that that is not the result of the authority’s investigation. But then, I
wonder how we are today, in thinking of caring for others, serving others
beyond the self. We've been hearing a lot about repentance where I've been
using that fancy word, metanoia, to get you to hear it in a different way.
Repentance involves several things: it's no turning back
to your past and inward to yourself but looking forward with hope filled eyes
to aspire to be a more loving person, not just for yourself, but truly out of
love for God and neighbor. Today's Gospel examples Jesus using the power of His
word to reach down into the disciples’ hearts and write that new law of love
upon it.
The other Gospel for today, which was from John chapter 12
verses 20 through 33; I have Incorporated more or less, into the call to
worship. For there are certain elements within this Gospel, that connect as
well, to Jesus reaching down to the disciples to teach them the way of the
cross and the way of service. He says: “Whoever serves me must follow me and
where I am, there will be my servant also.” Near to the last few verses of this
particular Gospel, He says: “That this voice has come for your sake, not mine.
Now is the Judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world will be driven
out.” This particular Gospel snippet, comes from a very surreal event, where
once again there is a mystical encounter with God's voice speaking from the
cloud in a voice that sounds like thunder... These beautiful scenes of the miracles
and direct encounters with God are wonderful for us to hear on certain Sundays.
When I heard this Gospel however, in connection with the other texts for this
Sunday... the unreal or surreal sense of these fantastic events lightened the
intensity and powerful truth of Jesus needing to have this very earthly
conversation with his disciples.
In fact, the way Jesus talks to His disciples in the Gospel
of Mark, reminded me of when Phil & I saw the Churchill movie. I probably
joked about that a couple months ago, how the cinematography was just a little
too detailed or graphic... I don't think I really needed to see all the skin
cells on Gary Oldman's face... But then that “warts and all” type of gritty, earthly,
real connection with his character, was what was needed, to have us truly get
to know who he was.
That's kind of an irony here, in thinking of these two Gospels
again, the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of John. Mark as we know, is that
QuickTime, just the facts ma'am news reporter and John is our wonderful poet
and mystical theologian trying to get us to grasp a sense of the divine nature
of Jesus. With this last conversation or near to last conversation, I
should say Jesus has with His disciples we need to see his fully human side,
though as well.
Jesus is speaking the truth of his journey, and it's a
hard pill for them to swallow. But then the disciples didn't realize how much
Jesus was obedient to the will of His father, and how far He was willing to go
for the sake of others. The epistle writer this morning, who is thought to have
been Barnabas, tells it like it is in retrospect. He is truly speaking to his
Jewish brethren. Jesus is their perfect example, their high priest. Jesus is
the head of the Body and the head of the priesthood of all believers.
This passage is looking back, but it's looking back with
learned eyes towards the future. I don't know if you can imagine the scene or
not, but Barnabas was one of the lead characters, fellow travelers alongside
Paul and Peter and some of the other disciples, who started planting churches
in Asia Minor & Beyond. There's been a lot of criticism of this particular
letter, because it seems to go too far back into an ancient perspective as well
as seems to talk too much about the law. Poor Ardell had to try to pronounce
Melchizedek... And yes, that's one heck of a name to remember.
The author of this letter though needed us to hear about
Jesus, as our crucified Lord. Those two words together: can you hear both the
Paradox and the great power of what those two words mean alone, as well as
together? And I think that's an important point to remember, when we get to
hearing those seven last words at the cross before the Triumph of Easter. What
Jesus brought to us and is trying to have us hear, was and is completely
radical, and upside down to our logic, our thinking and our planning of life. The
foundation to what would become the priesthood of all believers is through the
example of Christ lived through us, as a willingness to love and care for our
neighbor, to serve one another truly, with a gracious heart. This Heart however,
has to realize that New Covenant, that new law written upon it of Grace and it
is calling us to not turn back.
The path to reconciliation, not just to God, but to
ourselves, to be real with ourselves, to truly grow as His children of Grace
and promise— incorporates that aspect of sacrifice, where the past is
surrendered to the past, and you move on and forward. You move forward into
that New life. You are just nearing the point. to being ready to pull down and
break through that Chrysalis shell and emerge as a brand, New person through
Christ Jesus who indeed saved us all, in more ways than one.
Being able to truly move into that New life, reap that New
Nature is to surrender— the past Must Die. Phil and I were watching a really
disturbing X-Files the other evening. I don't know if anyone here, follows that
show, but they had a mini revival of it the past several weeks. I don't know if
they're going to do more episodes or not, but I was fan in the 90s when it
first was showing. What sticks out in my mind about this very disturbing
episode, was that the leader of this cult was so profoundly evil, that she was
devouring people, not too much unlike Dracula, but worse, in order to stay
looking the exact same way she looked some 70 years earlier. The disciples
around her were frantically trying to find her organs and other gory things
from hospitals, and people to kill and suck the life out of. After seeing that
episode I frankly saw a glimpse of Satan because the evil was just too profound
for me.
Now for what I just shared, you should see two things
stick out right away. The first of these two things would be that this evil
person wanted to be exactly the same way she was forever and ever. She didn't
want to change at all and it drove her to murder, it drove her to lie to
people, it basically drove her to her own death. Which in a macabre way, you
can say she got what she deserved... The second thing to notice from this gory
story is, that life had lost it's true driving purpose, goal and meaning. This woman's
survivalism was purely for the self, served the self alone.
Returning to today's Gospel, of all irony verse 33, which
is the same number for the age of Jesus to have been crucified... He tells them,
His end: “The son of man will be handed over to the chief priest and scribes,
and they will condemn Him to death, then they will hand Him over to the
Gentiles. They will mock Him, and spit upon Him and flog Him and kill Him and
after three days— He will rise again. We have to remember, outside of the
original disciples being kind of thick & ordinary, they still had this
impression in their minds of the warrior Messiah. This Messiah was the great
superhero Messiah that would save them from the Romans and all their enemies.
They never could understand or truly didn't know the kind of Messiah that Jesus
would be for the world.
The misunderstanding that James and John reflect, yes,
comes off as humorous, but also was in some senses, a tragic reflection on humanity's
understanding of the scandal of the cross. In fact, in the Gospel that Matthew
writes, he tries to change the story a little bit, to make it be Salome, the
mother of James and John, asking Jesus to do these things for them. Perhaps
Matthew was embarrassed or terrified that someone would say something like
that. But then as I said earlier, we weren't there to see the other disciples
expressions on their faces at James and John asking: “We want you to do for us whatever we ask of
you. Grant us to sits one at your right hand and one at your left in your
glory...” What they couldn't hear Jesus saying, is that without the cross,
there can never be a crown.
Without that sacrifice, without that repentance and reconciliation;
we can't move forward as a faithful priesthood. We can't be the kind of
disciples the Gospel needs for us to be, if we are unwilling to grow beyond
ourselves to love and serve our neighbor in a most beautiful selfless and
grace-filled way. We see elements of the problem around us in the
world today. Like with that story I shared about changing out my phone… more
and more people I have met in the service industry or are required to help one
another, don't have a healthy attitude at all of what service is to be.
It is hard for us though living in the world and trying to live beyond it, for
the sake of the Gospel. Satan makes it all too easy for us to adopt that Unholy
Trinity of I, me, mine, for every single thing we contemplate and do.
An attitude of gratitude goes a long way, not just in the
labors of the world that we quote, “have to do…” but in the labors of the
heart. The heart is that organ, that the season of Lent is beckoning for us to
transform from. The heart is the first church. It is our own little church that
holds the essence of life, the soul. It is God's breath, and it is that place
where we are to truly begin to grow from. We're starting to see those awful sugar
filled peeps candies and chocolate eggs and bunny rabbits and all kinds of
things that have usurped Easter, but the one thing that remains is that, that
egg is a symbol of Life, New Life.
So, have I written the message God has sent my heart to
share, upon your hearts to hear? Can you see yourself in the places of James
and John, asking perhaps a similar silly question, human question? Can you see
yourself at your worst where you are perhaps a glimpse or a second of that evil
person, whose world revolves too much around yourself and you don't want to
love your neighbor and you certainly never want to help them? Can you just
squeeze God's tears out of those sentences? We must be baptized with those
valleys and those mountain tops. We cannot go around the cost of being a
disciple of Jesus. We have to live it in order to give it, the Gospel that is,
to others.
Let us pray,
Gracious and ever-loving God,
Help us to say deep within our hearts, no turning back
Help us to feel those words of love
Your most glorious Gospel
The power of Your Word written upon our hearts, as that New
Nature.
May Our Lives bear much fruit for Your Glory, alone.
Amen
March 18th,
2018; Fifth Sunday in Lent; Year B; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by:
Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, OSST
Psalm 119:9-16;
Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 10:32-45 & John 12:20-33
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at First Congregational Church at 9:30am
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