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It's not too often that we use outside
sheet music, but for this particular Sunday, the wording of this particular
song is very important. We learned as the first Creed of the early church,
Jesus is Lord. The Lord Jesus is truly Our Shepherd, our great guide. He is the
Cornerstone that we continue to reject, and this is another side of the diamond
of Christ who is to be at the center of our lives and our very hearts.
Those very three words— Jesus is Lord,
met with turmoil because of the politics of the time. Israel was definitely an
occupied land. Rome believed themselves to be in the hierarchy of Gods. The
emperor was considered to be God. That is why he was on the Romans’ coins that
is why, as such address he would be referred to in a “divine way.” For an
occupied country to DARE Proclaim Jesus is Lord… St Paul did in several letters
as well as the apostles activity in and throughout the Book of Acts got them
into some deep persecution.
Our next mini-series installment,
courtroom-drama scene today in the Book of Acts, is that Peter and John were
arrested they were arrested because they started preaching that Jesus was
resurrected from the dead. The Sadducees were more or less the politicians of
the Jewish Church. They wanted to keep the peace, no matter what the cost, even
if it went against the truth and became an act of indifference and grave sin
itself. Their willful act, alongside the Pharisees, made them to be the “wolves
and the false Shepherds,” that Jesus talks about in his wonderful parable or
metaphor, from the Gospel of John.
Just before this little tiny snippet from
the Gospel, is Jesus using yet another story in saying how he is the Gate keeper.
Throughout the Gospel of John, we have many moments of Jesus trying to
indirectly pry at the conscience of the scribes and Pharisees with not too much
success. Perhaps the greatest story ever of a changing heart, which is not
talked about today, is with the Pharisee Nicodemus. There was a man who finally
had his heart opened and laid aside, laid down his fear, even at the risk of
being persecuted himself to support, Jesus. He was still kind of a chicken
heart about it and kept it as a “quiet support…” but at least, in some senses,
he was beginning to see the light.
In another sense, you could say that he
was a disciple under construction. It is fair to say however, that we are all
works under construction, works-in-progress. Though the ways of the world,
which John and his letter is cautioning against today, would like us to put the
ego and the self, first, above everything, and most certainly above God's will.
Love is something that tears down all barriers and becomes those indestructible
bricks towards building the kingdom of God. Those bricks of love began through
realizing God's grace and realizing living into the resurrected life.
Some Reformed traditions have tried to
understand God's Grace in separate little categories. As far as I'm concerned
Grace is Grace. It is that extra bold Hollywood size signed reality of the
heart inscribed upon us by God's Word. The one Reformed category of Grace, that
a lot of these texts had me thinking about today, is what some call “prevenient
Grace.” This is more or less, a perspective that God's divine Grace precedes
and leads us to make the right decisions. As I've said I believe grace
alone and God's word alone, are what help us to find our feet on God's true
path for us.
Finding the true path for us being
thoughtful sheep to our great Shepherd is achieved through love. Love is the
end of the law. Love is the greatest element of the Gospel of Grace, Jesus
reveals to us. It is a kind of power that is not of this world— it is of the
kingdom of God, we have yet to understand. The words of both Jesus and the
apostles today, are hoping for us to begin construction. Even before the famous
Sunday of Pentecost to come, the beginning of the church, is needing to start
laying down its bricks and mortar. And this is not the bricks-and-mortar that
we are thinking of, but they are spiritual bricks of building the church within
our hearts for the Holy Spirit to work within.
This construction however needs to tear
down the barriers of greed and indifference, that continually re-form new
obstacles in our lives to be swayed by false Shepherds and wolves. Just the
other day or so, I have been praying for some friends to find where God is
leading them to call their new home Church. Yes, I did try Guerilla evangelism
and say please come to my church, you'll have fun! :-) All humor aside, I
think it is a very sad and difficult thing for the modern Christian so
entrenched by the secular world etcetera, to have to be involved in the task of
"church shopping." From what I was hearing from their hearts, they
seem to be lost in the sea of choices. Sometimes what may seem to be the
answer, or their final place turns out to be a disappointment on one level or
another. It's sad to be at that place.
As some of you know I do visit other
churches on Saturdays to see what they're doing and network with other pastors
and colleagues. There are things to be learned with what has become now the “institutionalized
church.” What we have been seeing these past few Sundays into the Easter season,
is not only the pure beginnings of the true ideal Church, but we are seeing the
beginnings of the truth and cost of what discipleship truly is. Here's the cold
stone reality of where we are now—
the church has been broken for quite some
time. In a dark way, you can say, it is a structure that has lots of duct tape
around it, little bits of plaster of Paris smattered in holes, lots of glue and
way too many nails to cover up what we've not been able to be faithfully
accountable in fixing, for the sake of the Gospel.
This “Shack or deteriorating building,”
could also be spiritual though as well. We hear it from yet another of Peter’s
very bold speeches, point blank to the Sadducees scribes and Pharisees in the
temple. He's on trial folks. Both are, he and John are in a heap load of
trouble! Outside of them daring to preach Jesus is Lord, the Messiah, and that He
resurrected from the dead, they are going about and even healing people in the
Name of Jesus, how dare they! Peter called them to the carpet for it though, he
says: “… this Jesus is the stone that you rejected! You so-called builders… and
now He has become the Cornerstone. Jesus is the Cornerstone of Grace and The
Sovereign of Love in the world. Abiding in God's Grace is becoming those
builders. Becoming truthful builders of love in the world, for a purpose truly
beyond the self, and in light of others.
Becoming those Builders of love, truth
and action, beyond the self, is living the cross-shaped life of a disciple.
What does that mean? God is always challenging us to stretch beyond our worldly
capacity. The world caters to our greed, to be willful and the world caters to
the easy choice of becoming indifferent. Indifference, I think is really a
truly horrible sin or structural sin, as I have mentioned. The self is so
concerned with its wants, needs and agendas… it would never consider laying down
its life for someone else, yet alone for a greater purpose. There's all kinds
of ways that we could be those wandering sheep though, and follow the wrong
voices.
It's incredible and amazing how much of a
traveling wasteland or junkyard, the internet can be with different articles on
things, commentaries and what not. Sometimes you feel like you're looking at a
big barge of items that shouldn't be recycled or even thought about. Some
things are rather humorous and ridiculous, and come out of our fears and
ignorance. For instance, the one funny thing I saw this week was that the
apocalypse is supposed to happen tomorrow right before I take off for Chicago to
help some friends and visit my family. I hope you're all prepared~ all you “beam
me up Jesus people” out there LOL. This probably makes only the 15th
announcement for this year of some kind of Apocalypse date… I guess some people
just have too much time on their hands. This happens when you're hearing what
you want to hear from God's Word as well as what's going on in the world. And
it's easy to get those channels mixed up.
Another item I saw, that seems like a
good Sci-Fi story, that maybe the X-Files or Star Trek, or something like that
should have taken on and done… though there are shows out there now, that are
talking about time travel. This was a very long article that had a serious tone
to it from a man who claims he's traveled to the year 2700 something, and then
to another year in 6700 something... He basically highlights all our great
fears. We are going to annihilate each other with nuclear war. We are going to
become socialists under martial law and that there will be no real sense of
peace. What a horrible vision! Maybe he just time traveled to hell.. we hope
anyway.
This one show that they have on now
called ‘Timeless,’ toys with the notion-- that we can change the outlook of the
future. It's fascinating. It's fascinating as a science fiction thing of course,
as well as it is fascinating to look at, as a Christian. If we do not have
enough faith in God, yet alone ourselves… we fall prey to seeing or believing
in these things these writings from people or observations, that we are doomed,
and we have no hope. The reality and power of the Gospel preaches and teaches
us otherwise. If we tap into and reap that New Nature, that has been planted by
the Grace of Christ and showered upon with his steadfast Sovereign Love, we can
be a people to change the tide of things. We may be only a people that change
our little realm of the eastside of Las Vegas or we could continue to strive
for an even greater goal, for an even greater challenge to help others to
change the world to realize the kingdom of God, not in the distant future but
as a reality— Here and Now.
Realizing the sovereignty of Christ's
reign from the Resurrection onward, is a great task for us. We are those
works-in-progress though. We are in training to be builders ourselves. When we
are meeting in our team meetings or on council, we are here helping to build
those spiritual bricks. I know as well, even with my hopping into your story
somewhere around chapter 52 last year, that you have been a people seeking to
have a real sense of home again with the actual bricks and mortar. Let me be
the first to say, that your faith has made fantastic efforts. Every time I pass
by our new church location, I start to see in my mind's eye all the Ministries
that we can develop. I start to see all the children and families coming
through our doors, joining people together in love through weddings, doing
Bible studies, singing in choirs again... I could sit in my car for more than a
half-hour and just keep imagining and wondering all the things we can build
together, fairly soon.
It's taken a lot of faith to come to this
point. I love the notion that you, as well, will be incorporating items from
the old church building. Just like what they say for weddings, something old,
something new, something borrowed and something true. We are marrying ourselves
to the new leg of the journey of the Gospel, as the bride of Christ, His
church. For just as John says in his first letter this morning: “God is greater
than our hearts and He knows everything. We have boldness before God because we
obey His Commandments and do His will. We love one another just as He commanded,
and we abide by His spirit that leads us, as the great Shepherd.”
The Prelude and postlude this morning is
probably one of my most favorite songs about God's grace. Yes, just as much or
even more than Amazing Grace. It is ‘All Good Gifts,’ from the movie Godspell.
I love that the singer is beyond grateful. I love that he is singing his
praises to God, and realizing the true reality of of God's Grace and Love in
his life, and in all of creation. When that man was talking about going into
the year 6700 and saying that Florida would be gone, and all these other places
have disappeared, and that the Earth was ruined… it just was such a horrible
contrast to what we have around us now. We probably take for granted having
nearly every day with blue skies here, and the beautiful way the mountains edge
in our city here. We take for granted so much of the world that is around us,
because it's just there.
We can look at the world as, “we're just
here,” and as I had said last week, just think we're reading 2000 year old
beautiful poetry… or we can wake up to that metanoia, that change of heart and
mind, to see God's truth shining straight through all of the false Shepherds
and wolves and obstacles, we have in the world to turn us away from God.
In my kitchen which took some time to spiritually decide to do, I had taken out
pictures from a picture frame that was my from my graduation from the school of
the Art Institute. the tape was becoming yellowed and the pictures were coming loose,
and I certainly don't look like I did when I was 22, and it just felt like I
needed to put something there that was a part of my New world. My best friend
Jurek, gave me a poster of the great Shepherd. Of all strangeness, it fits the
frame perfectly and it is one of the early Byzantine icon paintings of the
Great Shepherd... I even though, had to reset the picture wire in the back to
have it hang vertically then from what it has been hanging as for several years
now. So, it just sounds like it's just a “day in the life” type moment... but I
think it was a moment of God’s divine revelation for moving forward and moving
onto that New-Natured path.
Even becoming aware of the smallest
moments in your everyday world are part of God leading us through His Love and Grace,
down a great and glorious path towards the Kingdom of God. Cross bearing
activity is doing the “Do’s” of the Gospel. That is living into a cross shaped
life as a disciple of Jesus. Living into the world is easy, but it's rewards
are just a temporal delusion to true happiness and where God really needs us to
be. Life is our chance of learning how to love, and life without love is
death. The world without the Gospel is a world full of wolves.
You've got to be a person to take risks.
Of all people, who would first seem like a big doofus and a chicken heart,
Peter steps up to the plate and becomes this fearless leader for the early
church through the book of Acts. There's many delightful stories and realities
in this wonderful writing, from the Gospel writer Luke. Probably one of my
favorites is the kosher sheet dream that Peter has, where this sheet with all
unclean animals floats down and he has to question and ask God what's this all
about? Just another day in the life moment, for one of the avid disciples of
Jesus.
Hearing that again-- you've got to be a
person to take risks. You've got to be able to “walk that talk.” You need to
love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. Church planting and even
re-planting is risky business. The world would love to make us pessimists about
it. You've got to be a stronger person. How you get there is by developing
that relationship with the great Shepherd, Jesus. Remember, He is that diamond
in the center of your lives, center of your heart. His light is shining through
those many facets of things He needs you to learn and grow from. Are you
listening, or are you rejecting His Cornerstone in the Church of your heart?
We can see time and space as just cause
and effect, and just something that we sit back and be spectators to, or we can
shape this very time and space for the will of God, through the love of God,
and for the love of God and neighbor. It's all in your hands. Can you sacrifice
something from yourself for a greater cause for a Greater Joy that would white
out anything you've ever experienced before? This is believing the kingdom of
God as here and now. It is being aware of God's Sovereign Grace and His
Sovereign Love, even to his wayward children of Grace and promise. Remember we
are a child of promise— let's keep it.
Let us pray
Loving and Gracious Lord Jesus,
May we truly realize how Great and Gracious
You are as our Shepherd in this world.
Help us to grow beyond ourselves, to
always know that we are works in progress, under construction.
Help us to be builders of Love on the
foundation of Your amazing Grace.
Help us to realize all good gifts around
us, help us be good gifts of love, grace, peace and mercy to our neighbor.
Help us to tear down indifference, greed
and hate to reap and build that New Nature world.
Amen
April 22nd, 2018; Fourth Sunday of Easter; Year B; SOLA
Lectionary
Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, OSST
Psalm 23; Acts 4:1-12; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at First Congregational Church at 9:30am
https://youtu.be/5S4csk1wMiE
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