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A half a century ago was still a time
of turbulence, truly a time of transition in the American mindset. The
billowing voice of Martin Luther King Jr. was heard crying out on behalf of
those seeking justice to having a fair voice in the world. As we know from
history, his voice was silenced by a gunman in Memphis, Tennessee, April 4th,
1968. Martin Luther King was just in the beginning of planning a national
occupation of Washington DC to be called the ‘Poor People's campaign.’
This American Baptist, Republican minister was a key figure in the Civil Rights
Movement adapting not only the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi, but also
his faith was a key factor in fueling his fearless mission for equality.
I've been doing some reflecting this
week on living half a century thus far. Apparently not too many good things
happened in 1968. It really wasn't a good year for a lot of Americans as well
as for the world. The Vietnam War was raging. Robert F. Kennedy was
assassinated. There were violent protests in Chicago and many other things that
happened that proved people were restless and questioning. Perhaps people were
restless and questioning to find the right voice when they see something wrong
or terrible in the world and want to see change.
John the Baptist was pretty much the
same way. He is the start of the Gospel in the sense that he is that beginning
voice crying out in the wilderness to preparing a way. Have we really prepared
enough of a way for God to influence our hearts to turn to his will and
purposes, and see how truly grand the promise is in our lives for the kingdom
of God? Truth be told, and I probably have said this before, when we hear about
him a lot during the time of Advent, John the Baptist is one of my favorite
Biblical characters, I love his still speaking voice. That man never stopped preaching.
He had a mission from God and he was going to live through it no matter what
happens. It's that kind of drive that sometimes I really think we're too scared
to tap into, own up to in our own lives as Disciples of Jesus.
We're in the midst of a generation
that is beyond being all about the self, but in some senses has tried to behead
the Gospel itself and its efficacy in the world. Remember what I had said last
week: the message of the Gospel is truly one that is not popular and is
supposed to challenge us. We may try to remove the silvering from the mirror of
the law, but we need that mirror to seek and preach the truth of God's Divine
plans for us, the Gospel. Herod Antipas was a sordid character you could say. He
truly was not only a corrupt politician, but his depravity saw no
boundaries. Both Herodias and Herod knew they were sinners. They both
knew that their unlawful union broke Mosaic law and that's what John the
Baptist was preaching to them to realize. Herod's niece, now
daughter, did a seductive dance and got him to behead John. Herod complied to
this merely for the sake of not being embarrassed in front of the crowds and
for supposedly keeping his honor.
These are the things that happen
when we justify our will and purposes over and above God's. The plumb line
between saints and sinners is blurred even further by our catering to the “unholy
trinity of I, me, mine!” It's truly sad to think that almost a century and 3
years before that last speech that Martin Luther King Jr. would make, was when
the Civil War ended, and slavery was abolished. Yes, a people were set free,
but the cost still remained, and people's divisiveness found new ways of
keeping people divided and unequal. This goes beyond racism and it talks truly
about everything that we do that is anti the fruits of the New Nature, that we
are called and commissioned to tap into. We hear from the beautiful letter of
Saint Paul to the Ephesians this morning. It is hard to believe that he was in
prison, conveying perhaps one of his last letters before his death by beheading,
as well. This is a beautiful letter where Paul just puts it straight out there—
the all sufficiency of Christ to give us that great courage and strength to
move mountains.
We can move mountains you know,
spiritual ones of course and that's a lot of what the problem was in today's
Gospel. John the Baptist was speaking to people's hearts to transform, change,
turn to God's will and abandon, die to their own. By his baptizing, he has
given us today a daily remembrance of that promise to become a flourishing
voice in the world with the Gospel. Herod both feared and admired John
the Baptist, but Herod didn't want to look into that mirror and see that what
he was doing was profoundly wrong. He chose an easy way out and justified it
upon his lust for his brother's wife's daughter, Salome. Choosing the easy way
out, going around that subliminal law or breaking that plumb line is why there
is conflict, war, destruction and disunity still, all around us. It goes beyond
the “scarlet letter” I talked about last week and has become even more divisive
when our justification of our will becomes law in itself.
Being a Christian voice in this day
and age, the persecution is going to be much greater and perhaps even more
subtle. I personally don't believe in being “politically correct.” I don't
believe in holding back on the truth of God's Word, ever. I certainly don't preach
God's Word from a point of ignorance or cheap Grace, but from a deep faith and
a deep compassion, sorrow for our world. “Tuff Stuff,” but that's the cost
of discipleship though. Fearlessly living into that cost of discipleship
also means that you can't be indifferent you can't set a “boundary of comfort”
just because you want to save your own hide. If you're going to do that then
don't call yourself a disciple of Jesus, yet alone a minister of the Gospel.
Indifference is perhaps one of the ugliest aspects of the old nature that we
all too conveniently fall victim or prey to using.
Indifference plus greed are the two
systemic sins that make up the ugly core of what is our old nature. Greed is
caused by a catering to as I said, the “unholy trinity of I, me, mine.
Indifference is the lack of compassion or the sacrifice of compassion for the
sake of an agenda or creature comfort. These sins are truly sordid just
like Herodias' bitterness found a sordid plan to silence the voice of the
Baptist for the sake of continuing on in her plans with Herod. The
problem of evil in our world has found ways of working its way into being a
voice in our heart to turn away from God and go down our own path. We've been
lost in this worldly wilderness though ever since the Resurrection, ever since
the sacrifice of the cross. Sometimes we hear the voice of God speaking to us
and we do choose to listen… Other times alongside many little factors find a
way to cause us to cave into that greed and indifference and use it to our own
advantage.
I've painted a pretty strong picture
here for you to see exactly what the root is, or the heart of today's lessons
are. We are always going to be in a spiritual warfare with either
choosing the “Do’s” of the Gospel, which include God's will, the kingdom of God,
the New Nature, or choosing the old nature which includes the “Don'ts”
alongside the empty promises of the evil one. Doing ministry sometimes
gets us entangled into people wanting us to choose an answer or solution that
bends that ethical plumb line into sin itself, as well. People who are not
really strong enough in their faith yet alone in their office or leadership as
a disciple, put up boundaries and turn an indifferent eye to really reaching
out and helping someone in need.
I have been amid very complex
counseling with some people for the past couple months. I have had peers tell
me that I should, for my own protection, be indifferent and divorce myself from
helping someone but that's not what the Gospel called me to do ever, as a
minister. The moment you turn your back on your neighbor, yet alone your friends,
what kind of friend are you? Yes, you have to look out for your own safety, security
and protection.... but at what cost? If someone really needs you to be there to
listen to them, and hear the Words of the Gospel to help them to be strong and
to find a way out—how could you just abandon them?
Just like a few months ago, I was
helping a dear friend of 30 plus years to not be homeless… I am helping some
other friends with a great transition in their lives. I have been terribly sad
yet again, in how few people have chosen to come up to the task and help them with
simple things like finding housing or counseling needs. The other people chose
to just save their own hides, and not help. Then how can you really say that
you love God and neighbor, if that Gospel really isn't real for you in the
heart? Are they just pretty words that you heard once in a while or here on
Sundays and they don't really transform you? You don't have that metanoia, that change of
heart and mind? If that's the case, that's tragic!
There's many things though that slip
between the cracks in our society. They are never really dealt with or managed
in the way that's they truly ought to be. I'm sure some of you have seen I have
a fundraiser to help the plight of homelessness not only in California, but in
other areas with this company that manufactures bricks out of recycled plastic.
They can build whole homes for just a little over $250. Where did the 406
million dollars made from the sale of recreational marijuana in Nevada go to? I
heard that it was supposed to go to education. Why didn’t some of it as well,
go to help some of the homeless population that lives just north of the Strip?
Why didn't it go to counseling and rehabilitation to those who are truly in
need of it? Worldly seats of power though, are never going to relinquish
or share this power in a selfless way with others. Shaking the ankles of the
taxpayers are not necessarily a solution either, especially when we aren't
really facing the actual needs to enact restorative justice in the world.
This leaves us stuck in that worldly wilderness and that's our spiritual
warfare battle. A battle where the wrong voices are swaying our hearts to make
what is truly righteous, not a good choice anymore.
I think it's interesting the story
we have with Amos and the unpopular message he must be preaching to the king.
Amaziah, the personal priest of king Jeroboam automatically tries to circumvent
Amos' efforts in speaking the truth. Amos cuts him to the quick in the sense,
that he says: “…hey I'm no Prophet, I'm a herdsman! God just sent me here to
share this message with you.” That's the kind of humility that's very
much a part of the power of God's work, God's Word working in your heart to
move mountains spiritually. I embraced that humility in conversation with
others about my counseling this couple or "forbidden couple..." to
help them spiritually heal and find peace. God called me to be a person
of compassion over catering to just saving myself.
Since we are still in this world,
the wilderness of the world, we are going to get entangled in those jungles of
things that we don't want to walk through, of things that were trying to avoid.
When we don't choose the tap into the power of the New Nature to love our
neighbor and love God, we don't have the courage, or trust enough in ourselves,
to live into the promise of the Kingdom, to be a light to others. The world of
the old nature just seems too easy to tap into choosing the wrong things,
selfish things, greedy things and indifferent things.
When I looked over my whole life
beyond the humor of enjoying that I'm a half-century-old today, God has been
showing me where I have gone and what my journey has been so far. It has been a
lot of hard work. It has been a lot of suffering, but there have been joys and
there has been light in places I never thought to find or see God's Guiding
Light. Living into a Resurrected life is never forgetting the Grace
overflowing even into the valleys of your life, helping you to find a way
out. Some could say that's having an epiphany or a conversion moment. I
have seen this begin to happen with the gentleman of the couple I have been
counseling. The gospel calls us to take that daring risk. It calls us to be
flourishing through our voices, hands and feet with the gifts God has given us
to share.
Even from a Roman prison, St. Paul
allowed the voice of the Holy Spirit to use him to preach to the people of
Ephesus— the all sufficiency of Christ, the mystery of God's will and purposes,
and a unity in Christ to eventually create one truly united family in God.
Speaking of a truly united family, I was really impressed and amazed to see the
stewardship of decorating that has been done throughout our church these last
few Sundays. As an artist, it is nice to see what other people see as visual expressions
of God’s love and comfort in paintings, reliefs, sculptures, etc. You are truly
knitting your story together here with these walls, as the canvas. I would like
to challenge you however, to see beyond these walls and to the world out there.
We are first, and we are congregational— what do those words mean spiritually
for you? What are you first, in sharing with others, the truth of God's grace?
What truly unites you as a congregation? Is it the many years you've been in
Las Vegas, or is it something even deeper than that? The challenge of
discipleship wants you to tap into those things look inward to where your heart
is being shaped, and use that for the real glory, love and peace that God gives
us to realize.
Let us pray,
Loving and Gracious Lord Jesus
We thank You for the witness and
bravery of people like John the Baptist
And figures we have had throughout
our modern times.
These were disciples who have moved
mountains of indifference and greed with Your Almighty Word.
May we be lights in the world of
love and truth
May we become flourishing voices to
cut down the worldly wilderness,
To lay the foundation of Your
Kingdom, here and now
AMEN
July
15th, 2018; Eighth Sunday after Pentecost; Year B; Proper 10; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon
by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm
85:1-13; Amos 7:7-15; Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:14-29
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at First Congregational Church at 10am:
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