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I want you to try to think about
what I'm doing right now. I bet you never thought of yourself as being
literally a gift to someone, but just imagine being all wrapped up and
unopened. Perhaps really, that's not necessarily a good place or state to be
in. What we want to be, or how God needs us to be, is opened. We have a lot of
layers of tape and things to take off first. Just imagine those pieces of tape
as being our insecurities, lack of trust, lack of confidence and so forth. Maybe
it's not all coming from us, but other people as well, put those pieces of tape
on us. This may even happen when we're just beginning to start to open up, but
don't have enough encouragement, motivation to keep the faith.
Faith is deeply connected to Grace
and Grace is deeply connected to the concept of gift. I have often wondered
just what is it that makes someone beautiful spiritually? I have met some
people or have been blessed to meet some people, I should say in my life that
are genuinely, spiritually beautiful. Our Lord and Savior of course, we know,
is our perfect example. He is not only the New Adam to example for us the true
reality of the New Creation, but He is our example of Resurrection, renewal and
regeneration.
“God's work, our hands,” is actually
a logo statement for one of our brother communities of faith, and for our
denomination it is “God is still speaking.” With a greater brush stroke, what our
hearts motivate us to DO from faith, realized through Grace, is what gets us to
be “a gift” to other people. We can only become “gifts” to one another when we
realize how blessed we are, by the gift and Hope, the resurrection has led us
thus far to come to know. I've had some very deep visitation work this
past week. I was there to be a listening presence and to assist in bringing
healing spiritually to others. The tables were turned you could say, in how the
person I came to visit actually was being a gift themselves of encouragement,
love and healing to myself and a friend who came to visit with me.
Stewardship is unfortunately one of
those Pandora’s box words that have been lost to their true meaning spiritually
in being a gift. The Shaker song, ‘Simple Gifts…’ Says something actually not
so simple: “'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free. 'Tis the gift
to come down where we ought to be, and when we find ourselves in the place just
right, 'Twill be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is
gained, to bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed, To turn, turn will be our
delight, Till by turning, turning we come 'round right.” It is a gift to be giving, but there are
simple things in life that are quite profound. The kingdom of God turns our
intellect on its ear and gets us to open the gift of who we are deep inside,
which is divine. I saw a beautiful film this past weekend with some new
women friends of prayer here. We saw ‘The Book Club.’ It was a wonderful film
of both intense comedy, and heart-wrenching moments of realization for these
midlife women.
All of these women have journeyed
through a good portion of their lives and didn't necessarily get to go back in
time with their “50 plus year old brains” into their twenty-year-old bodies, as
some people dream to do, to make right their previous mistakes. They were
living with their consequences and had turned a new page literally and
spiritually with this silly sex book, ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ that they read.
This little silly book made them think about their life partners, and their
families and their friends… and most importantly got them too look at where
they were and how much they gave or didn't give enough of, on their Journey so
far.
Keeping that in mind, we heard a
very long Gospel today that's is a part of the genius of Mark's writing within
a writing. Today’s Gospel includes two Miracles and two stories, of two very
opposites female characters seeking healing. What I think was lovely to notice
about this Gospel is how it mentions the missional number 12. The little girl, Jairus'
daughter was 12 years old. The suffering woman, the outcast, was infirmed with
her illness for 12 years. Why do you think the Gospel writer Mark uses
that number twice? It's not only reaching out for people to hear and recall how
they are from the 12 tribes of Israel, but I also think he was trying to get
people to see the powerful love of Jesus reaching out to His children of Grace
and Promise.
This deep love that Jesus examples
for the world, we know is the Triumph of Easter— where Jesus defeated sin,
death in the power of evil with a cross. An even more powerful symbol, that we
still need to realize as our motivation today is the Resurrection. This Gospel
story this morning is all about the Resurrection. The resurrection’s power is
being used here to heal. The most important thing to remember is what made this
healing is FAITH. Yes, it's another Sunday of Faith X Faith squared. You've
heard me mention that last week, but just like the echo of the number 12 here;
faith is central.
The 2-mile long letter snippet I
have included in the bulletin this morning from 2nd Corinthians seems like Paul
is doing administrative work here. He maybe, as well, giving a little guilt
trip on the Corinthians. At first glance we're not going to see or understand
what he's doing spiritually. What he's doing spiritually is much more important
than getting them to cough up the money to help the big mother Church in
Jerusalem. He needs their hearts and their minds to stay in Covenant with
giving of themselves graciously and humbly to others. They had lots of problems…
the Corinthians. As I’ve said before, they probably drove poor St. Paul crazy.
Returning to that image I created
with seeming like the wrapped gift… the negative side of that you could say is
looking at how indentured, enclosed that expression seems. It's very easy to
let the “Unholy Trinity of I, Me, Mine,” rule our efforts in the world. If
anything, this culture caters to it beyond belief. It is hard enough for us to
even think of what humility does to open us in a most beautiful and Divine way.
Humility opens us to truly be filled, fulfilled and become whole because of the
Gospel call to us, to give.
An “attitude of gratitude” is built
on humility. It is built by realizing how blessed it is, to be a blessing to
others. Paul was very challenged in getting it through their thick heads, that
they needed to do this. He needed them
to surrender to the world of the self and be resurrected into New Life because
of what Christ has ultimately given us all, Grace. The psalmist illumines our
struggle. “What profit is there in my death” if I go down to the pit? Will the
dust praise you?” We are always going to face life and death. Each day that
closes and moves forward is gone and born anew the following day. A whole and
complete life for the Christian, the disciple of Jesus is radical. It doesn't
have that motto of “have your cake and eat it too,” worldly promise. The
Christian life is going to be a rocky road. It is going to be a persecuted road.
It is going to be a shaped-by-tears road on some occasions. Most importantly
though, is this great love of God, should be what builds us up encourages and
enlightens us to be strong, and to truly regenerate.
The cycle of things of what I've
taught you before, you should now see more clearly. If you remember that one
process is reflection, confession, repentance and renewal and the other process
is to believe, to receive, incorporate and now we're talking about SHARING.
For some people, it is very hard to share and it's not necessarily talking
about selfishness, but it is almost like some people have never been welcomed
to trust in being open. What do I mean by that is that some people keep those wrappers
on themselves. The gift of who they are is still closed to a degree. Though
there's a willingness and deep sorrow in the heart to want to rip off those wrappers
and be completely open and giving to all.
Adult children of alcoholic parents
or of parents who've had other issues of being unable to open to care for their
families creates a boundary around them that they may spend a whole lifetime
trying to heal from. I have counseled people who are very close to me have been
dealing with that for many years. Just like the older woman suffering for years
with this great disease of hemorrhaging and being outcast… she finally mustered
up enough strength through her faith, to trust and know that Jesus would heal
her. Her leap of faith was over a great chasm of doubt and pain,
disillusionment, indifference from her brothers and sisters abroad. This woman
truly was living in sorrow and pain and felt very much alone.
That kind of solitude can only be
broken by the most profound love of a God who has come down to us, Jesus Christ
our Lord and Savior. He would embrace
the cross and would be resurrected most profoundly in our hearts, as Grace. The
story-within-a-story with Jairus, who was just the president of the synagogue,
exampled someone who didn't really have faith in institutionalized religion or
wasn't really someone who listened to every word of the Pharisees and the Scribes…
but he knew and had tremendous faith that Jesus could heal his daughter.
Daddy's little girl was going to get cured no matter what~ What amazing Faith
this man had!
I think it's interesting how this
week weaves into last week's and moves forward yet again into these continuing
stories of Jesus out and about preaching, teaching and healing. The boat just
got to the other side of the bay basically, and He’s now dealing with Jairus
seeking His help and then the woman in the crowd reaching out and just touching
His robe for healing. There's a very subtle change that one may miss, but I
think was profound or is profound. While Jesus was still speaking towards the
woman: “… daughter your faith has made you well, go in peace and be healed of
your disease…” He is confronted with death with Jairus’ friends coming by and
saying that his daughter is dead. All Jesus says to them is “Do not fear, only
believe.” Did they hear him? Maybe they only heard a little bit of what he was
saying because they laughed at him when he said she's only sleeping. Jesus then
speaks in Aramaic saying “Talitha cum,” which means: “little girl, arise!”
Reaching out to someone in their own
language is not only being used here to really get the people to hear. Reaching
out this way really says something about how tightly we are wound up into
ourselves, into our patterns of things and not really open enough to believe.
Counseling adults, yet alone teenagers with dysfunctional family issues such as
addictions or emotional detachment, there's going to be a lot of layers to
undo. There is going to be lots of layers of things that now comprise their
character of who they are, though it's not ideal, and it brings them pain. One
of the things I thought was profound in the movie, ‘The Book Club,’ was that
Diane Keaton's character questioned whether or not it was okay, to be allowed
to be happy. That's one of those major loaded words, isn't it? It can go both
ways. It can be a completely frivolous happiness or could be something
profoundly deep and spiritual, to what she was seeking, but not finding an
answer. She wasn't finding an answer because she didn't believe enough in
herself to really hear what other people we're trying to do, to help her to
heal.
God's love still needs to permeate
through those layers. Grace is very difficult to understand, yet alone respond
to, but welcome to being human. Our Crucified Lord and Savior resurrected, ascended
and His Holy Spirit is still with us now, as I speak. So, it goes beyond the
believing and truly even more profoundly beyond how we've received and how is
it Incorporated, but have we truly begun to renew? Have we truly begun to
share?
The Beautiful song you heard this
morning as our prelude, ‘All Good Gifts,’ is probably from perhaps my second
favorite movie/ musical, Godspell. ‘All Good Gifts,’ I had as one of the songs in
my ordination. It was not only a reminder to me of the profound love of God,
but that His most undeserved Grace was flowed over me, and now I was to go out
into the world to live into my new resurrected life, as a pastor. A part
of being a disciple of Christ is opening yourself up realizing the gift of who you
are, and not keeping that gift to yourself but sharing that gift with everyone(!)
The person I visited with my friend I jokingly thought and said, I wish there
were more and more people like him everywhere, like if he could be cloned.
Beyond the joke of that, what if we did open ourselves truly spiritually in
love to our neighbor, in response to God? Would we recognize the world that we
live in? I would hope not.
Let us Pray,
Loving and Gracious Lord Jesus,
We thank you for the fount of
blessing that Your Love and Grace, has freed us to realize.
Help us to unbind ourselves and
release the gift of who we are
To share most graciously and
generously with everyone.
May our lights shine brightly, and
our faith truly move many mountains.
We lift these prayers from our
hearts to your ear.
AMEN
July
1st, 2018; Sixth Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 8; Year B; SOLA
Lectionary
Sermon
by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 30; Lamentations 3:22-33; 2 Corinthians
8:1-15; Mark 5:21-43 
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at First Congregational Church at 10am
https://youtu.be/_6sjFpnUCig
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