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“Fools rush in where wise men never
go.” Is the postmodern church essentially a “missional Frankenstein?” Are we
living more or less into a disjointed reality of being a “zombie church,” where
Christ is no longer really the head, but our own interests, our own laws, and our
own agendas are instead? It was funny how the Holy Spirit worked this week in
thinking about these seemingly disconnected texts we have this Sunday... I
immediately saw Hasbro’s Operation game board. I never owned one when I was
younger, but I remember the TV commercials for it strangely enough. If any of
you have had that game, it was the one that would make a sound when you tried
to remove the different little parts of the cartoon figures body, out
carefully. Surgery is though, kind of what we do as disciples daily in battling
between the sides of our Saint/sinner selves.
The old metaphor of the church being
a spiritual hospital fits that it would need to not only do internal surgery
upon itself but address issues beyond itself as well. The first church as I have preached before,
is the Gospel’s most important starting place and that’s the heart. The heart is the tabernacle to the Holy
Spirit where all things of the Old Nature and sin are surgically removed and
transformed into building the foundation of the New Nature within you. Faith is the New Nature and gathering
together as church is supposed to help in transforming the heart to come and
follow Christ. This requires building
and commitment to a relationship with a loving and Gracious God that is an
over-flowing fountain of healing Grace upon us daily. All of today’s scriptures do have something
in common and that is focusing on where our priorities are at “being and doing”
church in the world.
The metaphor of marriage this week
with Paul's letter is really an interesting one. We're not only hearing a
snippet of the past patriarchal culture that he was addressing within, but
there's something more important that he's talking about that you may miss when
you first hear that lesson. What you may miss is the importance of that “give
and take,” the importance of unity and mission together in a loving
relationship with a loving and Gracious God. The church is the quote “bride of
Christ.” We are supposed to be joined together as a team and we are supposed to
be trusting in one another to be living towards that promise of changing the
world together through our lives’ journeys. Faith can move mountains even the
one you’ve built up yourself! I really like what saint Paul says in speaking of
making one Holy by cleansing, washing with the water of the word.
The message version of today's psalm
says a very important note about our thoughts that God knows and sees our
denial and rebellion. He sees this in our lives and how destructive we can be
not only to each other but to the efforts of His church in the world. Many
people don't find refuge in God's Word… yet alone take the time to see what
it's trying to reveal to them. We are anchored or in bondage, weighed down by
the world, more than we are opened to the Holy Spirit. Perhaps we are in a
world of fools, but not all of the fools are bereft of Hope. There are some “fools”
who are for Christ, and I'm one of them. I know that many of you are, as well,
to one degree or another. Welcome to the Christian Journey. Why do we gather if
we don't hold enough hope in that one thing, that brings us all together? That
one thing that brings us all together, that set us free is Jesus Christ. The
drops of blood that He shed could fill the ocean, and even more so, than we
could ever understand. His sacrifice was to help us become “free,” but I think
we're kind of in denial about that. What do I mean by that? We are in denial of being set free in Grace
to fully live into our faith.
The Gospel passage this morning is a
perfect example of the human institution of religion versus the law and Gospel
of God--faith. What we must be careful of here is to distinguish between
religion and faith because they are different.
Religion is a culture that is developed around belief but is not
faith. Faith is a gift from Grace and it
is a personal relationship with a loving and Gracious God… The Pharisees
propagated a religion around the law, period. With today’s Gospel, the
Pharisees just couldn't stand that Jesus disciples didn't do the one
Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi hand wash before they sat down
to eat. Sort of sounds like silly nonsense, that this is what they
would raise a major stink about, but to them, they made the
law their religion. The law took primacy over the spiritual that they
really needed to do within themselves, within their hearts to reflect God's
will. Jesus was right to call them hypocrites for they didn't understand what
the mission and purpose God needed them to accomplish. What they saw as a
priority was their own agendas as much more important. Those are the problems
as well that are still ongoing in the modern Church, today.
I'm sure Many of us are probably
still troubled and disgusted by the continual denial of the Roman Catholic
Church to do something about the sexual abuse problems that they have with
their priests. What they have made a religiosity, celibacy, is unnatural and
has now torn apart their church in continual conflict. What's really
interesting and I'm sure very few people really know as a fact, but celibacy
was an invention in the Medieval era to not spend money on paying priests with
families’ salaries. It's not only not biblical but it's not even
historically accurate to what the actual early church examples. The early
church had not only women priests, yes, that is true. There was evidence of
that in the ancient Christian catacombs as well as evidence that priests were
definitely married.
Yet like many other church
denominations, there's something they're being very self-righteous about and
dogmatic about in regard to their rules and regulations of being and doing
Church in the world. The struggling band of women who are still trying to even
be afforded a conversation with the current Roman pontiff, are going forward
and serving in a Roman Catholic sect now, of their own making. They simply call
themselves ‘Roman Catholic Women Priests.’ They began a church renewal movement
in Germany with the ordination of seven women on the Danube River in
2002. From that time forward, they have grown and are now
currently numbering 145 Roman Catholic women. According to their history
page on their website, they are in continual efforts to reclaim their ancient
spiritual heritage and are actively reshaping a more inclusive Christ-centered
church for the 21st century. I think this is wonderful that they are
making this effort, for they definitely have faced a lot of adversity for
it. The Roman Church is vehemently against the idea of ordaining women beyond
consecrating nuns. What little scripture they have used to cherry-pick justify
and inform their dogma against women serving is just one example of “religiosity”
versus faith.
All people should be allowed to
serve, period. If you have a genuine heart that has been washed with God's Word
and consecrated by a changing of heart and mind to see and find your true
purpose, then you most definitely should never be denied being a part of the
priesthood of all believers. That's my opinion or truly my belief or confession
that I proclaim, and I found it through God's Word in my own journey in
relationship to Him. My own “rebel with a cause” Journey began by being
ordained in an LCMS Church that of course does not allow women to be ordained…
but I had an acquaintance who let me "quietly" have it there. God
bless that person's openness and realization of faith, beyond “rules and
regulations” that are man-made. They recognized what God is calling each
and every one of us to do in welcoming people and truly serving one another.
If Christ is truly the head of the
church, why have we removed ourselves from being truly in unity and fidelity to
one another in service? There's a great C.S. Lewis classic called ‘The Great Divorce,’
and it's another wonderful allegorical tale of a group of lost souls on a bus
ride from hell to Heaven. The problem is
that the gates of hell are locked
from the inside... What C.S. Lewis is
doing here is profound. This is truly a meditation upon good and evil, grace
and judgment. I've read the ‘Screwtape letters,’ but I have not read over ‘The Great
Divorce,’ in some years. ‘The Screwtape letters’ we're basically a conversation
between Satan and his protege on influencing and changing someone's mind. Both
books challenge your perception of the spiritual battle you face daily between
good and evil.
From what I recall about ‘The Great Divorce,’
it almost seems like he is painting a picture similar to the 1960’s film
classic, ‘Midnight Cowboy,’ where Dustin Hoffman's character and Jon Voight's
character travel upon their broken, disconnected dreams seeking in hopes to
find themselves in the “promise” of America. With C.S. Lewis' bus ride the
journey from hell to Heaven, you can just think of their struggles to not only
trust in God but being hopeful enough to survive those valleys and realizing
the mountain tops. As a member of the Body of Christ, a disciple of Jesus,
gathering together as Church; Do we wander off in our own journeys through our
own form of hell, not really unified as a family, yet alone as a faithful
people? You can probably just imagine that bus ride and maybe even see yourself
stepping out of that relationship of being faithful to the mission of being
church together, much like a divorce.
I've been counseling someone who is
in the process of a very ugly divorce right now. It has been very sad for me to
see, not only the controlling emotional abuse the soon-to-be ex-spouse is
dumping upon their former partner, but the family's emotional blackmail of not
allowing this individual to see their grandchildren. That’s really awful. The
children here are truly joining their grandparent, as the victims. They are
being used as a tool against the two sides who are fighting and losing control
over a relationship that cannot be “bandaged up” anymore. Their love for each
other died years ago not only through mental and verbal abuse, but by issues of
infidelity and control.
Those same words are what we
struggle with as simply being human: infidelity (unfaithfulness) and control
(catering to the Unholy trinity of I, Me and Mine). It's always a tug-of-war of
one side or the other. It is always a struggle of who has control and what the
real goals are. In regard to discipleship, what is the real goal? What is the
real mission? When we fight with one another in efforts of “doing and being”
Church, is when we are being the unfaithful bride to Christ. We are being
unfaithful in our relationship, which is covenanting to serve one another, to
care for one another and to go out into the world to be a true witness to the Gospel,
proclaiming the Gospel out of faith for the sake of our loving and Gracious
God.
“It takes two to tango.” It takes an
open heart and an open mind to put things into balance again. The Prophet
Isaiah is not only echoed in the Gospel with Jesus rebuking the Pharisees, but
he makes some very important points. When we merely pay “lip service” to God
and our hearts are far away. We’re not walking the talk as they say. We are
merely catering to the world of the self which we have justified and
prioritized over God... We are those fools. we are those fools living on empty
promises with a foolish wisdom that does not bear fruit for the kingdom of God
but bears fruit for the ruler of the world... and his
"paradise," hell. This is what C.S. Lewis means in saying the
gates of hell are locked from within.
We are called to come back home to
God. We are to turn back to Him with our hearts in our hands, knowing that His
is a healing mercy that will wash away our sins through His Word. I can see
this human journey of turning back to God, just like those two lost characters
in Midnight Cowboy. One is a naive hustler and the other one is simply a naive
man both of them are lost in the mean streets of the city riding on a bus to
somewhere they're not sure of but have a little hope, enough hope in something
new. It’s a really sad movie on many levels but says a lot about our
brokenness and what we must do.
Our everyday lives are traveling.
This includes traveling beyond the obvious, as a physical thing… but with
today's scriptures, we need to think of it as a spiritual thing. Every church
has a story to tell. Every church has been through its valleys and its mountain
tops. This church is no exception. You've seen your fair share of good times
and bad times and times in general dealing with evil. It is fair to say for all
of humanity, we're not only creators of our own form of hell, but we can be
victims to it as well. These are the things that can tear us apart. We
are called, however, to divorce ourselves from evil and choose to unite with
what is true righteousness, Jesus Christ. We have a hard time following this
spiritual challenge however. We divorce ourselves or divide ourselves from God
more often.
What God is calling us to DO and BE
here, in this new little church home needs us to be faithful, covenanted not
only to one another for a greater goal and purpose… but covenanted to your
pastor who is to be leading this flock under Christ. Christ is our ultimate head, He is our “boss”
and our spiritually united efforts are to marry and become that gathering place
for all, beyond these doors. Where are your priorities in faith? To whom do you
really feel called to be faithful to?
It’s up to you.
Let us Pray,
Gracious and Loving Lord Jesus,
We thank you for the gift of Grace
The Blood of Your cross has released
for us
Help us to be faithfully united,
covenanted to one another
Help us to do “spiritual surgery” on
our brokenness inside and outside of the church.
May we take refuge in Your loving
and restorative Word
May we be cleansed by Your Word
And live faithfully into its
promises.
AMEN
August
26th, 2018; Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 16; Year B; SOLA
Lectionary
Sermon
by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm
14; Isaiah 29:11-19; Ephesians 5:22-33; Mark 7:1-13
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at First Congregational Church at 10am:
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