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Now here's a thought: “You're a
ghost, driving a meat-coated skeleton, made from stardust, riding a rock
hurtling through space –fear nothing!” What a profound thought this is! There's
a little bit of humor to it, and definitely a lot of real irony… Perhaps we
could say that this is the perfect metaphor for our daily lives? We are spirit
and flesh. The spirit is willing at many times, but the flesh is weak… The Holy
Spirit had me reflect on this, from of all things, of course, a social media
post, the next thing the Holy Spirit puts in there, or plugged into these
thoughts was the concept of living on borrowed time.
Let's really try to dig into that
thought. What does that really mean, living on borrowed time? Who are we
borrowing time from and how do we understand time? We are finite creatures but
God, as well as His sense of time, is infinite. Infinite… we still most likely and most naturally see
that in a box, don’t we? Just like
thinking of outer space, we draw the edges of that space with a finite
boundary… We're probably, you could say, just as confused as Jesus poor
disciples this morning in this beautiful elaborate Gospel “hiccup” of Jesus
preaching about being the bread of life. I say hiccup because we heard
Mark’s version of this, the last time. It was really weird to have that old
John Lennon song pop in my head right after I pondered the humorous statement
or ironic statement of being a ghost, driving a meat-coated skeleton, made from
stardust riding a rock hurtling through space, also telling us to fear nothing.
There's a lot of promise there isn't there?
It’s almost pushing the envelope into the deep end of promise!
Promise is a word that we don't like
too much. The Old Nature cannot have enough faith to trust a word like that. I’m
sure every time we hear someone say: “I promise to do something…” we
automatically think of failure, and we think of deception. We never or rarely
accept the promise someone says to us. The honest planet doesn’t exist, though
we hope for it to… Jesus disciples, as well as the Jews in today's Gospel were
either not understanding the metaphor and taking it too literally or just
didn’t want to understand it. In fact, the Roman persecution waves upon the
early church were because of completely misunderstanding Holy Communion. They thought the early Christians were
cannibals! What Jesus was trying to pound into them in today’s Gospel, is about
feeding faith and leading through faith. Faith is “consuming.” Faith is what
sustains us. In the metaphor He uses of the bread of life, Christ is what gives
us faith. The time we are borrowing, is a life well-lived, worthy of the
Gospel. We are finite creatures in one sense, and in the other sense, we live
on as spirit. The spirit joins the kingdom of God with a whole tapestry of life
with its valleys and its mountain tops. We just have to be careful not to fall
into the abyss of despair and lack of light, clarity.
In hospital terms, strangely enough,
the phrase— “living on borrowed time,” is when science makes a breakthrough and
extends the life of someone, who is terminally ill. What was very ironic with
the Holy Spirit singing that song as soon as I was reflecting upon that
statement I had mentioned earlier, was that the entire album of 'Milk &
Honey' was shelved and basically released after John Lennon's murder in 1980.
The land of "Milk and Honey" strangely enough, as well, is a biblical
history nugget. This is what the Israelites thought of their promised land and
their chosen status with God. The land of milk and honey was to them, complete
restoration, a new Eden. We don't think in terms of restoration anymore,
really… yet alone in terms of Resurrection. Stretching these thoughts even
further, we don't think of the transcending call from God for us to change. We justify ourselves and rule our world, more
or less lacking clarity and true connection with God.
The words in that song, ‘Living On
Borrowed Time,’ were almost like John Lennon's epiphany of settling down to a
normal life and celebrating the fact that he found a deep foundation and
essentially began to establish his new self. Let’s hear ourselves in his shoes:
“When we were younger, we did live
through moments of confusion and deep despair.
When we were younger, we did live
often within the illusion of freedom and power.
When we were younger, we were full
of ideas and felt our share of broken dreams.
When we were younger, everything
seemed simple but was not so clear.
We are all living on borrowed time
without much thought for tomorrow.
Now that we are older, we need to
realize that the more we think we "see," the less we truly know.
The future is brighter and now is
the hour...”
He was no longer rebelling against
the world without much cause but being a rebel in the world with a greater
cause and that was finding himself. John
Lennon like many people in our current culture struggled with being
agnostic. I was agnostic before I found
Christ truly in my life. Agnosticism
simply means that one is questioning the reality of God and purpose, period. We
don't think about that, or we want to avoid thinking about what it means to
find ourselves through Christ, as His disciples. Christ is to become that
cornerstone within each and every one of us.
We are to feed upon Him spiritually, in order to grow and transform the
world. This is basically saying, that we need to bear the cross and allow
Christ to work through us by the Holy Spirit.
Being motivated in our faith to
accept the promises of a brighter future puts a lot of stress on us. Making
today matter, we more or less put on the back burner of our hearts and minds,
for just “living for today.” Reality however says, after today there are perpetual
tomorrows… What are we really doing to be effective in the world, as well as
affect others with Christ Jesus’ Gospel? This past week we lost a Motown icon.
We lost Aretha Franklin to pancreatic cancer on August 16th, the
same day of all strange coincidences, we lost Elvis Presley some 41 years
earlier. I think it's wonderful that through singing Gospel music, inspired in
worship, Aretha Franklin went on to become a creative legend in her own right
and found herself there, using the gift of her voice. Gospel music is quite
powerful. I can say that because when I first started Seminary, I was in a Gospel
choir. Those hymns are quite amazing and do shake you and challenge you with
your faith. Several weeks back we looked at Martin Luther King Jr. and I incorporated
a variety of hymns, that were Spirituals. I don't know how many people noticed
that, but I looked out to see your expressions. Singing those words, those
people's thoughts, charged you to respond—I saw it in your faces.
Being spiritually charged to
respond. What creates that spiritual charge may sound obvious, it is Jesus. We
don't, however, tap into Him or truly partake of Him, enough. The floating
temporal junk food of the world fills us, not only with empty promises, but a
lack of motivation. I thought it was interesting reading some Ministry coaching
commentary that looked at how we have been losing touch with “exercising” our
creativity. They're not teaching cursive in schools anymore and that doesn't
mean cuss words. They have invented intellectual coloring books for adults to
get people to open up and free their minds to “spiritually exercise”… but what
more have they been doing beyond this? Apparently not much. Early in September,
the Clark County Ministerial Association that I've been doing some volunteering
for, will be having a formation retreat to whether or not they should keep this
group for pastors, open. The center we will be having this meeting at, has a
Christian labyrinth in the back. You don't see those too often anymore. There
are very few places that have them. When you probably think of mazes, I’m sure
some of you think of the one from the movie, ‘The Shining,’ That’s the one that
comes to my memory first… A Christian Labyrinth is supposed to open up your
spirit while you walk.
I know we have to create something
more practical for our backyard here, to have youth events and weddings and so
forth but I am hoping that we do not rule out doing more spiritual activities
together. I am hoping as well that this will be beyond what we do when we
gather here Sunday mornings. A couple of years back, I loved when I was allowed
to lead the once-a-month Saturday renewal services at St. Philip's Church. We
would do Centering prayer and Lectio Divina, sing Taize songs…. We would pray
upon one another and we would make our own little Labyrinth of walking into the
back area behind the sanctuary building that was a beautiful landscape just
under the Metra track lines. Some
renewal services would include a rubric I invented which would be to write a
personal prayer to God on a piece of paper, burn it and use the ashes to anoint
the people to reflect. It would also be there, in that back-garden sanctuary
that we would host a sunrise Easter morning service. This would be somewhat at
the crack of dawn at 8 a.m. It's little things that make today matter for
tomorrow. It's the little things we could do every day that jar our spirit and
help us to realize our faith. Our faith is one that is fed by Christ, the
resurrection alone is proof of the indestructibility of the claims of
Christ.
The claims and the strength of
Christ Gospel is living into that spirit. This spirit that yes, is in temporal
flesh, riding on a floating rock in space, hurtling to know who knows where…
and it is while fearing nothing! Fear, mistrust, anxiety— all the garbage of
the world is what weighs upon us and makes things seem futile. People who are
depressed. People who are fighting to keep their bearings are lost in this
wilderness. It is a wilderness of not trusting in the promise, not having
enough faith to be motivated to respond. All God ever seeks of us is to respond
in Grace, as we are His children. We may not be in the land of “milk and honey,”
as the biting statement of New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo hits home. He says
that “America was never that great....” but living on borrowed time means that
we must fight to make things change. We must fight to make not only today
matter, but tomorrow as well. We must build up that foundation within ourselves
with Christ at the center. We must see that light even when the darkness seems
to be overpowering, to move forward.
In speaking of fearing nothing and
moving forward at the end of our Gospel this morning, just when Jesus is really
pointing out their lack of faith, Simon Peter says Lord to whom can we go? You
have the words of eternal life. He finishes this thought by saying: “… we have
come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” This is the
beginning of Peter’s Journey. This is the new journey, that of course we'd hear
much more about in the Book of Acts. In the Book of Acts, Peter almost becomes
the Marvel superhero alongside the efforts of St. Paul. Hallelujah, Lord to
whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life, hallelujah, hallelujah.
That verse is beautifully sung in some traditions before the Gospel is read.
Having written and researched a paper all summer long on worship, I think it's
wonderful that this is sung as the ultimate statement of believing and being
fed by God's Word. Lord to whom shall we go? Do we say this enough in our daily
prayers: Lord, where do you need me to go, what do you need me to Do? Do we
trust His promise enough to feel that we can realize the kingdom of God, here
and now or do we just lack faith?
So, you are a ghost, driving a meat-coated
skeleton, made from stardust riding a rock hurtling through space… What are you
really fearing? How are you going to live with this borrowed time, that is a
gift from God in the here and now? Jesus Christ is the true bread from heaven, His
Word is our meal… are you on a diet? It's in your hands, people. This space is
not only a place we gather, but we're supposed to be doing things beyond it.
Make today matter by being fulfilled, building upon that foundation. Create
tomorrow by transcending it.
Let us pray,
Loving and Gracious God,
Help us to serve you. Help us to serve
our neighbors by being filled with the spirit
Making a song in our hearts, being
accountable to one another because of the Word of Christ.
Make our days on this floating rock in
space matter
Make our lives matter during this
borrowed time.
Let us partake in the bread of life,
that You are for the world.
Amen
August
19th, 2018; Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 15; Year B;
SOLA Lectionary
Sermon
by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm
34:12-22; Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18; Ephesians 5:6-21; John 6:51-69
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at First Congregational Church at 10am:
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