Sunday, August 12, 2018

Putting on the New; Sermon for Sunday August 12th, 2018 by: Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins


Beginning to think about all these texts this morning took me back to that very first planning meeting that I was a witness to for the very first church I served. This meeting was in the dining room of a congregant of the pastor who I would study under for several years. It kind of reminded me a little bit of “The Last Supper,” but also reminded me of the early church in general. We hear a lot of good things or good moments in the Gospels as well as in many of Paul's letters. There's also a lot of valleys too, be concerned about though, as well.

You must wonder though, if that lack of motivation and that itching fear on the back burner of your mind is really just a matter of unbelief? The people that were gathered around that table, that day, were all a part of the former church that Pastor Eric pastored many years ago. Many of them were in different communities since then and had been on rough journeys. Here they were coming together, not necessarily with a complete plan of what to do… but in those cold days of early February wanted to see what they could DO as a renewed Body. 

What we might fail to realize often enough, is how Jesus feeds us spiritually to keep us strong for those valleys and moments of challenge, before something great is on the horizon. We still may have cold feet even when something great is right underneath our nose, right before us almost placed into our hands(!) We have a lack of faith or skepticism about it. You have come a long way and those are not idle words.

Coming here almost green behind the ears from church planting and not having served a regular style church before, has seen both mountaintops and its valleys, but I still see Christ encouraging me even when I feel challenged. Church planting is a completely different animal in some senses, but spiritually it really isn't. Did you catch that?  It spiritually really isn’t different. We keep trying to put duct tape and Band-Aids, upon the broken structure of what church is in the world today. Its as if we haven't learned our lesson yet alone listened enough to Jesus to change these old ways.  

Changing old ways that's the huge glowing in the dark theme for this morning. Christ confronts us with this in the Gospel making beautiful statements of promise and an overflowing Grace through the poetic words laid down in witness by John.  The people that gathered at that first church planting meeting at that dining room table… What a great metaphor all wishing to partake in the bread of Life to etch out a plan for the future. At that table the ego needed to lay down and the ears needed to be opened as well as their hearts needed to be flexible to absorb a Melting Pot of many ideas coming together in order to plan: “doing and being” church.

It was delightful to talk with the pastor I studied under for a number of years asking his advice and asking for his encouragement on many things this past week. Some things I still have a hard time listening to in regards to what he has tried over the years, to pound into me to do. When I do write my sermons every Friday morning I read the scriptures and then I pace and walk and talk into my tablet to record a draft. I am not, however, ready to go without a net and just freely be spontaneous as they say in front of you here this morning. We need to have our thoughts organized. It's not just a matter of practicality or mechanics, but we need to be in sync with our calling and how we hear God which is not easy at all at many times.

We all have a very hard time listening to God, yet alone feel what He's trying to teach us through His Word. We often go hungering and thirsting with such spiritual anxiety, that's we lack connection and motivation. You had your entire church turned upside down with closing your larger facility a couple of years back. Then you tried to merge with another group doing things differently, leaving people falling away and conflicted… I can't imagine the pain that that must have etched upon your hearts for several years. And here's this “green behind the ears” Pastor coming into your story wanting to be not only a comforting guide of God's love and compassion, but truly be that spiritual gardener replanting you patting down that soil and watching the growth.

Paul's letter Snippets this week to the Ephesians must really sound heavy-handed from him. We've been hearing these beautiful thoughts in the last previous readings of encouragement and motivation and growth and now he's really just getting down to the nitty-gritty of the unpleasant things that humanity has to deal with. It is that drum skin of the Gospel that never stops beating. It is that radical uncomfortable voice telling us that the old nature, the old ways of doing things has to die and we need to not fear, but put on the new nature, the new self. We need to clothe ourselves in the reality of Christ and His gifts in order to be that person, God needs us to be.  

That's a lifetime's journey living into trying to be the kind of person God needs you to be. We're never going to be, as that saying goes— dogs that eat glass and poop out diamonds. Life doesn't work that way. There are no digital printers for the perfect human being. This is important. The internet offers us everything under the sun. We can order everything, any flavor, color, texture, etcetera blah blah blah… It is almost decadence towards feeding the self and not really thinking about the reality and consequences of the world that we shape with our attitudes.

Shaping the world with our attitudes… are we doing a good job? Now that could be one of those glass half full, glass half empty kind of questions, depending on whether your heart is falling into faith or anxiety and unbelief. That really bad song that came out in the 80’s reminds me of what we don't do often enough but: ‘Don't worry be happy!’ Another song probably slightly better than that by Elton John says: ‘Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me.’ Don't let the Son go down on you. Let Him rise with His grace and promise in your hearts, to make you feel secure in this new building we’re in, to make you feel secure with not only me, but with one another because we have a great Mission ahead here.

We have our critics out there. We know who those people are. We don't fit their mold and they're not happy with us with how we feel ourselves to be in regards to Jesus, yet alone “being and doing” church… but this shouldn't bring us down! If anything, just like I said a couple messages back, be a rebel with a Cause, that's your new niche here. Forget all the pain of the past and put on that new cloak of Christ upon yourself. “We’ve never done it this way,” is what closes dozens of church doors and it's even more polarizing when denominations say: “do it this way or else…” they closed the hearts and minds of those motivated to serve and they hurt the Body, instead of grow the Body.

That's a good image to think about. Think about yourselves as the Body of Christ, First Congregational, as a giant beating heart. All these people, all of your stories wound together with ligaments and flowing blood and a history and you've had a lot of swords plunged into your heart, haven't you? They probably have not felt good and they've done seemingly permanent damage but then we must remember what Christ says: He has brought us eternal life. He is the bread of life. His body and blood saved us in more ways than one, and we should never forget that. We should resurrect in that promise every day of our lives, period!

I did some really fun research this past week, where I asked one of the Elvis chapels on Las Vegas Boulevard to just kind of observe what they do in regards to weddings…. Well let's just say outside of me trying not to burst out laughing with some of the silly things that they did. I did think it was interesting how people get maniacally focused on one little aspect of doing things. All these little ministers that they had running around with Elvis imitators and Marilyn Monroe look-alikes had to pound out a wedding between 5 to 7 minutes. Any longer than that, they would be behind. The one young man I talked to and followed this past week said that they do something like 45 to 60 weddings a day, especially when it's like a weird number day such as 8/ 8/ 2018.

The maniacal almost humorous pace of this little wedding chapel is somewhat surreal, but it did make an interesting statement on when you're focused on one thing, what could be done… outside of you becoming incurably OCD, more or less, that is. When you set your mind on the vocation of the Gospel as a disciple, member of this church you can make great things happen. There you should have heard that promise and felt that hope that Jesus was trying to share with His critics. These critics were picking on Him for being Mary's and Joe's kid, and how can He say He came down from Heaven? They just didn't understand his deep poetic words.

The poster I made for this Sunday, which not only helps me to begin sketching out my sermons as well as do our weekly advertising. Believe it or not, I still need to tap into that old world of my art skills and connect images and thoughts together. The man is walking into the burnt, dry and cracked desert of no life before him, behind him as a rainbow of promise bright skies and fertile grounds growing things is developing as he walks forward into this wilderness. What you should notice that he's wearing is the cloak of the New Nature. This is what Christ has helped him to see and put on. Part of the cloak shows wings of butterflies and the top has the Cross of Christ. The cross of Christ is the ultimate reason we always gather. Our lives are shaped by the victory of the cross and we are living in that resurrected life as His children of Grace and promise. Those two drum skin words that the Gospel continues to try to pound into our thick heads.

God is always trying to get through to us. He tries to get through to us when we do look to the past and lament how things didn't go right or things we could have, should have, would have done better, if we would have listened to Christ more deeply in our hearts to keep us encouraged and feel confident in one another. The past is gone. It's frankly, in some senses, is dead. You can't relive that same day. There are no time machines. I wish there was a Star Trek transporter beam, but then that's another story. All we have is the future(!) That's very scary isn't it? We hate that. We don't want to buy crystal balls, yet alone believe in them… or look at tarot cards or read horoscopes, they don't really do any help at all. The future is today and then it'll be tomorrow, and the day afterwards, and onward and onward. Beyond decorating what are you planning to do in Ministry? 

We can't afford to have a pantry for many reasons anymore, but that shouldn't stop us from maybe serving with our neighbors who run their own Pantry or serving with the Clark County government in doing different things with our Brothers and Sisters in Christ. We need to be able to put out that hand not only offering welcome but doing God's work in the world together. The young people in the world, may not necessarily have enough money to help do the rudimentary things of sustaining ministry but they are our future, and we need to put our hope in them. We need to put our hope not only in young people in the colleges, universities and abroad, but we need to really put hope in one another. It's hard to have faith isn't it? Because it's so scary… but really, is it scary or are we just making it that way?

The fiery haze of smoke that has been polluting our horizons and our sunsets from the California fires, I am sure have etched upon us fear. Would it ever come over those mountains and down into the valley? We don't like seeing the destruction of nature, and hope that things are going to change. Things like that yes, we are hoping for change. We are hoping to see that the fires get put out, that are all over California North and South. Why can't we, as well, take that same great desire of hoping to see things change, positively with one another as we go forth as the Body? Jesus Christ is our bread, our daily bread and He is continuing to feed our souls, the good things that we need to truly be His disciples. Don't turn that bread down don't look for the stale crumbs of yesterday, see the yeast rise and the loaves form for tomorrow.

I'll leave you as one last great impression of thinking about putting on the New self, the New Creation, the New Nature, the New Adam and Eve that Christ wants you to tap into and be, become. I don't know how many of you have read little weirdo scientific facts about the human body itself, but pretty much all the skin on your body and even your older hairs fall out, peels off, regenerates and renews continually. So, see you're already literally becoming new, whether you like it or not!  Whether you like it or not, those are words we used to hear when we were little children. When our parents would say: “Well, you're going to have to eat those miserable Brussel sprouts or okra other unpleasant vegetable, that you still probably hate today, to help you grow and become better.” Welcome to life. You can't just go to the happy things and hope to build or find that dog that eats glass and poops diamonds, that's not reality. You have it in you to shape the future and be the best you can be through Christ Jesus who gives us all strength every day. He gives us strength in every waking breath, every prayer that you say and every tear that baptizes your heart to grow.

The soil is patted down. This is not an old plant, that has been transferred into this fertile soil here at 2709 Horseshoe Drive, it is to be a New plant. It needs gardeners, that are renewed. We as well, need to be a team. We need to be partners lifted through the love of Christ to do great things together. Make it happen.

Let us pray,
Loving and Gracious God,
Help to give us all strength for when we feel our old ways taking over.
Help us to be encouraged and enlightened with one another
Knowing we are all human, and that we have our valleys and our mountains to move and walk through together.
May we never let the light of Your Son Jesus, go down in our hearts
Help us to shine into the future and never look back
AMEN

August 12th, 2018; Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost; Year B; Proper 14 SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 34:1-8; 1 Kings 19:1-8; Ephesians 4:17—5:2; John 6:35-51



The link below is to this sermon's delivery at First Congregational Church at 10am:
https://youtu.be/56HSgKbO2nI

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