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When we were young, our hearts
probably were open books… and on many occasions, we probably did say to
ourselves—
“Live and Let Live.” But in this ever-changing world in which we
live in, makes you give in and cry; we must say live and let die. Live into the
New Nature, die to the Old, rise in New Life or disappear into your death. The
man cries out to Jesus' frustration and says: "I believe, help my
unbelief."
I believe, help my unbelief! My
grandfather Louie died over 20 years ago, and he was probably the most stubborn
Italian man existing. His specialty in stubbornness was his pessimism, which I
inherited as well. The devil can certainly work into feeling despair and not
feeling confident in yourself in many aspects and many situations in your
life. How to sustain the weary with a Word. God needs us to be proclaimers
and doers of His Gospel. Easier said than done, in the world that has little
faith to begin with.
Sustaining the weary with the Word, “live
and let live....” It's really not enough for us. It's not going to be building
towards a faith that can move mountains. Yet alone, leaves one weak to trusting
in God. Proverb three verse five: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and
lean not on your own understandings.” This is a wonderful nugget of
wisdom, that perhaps should be coupled with love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is because God
has inclined His ear to us. He hears and feels our tears and knows when our
feet are stumbling.
Today's Gospel I remember clearly
seeing the scene from television movie series, Jesus of Nazareth 1977. This is
the scene where He is healing the young boy with the demon. Jesus stands in the
light and His shadow upon the boy shows His hand touching His face and He says
in a near whisper, leave him. The moment the shadow of the hand of Christ cups the
boy’s face, peace is rendered upon this struggling young boy’s body. Probably
one of my favorite Lenten passages is this suffering servant snippet of Isaiah's:
“The Lord God has opened my ear and I
was not rebellious and I did not turn back. I gave my back to those who struck
me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard…” It continues on to say: “I
have set my face like Flint.... who will contend with me, for I have God on my
side.” What a beautiful passage of suffering and perseverance he knows God is
going to see him through the darkest and deepest valley, that he has to endure.
He has a real rugged faith.
When that glass-half-full seems
profoundly empty, we need to really lean deeply onto the arms of our loving and
gracious God for strength and encouragement. We need to feel blessed and be a
blessing to others, instead of feeling cursed and cursing others. What
are your priorities? We're still continuing in that series of thought of
choosing to do the do's of the Gospel or going at it the hard way, on our
own. As one of the sayings go: you choose what hill you want to die on.
Being a rebel with a cause is living into that scary statement earlier of “live
and let die. Yes, some of you probably noticed the Beatles’ reference there. The
Holy Spirit did send that early McCartney song to me which ironically was the
theme song for that same James Bond movie of 1973. The movie was terrible of
course and kind of silly but most of them were.
Our Lives should be as interesting
as “James Bond” where everything and all the details change continually… Where
if you're walking on a plank bridge and then all the sudden the steps give way,
you've got to improvise and swing out of harm's way. Our lives are just as
interesting, but in a different way. I still think many things about life work
on Murphy's Law. When you least expect it, expect it. What you really want and
what you could really do; you're not going to get most likely and if you get to
that point of nearing that opportunity it's going to be one hell of a road.
The disciples didn't really know
what they were getting into following Jesus. They were simply trying to be good
students. And in many ways, they were probably better than herding cats for
Jesus. We are stewards of God's Word. We are to shepherd others to God's
truth. This isn't just the quote job description of the pastor, it is a
description of all those who are believers, who are both aspiring saints and
wanton sinners. “I believe, help me with my unbelief!” Why can't we say this
more often inwardly to ourselves and be real with ourselves about things that
we struggle with. I want to believe but my unbelief is overpowering not only in
myself at many times, but for the world and the world's sake.
The Franciscans definitely adopted a
beautiful theology of looking at the world as a part of creation as a creature
of God. They manage to find an inner peace through prayer. The monastic life is
no longer a viable reality in this current culture though there's some that
still exist. The monastic life offered a complete sheltered environment
culture of a life of Prayer, devotion and service to God. Last year, I read a
wonderful book when I was investigating spiritual orders called: ‘A Monk in the
World’ by Brother Wayne Teasdale. That man found an amazing way to create and
live into a deep life of prayer in everything he did and said. It was as if he
understood what discipline it takes, and the priorities involved to strive for
something beyond the self, for the greater mission of God.
Martin Luther was an Augustinian
Monk, but he still was deeply connected to the outside world, having started as
a lawyer and then disappointing his family by trying to serve God. A lot of
things were stumbling blocks for him spiritually and worldly. He perhaps saw
life very darkly because just like my grandfather, I'm sure… (though he was German, Luther that is), he was
very stubborn and had a very hard time being an optimist. Optimism is overrated.
We are no longer “Pollyannas.” It is no longer the 1960s, with its naive
experimentation and innocence. We are in a whole new ball game today. The
Gospel however does open our eyes once more to a beautiful innocence that
Christ needs us to hold hope in. This innocence is continually tapping into
that New Nature. It's no longer “live and let live.” It is reopening the pages
of your heart and allowing God to deeply work within you and through you. What
has to die is everything that is toxic. Luther saw it himself when he was up
for his trial at the Diet of Worms. They were ready to fry his fanny pretty
good and all he could say to them, after praying to God for help to make him
strong, is “Here I stand, because I can do no other.”
That beautiful touching scene from
Isaiah where the man is getting struck down and people are tugging at his beard
he sets his faith, his face like Flint against them because he knows God is
there to help guide him through. Nearly a century before the actual noted start
of the Reformation there was another person who was known as the Morning Star.
He wasn't as lucky as Luther, he was murdered in the end for trying to
instigate change, to motivate the heart to turn to God. He had the audacity to
challenge the world to grow beyond itself, for greater meaning. He wasn't the
first person to get people to try to think outside the box. The life of an
artist is someone who's always thinking outside the box. The art flows from all
different areas of gifts that God has blessed them with. Leonardo DaVinci is
our perfect example of someone who's done that.
He was called the genuine “Renaissance
Man,” kind of an interesting ironic title since the era of the Renaissance
still was quite medieval in many ways. There were still witch burnings. There
were persecutions and there was a healthy skepticism and challenge against all
those who looked at the possibility of science merely elevating the
magnificence of God's creativity… Leonardo DaVinci was certainly someone who
push the envelope with not only being a great thinker but someone who risked
his own life against being persecuted for doing scientific studies and
challenging current thoughts about time and space.
About a century before Leonardo
DaVinci, there was Pisano Bonanno. Pisano Bonanno is the famed architect of the
failed architecture, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, in Pisa, Italy. I know I'm
sounding like an encyclopedia this morning, but I am making a point
here. Pisano Bonanno is actually a direct relative of mine. So really bad
crappy architecture in Italy is on my dad's side of the family’s claim to fame.
You can't blame the guy for trying though, we all make mistakes and I think God
thrives on us growing especially when we do stumble over things throughout our
lives. We are the ones that are unforgiving and unfaithful or unbelieving in
each other and at times with ourselves. We want, what we want, when we want it.
We love to fantasize about having our cake and eating it too and that we can
master the Murphy's Law of life trusting in ourselves over and above God. If
you don't trust in yourself or have enough confidence in yourself yet alone are
challenged by God in suffering and faith, what should you do?
There are so many wonderful Christian
songs out there. I love the campfire Jesus’ music of Cursillos. “Jesus Savior
pilot me,” “Jesus Drop Kick Me Through the Goalposts of Life…” Yes, I heard
that once, it was too funny but both songs have something lovely in common. We
think of that cross, we hold it in our heart and our tears baptize the wood of
that cross and remember that Saving Grace, even for someone like me. Even for
someone like me… I'm no one special. I AM special to God however, and so are
you. God has a place in His heart for all of His children. He just needs His
children to see and hear His truth! That's why I think God must be a cat lover
because doing ministry in the world is like herding cats. And as I said in a
previous message, I have had 20-plus years being a veteran of caring for and
loving our feline friends.
This week's “bale of straw” has us
thinking about what we say and what we do. Jesus in another gospel passage says
what comes out of us often is what defiles. James is talking about the sword of
our tongue not coming from a righteous place or wisdom at times but imparting
blessings or curses in the things that we do in our everyday lives. I
have a colleague who is a lovely person, but a lot of times they speak before
thinking and let me tell you it's not worked out too well for them. But
ironically when you try to be a “sage” to one of your peers, the hearing is
under the same quality as talking to your cats. We do this to God though. We
have many moments we feel that we're going things alone. We feel that suffering
aspect of being God's servant in the world who's supposed to live beyond the
world for the Gospel, but we get stuck in the mud dragging our feet and
becoming weary.
Feeling despair is crippling it's
not only a crippling problem of needing to cry out to God in saying help my
unbelief but the world tries to bandage it over with medications, with
addictions and with other things that are empty promises that never help.
We allow the world to drag us down and dismantle our faith from even thinking
of moving a mountain, to even thinking that all things are possible through God
who loves us, when we simply ask with a humble heart in prayer! I was talking
with another friend this past week in regard to different types of prayer, I
have had experiences with. Centering prayer is a wonderful gift of focus it's
not only discipline but in its simplicity, it has you deeply tap into what God
needs your heart to be open to: “live and let die.”
When I was young, my heart was too
much of an open book. I was perhaps too much like an aspiring female version of
Leonardo da Vinci, but Pisano Bonanno helped to humble me down to my human side.
Being human isn't something we should use as our crutch though; the Gospel
causes us to grow. It is a growth holding onto the Loving arms of Jesus and
walking with Him as you go through those valleys and start to go back up those
mountains. He helps you go back up that mountain to look out into the great
beyond, of hope in the future. Those moments you feel weak and you say live and
let live is when you need to tap into that faith that hides sometimes when it
is buried by the muck of the world.
What is the kind of wisdom God is
seeking for us to tap into? What does He really mean for us to “live and let die?”
It's not necessarily wishing you could take your 50-year-old brain back into
your 25-year-old body, but it is being a realist. It is being a “half glass
full” person and going bravely into the world with the armor of God upon you.
It is going out there with His gospel and being a blessing, because you are
blessed! Because we are blessed to be struggling to be followers of Jesus
Christ in a burgeoning Godless world. Perhaps we're never going to have an
experience like Luther had, being put on trial and declaring where he stands
because he can't do otherwise. We are called to take a stand boldly to turn our
weaknesses into strengths by the Gospel of Christ. It is looking into the
desert and seeing an oasis, a paradise of future hope for the Glory of God.
Let us pray,
Loving and Gracious Lord Jesus
You have heard my cries, You have
seen my struggles
It is I, that need to stop stumbling
over my unbelief!
Help me to believe not only in the
world I am serving in, but in myself
Help us all who feel these things
deeply,
To grow beyond them for Your Glory
In Your most Holy and Precious Name,
we pray to You
AMEN
September
16th, 2018; 17th Sunday after Pentecost; Year B; Proper
19; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon
by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm
116:1-9; Isaiah 50:4-10; James 3:1-12; Mark 9:14-29
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub at 12:30pm
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