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It's been very interesting this week
with thinking about the concepts of both mission and motivation. I have
recently replanted this ministry, Grace Hub Discipleship Ministries, I began
most literally after my ordination in January 2015. We all have a mission ahead
of us especially if we take the Gospel's call to us seriously. Having read
quite a bit of Dietrich Bonhoeffer recently as well... his thoughts on
discipleship, have been kind of jarring to our perspective of will and choice.
Both those words— will and choice, are very palatable human words because they
give us a middle ground to “decide.” Bonhoeffer however says those who are
truly called by God only are allowed a yes/ no answer. Their heart gives them
away if they think or weigh the balances of what they really want to do and
what they really believe in. At first this was kind of hard to accept, because
it was extreme. Lest we forget though,
the Gospel is radical, we’ve perhaps softened its blow over time.
"I believe, help me with my
unbelief;" we think of that man with his son last week pleading with Jesus
to have his son be healed. This Sunday's Gospel text has Jesus laying it all
out there. He gives a summary of the passion story for the disciples, who upon
hearing it were too afraid to question what he meant by it. They needed to
hear it though: ‘The Son of Man is to be betrayed
into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he
will rise again.’ Jesus knew His priority was the cross. The disciples weren’t
ready to even think of the Messiah as a crucified Lord. They were still envisioning a super-hero
savior who’d smite their enemies and live an earthly reign. Jesus was trying to get them to not
only think about true priorities but to put aside the ego and it's need for an
agenda to be or feel motivated in order to realize the mission of God. Thinking
about the mission of God and mission of Grace in the world, was how the Grace
Hub was born. Probably when you think of the word Hub, you think of a train
station with many trains coming and going but all stopping merely for a moment
at the central facility, the central place of gathering, refueling.
The early first century churches
were in people's homes not exactly realistic to do today, but the church is
fighting against re-configuring itself to this postmodern age. We don’t
envision church as being a gathering place to spiritually refuel and get down
to work in the world. Are we to choose the world's culture as agenda as James
overly warns us about or do we choose the gospel as our pure motivation? Or are
we not to be replanting faith as a culture, a hub dedicated to Christ? The extra-large
helping or “overdose” of James we have this Sunday is definitely getting us to
look at our definitions of the mission of discipleship. He probably is
becoming too legalistic, but he has some good points. He almost sounds
like a good “fire and brimstone” Evangelical preacher: “… if you follow the
world, or are friends with the world, you are truly an enemy of God.” Yikes! I
don't think anybody likes hearing that much law yet alone not hearing from
Christ in this letter. The gospel does begin to break loose towards the end for
he more or less needs for us to realize the place where the heart needs to come
from and it is a humble wisdom that God gives to us through Grace.
Returning to the wonderful readings
and writings I have been looking at this week with Bonhoeffer in his
discipleship book, he tries to get us to see the ultimate cost of Grace and our
true “choice” in the world is not a choice but is obedience. Obedience is like
our spiritual Brussel sprouts. They're still hard to make “edible” for our
human nature to accept. Priorities and motivation can be a stumbling over our acceptance
of God's grace. We want, what we want, when we want it— that's another
reoccurring theme here this week. Returning to that idea, that initial creation
idea of a “hub…” I put this together a little over 3 years ago but unlike a
train station, at the center of this hub is Christ. Missional minded church
planting sounds like it is way too much work and yes that is very much true. My experiences with being a part of church
planting in Illinois were wonderful experiences but definitely good, hard work.
Planting a Ministry yet alone
aspiring towards a center possibly eventually even a Christian art gallery
starts at ground zero. This ground zero is not upon the ruins of things that
you have experienced in your past, but it is being motivated by God's love to
be inspired, to truly be motivated, to answer His call. Preaching God's Word,
witnessing God's Word is a sacrament of God’s grace active in the world. How
can I go on, if I couldn't share God's Word, if I was no longer allowed to
proclaim it? That was what I was actually thinking about the last two weeks. It's
not been a thought to leave me yet. And perhaps God doesn't want me to ever
have it leave my heart. The Grace Hub is to be a missional plant. It is a
Revival. It is to be a resurrected effort to be guided by that gentle wisdom of
God. A gentle wisdom which affords us to share the truth in the world to live
into that Great Commission Matthew says in his 28th chapter of his
gospel. We are to go and make disciples of all Nations, everyone one of us.
What is a disciple though? Is it merely a fancy Church word that people don't
really understand anymore because we haven't taught it well enough? We don't
teach spiritual formation. We teach or creates things that will attract people
to make the Gospel “showy and relevant” to our needs, not God's truth.
Bonhoeffer was right about that we
haven't taught it well. We haven’t taught it well because we no longer have
come to see costly Grace as a hidden treasure, as the call of Jesus to make Him,
our priority. It is a Grace that calls us to discipleship because it calls us
to follow Christ. He goes on to say costly Grace is the Incarnation of God. The
incoming of God in this world… we know who that was, Jesus. Jesus was made
incarnate into our Humanity being fully human, fully divine. This creedal truth
is what we have grown from, however some of this we have lost. Some of these
thoughts Bonhoeffer goes into in these wonderful chapters I've been reading in
this book for my doctoral class, were kind of depressing but they also reminded
me of my conversion experience. My conversion experience was the spark of
motivation for me to think of not only spiritual priorities, but what is God's
mission in the world? What did God need me to do? Yes, this is sounding like a
witness but then sometimes we've neglected that too often as pastoral leaders
we've neglected sharing what we are feeling when we are sharing with others the
story of Christ, the work of Christ in our lives.
As a child of God, the Lord had me
go through a similar path like that of Leonardo DaVinci. Leo was someone who
definitely got involved in many different things his pursuit was pure knowledge
and experience. In many ways he was the model for an era of “re-birth” in
culture and society. Inaugurating my life as an artist has gotten me to see
things in a very different way than if I was brought up in the church. As the
story goes, I went to several years of Catholic grade school & two years of
high school to become a devout agnostic for some 17 years. I didn't have God
return into my life until 2003 and it wasn't until I heard his voice in my
heart telling me he has a new path for me. Of all places, God would call me in
a little Swedish Lutheran church on the Northside of Chicago. Every time I've
replayed that moment in my head and tried to remember exactly what that spark
was, that will or that choice there wasn't will there wasn't a choice it was
just there. That moment happens for me to hear God say come and follow me I had
to hear it in a processional choir song lifting voices about the spirit as a
Gentle Wind.
The tears I shed at that conversion
experience were an affirmation of my baptism. My perspective, my heart, my
whole self was washed with God's Word. It was through worship that I
experienced this, but my life became resurrected through God's Living Word
etched upon my heart to change. Becoming a doer of the Word of Christ is
our lifetime journey ahead of us. We have a lot of work to do. Being a doer of
God's word is certainly not works’ righteousness especially when you are
obedient to God's mission placed upon you to live into. Both Old Testament
lessons today show two different sides of serving God. The first side is that of the messenger we
hear about from Jeremiah. The message he had to carry certainly didn’t make him
any friends, in fact as we hear, the crowds were ready to kill him. The
alternative Old Testament lesson for today is from the Apocryphal book of Wisdom
which takes on in essence the voice of the crowd ready to persecute the servant.
The passage ends with a great thought for us to hold in light to discipleship
today: “Thus
they reasoned, but they were led astray,
for their wickedness blinded them, 22 and they did not know the secret purposes of God…” This past week I had a lovely afternoon of working with some friends and former congregants to help a woman who is going blind and her husband clean and unpack their home.
for their wickedness blinded them, 22 and they did not know the secret purposes of God…” This past week I had a lovely afternoon of working with some friends and former congregants to help a woman who is going blind and her husband clean and unpack their home.
For the past several months, this
poor couple has been struggling with not only trying to get settled into their
new home but actually really begin to live in it. The woman, who is chronically
ill and has been in the hospital on and off for most of the year so far finally
got to come home last week. Her husband works full-time perhaps nearly up to 50
hours a week and she is not able to do much on her own. Many aspects of their
life became a great burden. My care never stopped with them. I didn't punch a
timecard saying I'm a “nine-to-five-only” pastor. I knew that they needed help.
I gathered people to help them. We washed down their cabinets and their China
hutches as well as cleaned off the many hand-painted ceramic horses the woman
used to paint when she could see. We were there for several hours and the
Tylenol and Bengay people got a good advertisement, I'm sure… Not only for
myself but from all those who worked that day.
By the close of the day we all left
for our homes. I don't know about them,
but I was thinking in retrospect this is truly what living into God's mission
in the world is. It's not coming with a self-concerned agenda to love neighbor.
It's not a nine-to-five moment or a Council report item, it's living the Gospel.
It is a living and viable discipleship. Being the church in the world
needs to start at the hub of the heart, that's the first place God works. His
Spirit transforms us and helps us to become obedient to the truth of what we
need to do in the world for His sake. I don't know what new projects I will be
undertaking in the future. The future is a great mystery that I'm trying not to
be afraid of and worry too much about but that is my frailty. The Grace Hub Discipleship
Ministries may be looked at is one big long painting that a former artist now
minister is creating or could be looked at as how God has given them a mission
and what they need to do and what I need to do is follow him and not
worry. What’s more important is what do you know you have been called to
by our Loving and Gracious God?
In the next few weeks, I’ll be
continuing to pound the pavement looking for God’s guidance on where He needs
me to go next. Next Saturday will be
team training for the Via de Cristo Cursillo retreat to be held in
mid-October. We don’t have a lot of
pilgrims yet and the energy to serve among some is strained, but we have a
greater goal ahead. It’s not only
bringing discipleship into the spot-light but empowering people to not resist
but be open to God’s call upon them. The
Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak shouldn’t be what stops us from acting
upon a faith that could move mountains. May our hearts find that pearl of great
price, the costly grace of Christ in the heart of all who believe.
Let us pray,
Loving and Gracious Lord Jesus
We thank You for how Your love and
encouragement truly does give us motivation
Teach us to be obedient with Your
gentle wisdom and Living Word
May we become true disciples and planters
of Your Gospel in this world
Amen
September
23rd, 2018; 18th Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 20; Year
B; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon
By: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm
54; Jeremiah 11:18-20; James 3:13-4:10 & Mark Mark 9:30-37
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub at 12:30pm
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