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Jesus says to the deaf man while
healing him—“Ephphatha, be opened!” Being opened, being open is easier said
than done but the tricky letter from James this morning puts it right out there
in saying that you can't be torn between the standards of the world, and the
standards of God. You shouldn't, as well, make up your mind which one you're
going to apply your efforts towards. The slippery slope of works righteousness
versus restorative justice is what we're hearing about today. You're probably
asking yourselves what do we really consider to be works righteousness today? A
lot of what is called social justice involves “feel-good philanthropy.” It's
helping others to feel better about yourself and establishing a false-closeness
to God. The Pharisees priorities were to uphold the law no matter what. Everything
they championed as a righteousness to God was purely for their own mission.
Justification by faith through Grace
is what the church still stands upon today though our human nature wants to
still speak or be tempted by doing things for the sake of accolades and
recognition over faith. Restorative justice is something that our current
culture is suffering to responding to from a right place. What do I mean by
that? This country does not do restorative justice. The world does not do
restorative justice and it's beyond money, though money does definitely make
our world go around. The Gospel of Jesus challenges us again to think about our
priorities versus God’s priorities which presented here, in all of our
scriptures this morning, are radical. What makes them radical? It goes against
the grain of our human nature that’s what. We can't be selfless, we're too
aware of ourselves to begin with. We certainly, really have a hard time eating
that humble pie. Being self-righteousness makes us feel better and work
righteousness even more so than that. We certainly have our opinions and at
many times feel justified to shove them down people's throats! This is human
nature. We “tolerate” one another over accepting one another. This is not being
progressive but regressive, rebellious to God’s mission for His creation.
By saying it is all a matter of
human nature doesn't necessarily mean that it's okay, but then we fall back on
that all the time and divorce ourselves from our discipleship covenant with
Christ Jesus and His Living Word. The beautiful passage we have this morning
from the prophet Isaiah has these fantastic images in the latter half of this
little snippet that is showing a desert turning into an oasis, turning into paradise.
This was written, mind you, right after the exile where the Jews were returning
home and feeling hopeful again. The Old Testament need to have a vengeful God
is spoken to in those first verses but then here is this wonderful old and new
view of the world. Turning the barren
dried desert into a pool swarming with new life! The Prophet Ezekiel says something similar
with his vision of the valley of dried bones resurrecting and restoring
themselves by the Living Word into New life.
I'm sure we've done or imagined something
similar, where we look at the past, and look at the old ways that “we've always
done things” and still think they are the best ways. It's a false comfort,
that's what the Gospel teaches us, opens us up to see, hear and speak to.
Looking into the “new,” oftentimes we are afraid. We are afraid, even though we
won't admit it and try to cover it up. We will go out of our way at times, to
cover it up with other things and justify ourselves over and over again to make
it all seem okay, or “right.” Relationships between God and humanity are a lot
like marriages. Just as we have heard the church is the bride of Christ, our
relationships, our faith, our expressions to God are all challenged in one area
or another. There's supposed to be a lot of “give-and-take” take but often
times it doesn't work out. We want, what we want, when we want it.
This past week I was saddened to
hear that the couple I have been counseling will now be parting ways. One
person does not want to listen or grow into being more flexible with the other.
The other person is having their own issues and problems that they're not
dealing with either. It was ironic, they were so much alike in so many ways,
but the relationship was on a fine-line tightrope where neither one could be
open to the other. It was their way or the highway, period. Sometimes
persistence, however, with something we believe in, is what God is hoping we
grow in developing, yet alone understanding. The Gospel lesson we have this
morning seems to be a “tale of two healings.” It's bad enough Jesus sounds like
a jerk here being somewhat mean to the woman who is hell-bent on having Him
heal her daughter. But then, they say the squeaky wheel gets the oil and her faith
was intense enough that Jesus saw this beyond this strange sense of prejudice
that he is exampling perhaps “tongue and cheek” to her, since she's a gentile.
That's the one peculiar element when
we look at the scriptures and see this intense almost unnatural desire for the
Israelites to feel and know that they are God’s chosen. It's almost as if they
had an inferiority complex and needed God to continue to justify them as His
children. The Israelites were wary as well, in relating to the foreigner. It
goes beyond being prejudiced against foreigners but almost like they were
fearful of people, beyond themselves. I think that's an important thing that
maybe we should look at still today in regard to what we prioritize in
responding to loving God and neighbor with the fruits of our faith. Poor James a
young apostle, new preacher, perhaps pounded the drum skin a little too hard
where it seems like works righteousness.
He was accurate in saying however, faith without works is dead. “Show
me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith…” was really trying to make a point
about being open and stretching ourselves beyond ourselves.
When Jesus says take up your cross
and follow me, He was telling His disciples to think about their priorities in
being children of God. His disciples were in the presence of the one who would
truly free the world by Grace and His promise of the Kingdom to come. What were
they doing, or going to do through God's Word? What are we doing or going to do
through God's Word? Your first great act of faith is visible by these four
walls? Do you hold a vison beyond it? How much of the New Nature are we willing
to reap in order to be opened and accountable to both God and neighbor? Do you
feel truly accountable to God's priorities? These questions are many but need to
be received and trusted upon in order to act. Punitive Justice is the most
practical form of Justice our current culture basically has accepted and
adopted. Punitive Justice levys punishment. It doesn't look at the full picture,
yet alone is seen as cost efficient. However, people fall through the cracks.
They fall through our indifferent cracks of judgmentalism, bias and fear.
The recent hysteria all over the
news with the new judge that is going to be put in place on the Supreme Court
has gotten to the point of not even making sense. The only reason the man is
being condemned is purely political. All the person's credentials aside, bias
and fear rain profoundly in the press and public. The Civil War began this way
as well, with one side not feeling any motivation to truly come to the table
and work together for the common good. Some of them even used to Bible to
justify slavery and their actions. They were genuinely divorced by their
self-righteousness and determined their agendas, with their own justification.
They didn't have enough faith in one another to hear one another and work out a
solution beyond themselves for the good of all concerned. They were truly
oppressed.
Not having enough faith in one
another is a big matter of trust. We certainly still have this problem
spiritually with evil in the world, wondering why God allows it to happen? Why
do bad things happen to good people? Do my efforts really matter? It's a
natural thing for us.... if we are children of God why do bad things happen in
the world? Why has evil become so present? This goes beyond our human nature or
that we are both saint and sinner.... Why can’t we trust in God completely and
unconditionally? Well probably the truth is, God is unconditional, but we are
conditional. God is faithful, but we are often challenged in our faith. God
keeps His promises, but truthfully, we really don't. We don't trust enough in
even the word promise yet alone can be held completely accountable in our
actions.
The word restoration has some
beautiful thoughts behind it. What it does mean is to restore, to bring back to
and renew. Years ago, I used to do restoration work on items of furniture or on
murals etcetera through my own interior design company. In fact, one of the
most interesting places I did restoration work at was for the People's Church
in Chicago. The congregation used to be over 3,000 people in the 1930’s through
to the early sixties. It was known as the Preston Bradley Center. Preston
Bradley was a figure somewhat similar in stature to Billy Graham, those days.
By the year 2006, the congregation only numbered 21 members and they still were
holding services in this monstrously behemoth space. I was impressed however,
by their faith and efforts in their ministries. They hosted a homeless shelter
in their sanctuary during the week. The damage I was repairing or restoring was
many of their pews had names etched into them and other types of vandalism.
This church was very small. They were small on finances and people, but they
wanted to continue to steward their space to serve others. They spent $16,000
on painting their Sanctuary ceiling white. I did not do that job for them since
they needed a scaffold that went up almost 80 feet. Just the fact that they
want to make sure that their roof was stable for those that they were helping
in their Sanctuary at night, I thought was a lovely gesture. I believe for them
it came from a genuine faith to seek restorative justice for those less
fortunate.
That particular career began
to change the name of restoration to conservation. I wondered why they did that,
and I think it is interesting connecting that to how we view things today. When
you're conserving something, you're saving it. You are coveting it. You are preserving
it. In regards to spiritual formation, you don't want to be conserving your Old
Nature or preserving it… The Gospel calls for you to die to the past and move
into the future, renewed. That's such a hard thing for us to do. We still want
to look at the way it's always been done before. We still want it the way we've
always organized and controlled everything before. You can't keep putting duct
tape on a broken structure. ‘Krazy Glue’ is not going to repair your life, God
is.
In regard to the couple that just
decided to part ways, the man has been through many marriages and many broken
relationships but is still seeing the world the way he wants to see it. No one
can convince him otherwise. He is choosing to be very much alone and to not
grow. The woman is not much better, in many respects, for her own dependency
issues have let her run back into a failing, toxic marriage with unsupportive
enablers to perpetuate, a false happiness. What seemed like a new start and a
new page for the both of them, they can't break away from their old nature
worlds. They couldn’t break away in order to come together and be renewed.
Sometimes our finite understanding of the world is our worst enemy as well. We
don't want to look towards the bigger picture. We see the here and now and what
we want to do and that seems to be the most important. In thinking this way, we
are not patient with one another, yet alone loving and understanding towards
working for a common goal (which as a Christian should be Christ's mission in
the world not ours!)
We busy ourselves in things that
seem to be “righteous,” but are they including God, and are they for our
neighbors? Sometimes you could say being a Christian is pretty boring, because
we are to be doing our office of serving each other selflessly and covenantly.
We're supposed to be helping to pound that continual drum skin as well. “Doing
and being” Christian, however, is to come from a genuine faith. What is a
genuine faith? What does God teach us about what it really, and truthfully is?
It is a natural, willing response, a loving response to the grace of God freely
given and overflowing.
Faith can't be lip service as well
as faith must be seen, not just heard. Responding in faith doing the
righteousness that God speaks in the world, is restoring the world to God's
ideal. It is not conserving the past, more than restoring the ideal of the
kingdom of God, here and now, a new Heaven and a new Earth, a new Adam and a
new Eve, that Christ exampled for us. These “day-in-a-life” stories of
Jesus’ healing and miracles, not only have us look firmly into how we have
responded to one another, but how Jesus’ mission is still a long way to being
realized through us today.
So, what is Jesus saying today? He's
saying the same thing to the deaf, blind and nearly mute man: “Be Opened!” We
have been saved by the overflowing Grace and gift of Christ’s cross and
Resurrection; how are we saving others today? Where are our radical priorities
from God, placed? This should be a whole buffet of things to think of, even
before we have our team slash board meetings and Council meetings and look at
what it means to “be and do” Church. What is your faith really challenging you
to do?
Let us pray,
Loving and gracious God,
You have set us free
Help us to realize this freedom by
seeking Justice for All.
Help us be to righteous in our faith
beyond ourselves
And for Your Gospel, its mission in
the world.
Your Love has set us free
Now we must live it, and give it to
others
AMEN
September
9th, 2018; Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost; Year B; Proper 18; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon
by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm
146; Isaiah 35:4-7a; James 2:1-10, 14-18; Mark 7:24-37
This sermon was delivered at the Grace Hub at 10:30am
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