"Set Free;" Sermon for Reformation Sunday by Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins

So that the whole world may be accountable to God... God is to be our refuge, our “Mighty Fortress” and strength, a very help in a time of troubles. The whole world has been watching and has been waiting. You want to know the truth? You can't handle the truth! The Lord Jesus himself had to say it to Pontius Pilate before taking up His cross: "I was born for one purpose," he says: "... to Bear witness to the truth. All who can accept the truth can hear my voice!" Pontius Pilate answers for all humanity by saying: “What is the truth?!” This dialogue comes from my favorites Jesus movie, Franco Zefferelli’s ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ from 1977. It's basically the scene of Jesus talking to Pilate for the first time in front of the Scribes and before He is to be flogged and then crucified. There was something in the way that Pilate says, “what is the truth!?”… That reveals that vulnerability and cynicism we have, to not only God, but to the truth of what we are to do in the world. Pilate was a little “pencil-pusher” basically sent from Rome to keep the peace, he certainly did not understand yet alone hear the revelation that Christ was to bring into the world. The cross though, had to be realized for Grace to break into the world and save it.

I had a lot of things troubling my heart this week in thinking about not only Reformation Sunday, which next to Christ the King Sunday are my two favorite Sundays to preach on, but just thinking about a couple words that start with the letter “R.” We have a very small two verse reading from The Book of Revelation, which really only has one thing to say to us this morning: “We, Christ disciples, are refugees with an eternal Gospel to Proclaim to those who live on earth.” The word revelation, we know is to mean revealing. Do we have revelations today in how we carry on the torch of the Gospel, the Eternal Flame of the Gospel onward? I had to do some deep thinking on that. If indeed, as the Prophet Jeremiah says: “God's law is written upon our hearts, has Christ’ Reformation of love been instilled within us to not let that eternal flame of the Gospel go out?

The world has definitely gotten in the way of the Gospel, even more so now that we are in another are a quiet revolution. I looked up the meaning of revolution and it says a revolution is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in both political power and organization. This occurs when the population revolts against the government typically due to perceived oppression. On the same breath, I had to look up the word reformation and outside of what we know of our history 501 years ago, we had some individuals who wanted to “protest” the practices of the established institution of church.  Both words in somewhat frightening contrast between each other require change, are about change. Neither the times that Jesus was preaching and teaching His Gospel of love, nor the times of the established church of the 16th century were able to deal with what we must do if we are to be in right relationship with God. Being a freely responsible servant of the Gospel calls us to lay down and surrender our willfulness that we are in bondage to and take up the sword of the spirit to defeat the battle of evil and selfishness in order to reign in God's love as that river of Grace flowing upon all through the wilderness of this world.

I was only 1 month and 13 days old when the 1968 Chicago riots took place. The Holy Spirit had me here, shaking in my heart what Paul says beginning this passage in Romans chapter 3: “… that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world being be held accountable to God.” I then started to hear the chant that began that eerie but sad song by the band Chicago called 'Someday.' The song begins with the chant that the whole world is watching. The people are saying this over and over, while violence and hate is freely flowing over and over, because the need for a revolution is being felt deeply and most disturbingly for the end of not only the Vietnam War but for civil rights to reign in a victory. The whole world is watching yet again and wondering what we're doing? Where's the voice of the Gospel right here and now? Are we in profound denial that the church is in dire need for a new Reformation?

We know the story a troubled German Monk who nailed his grievances upon All Saints Cathedral in Wittenberg Germany on October 13^th, 1517 in hopes to begin a process of genuine renewal and restoration of the Church of Christ back to its Gospel roots. Little did he know that the revolution of technology with the printing press would cause his Reformation to split the church. The church is still “protesting” today as well as still dividing... but not necessarily about the right things.  Christ is less and less in the picture, and the world of the self that we are in bondage to, is more the center's focus, agenda. This treatise that Saint Paul would enlighten the reformers of the Protestant Reformation, may have been in fact begun to be lost now that we are justifying the self over and above the Gospel of Grace. 

“You want the truth? We feel we are entitled to the answers ....but we can't handle the truth!” I love those lines from the movie, ‘A Few Good Men,’ and yes every time I do think of those lines and this beautiful Gospel of John's, that conditional “if” gets us to think: “If you continue in my Word…” says Jesus, “You are truly my disciples.” And He continues to say to them: “… and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” The only few lines that are not in this Gospel Jesus has said in other places: “…if you are willing to accept it.... Let anyone with ears listen! Yet wisdom is Vindicated by her Deeds.” The Cross of Christ is what made, reinstated us to a right relationship with God to whom we are to take refuge within.

We are those who call themselves disciples, refugees of God perhaps fighting in a quiet revolution between the empty promises established by the wilderness of the world and the eternal Gospel of love established as a free-flowing river of Grace between us. If we feel we have been set free, why have we not lived into this freedom truly and truthfully? The church in the world today is broken by personal politics, that is this internal greed that is hoping to snuff out eternal light of the Gospel's truth. The Church of the Reformation was dealing with external greed, where the Roman Church needed to have their tax monies and so abused, misused scriptures to get to their goal. Both scenarios just used politics to try to dismantle the power and fortress of Christ’ Gospel in the world.

We do live in a world that has walls and those walls have been guarded... but we have also built up and torn down walls that we should not have ever thought of creating in the first place. Jesus disciples still don't understand what kind of freedom Jesus is truly seeking for them to understand. After His command or calling of obedience to His Word, His disciples asked: “What do you mean by saying, you will be made free?” He then begins to tell them: “…that everyone who commits a sin, is a slave to sin.” But this bondage can be broken if our willfulness is transformed into a willingness to surrender ourselves to being accountable to God whose Grace freed us and made us to be responsible in love to our neighbors.   

Perhaps spiritually we need to be haunted by these words not only for this Reformation Sunday, but onward as we are still to be "protesting" for the sake of the Gospel today. This bondage can be broken if our willfulness is transformed into a willingness, a willingness to serve God as His freely responsible servant. It is a fine line within our human nature to spiritually battle between the thought of freedom and the need for responsibility. Being accountable to Christ is what the commission of the Gospel calls for those who truly hear and accept and see the wisdom of God. 

I am but one voice standing boldly before you today for people to hear the truth. I can do this because I can't do anything other. This brings us to the problem of being in the world but striving to live beyond it for the kingdom of God. Most of the world doesn't want to hear our witness. Most of the world wants to control and oppress our witness not only as Disciples of Jesus but individually as persons needing to speak the truth. 

I saw a really funny post on social media the other day that was a sign for a church. I believe it was a white cross with lights around it and the horizontal piece of the Cross had JESUS written on it and the vertical part of the Cross had CARES written upon it. The reason for the post made it look like it said: JESUS SCARES. Outside of the humor of that, there's ironically some truth currently in the culture of the world today. The culture of the world wants to suppress the Gospel of Christ. I genuinely believe this is so, out of fear. If people truly began to understand what real Freedom means from Grace and then believe, receive, incorporate and share that Grace… then no one would be subject to anyone in the way that the world wants to subject another.

The burgeoning Christ-less world is building towards a revolution that wants to politically crush the Reformation of Faith needed in the heart to live as a disciple of Jesus. Strangely enough we've seen a hiccup of this with the twentieth century’s martyr, witness Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The symbol of the Sun that was originally used in Hinduism, was transformed into an ultimate sign of evil, the swastika. He began to see Germany fall to the evil of this movement started by Hitler and his followers. His book on discipleship and other writings on discipleship tried to reign us back into obedience, to a willingness of following Christ, by carrying the torch of the Gospel and transforming the world with it. While the whole world was watching… the news and other things, a man lost his battle and was killed for the sake of Christ, for the sake of his efforts to try to save the Evangelical German Church.

We really are not in a place to see a post-modern Martin Luther nailing papers to church doors anymore... For there are too many in the church today looking towards a revolution of the self, not a reformation of the self. What do I mean by that? What is a revolution of the self, versus a reformation of the self? We have heard of the “Me generation.” The “Me Generation” definitely champions the whole concept of the Unholy Trinity of I, Me, Mine. It is centered in the self. It is about the self and its progress and goals only. The revolution of that has become the culture of the self. Reformation of the self, connects to what God continues to try to reach to us who have ears, to hear. We realize the truth of God's Grace when our hearts incorporate this Grace as our faith that we confess, that we hold hope in and firmly believe the promise. This truth of God's Grace transforms our hearts to reap that new nature which is a complete reformation of the self. This reformed self is now to live freely and responsibly into a resurrected life that is obedient to love God and neighbor with all the gifts God has blessed their lives with.

So, when we think about those 3 R's, we are to see them through the Light of Christ to be able to battle the ruler of this world with the Gospel. Our Revelation in the world needs to be our voices, hands and feet in response— active Grace. Our Reformation needs to start within us. The first church of every person is the heart. The heart is where God does His work as the Holy Spirit. We need this first church to commit before we gather as the greater church in the world. We need this first church to be accountable to God and to one another. Our Revolution as the Church of Christ in this Christ-less burgeoning world may not be a printing press, and hopefully not resort to violence but be a form of resistance that someday, the whole world will be watching to realize Christ truly in our midst.

Gracious and Loving Lord Jesus,

We thank You and exalt You as truly our Crucified Lord and Savior.

Help us to know the truth so that we may free others

With the wisdom You have given us, Your gospel of grace and promise

May we humbly be responsible to realizing that we all fall short of Your glory in our efforts in this world

But we know that we hold Refuge under Your overflowing Grace and Love that gives us strength.

We lift this prayer to your Mighty ears

AMEN

Reformation Sunday; October 28th, 2018; Year B; Proper 25; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins

Psalm 46; Revelation 14:6-7; Romans 3:19-28 & John 8:31-36|| Jeremiah 31:31-34

 

 The link to this sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub at noon:
https://youtu.be/0AOgUIvL7Xg

Momentum; sermon for Sunday October 21st, 2018 by: Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins

Momentum is one of those words that either can be a “half-glass-empty” word or a “half-glass-full” word especially when steering that “disciple-ship” of your journey.  Last week was a whole week devoted to recharging my spiritual batteries as well as being a part of the spiritual formation, helping others in their faith. Helping others to allow God's Word to be that lighthouse and free them from their chrysalis shell of uncertainty to truly grow, was serving the Via De Cristo Cursillo this past week.  The moment I read this Sunday's Gospel I thought of the Toby Mac song, 'Lose My Soul.' If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a contemporary Christian song that includes a repeating verse: "I don't wanna to gain the whole world and lose my soul." This is one of the lines that stuck out for me the most. Money may seem to make our worlds go around but the truth of the matter is what really makes the world go around is by the Grace of God.  It is by and through the Grace of God, we know our true purpose and our true place and have New life.

This segment we have of the Gospel this week is just after the rich young man comes to see what more he needs to do to "feel good" about being faithful. Perhaps the guy was seeking a first century Joel Olsteen and thought Jesus would give him the answer he wanted to hear? The rich man only saw piety, being pious, as a transaction. This should sound familiar to a lot of where the world see service and gain these days. Social justice in some fronts of practice has become “feel-good” philanthropy over restorative justice which challenges us to really be accountable to one another to help someone in need.   The problem here, is that the rich young man, in today’s Gospel, is much more concerned about “having his cake and eating it too.” He's certainly not ready to give up his money and possessions yet alone do much “work…” so is his “disciple-ship” going to move forward much? I don't think so.   Again, we get challenged with the idea of Murphy's Law here by Jesus himself saying: "...many who are first will be last and the last will be first." When we get discouraged by being caught by that or feeling like we're under the thumb of that kind of thing, we spin our wheels.

What is spinning one's wheels? When I was younger I was successful at doing just that. I was also very successful in not feeling encouraged in much of anything and I let other people make me feel bad about my efforts.  This past retreat, I allowed myself to feel a little discouraged by other people who don't believe in women pastors.  You’d think I’d be so used to the “attitude” from both men and women, I wouldn’t let it bother me, but it did bother me once again. I was able to shake that off however by thinking of the bright light that other people bring into your life to get you out of those patterns of thought.  One of the other spiritual directors in this last Cursillo weekend is a very talented artist in his own right musically and wrote a song a number of years ago called 'Fail Forward.' Here’s the refrain: "So fail forward. You won’t break. Fail forward. Crash and burn ‘til it aches… Fail forward as many times as it takes. Always try to make some new mistakes..."

This song has very witty “wisdom” like statements sort of, in some senses nearing to what we're hearing in Psalm 119 and Ecclesiastes. This is the thought that we have for this day, little thoughts of: will we be merely satisfied to eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die...? This isn't to be taken lightly or frivolously, but that’s our walking upon that fine line of what the world preaches and the Kingdom of God tries to teach us. If you're a “half-glass-empty” person, as I was for a number of years, you see a lot of yourself just failing forward and allowing other people to help push you further into the mud of that thought. Yes, Humanity can be very good at times it being "demotivating" but then I've heard this as well at times that you can and will be own your worst enemy. Serving this past retreat with a new dear friend I have out here, saw many moments of blessing, of mutually being encouraging to one another to carry on and serve.

For God all things are possible, for us all things can be possible as well… This is not thinking in human terms however. It is faithfully realizing who you are as a child of Grace and promise, both saint and sinner. It's a matter of where our momentum and priorities are placed. Probably perhaps a most favorite verse of mine is: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” We know that's from that beautiful letter of Saint Paul's to the Philippians. But do we tap into that? Do we allow that light of God to shine enough into us, through us and for us to follow? Peter today sounds exasperated with Jesus: "You know, (he's saying), "we gave up everything to follow you(!) (Geez, what more do you want?!)" Peter left that last part out, but I’m sure you could hear that in this text as well. As we know Peter was your everyday “blue-color,” first century worker. He knew what a tough life was, He was no stranger to persevering a hard life, but even Jesus' Gospel was too radical for him to shake off those human tendencies or rebukes we like to make of the treatises God challenges us with daily.

I don't think Peter realized just what Jesus would be facing... The alternative text we have from the prophet Isaiah is this beautiful summary or prophesy of Jesus suffering in serving through the power of His death as a victory for all. I don't think we realize as well, where we are in our commitment to being, becoming a freely responsible servant of the Gospel.  I don't think we realize often enough how doing the “do's” of the Gospel takes a lot of stretching ourselves, beyond ourselves for the love and sacrifice for others. Luther says it himself: “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a person could stake their life on it a thousand times.” Let’s face it, life is nothing but a series of challenges. We've heard that before, we can either take on the lot we have before us or crumble in defeat to the satisfaction of others.

Counseling has a lot of give and take.  This is both for the counselor and the counselee. Marriage counseling has been very interesting to do. Recently I've almost overdosed on performing it this past week. It's hard to talk to someone though, who wants to keep going back to the answer that they like and makes them feel better about everything that happened. You find yourself to continually point back to where they need to spiritually dig and do the work to get back on track to what they have lost, but just like the rich young man, they really just want an easier answer.  Wanting the easier answer, “having our cake and eating it too,” frivolous gain... It is vanity. It is losing momentum on the path that we really need to stay upon, follow. What a sad thought? Losing momentum, losing encouragement, being demotivated, being discouraged, being resigned to a life that you could, with God's help, begin to change for the better…The smallest mustard seed yet of faith!

In a sea of clergy at this past retreat sipping some late-night wine and talking about ministry; we all came to the conclusion that the church is not living by the Gospel in motivating others to persevere for a greater goal. The two variations of Hebrews that were of thought for this Sunday are wound up around talking about Jesus as our high priest and just what perfection in a Divine sense truly is, as well as what we are subject to—our weakness or our strength we get through Jesus as our high priest. We are subject to looking into that spiritual mirror of the law and see where our saint /sinner selves are dealing with life. We are to listen where the Gospel is aspiring our hearts to move forward. Moving forward is always going to have those stumbling blocks things we either put in our own path or just the human mindset does. So, is it fair to say that we do "fail forward" or are we succeeding forward as disciples, children of Grace and promise, who are in the world, but not to be of it?

The person I was counseling this week cannot come to grips with not blaming themselves and see that there was a much greater problem beyond themselves. I might have said several times to them: it takes "two to tango" and the desire, the forbidden fruit of infidelity had its roots with all people concerned. The person was much happier to keep going back to blaming themselves and putting their spouse on a pedestal as well as their family who fail to see something that was not being addressed for many years. That's part of the problem of being co-dependent on others and spinning your wheels about yourself in doubt and challenged faith. Leaning on someone, but not looking inward yes, we could just say it's a human affliction or we can see how God truly does strengthen us, can strengthen us to be able to move mountains both spiritual and perhaps physical. Time and perseverance do heal all wounds.

The Cross of Christ when you look at the shape of the cross and you see the span and you think of his arms there... as I said in one of my talks at the Cursillo weekend believing, receiving, incorporating and sharing: you are sharing with your arms and your heart wide open. That's very hard to take down those barriers that we all have within ourselves to allowing God to work through us, tapping into those uncomfortable things the Gospel daily challenges us with its radical selflessness, love and commitment.  We are weak, but God's Word is what keeps us strong. The never-ending Psalm, Psalm 119 sounds like the psalmist love affair with the law, but it does have elements of confessing: “… I Delight in your ways… with my whole heart I Seek You. I will not forget Your Word.”

The Word of God is our compass and our “disciple-ship” is led by the Light and love of Christ. The Holy Spirit is to be guiding us at the helm of our lives. Ecclesiastes might have been a good cynical wisdom writer, but he has some profound points for us and thinking or choosing between whose wisdom we should really be guided by. The ruler of the world with his empty promises gives us a lot of clutter and vanity that we think can fill us up and motivate us for the journey ahead. When we toil for having money make our worlds’ go around and merely eat and drink just for the sake of merriment, self-satisfaction; what are we really doing to bring about the kingdom of God, here and now? 

The greatest treasure we will never find is that pearl of great price that Christ gave of Himself for our sake.  Truly living into the “do's” of the Gospel is realizing that lifestyle of Grace is tapping into that promise. It is taking a great leap of faith. It is knowing that all things are possible because of Christ Jesus and His gift of Grace to us. And I don't want to gain the world and lose my soul, I want to be a self-sacrificing, accountable servant of His Gospel.  Our lives have lots of valleys and lots of mountain tops to climb, but the one thing I have learned from coming down the mountain this past week is that looking past those valleys of challenges in our lives that guiding light is our greatest hope in our greatest momentum.

I'm sure this coming week is going to have a lot more of the same counseling sessions and trying to help someone who is not ready to have the momentum to really move forward in reconciling their lives with their family and their spouse. Healing takes a long-time. The pain here, is complex, the quote sins are complex as well. We do not live in a cut-and-dry universe it is not black and white there are a lot of areas that are gray. There are a lot of areas we may get lost in the wilderness of the world seeking answers…. We just should never lose hope in fighting the good fight of Faith. We need to be taking that big leap of faith and persevering beyond ourselves for the sake of others and for a God who loves us beyond measure.

Let us pray,

Loving and Gracious Lord Jesus,

We thank You for all the things You continue to try to teach us.

Help us come to understand the the Murphy's Law of servanthood

May Your Grace continue to guide us

Steering our disciple-ship down the path You need us to sojourn

We lift all of our concerns and troubles to Your ever-flowing heart of grace and mercy

AMEN

October 21^st, 2018; 22^nd Sunday after Pentecost; Year B; Proper 24; SOLA Lectionary

Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins

Psalm 119:9-16; Ecclesiastes 5:10-20; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 10:23-31

The link below is to this sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub
https://youtu.be/N7cloWnHxJk