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With the Gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, transition and the “Advent” of things to come is something truly
positive, something truly of Hope. Hope is a funny word though, it's one of
those words that stretches us either one way or the other. Sometimes we feel
the pain or anxiety of struggling with seeing that light, the Light of Christ
leading the way, or we dismiss the notion of being hopeful because it doesn’t
seem “real” enough for us. The voice of one crying out in the wilderness
prepare the way of the Lord make His path straight, begs to differ! Truth be
told, John the Baptist is one of my favorite Biblical characters partly because
the man did not keep his mouth shut. He
was profoundly honest, and he had a task to do whether or not he put himself in
great trouble.
That kind of motivation and
conviction is something we should strive for as Christians, disciples of Jesus.
Even today we need to be hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit in our hearts
calling us to action. This kind of call
to action is a willingness to hear the Word and a motivation to have this very
New Word change you. We need to continue to be hopeful even when we feel
moments of despair. I know this all too well currently since the last few
months of this tail-end of 2018 have been very trying for me to keep encouraged
yet alone see much hope for the future… Life is what you make of it. Or quoting another John, John Lennon— “Life
is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans…” If you can't see
or won’t let the light of Christ shine towards a future pathway, how can you
ever grow into God’s plans for you? The Harvest of righteousness is one that is
carved out by our faith.
In Paul's beautiful letter to the
Philippians, we have a wonderful snippet today all about encouragement and
moving forward. From the paraphrase Bible of ‘Epistles Now!’ I love what Paul
has to say to his friends. He tells them God spoke to him and comforted him in
his despair.... He continues to say to them: “…How it should be encouraging to
all of us, the way in which God is able to turn the unhappy things that
happened to us, even our foolish errors and failures into stepping stones
toward the accomplishment of His purposes in the world. The way the world sees stepping stones is not
the way God sees them. We are not to be
building “castles in the air” of false hope.
We probably don't think too often
enough about stepping stones or milestones we have in our life's journey as disciples
of Christ. I for one personally hate the word legacy. I have read one too many
church planting missional theology books that talk about “leaving a legacy…” I
think the word legacy is purely a term of the ego and it's not something that
speaks of growing with the challenge and transitioning of everything that
happens in your life. Transition can be a very hard word to deal with and for
some of us, it is a life-and-death situation. We are like the grain hoping to
be rescued by God and not be burned with the chaff. But then, life is a lot
like being baptized with fire sometimes you're walking upon that mountain and
then without any warning there's cliff and back down you go into the valley.
Here's where we need the Holy Spirit to keep us encouraged. This Autumn’s valley has been quite deep and
this winter’s ascent far too slow for my spirits.
The psalmist is in the same way
reflecting as Paul. he challenges us to think about what draws us into
conflict. He thinks God continues to test and try us and it’s easy to go there
and start to blame God. He sort comes off sounding like Job, if you ask me....
but then he finishes these thoughts in saying he uses these very things to
purge and prepare for God's purposes. To purge and prepare, purging sounds a
lot like starting to make New Year’s resolutions before the Holiday parties and
the diet goes out the window. What God
needs us to purge is entirely spiritual. Preparing the way, of not only a new
year, but preparing the heart for the incarnational reality of God with us,
that is the beautiful note of not only Advent but hearing "The Greatest
Story Ever Told" challenging us once again to start anew and grow.
Speaking of hope in growing, out
here in Las Vegas, the leaves are just slightly changing on a few trees as well
as my friend’s church is doing the old college try in growing their front lawn
from scratch. It may never make Town and
Country’s Magazine cover for a “hearty” lawn but faith and lots of watering are
helping it to break the odds. Gardening
has never been my thing, I believe my lawn would look much worse if I were
trying to do the same thing, growing it from scratch. The New Nature within us is grown from
scratch you could say. We are called to
reap the seed. Our lives stories
alongside the ‘Greatest Story Ever Told,’ is the seed of God’s Word soon to be
planted in our world as a New beginning… we must prepare for as God’s children.
In order for us to grow up and
transition into the children of Grace and promise, this is what God hopes and
prepares for us, takes us to learn from our past. It's not just repenting of
the past, but it is allowing the lessons of the past to shape you for the better.
I've been thinking a lot about that. We cannot change history, nor should we
attempt to erase it. Your personal character is to be growing from the mistakes
and things that we have learned… but the silliness we have going on currently
with this new age, is not progress. Many of these young people have been making
a voice heard... but only to erase the past under the guise of making things
"right." I suspect this is more or less about control and power over
the spirit. When the world becomes an
idol to the self, the spirit needs to be controlled for the worldly power one
wishes to grow cannot be gained without it.
You know you’re getting older when
you start remembering those great late 60’s early 70’s Claymation or cartoon
shows celebrating different holidays.
One of my all-time favorites is a ‘Charlie Brown Christmas.’ There
recently was a ruffle about removing ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ as a show
that promotes bullying and somehow or another is "racist." There were
a lot of issues with the era of the 60’s and 70’s that that Claymation TV
special was born out of, but it certainly was not coming from that vein of
thought it all. But then there is a school principal in Nebraska who
wants to ban the colors red and green, candy canes, Santa and everything else
Christmas because she feels that the separation of church and state means the
complete oppression and dissolution of anything and everything Christian. Since when is persecuting Christians in the
guise of political correctness ok? Yet in another state they have a statue of,
or depiction of Satan alongside a Christmas tree and something else because
this is how we are showing our “freedom of speech,” Etc.
We are a people in transition and
not necessarily for the better and not necessarily even hearing the voice of
God calling out to us to prepare ourselves for His beautiful kingdom of Grace
and promise. There are not many people today who feel comfortable in saying: “What
then should we do?” and asking God for help… Finding that point within
yourself to turn around and see what do you need me to do God? Takes work. We
need to pray and ask— Help inspire me, Lord. May Your Holy Spirit refine me to
see your straight path and begin to grow a harvest of righteousness. One that
is a natural response of love. This kind of reflection is a prayer of
seeking reconciliation. I don't think we consider this often enough.
With both figures in today's lessons—
St Paul is in prison in Rome and John the Baptist by the end of the Gospel, is
thrown into prison by Herod. But perhaps they are the “freest” because their
mission speaks beyond their captivity. What do I mean by that? Both Paul and
John the Baptist were the freest because the Holy Spirit of God encouraged them
to stay true and continue to speak. The word of God built them up to keep
making that page turn forward in the message that the world needed to hear from
God. You could say maybe that both of them were inspired to do the real right
thing and it wasn't coming from selfishness or oppression, but it was coming
from a freedom that only the love and grace of God can give us.
We don't really hear about the story
of John speaking to Herod in today’s Gospel. John was trying to help Herod to
turn his life around and come to repent of his adultery with Herodias, as we
know Salome and Herodias got around that... The fact that John was trying to
"free" Herod by getting him to acknowledge what he did only got him
thrown in prison and eventually beheaded. The story of Paul's journey is a
little more complicated than John’s, but he would spend time in prison all the
while completing a few letters, this being one of them. I think it's a great
testimony of faith how in the following chapter of Philippians he even pens
unknowingly the first Creed: ‘Jesus is Lord.’ John the Baptist in today's
Gospel tells the truth as it is. He makes it clear to those listening, that he
is not the Messiah and the Messiah's coming afterwards who will baptize them
all with the Holy Spirit and Fire. He will sort those who need to be refined
and those who don't want to follow his path or bear fruits worthy of repentance,
he says, will meet their own peril.
Kind of intense words… but then I believe
the Gospel challenges you not to “sugar-coat” the Words. God needs us to hear
the truth. It needs to be spoken with love of course, but God needs us to begin
to seek, create that harvest of righteousness. Returning to these modern-day PC
Grinch stories of no Christmas, no candy canes, No Rudolph and so on and so
forth… I don't know what the ultimate goal is of these individuals who are
trying to control and suppress the past as well as religious freedoms? I just
don't see it is a move forward or “progress.” I certainly don't think the Gospel does as
well. In fact, it's a move backwards and it is into a new kind of captivity,
one we may make even greater and more intricate then we have experienced
before.
A few weeks from now will be God with
us. ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’ recaps those great words of a God who came
down to us, took upon himself the weakness of human flesh to save us from
ourselves through Grace unconditional and overflowing. God's love and God’s
message for us is unconditional. We are the ones that are conditional and
evermore close minded. We are the ones that only want to change other things
for ourselves, not ourselves. We are the ones that want to change the world as
a means to control it. This is the ultimate imprisonment. If we are unwilling
to even see the world beyond ourselves and the Grace of God how it leads us to
New Life… how can we ever see or understand, yet alone prepare for God with us?
One of the things interesting to note
about John the Baptist is he was a character in ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’
of transition, himself. He was truly a prophet and speaker of the Old Covenant.
He just started to see the light of things to come ahead. The only way he could
get to turn that page was by being that ever-speaking voice. The Word of God
did not rest within his heart, his conscience to share with all those around
him. He had to speak the truth! It may necessarily not have been in love, but
in warning. Paul speaks the truth of the Word in love and it is an
unconditional love— that the Gospel sets us free. For Paul the Philippians were
dear friends and he wanted to try his best to build them up as the Body and grow
to have that special knowledge that is only wrought through prayer. This is
acknowledged in reconciling the self to the past and to the present, meaning
dealing with history being accountable to it and growing, moving on from it.
A couple of years back, the unruly
and very un-politically correct cartoon, ‘South Park,’ had a very funny take on
how silly people get in regards to not only political correctness (which I
think is public enemy number one...) but the teachers and the townspeople
fought over what they should do for a non-Christmas, holiday play with the
children of South Park. By the end of all their silliness and removal of
different things, ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’ became a weird, abstract play
narrated by the moaning and droning music of Philip Glass with all the children
dressed in black, dancing around and not even making sense in what they were doing.
You have to admit it was very clever and strangely disturbing, because this is
what it's come to today in regards to people having the courage to share their
voice. This is not the Voice of the
Gospel, it is the delusions of the world speaking…
Let us pray
Loving and Gracious God,
Help us to hear that voice in the
wilderness crying out to prepare the way for You into our world.
Help us to bear fruits worthy of
repentance
Help to lead us and what we must do
and say with Your Holy Gospel as our guiding Light into the wilderness of the
world. May we be Proclaimers of the Good News
Completely free in heart and in mind,
with Your Gospel’s truth
AMEN
December 9th, 2018;
Second Sunday Advent; Year C; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by: Reverend
Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 66:1-12; Malachi
3:1-7; Philippians 1:2-11; Luke 3:1-20
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub at 12:30pm
https://youtu.be/3OX2tYX5-co
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