Posts
Every person is a dream and an idea
of God. What a wonderful thought! What a wonderful hope! What a wonderful
promise of what flourishing for humanity through God's eyes truly means! This
Sunday in particular, we have beautiful scriptures. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is
enacting His first great sign of water into wine, saving the wedding party at
Cana. In Corinthians, we have good old Saint Paul dealing with his wayward congregation
speaking beautiful words of what spiritual gifts truly are. The voice beginning
it all comes from Isaiah speaking of that torch, a burning torch shining out
like the dawn into the dark places of the world bringing the light of God and
His glory.
I was told that 1968 wasn't
necessarily a great year... though I think it’s great 😊… The world was in an upheaval, in turmoil over
Vietnam. There were protests and riots against a transition in culture: flower
power or the silent Generation's regularity in "Tradition." The other
war that was going on in the world would be led by the prophetic voice of Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. He would be leading a great spiritual quest to see
restorative justice for all people to have equal civil rights. I don't know how
many people realize how strongly Dr. Martin Luther King was influenced by
Martin Luther and the whole of the Protestant Reformation. Both Luther’s wanted
to re-form peoples’ thinking. Back in 1968, the world was polarized by the
color of the skin. Today we are polarized by pretty much everything. “Everything”
has now become coupled with carrying a torch for something coupled with agenda,
not necessarily with grace or with promise.
I love that saying, carrying a
torch, being a torchbearer. When we picture ourselves as Disciples of Christ,
we see and know in our hearts that obedience. This is a willingness that has us
pick up our own crosses to follow with His great purpose and His will alone.
Relationships are a funny and complex thing though, just like marriages, they
are going to have some covenantal aspects that are faithfully lived into and
others that we will find turmoil within ourselves. This inward turmoil hampers
us from beginning to recognize not only the signs and glory of the Cross but
the signs and glory of the Gospel in our everyday world, that we are called to
transform from.
St Paul was, as I have mentioned
before, in other messages, truly a rebel with a cause. His cause was Jesus
Christ. His cause was the truth of the Gospel. Truth be told about the
Corinthians, they were definitely a challenging dysfunctional congregation and
I'm probably holding back with kind words here. Some similarities could be made
to the postmodern Church in regard to what flavors of Christianity do people
feel attracted to? The culture of the church have been lost in battle to the
cultures of the world. We are no longer truly flourishing as God's Children of
Grace and promise. We are becoming weary and grasping at straws at the life
that perhaps is ebbing away from us as we speak… because of our will and agenda
over and above God's.
That “Rebel-with-a-Cause” intensity
that St Paul would have, not only with the Corinthians, but with his many
churches, helped him to be our first pastor, our first theologian. Jesus is
Lord is the first Creed literally. Paul certainly was pushing the envelope with
nearly getting himself killed by Roman emperors. They were gods and no one
dared to say anything else or call anyone else Lord. Daring to speak rejoicing
in a beautiful righteousness came Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. A Republican,
Baptist minister who pushed the envelope with “afflicting the comfortable”
about civil rights. Much like John the Baptist to Herod, many of Dr. Martin
Luther King's speeches, I'm sure, grated upon the minds and the hardened hearts
of those not willing to open their eyes to the change that they must do.
Perhaps as a human culture, we don't
harbor enough humility to see ourselves as those empty vessels created by clay
of the Earth as the first Adam and Eve were, by the hands of God, loved by God,
and filled with God's profound Grace and peace. The irony of the title of an
era in human history's thought, the quote Age of Enlightenment, did more damage
profoundly then we can realize to being grounded by the spirit and allowing the
spirit of God to work through us building a solid foundation. This is a solid
foundation that is not only an ethic of flourishing as a civilization of God
but to be glory in God's eyes as children of love, living into Grace. Children faithfully
covenantal to the promise, hope of a new world ahead.
Amid all the things I have been in
turmoil with these past few weeks, I did find a little nugget of time to look
at the whole of Dr. Martin Luther King's 1963 speech: ‘I Have a Dream.’ On the
second page of this speech he says: “…we must refuse to believe that the bank
of justice is bankrupt.” When I heard that in my heart, I recalled Joan Baez’
version of ‘We Shall Overcome.’ A very simple protest march song sung with a
hauntingly beautiful voice. Her voice almost sounds as if it could be the voice
of the Holy Spirit reaching down to the people in the world and beseeching them
to seek peace and the agenda of God, not of the world. It is almost as if this
entire speech of Martin Luther King, Jr. is speaking to us to begin to recognize
and reconcile ourselves to the glory and grace of the Journey of the cross that
Christ would make on our behalf.
Our lovely gospel snippet we have
this afternoon from St John is this amazing beginning Miracle or sign from
Jesus, at of all things, a wedding banquet in Cana of Galilee. It seems almost
like a “first-century Seinfeld episode” in the sense of Jesus' mother Mary
complaining to Him about the dwindling supplies: “… well do something, the wine
is running out!” and He sort of says… “well, I guess so …okay…” but it's so
much more than that. It is so much more than that and it always has been that
way for John, the Gospel writer. That man like Saint Paul experienced a
profound connection with the Holy Spirit in who they are through Christ and how
they have realized, recognized the Gospel’s work in their very lives. For John,
his whole mission was for the world to see the profound reality of who is Jesus
Christ. Christ Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, who is fully human and
fully divine. It is this same Jesus who bore the impossible task of bearing a
cross of torture and death, taking with it the sins of the world and
resurrecting some three days later to transform the world forever.
Transforming the world forever and
ever… Perhaps it is the Gospel's ultimate purpose? Perhaps it is truly the
mission of God in His idea of every person is a dream of His? Perhaps what we
mistook as an era of “enlightenment” is really an era of digression going back
to Adam and Eve with that apple to the forbidden tree of knowledge that
God had not guided us through to accept and understand. What people fail
to realize sometimes, or perhaps often, I should say, is not only how radical
the Gospel Christ Jesus is but how truly unpopular its message challenges us to
hear. What do I mean by that? This is certainly not a prosperity Gospel, in the
sense, of the way the world understands prosperity. This is certainly not a Gospel
carrying a torch for the world of the self. This is a Gospel that challenges us
to realize every aspect of that manifestation of the Spirit. A manifestation
given to each and every one of us, as St. Paul says, for the common good. For
the common good means blessed to be a blessing to others. It means being-the-attitude
of Christ where miracles can happen when we realize how much we can be filled
was the good news and continue to share that good news.
Much like the prophet Isaiah, preaching
against a real oppression, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to a hostile crowd.
To this hostile crowd, he continues by saying: “… now is the time to make
Justice a reality for all of God's children.” Beyond what we know of the civil rights
movement, Justice has not necessarily been completely served today. This is
apparent in many aspects of how we love our neighbor, how we care for the world
and how we help to transform the world through God's Word. I've said this
before, I'm not necessarily a fan of the term, social justice. Why? Because I
think it has become a couched idea or re-invention of works righteousness
especially for a very too focused “me-generation” world. Restorative justice is
a much more accurate term to what God is calling us to do in the world
naturally. This is justice without our own agendas but with His purpose alone
in mind. The radical Gospel of Jesus Christ is not an exclusionary document of
dead words apologetics, war-mongering and even evil intentions. Humanity has
done a very good job in adding their own footnotes or revisions to the truth,
the radical truth of what God's Word is to be for us.
The only way we can be faithful
disciples who live into a restorative justice is by tapping into all of the
gifts God has given us each individually and use those alongside working
together in unity to see it happen. This was, in many senses, Dr. Martin Luther
King Junior's dream. He hoped that we would stop looking at colors of people
and start seeing the full person, start seeing the whole person without a label
upon the head, without coaching them into a category or a box. We've not been
too successful perhaps, but we do look upon our African American brothers and
sisters with a more equality today than we had before. Now we judge the world
and others continually and have brand-new categories of oppression and
discrimination, and for some, it becomes their form of self-righteous Justice. The
death work we have as politics in the world currently is seeking to build a new
Empire around control and around suppression of real prosperity.
The Holy Gospel of Christ Jesus Our Lord
is not one that is speaking to the Unholy Trinity of I, Me, Mine. It is not for
the “me-generation” except to have the “me-generation” die to the self and rise
as a new generation looking beyond themselves with the Light of Christ, to be a
light, to be a blessing to others. A beautiful righteousness is one that
does not keep silent and one that keeps running forward as if it were in a race
against time to help the world begin to turn for the better. I was joking with
Pastor Mary in our text study this week about the challenges churches experience
with taking action. I likened some mindsets to thinking of a bunch of older
citizens donned in Marathon clothes running in slow motion with their slowly
dimming torch towards the finish line. The slower the motion became; the more
Church committees and teams and councils would debate whether or not something
should be tabled or whether or not wait and see if the pastor will do the work
instead. Now this is just a little unhealthy dynamic that happens within some
congregations, not all.... It does make you think about our attitude to being
active within that lifestyle of Grace that Christ Jesus gave us to willingly
live into?
All people are called by God. What
the world deems as ordinary can become extraordinary and we have many people
throughout human history who have been extra-ordinary in their discipleship
tasks to love and care for neighbor. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a great heroic
figure during the oppression and evil that was taking place during World War II.
Some may say he lost the battle with being executed, but in fact his voice
lives on in how we are given to think about the cost of discipleship and our
motives of faith. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave rise and influence to many
figures throughout the civil rights era to look into and create deliberating
vision for all of God's creatures to look upon one another to live with one
another without a bias and hatred. as we know from the pages of history, Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The bullet was to put down and silence
his voice, but it wasn't.
That Living Word of God, that voice
within us that comes from a beautiful righteousness, that motivates us can
never die it is from Christ. Christ Jesus is perpetually resurrecting within us
each and every time we reap that New Nature and we begin to live beyond
ourselves with a greater goal and purpose to be flourishing, to be a new
creation. I don't know who we have in the midst of us today as a prophetic
voice with the Gospel at the center of their cause, for speaking of restorative
justice.... Perhaps television and radio news and whoever else, who feels or
thinks they are in charge, are suppressing their voices purely with politics
and darkness. In another day or two, there will be what they call the super blood
moon over Nevada. We don't know if we’ll be able to see it because we might
have more of those crazy rain storms, we've been having an intense clouds which
is not normal for here.
Some of us could see the signs and
things of the world in a dark way. The prophet Joel alluded to the apocalypse
because of the blood red moon… but we are called to something greater than
that. What is happening in the world in the here and now, is crying out for us to
don that armor of Christ and be Faith-filled soldiers, servants with His good
news. Perhaps our own lives, as Paul was trying to open up the eyes of the
Corinthians to see, our own lives, the gifts God has given each and every one
of us. Realizing these gifts can and will make a difference the moment we see
beyond ourselves and look towards something truly beautiful.
Tomorrow is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Day and it is for the most part observed. There will be a quiet across some
public offices. Some people have a day off to reflect while others will work on
things that they would like to see happen as change in the world. Be that voice
that never stop speaking! Be that love that truly does restore your neighbor. Be
that witness of God's grace and promise— you can do it, we are all extra-ordinary.
Let us Pray
Loving and Gracious Lord Jesus
We thank You for leaders such as Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr.
We thank You for his wonderful
witness and work in the world
To help people to recognize their
biases and evil.
Let us not fear change in the world
Let us embrace changing the world!
As we are truly an idea and a vision,
dream of God’s
His children of Grace and promise.
We lived this prayer and pray for
the future in Your most Holy Name. Amen
The
Second Sunday After the Epiphany; January 20th, 2019, Year C; SOLA
Lectionary
Sermon
by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm
128; Isaiah 62:1-5; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11
The link below is to this sermon was delivered at the Grace Hub at 12:30pm:
No comments:
Post a Comment