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“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation
of my heart be acceptable to you O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.” I must
confess I have not been one to practice using that to start my messages though
I know many people will feel that they need to begin The Holy Spirit speaking
through them with a word of scripture itself. “The medium is the message,” as
Marshall McLuhan believed anyway. The Word of God is the message to our hearts
to come out of Exile and live into the Gospel as a complete, unified Body.
God has been always speaking, He’s
never stopped(!).... especially through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How much
have we been listening? You could say that the townspeople of Nazareth didn't
like the "afflicting" Jesus was taking upon them with His first
sermon. Basically, he tells them of their failure and that God knows what will
happen to them next. I don’t think He was speaking to Murphy’s Law either… I
saw a funny post the other day on social media which was a cartoon showing
congregants complaining about the scriptures to their pastor. It showed
congregants grousing about the Book of Numbers saying why do we have to read
about a bunch of unhappy people bellyaching about not getting their way in the wilderness?
How is this relevant to us? Kind of a “pot-kettle-black” scenario there. We can
sure dole out our complaining and our grousing, but God listens, and we keep
going on.
Perhaps some of us keep going on,
still in Exile, not being settled, still in bondage and never really knowing
what freedom is? Are we ever going to find our way back to Eden? The law is
supposed to help us see within ourselves what we must begin to do. The law is
that uncomfortable mirror that is to discipline our hearts to not operate from
the world of the self but live as a child of Grace and promise. Making our way
into living truthfully as a child of Grace and promise is very hard in a world
that actively wants to control the spirit. Do not quench the Spirit… that is a
death work. Those who want to suppress the Spirit believe, if the Spirit is let
loose, then the people will not listen to our worldly authority.... If,
however, the Spirit is oppressed, then the world can be shaped by empty
promises and delusions of grandeur. We can keep pushing the human nature card
only so long to say this is our destiny, when we are called to put on Christ,
to tap into Grace, live Grace, share Grace in the Unity of the one Spirit, the Gospel
of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
I recently bought a cross from Hobby
Lobby, which is one of my favorite places for my beading adventures. This cross
had the old AA statement or serenity prayer I should say of: “God grant me the
serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things
I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” I found it amazing and
incredible to learn that American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, was the one
who penned this prayer and in 1951 it was adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous and
other 12-step programs. Reinhold Niebuhr is considered to be the founder of the
Christian realist philosophy. Apparently in the early 30s he would use this
prayer to begin his sermons when he was a pastor at an Evangelical Church in
Massachusetts. Talk about someone who
had his two feet firmly planted on the ground.
When you think of it, the “Serenity
prayer” is a great confession and it is finding a way to “settle the self.” Settling the self to realize where God is
alongside you on your journey is listening to God. We can't go back in time and
and tell Adam and Eve to wise up and not be tempted for they already wandered
off and out of the Garden of Eden into the Wilderness the world. They went out
into the wilderness of the world without a thought of really turning back. The
path was set and now we live into the tributaries of that original path not
just as aspiring saints and wanton sinners, but truly as children of God
enlightened by the promise and Hope for a return to Eden, someday.
It's hard to believe a prayer that
is proclaiming our human condition has become an adopted motivation, Word for
those suffering from addiction. They
don’t call alcohol spirits for nothing….
I’ve counseled way too many people suffering its debilitating grip upon
their lives. One such individual I knew from my art world days actually led the
local AA meeting as well as a Poetry venue on Sunday nights. He found a way out, some are not that lucky,
however. A young aspiring poet also a devout Roman Catholic married a young
musician in hopes that her love could change him and bring him out of
alcoholism’s spell. She tried and
suffered for some seventeen years to ween him away from the stuff. His fidelity however was in bondage to the
bottle. He could only love his escape
away from wife, children and responsibility by daily passing out and vomiting up
blood going up the stairwell to their modest 5th floor apartment. I
have always admired her faithfulness and cried with her from a distance.
Sometimes some people are truly lost and can’t or are not willing to look for
the right road.
There are many things in our current
culture that we have become addicted to. it's not merely the world of the self
and the dictations of the ego but it is living into the cost of discipleship. Living
into the cost of discipleship sometimes the valleys are too long and deep and
the mountains too hard to climb… Years ago, when I used to visit a friend at a
church office, he was the secretary to. He had an “easy” button from Staples on
his desk. I don't know if many people remember that funny campaign where you
were supposed to hit it and it would say: “that was easy!” Kind of had the same
quality as a magic wand if you ask me, or even like a piece of candy the kind
you shouldn't eat. I know several years back, I had to wean myself off of ‘Coffee
Nips.’ My one friend Karen was concerned I was going to have no crowns or
fillings left in my lower teeth if I kept eating them all day long...
Perhaps the “Easy” Button is simply
an answer to just spinning our wheels and not tapping into the gifts God has
given each and every one of us to share along those tributaries of our human
Journey? We are the ones to be bringing the serenity, peace and change into the
world even when it seems impossible to do so. The Word of the Gospel is to be
that wisdom that transforms us to living one day at a time, savoring it but
taking on the pathway to peace as Jesus did. In today's Gospel, Jesus is
literally delivering His first sermon in His hometown of Nazareth. He starts
His message by reading the Prophet Isaiah. “The spirit of the Lord is upon me
because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” We know that this the
Living Word of God that is a part of ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’… but do we
realize the Spirit of the Lord upon each and every one of us, as that moment in
living daily into our baptism? In Jesus case, He was recalling His baptism by
John the Baptist and basically proclaiming His messiahship Journey beginning.
We have been anointed by the water
and the Word as well as weekly we partake in the body and blood of Christ to
revive us and reassure us of our calling to follow and carry the Gospel. Back
then the Word was literally carried. It was carried by the voices of many whose
hearts did hear God speaking and they were called to share. The beautiful
passage we have from Paul this afternoon is his wonderful lesson on what the
church is supposed to be. Remember we have to train ourselves to get beyond the
steeple and really think about the people. The Word is why we gather to
scatter. Yes, we are many members. We have all been uniquely called. We all
have been uniquely gifted by the one spirit. There is no place for “one-upmanship”
which poor Saint Paul had to deal with in regard to his wayward Corinthians.
Like a typical dysfunctional congregation, they were all in competition with
one another they had no idea what the word, team, meant and actually would
probably correct you and call it something else. One of the funniest
discipleship posters I've seen to date was someone who drew out big block
letters for the word team and filled in an eye in the middle of the a. It read
as: "See, there is an "I" in team, it's in the
a-hole." A very humorous pun definitely what the Corinthians problem
was and what we still face today.
The saying it is a dog-eat-dog world
is an old one indeed and perhaps a sad one in regard to how some in our current
culture thrive on living into the “anti-Gospel.” That was an interesting
conversation Pastor Mary and I had this past text study. BTW she was “supposed”
to preach this Sunday, which tells you something about God challenging us all
to speak and reflect on His good news even when we feel like we need to take a
break sometimes. What we discussed was whether or not we are living in an “anti-Gospel”
age. As well as the thought of—are we still living in Exile, and are we still
in bondage? Are we more faithfully living into the constructs of our own universe
rather than God’s will? The world is in bondage to the love of money and
to the love of self. Those who are freed by the Gospel of Christ are going to
have an even greater challenge proclaiming the uncomfortable truth, but it must
be done.
The prophet Nehemiah has a wonderful
final verse that I've seen some of my friends use as their footer verse in
their daily emails: “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” The people were
just returning from Exile and had a grandiose task ahead of them to restore the
ruins of Jerusalem back into what they once knew. The work of the people
was inaugurated by hearing the law and being inspired into action. A part of
the root word to Grace is rejoicing. Rejoicing is the act of knowing what Joy
is. Sort of a gigantic, huge “Pandora’s box” word in regards to where the world
is now but in its most simple sense, Joy is peace and Joy is founded in love. Love
as we know is the end of the law which the final ministerial task of Jesus
Christ would realize for the world to tap into.
Love is all we need to plug into all
the gifts that we were given to share in the world as the body of Christ. Some
of us may not be prophets or apostles or teachers or even able to muster up
something miraculous but we all have that element of Grace within us that we
can tap into. That Grace is the seed of the New Nature, the New creation
waiting within us to faithfully reap. We know, at times, wandering through
those tributaries out into the wilderness of the world we can gets stuck or
feel perhaps like we're living into “Murphy's Law.” You know what Murphy’s Law is? It is opposite
world. Sometimes it can be cruel or
terribly ironic, depends on how deep your valley has become as well as how
narrow your path has dwindled to. “There is no good deed that goes unpunished…”
that's another statement out there. I was told once that you shouldn't work as
hard as you think you need to work in the church, because people won't
appreciate it and they'll resent it and they'll resent you(!) What an awful
thing for a pastor to hear?! But then I'm sure many of us who have been wounded
on the frontlines of shepherding Christ's Church know this is a part of the job
description. “Damned if you do, damned if you don't...” well, then, what on
Earth shall we do? What have you been called to do? God is always speaking… Are you really
listening?
Let us not forget that God is truly
with us and in saying that, prayer does build us up. Just before I went to go
interview for a chaplaincy opportunity out in Pahrump, I had some dear
friends pray over me. Hearing those prayers, being in the company with dear
friends was bringing peace to my soul as well as being “Church.” They were
sharing their gift of Prayer to lift my spirits up for the unknown road ahead.
The opportunity was for chaplaincy in a prison. I have been involved in prison
ministry before in Illinois through Kairos Outside. What a lovely thought that this
ministry was founded on the idea of “God's time,” Kairos. All in God's time will
the wisdom, peace and fortitude will be revealed to finding Eden, once
again. We may be a people wandering those pathways forever, but perhaps
all we really need to do is look down and see the ground we’re standing upon to
realize that firm foundation of Christ being our Rock and Redeemer. Perhaps
upon these pathways that we tread, the wisdom of God will reveal itself slowly
as it was intended to, and then we will know the Kingdom of God, here and now
and that Eden is our potential(!)
Let us Pray,
Loving and Gracious Lord Jesus
Continue to shape my heart
Grant me the Grace to accept things
that's I can't change
Bless me with the courage to
persevere and realizing change
In things that I can change and most
importantly
May your love and peace grant me the
wisdom
To know the difference in the world
AMEN
January 27th,
2019; 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany; Year C; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by: Reverend
Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 19:1-14; Nehemiah
8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a; Luke 4:16-30
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at the Grace Hub at 12:30pm
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