Posts
This Sunday is the baptism of Our
Lord. It is to be a reminder to all Christians about their daily journey. This
is our Christian journey which not only truly is a dying and rising… dying from
the old self and rising in the new, but it reminds us of our freedom. This is
our freedom through the cross, a freedom that's has removed us from bondage.
Yes, we know we are both saint and sinner, but we shouldn't take that phrase
for granted. On that same breath we should never take the grace of God, his
gift and his New life for granted.
The Christian journey is one that is
baptized with fire. The chaff within us is to be burnt away and the New life is
to be opened and freed. We take freedom for granted as well as we don't realize
the evil that others do against humanity all for justifying sin, and more or
less creating something diabolical. I had these profound thoughts etched into
my weeping heart this past Friday when I came to spend a couple hours learning
about the tragically beautiful ministry of a group of women here in Las Vegas.
This ministry was to enact restorative justice on behalf of human trafficking
victims. We take it for granted that Vegas, within the city lines, no longer
allows prostitution but all around us throughout Nevada, it is still alive and
well and very much legal. It was even more sad and troubling to know that Vegas
is still the dubious capital of the tragedy of sex trafficked victims. These
people range from children, women and people from foreign countries for just
trying to find a better life.
We know that the work of Satan in the
world is being a grand illusion artist of false promises. Building castles in
the air of monetary gain alongside the illusion of finding love are empty
promises made by some of these people to rope unsuspecting victims into their
indenturement. The 6 hours that I was within this class hearing all of this, I
was utterly amazed at how diabolical the efforts of some of these people were,
to keep these people in bondage. It was the illusion of money, (though they
would take the money of course), alongside the illusion of love, (they would
pretend to love these people), that they coerced and indentured these victims through
violence and the illusion of control.
That last element should be
something that makes your heart quake when you think of what is Humanity’s
problem? What do we keep getting wrong in what we do and say in this creation
that we even take for granted? Do we not hear the voice of God calling us out
and surrounding us giving us strength and helping us, saving us? For many of
these people, they are not even allowed to look up. They are supposed to keep
their eyes down to the ground. The evil people that capture them and force them
into sex slavery tell them they are not allowed to look at them and they are to
keep their eyes down. If they accidentally looked up and looked for chance at
another trafficker, then that justifies a war between the two traffickers and
the person is even more abused and tortured and branded into another slavery
situation.
When we think about the freedom of
the Gospel, because of the scandal of the cross… Do we have those moments that
we see the nails going in? Do we see and feel Christ in that moment where the
cross becomes a black hole sucking all of our evil into itself? There's this
one scene in the Lord of the Rings’ ‘Return of the King’ movie, where when evil
is finally defeated the evil eye, the landscape gives way and all who were a
part of the evil army of this would be absorbed into the Earth. In the circle
remained the small fellowship of people who never gave up hope. They knew the
cost was great, but they couldn't let evil win.
This technically first Sunday after
the Epiphany is to be a reminder of what Baptism means for the Christian. Some
may simply just say it's an initiation right for people to join the church and
then never come again with their children only maybe during Christmas or Easter….
But Baptism is so much more. Baptism is a daily process of reflection,
confession, repentance and renewal. We are to reflect on our lives each and
every day, not just on Sundays. We need to realize where we're going and who we’re
listening to. That's a great Segway into one of the themes we have for this
Sunday, “The Voice.” The voice of the Lord vs the voice of Satan. Another term
for it is spiritual warfare. Is our armor thick enough? Have we confessed not
only our transgressions, but our beliefs are we convicted by our faith? Is this
faith strong enough to transform us to reconcile us with God in a very knowing
and personal way? Lastly that sense of renewal is that freedom that only God
can give and no one has the reins on.
St. Paul’s beautiful letter that we
have this Sunday, this wonderful little snippet, he begins with getting them to
reflect: “What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace
may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?”
They say that slavery and prostitution are the world's oldest institutions.
Mary Magdalene was reported to be a prostitute & disciple. Truth be told, a
lot of medieval writers made her into a lady of the night because they didn't
want a strong woman figure within our heavy-handed patriarchal scriptures…. Our
prejudices, our judgements against one another indenture people in more ways than
one. Herod didn't take his lesson too well. He couldn't deal with John the
Baptist continually speaking being that voice of his conscience from that
prison cell. Herod, like most of the modern world, “we want to have our cake
and eat it too.” He was just doing a “little bit of adultery…” What does it
matter? Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.” He probably didn't put on
"for tomorrow we die,” at the end of these thoughts. He was probably happier
to keep making his money, to keep his power in check and control elements of
his life, he didn't like dealing with.
If you die to the self, the Old Nature,
the old way of sin; you would never see control as the world teaches us as the
illusion of control. If you begin to have your heart rise to that New Nature,
nothing could hold you down, for the light of the Gospel lifts you. The light
of the Gospel reminds you of God's abundant grace, that love that brings us a peace,
no one can take away. If you destroyed sin, crucified your transgressions with
that cross, remembering those waters… then New Life is rising! I wondered about
that in thinking of that image of these tortured victims being forced to stare
down at the ground and not allowed to lift their eyes. They were not allowed to
look at the sunlight. They were only allowed to see the darkness in the Earth.
The old Adam and the Old Eve abandoned Eden for a wisdom that was a grand illusion.
They didn't realize the humble life of the grace and promise of God, and that
paradise. Paradise uninterrupted by the empty promises of the evil one until
now.
There are so many songs out there
that I wonder if the original songwriters realized the great Christian messages
that some of their songs have. Last year I reflected on this same song because
I believe it's so much of that spiritual warfare and actual battle that we do.
This is our battle wandering through the wilderness of the world as God's children
of Grace and promise. I love that Simon and Garfunkel Song, ‘The Boxer,’ that
was our Prelude this afternoon but it's so much about the persevering spirit.
This man was indentured to his lifestyle for he was poor and struggling… what
he had to use was his body. He had to use his fists to earn his meal. These are
the basic elements they say of what Humanity requires in order to keep alive.
He was keeping alive in terms of how the world wants us to keep alive. Money
makes our world go around even though it's love is pure evil. Some could say he
chose to be a boxer, others could say that he had no choice. These women and
children and young boys did not have a choice. They were not given a choice and
we're not allowed to free themselves, to be truly free.
It's not popular in America, to do
restorative justice. It cost too much money. It's much easier to do punitive
Justice and even that at many times, falls short. Our indifference allows our
brothers and sisters fall between the cracks. Human trafficking victims fall
into the cracks they never deserved to fall into. Once Christ Jesus our lord
began his ministry, as we are hearing in today's Gospel, the voice of God and
the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove and said to the world: “You are
my son the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.” I heard once in a funny
commentary or maybe it was a text study group, I was in a few years back, where
people debated God's role in Jesus coming down to us as being “divine child
abuse.” A funny comment, but then something we don't have an answer for… The
only answer we have is love. The love of God is a power and a control that we
do not fully understand, and we cannot take that away from anyone. The Beautiful
song we sang as our opening hymn this afternoon is one that of course was
another one I found in one of my Methodist hymnals’ collections. Got to love
the Methodists they have a lot of good Jesus’ campfire tunes. The song is, ‘You
Are Mine,’ and within the lyrics are moments of God comforting, providing and
delivering his people.
The name of the place I visited for
most of Friday afternoon was called the ‘Destiny House.’ What a wonderful name,
the Destiny House. It was not a shelter in a typical sense for abused and
battered women and children… It was a restorative, regenerative housing complex
led by a group of very strong Christian women. The woman who founded this
community was herself a victim of this horrible evil but found a way to escape.
In some sense just like Saint Paul, she can talk about her indenturement of the
past and bring hope and healing to these abused and battered women and
children. That's truly restorative justice in action. That's truly donning the
armor and fighting that good fight, even if it seems like Vegas is becoming a
stronger Capital alongside many other networks of human trafficking and Evil
taking root all across America.
The voice of the Lord is calling us
to action no matter where we are on our journeys. Those healing and cleansing waters
of our baptism should refresh your commitment to the Lord of life, and His
reign of Grace. God speaks through the Prophet Isaiah to comfort God's people:
“… because you are precious in my sight, and honored and I love you. I will
bring you… I will gather you....” Trusting in the Lord is a very hard thing
especially if you've been a victim of evil in the world. Everything becomes a
cynical delusion of what really is the truth. How can you trust a God that
would let something happen like this? How can you ever love your neighbor that
would brand a tattoo on you force you to sell your body for money to make their
world go around? There are no sure-fire answers or solutions to the problem of
evil in the world it exists Satan is alive and well and knows very good ways of
using people.
When you begin to love a life,
curved inward, how can you see beyond the self to realize the suffering in the
world that you could help to bring to an end? So, you were baptized at Saint
Edward's Catholic Church in November of 1968 in Berwyn, Illinois and don't
remember a damn thing about it… Has it left an impact on you now as a disciple
of Christ? Well I know it has speaking for myself. I certainly don't remember
being baptized at all, though my dad claims he remembers being born. My
mother and I love having a giggle over that… “oh yeah sure you remember that...”
I do remember being re-born, however. I love sharing that story probably too
much. If it wasn't for Cursillo and other venues of sharing God's Word living
in me, I probably wouldn't have shared it as much as I do. We are called to be witnesses
though, we are called to come and follow. We are called to pick up that's cross
and follow Him, who loved us beyond measure.
Being a disciple of Jesus can be
very stressful especially when it seems that the world is turning not
necessarily for the better… We must be like John though and be that voice that
doesn't stop speaking. We need to realize who saved us and live fully into that
saving grace. Living into that saving grace is the journey of the New Nature. It
is that New Nature reaped. It is that Resurrection into a New life restored to
God's ideal. We are to be the attitude of Christ and burn away that chaff in
our hearts. Just like that battered and bruised boxer, we must put those gloves
back on even if we feel weary and do the work God requires our hearts to live
for the sake of His truth.
“So, my brothers and sisters, you
also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus our
lord.” Be blessed to be a blessing to others. Believe, Receive, Incorporate and
Share of God's Word throughout your entire being and into the world, the dark wilderness
around you. May the holy Waters of your baptism convict you, and uphold you
with God's truth and purpose for us all.
Let us Pray
Loving and Gracious Lord Jesus,
We thank you for the power of Your
cross
That the evil one has no control
over.
Help us to help our neighbors, love
our neighbors
And save them from being bound to
the world through Satan's lies
We thank you Lord for Your light
That cauterizes our hearts with Your
grace and New Life.
Your mercy is great, and may we
always love you.
Amen
The Baptism of Our Lord; January
13th, 2019; Year C; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by: Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 29; Isaiah 43:1-7; Romans
6:1-11; Luke 3:15-22
The link below is for the entire Baptism of Our Lord Sunday at the Grace Hub 12:30PM:
will post soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment