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This is to be the first message in
my series that I've decided to call ‘The Meta Valley.’ Now I know you are wondering:
What does this mean? How does it apply to your context, into the context of the
world? Well when we think of meta-narrative that means it’s an overarching
story or truth that encompasses many things. The old Reformation drum skin of “aspiring
Saint and wanton sinner, ‘has probably been said too many times but we are
children of Adam and Eve and we have been following them through a wilderness
we have not found our way out of yet. Christ is the new Adam. He is the Son of
God who would find Victory on the cross to free us from bondage.
The notion of a Saving Grace… what
does that mean to us today? We are in a world that is willful to the self, and
not necessarily ready to be willing to go beyond the self. That's the Meta
Valley. The wonderful Gospel we have this afternoon is Luke's version of the
scene right after Jesus baptism (basically Jesus ordination service) and
commissioning to the cross, to Him immediately going into the Wilderness of the
world to be tempted by Satan. In the ancient thinking, the devil in context
here, was the adversary. Over the centuries our picture and image of the devil
and the nature of evil have changed quite a bit. We either have people
justifying sin so readily that they believe Satan is not real and neither is
hell. I'm not one of those preachers to say “some like it hot” that's not my
task as well as that’s not my style.
Why even go there with these texts that
we have? What is Lent supposed to challenge us to do? How does it challenge you
and your little microcosm and your little micro Valley of life? People
automatically think of Catholic legalism eating fish on Fridays, doing certain
things on other days and so on and so forth. This is not about that kind of
law. Christ is the end of the law— His incarnation, His journey to the cross
and embrace of the Cross and Resurrection is the end of the law, because the
most powerful force in the world, that is from God, is love. Before you start
thinking this is going to be “flower-power idealism,” the gritty reality of
life is that we don't know how to embrace love to use it to fight evil in the
world, enough.
St. Paul's little tiny snippet
conversation he has with his Roman Church is getting them to think about the head
and the heart. The heart is a tabernacle of the Holy Spirit where the seed of
the new creation is planted. The head is where that reflection and turning to
God helps us to realize how we are to incorporate the grace of God and respond.
A number of years ago I recall someone who was interning at a church where they
didn't like that the pastor did afflict the comfortable and did comfort the afflicted.
They just wanted to hear cotton candy, marshmallow fluff-style “Grace only
preaching.” That doesn't help anyone to look inward to themselves and see the
reality of the meta valley that humanity must continue to keep fighting to for.
The meta valley for us is that continual spiritual warfare journey between good
and evil. We can't talk it away or justify ourselves to make it go away…
because no matter what context and place your living, no matter who you are or
wherever you're going; it always is going to apply to you that is the reality
of the human Journey.
During this interim time in valley
of my own journey at the moment, I have been asked: why bother, who are you
preaching to what does this mean? Just because there's no steeple and not too
many people I can see… doesn’t mean I am not called to share God's truth! The Word
that comes through the person no matter where their heart is and how their
journey is going is very unique. It does speak to a certain context, for we all
take in God's Living Word in a very unique and unusual way. What makes the Word
of God living as well as profoundly timeless, as well as profoundly a
meta-narrative to His children of Grayson promise, is just that. Yes, we are
the followers of Adam and Eve in the wilderness that seems to have no end but
we are also the children of Grace and promise freed from bondage by Christ.
The last verse from the little tiny
lesson we have in Romans today says: “For everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord shall be saved.” When we think of that Mighty Fortress of God, what does
it mean for us today? Do we have a shelter of God anymore? Do we allow
ourselves to realize the shelter of God, to grow from and be renewed people? A
continual voice I hear especially during these times of Challenge and struggle
is God gives you everything you need to be content with. I find myself
challenging that voice and rebuking back— how is that possible? Thinking of my
own little microcosm and perhaps getting a “Job complex....” creates thoughts
like that. The conversation seems at many times one-sided, but it is a
continual tapping on my heart to think about and perhaps turn my heart to trust
in God and be in His shelter of Hope.
The devil's conversation with Jesus
is intense. He's just doing everything possible to get Jesus to turn against His
sense of Faith and obedience, as well as His mission. Satan says: “Look, you're
hungry eat something make the stones into bread!” He then says again: “Well,
why don't you give me one of these Kingdoms here, let me rule?” Jesus says: “Worship
the Lord your God and serve Him only.” One of the Cursillo rollos has a very
interesting way for us to understand that expression of faith either being a “holy
Hannah” or “routine Rita” and a whole bunch of other funny sayings to get us to
think about the difference between what's felt in the heart and what comes out
of our mouths in order to show our ideal faith. You can't sugarcoat the Gospel
and you certainly can't sugar coat what your intentions in your heart truly
are. Some of the televangelist preachers out there that are very successful,
circumvent the cross all the time. People don't want to hear the unpleasant
aspects of the cost of discipleship. They just want to hear the fluffy stuff. They
want to see a smile that never turns into a regular expression. They want to
see veneer.
Several years ago, there was a
really good, dark comedy made around death and life, it was 'Death Becomes
Her,' with Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn. For those of you who may
remember that film they wind up destroying the bodies that they bought to rival
each other in beauty and wealth… By the end of the film, they fall down a
flight of stairs and wind up being broken shells of who they both were. They're
still talking about finding glue and finding spray paint to “put themselves
back together again…” but the inside, where their soul was is empty.
I've been doing a lot of counseling
again lately, which is always a blessing. I love to help people. My heart is
always been drawn to care for people and encourage people and be a prayerful
presence. This person shared their story seeing death face to face. This was
before Christ was in their life. They sat on the window ledge and looked out
into utter blackness and felt the utter emptiness. They were feeling what it
means to walk in the valley. Later on, they shared how Christ saved them and
was like that eagle in the ‘Eagle's Wing’s song that we sang this afternoon.
God does provide our hearts shelter, especially while we grow to defeat sin,
death and Evil. What this person realized in retrospect, was profound. They
now think they saw and confronted evil by looking out and contemplating their
own death. The window sill was not the pinnacle, but they were challenged by death
and life. They also, at the time, had problems with alcohol abuse. This was a
reality check into seeing what they were doing in their life and where they
really were.
Life is not always going to have
concrete edges and be black and white. You are going to have to go there
looking at the in between, with things that don't make sense and that are
abstract. There is being and there is purpose. That's the old existential
philosophy I believed in before I found faith in Christ and came to Christ. I
have been made. Now, what is my task and what is my goal? Adam and Eve didn't
get that far. They lost the battle. They had to have that knowledge from that
forbidden fruit. And as I say, my own take on that, I think both of them went
for the apple or apricot as my husband believes it to be, I don't believe it's
all Eve's fault. It takes two to tango you know. It's a lot easier to put the
blame and justify the self over another. We do that all the time; this whole
culture today is being built upon that. Being a self-seeking jerk in an Unholy
microcosm of I Me Mine, is a pretty lonely place with very little purpose. In
my own opinion I think that sounds like hell. It may not be hot, it may be very
cold.
Turning the heart to God— this is
that time of reflection. This is what the disciple has to think about for the
next 40 days walking along there with Jesus. We don't think about carrying
Jesus, we want Jesus to carry us. But when we think of that gift of Grace; do
we realize it's magnitude and its rescue from that meta Valley? Is it
fair to say that our sin is wanting to become divine? This is the macrocosm the
greater world of an Unholy Trinity from the ruler of the world and his false
promises just like his conversation with Jesus in today's Gospel. A couple of
weeks back, I had a very disturbing dream. Some people do remember their dreams,
some people don't. Occasionally, I have very vivid dreams. This one in
particular made me connect it to today's Gospel. Basically, the voice said: “…so
you want to be a breadwinner? then give
it all to me and I will give you everything. Give all that you have to me, I
want to have what is mine.” Sounds like a similar conversation that Jesus went
through with this Gospel. I actually had to wake up in the middle of the night
to stop the movie and conversation that I was hearing and not really seeing. I
didn't see anything I just heard this voice. I started to rebuke it, as well as
I said: “okay give me everything and be gone…” but then you can't have your
cake and eat it too.
We always try to find a shortcut
through the wilderness. We always want an easier path. We want to have and beat
Murphy's Law. That old Star Trek episode where Captain Kirk rigs the control
panel to the academy tester for him to save the ship and the crew, you could
probably think is a pretty nasty sin. He wanted to pass this class and he knew
that the outcome and the circumstances left his hands pretty tied. Well obviously,
the people of the academy knew that he cheated but thought it was pretty clever
that he tried to find an inventive way to save the crew and save the ship. They
didn't really scold him more than sort of cheer his efforts to win the test.
Life doesn't work that way. It would be nice if it did. It certainly doesn't
work that way in Parish Ministry and sometimes you really have to learn that
the hard way or as I have told another lovely person I've been counseling: it's
like a frying pan to the head that God needs to whack you with.
Finding, building and strengthening
that faith where you allow God to truly be your shelter and your solid rock is
that battle between good and evil. The person I had talked to who was
reflecting about their past suicide attempt, outside of they can't believe it's
now 22 years ago, found the strength to work on their issues. And this strength
was finding and seeing God, giving them granting them a renewed purpose. In
essence, they saw their heart turn to God. I know you've been hearing me
described that turning to God, that reflecting, that confessing but what's
another term for the heart turning to God in recognizing and realizing your
journey and your purpose? That turning the heart to God is repentance, that Brussel
sprouts sounding word… (and again I'm sorry if I've offended anybody who likes Brussel
sprouts) but repentance is that realization of that meta Valley and that
reconciliation as children of Grace and promise. Once we know who we are, and
whose we are, through that Saving Grace, the bondage of sin, death and evil
fall away to our incorporating Grace through faith and living it. We live with
the power of God's Love and Gospel to share in a perpetually challenged world
that doesn't want to hear the truth most often.
The truth is always going to be the
truth behind God's living transformative Word. it's going to fit any context in
the human Journey. Let those who have ears hear! Let those who have hearts
reap! Let those who have arms embrace God! That little charcoal cross upon your
brow on Wednesday, you should see like a keyhole to your mind. Have you let God
open it, are you letting Him come in? To incidentally quote a Beatles song, “the
movement you need is on your shoulders…” but it's starts first in the heart.
Let us Pray
Loving and Gracious Lord Jesus
Help us through the meta valley
Help us to hear Your voice and know
the truth and know what our faith is grounded in
Help us to open ourselves and turn
to You for it is Your cross that has released us from bondage
And we need to be reminded of that
promise of hope, a binding Deliverance of Your grace
May we love and live as children of
Grace and truly promise
In Your most holy and precious name,
we pray to you—AMEN
March
10th, 2019; First Sunday in Lent; Year C; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon
by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm
91:1-13; Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Romans 10:8b-13 & Luke 4:1-13
This sermon was delivered at the Grace Hub at 12:30pm
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