Sunday, November 3, 2019

'Fighting the Good Fight;' Sermon for All Saints' Day by: Rev. Nicole A.M. Collins


It was Saint Augustine of Hippo who said: "What is here required is not a bodily action, but an inward disposition. The sacred seat virtue is the heart." What he actually said this for was in regard to what became known as a “Just War Theory” which has its origins with the philosopher Aristotle, of all people. This is truly though the Christian understanding of a “Just War.” Why did this come into my frame of thoughts when I began reflecting on All Saints Day? Is it the fact that the church's history is one built on the blood and bones of thousands of Martyrs? Or is it more or less the spiritual war that is really being brought out with Jesus commandments of agape love to His disciples…

I must confess every year that the scriptures come around on this particular day I love preaching on His Beatitudes or pretty much anything from The Sermon on the Mount. Jesus thoughts are truly what one would consider to be beautiful. We are to look upon our Lord as truly a beautiful and perfect example that we are to model our lives after. Well its been two thousand something years later and look where we're at? Yes, and that is kind of bringing in some of the bad news… but there is always that great four-letter word that comes right after that and that's called HOPE!  

I thought of that wonderful and terrible movie that came out as a very dark comedy in 1989 featuring Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas in the ‘War of the Roses.’ It's a really ugly comedy of disturbing violence, nasty words, “creative anger” and everything basically as nasty as you can get as a bitter expression of a love gone stale and rotten. I daresay I was tempted to spend $3.99 on YouTube to watch the nearly 2-hour movie but then I remembered enough that I chose not to see it. I chose not to see the people creatively trying to kill one another to keep their house, to keep the little item which is an ironic element of what a marriage is to create: the home.

What's ironic here is where we think of God's turf war in our heart. We naturally rebel against God and that rebellion happens where it's not necessarily a physical Rebellion mind you, it's truly a spiritual one it is in the heart. We are battling our Old Nature or evil’s influence upon us versus our New Nature potential—which is Heavenly divine Perfection and so on and so forth.  Here's the earth-shattering reality: if you're not aware of it yet but we are certainly nowhere near perfection. In fact, probably the mold has been broken on us more than by Adam and Eve but by our own laundry list of evil things that we have thought, done, belched or “let loose” in the world that we should have kept to ourselves.

We are never alone though. This is something that faith teaches us in a very beautiful way. When you start to really conscientiously become aware of God working in your life, you begin to know that the Holy Spirit is most certainly and profoundly alive and well in your very heart, in your very soul. Who is also in there, though stirring up the muck and mire of our willfulness versus being willing to be obedient, is evil. Some of the most self-righteous people I've ever encountered in my life turn out to be profoundly evil. This evil is stirred up when they don't allow God to work in their heart and they don't want to admit it, keeping it bottled up inside what's wrong.

I've never seen an actual “War of the Roses” in my experiences of counseling others…  The movie is obviously a very dark satire on a bitter, failed, broken and dead love between two former professionals. The home meant nothing more than their acquired place that they feel they have earned. You get the impression that it wasn't coming from a “New Nature place” there it was coming from a material place: “This is my castle, get out!” Basically, that's what the character of Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner would be doing to one another. They just weren't successful in getting rid of each other. They both suffered the consequences in the end.

Perhaps we could say that our human condition is a no-win situation. Perhaps people out there in different faiths that preach a health wealth gospel in some senses think Christians are nuts. We have to live in hopefulness by suffering, by living through our valleys and by continuing to fight the good fight of faith. Our human nature wants to see this as an actual war but the first and most important battle is the one that takes place in the heart and that's really what Jesus’ Beatitudes are all about. Are we children of God— children of Grace and promise or are we willful “Children of the Corn?” If you haven't seen ‘Children of the Corn’ those are the spawn of Satan. The adversary, the evil one gambles with our wantonness and all other evil things that we have coating the walls of our heart. The Holy Spirit, all the while continues to be the perfect Felix Unger and continues clearing our thoughts to think about what we have done and left undone.

It's a very hard call to live towards what the Holy Spirit’s expectations are for us. The holy Spirit is not only our Shepherd and our wet nurse to a degree to be responsible citizens of the kingdom of God, but the Holy Spirit expects a lot from us. He expects us in some senses to go against the grain. This is everything that seems to be comfortable and natural and harbor that “Staples’ easy button” for us. I know that some of you have seen this print out before, but I've kept this in my little daily planner. It's a wonderful reminder of things that perhaps I can spontaneously adhere to(?) it's up to me. This is number one on the list: “An increased tendency to let things happen rather than to make them happen.” That's a wonderful thought right there. I love to be planned and organized to the point of being nearly OCD about it. Number two is “frequent attacks of smiling.” When we are aware of the joy of the Lord in our hearts, we can understand that blessedness that is in the Beatitudes and live into a flourishing that does produce smiles, I know it does for me! Anyway, sharing the third one is feeling of being connected with others and with nature. I've enjoyed praying as much as I can. I pray for dead creatures I see hit on the side of the road. I pray for churches I've passed. I pray for homeless people I have seen at street corners. You name it, I've just naturally been inclined to do that. Now, there's lots more on this list of “symptoms of a Spiritual Awakening,” but you can also think of the Beatitudes as a list. Jesus is meaning for us to sincerely think about what unconditional love in the world looks like, period.

The kingdom of God begins as the transformation, change of hearts which I have preached on this before as that $20 word called “metanoia.” Metanoia means literally to transform the guts, the heart. “We will never change” could be the battle cry and war flag of not only our “set in our ways” human nature of self, but also what we do as church. When I think of the ‘War of the Roses’ film, I think of people who are struggling in their marriages. This is when war seems to be the only option. It is a physical war yelling, of throwing fits, etc. It's a physical war of “my way or the highway.” Tears don't matter anymore as well as the pain inflicted doesn't matter because the person has to let out all the ugliness and one side has to win. Welcome to being painfully human. Kathleen Turner's character really, really could not abide her husband's set in his ways smugness and infidelity and other things that he was basically throwing in her face daily. Enough was enough! Michael Douglas’ character still felt this as victim too. It had to be his way or the highway. He felt that he sacrificed enough. He dotted his I's and crossed his T's and that house, that place they made together was his alone.

Instead of going to a marriage counselor, they went to a lawyer. This was somebody who was only going to help them see victory, one side or the other only. When you think of the spiritual warfare battle we have in our hearts between Satan and God willfulness or willingness it's always one side or the other and we always fall off that tight rope of being disciplined spiritually to follow our Lord and to live a life in Grace to love our neighbors as best we can. I love the notion of a faith that can move mountains, it's beyond beautiful. Why it is beyond beautiful is that we can develop a faith that can move mountains! It is a gift of realizing God active in your life. It is a gift of looking at the scriptures and seeing them alive having them come to life and doing and being in our very selves true children of God.

Jesus incarnate, fully human in our world as well as fully Divine gave us the perfect example of truly being, living and doing as children of God. Some have called the Beatitudes of Jesus, the ordination address to the 12 disciples. They're ready to get out into the world and cause trouble, welcome to being Christians. Getting out into the world and causing trouble… a part of me really likes that idea. Seeing that in the right light of course, means what do you feel is important to stand up for? Now remember it has to not come from that wonderful little planet of “I, Me, Mine,” the world of the self, but it has to be something that operates in consideration of others. Living and being beyond ourselves— being attitude of gratitude, living into what would Jesus do, is a double-edged sword. It can be an actual physical battle in the world or it can truly just remain as a spiritual battle: which side are you going to let win?

As much as you try to be the best at counseling other people where your listening presence, where you try to love both sides sometimes counseling has its challenges. These challenges are especially if what you say kind of goes in one ear and out the other. I can keep saying “welcome to being human,” but I can also say on that same breath: why aren't we doing more than trying? Why aren't we working towards resolving our conflicts with one another? Why does it have to be “my way or the highway” and I'm always right? It's a nice little pedestal to live on but it's delusions of grandeur that Satan builds up. Returning to those ‘12 symptoms of a Spiritual Awakening,’ one of the ones that I repeat often to myself is number 8, number 9 and number 10. Number 8 is basically “a loss of interest in Conflict,” good luck trying that one. Number 9 is “a loss of interest in interpreting the action of others,” that's another good luck one because we're always thinking too much and we always hurt ourselves with our over thinking (this is where the pun is intended by the way.) Number 10 is “a loss of interest in judging others.” The whole world likes to judge one another. We love brandishing the ‘Scarlet Letter,’ when the opportunity presents itself. We love of categories. We love stamps on the head. We could probably even joyfully misinterpret The Book of Revelations saying the mark on the Christians head or the mark on the child of God is something exclusive, not inclusive. 

That's another false comfort of “welcome to being human,” that we need to stop doing. We love to be judge, jury and executioner.  As my mentor would say, one of my many mentors: “we have to stop doing the don'ts and we got to start doing the do's.”  Beatitudes represent a new kind of law for us. They are pure gospel. It is the end of law—unconditional love. This law has us look at our hearts. The law of agape love is the end of law. It is a discipline to training the human spirit to live into a great faith that truly loves God and truly loves neighbor. It's by “walking the talk.” It is by living and giving. It is walking that fine tightrope between willfulness and a willingness to change.

When we think of all the Saints, they were merely extra-ordinary people. They went out of the way to add the extra in front of their ordinary lives. They put God above their ordinary lives and did something greater. When we think of the whole story and tapestry of our lives’ work; a lot of those threads may not connect the right way or may not be the right color, or may not be the right size… They have this or that amiss with them. When it does become one is when we realize whether we have lived a life worthy of the Gospel, or one that we have not.  I know with my whole self that God has spent a lifetime of training me to reconcile myself to His will… and I want to, I am willing to change. I'm not going to just “try” anymore I'm going to do it. I'm ready to fight the good fight of Faith, how about you?

Let us pray,
Loving and Gracious God
We thank You for the blessing of Your wonderful Beatitudes
They offer so much to teach and inspire us to grow, do and be.
May we realize that you are the Great Shepherd on the throne of our hearts
And that agape love is at the center of our hearts
It is that New Nature, we pray to continue believing and receiving incorporating and sharing
Everything that You give us, in Your name we pray. Amen

Sunday, November 3rd, 2019; All Saints Day; Year C; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 149; Revelation 7:2-17; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12





 The link below is a variation to this blogs sermon delivered at the Grace Hub on Saturday November 2nd 2019:

"'We fight the Good fight of faith for the cause of unconditional Love."
https://youtu.be/rDhb9LM2VB4