Sermons & Meditations

Amos 8:1-12: Luke 10:38-42
Presented July 18, 2010, by Joel Kline
The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

As a child of the 1960s, I found myself shaped deeply by the peace and civil rights movements of the time, movements that readily blended with the Church of the Brethren’s long-held conviction that faith impacts all of life. Even more deeply, faith is life. Following in the footsteps of Jesus, counting the cost of discipleship—these invite and challenge us to grapple daily with what it means to live lives of simplicity, reconciliation, and peace, to live lives shaped by a serious reading of the New Testament. Ours is a tradition that places particular emphasis upon the teachings of Jesus, most especially those found in that largest single collection of Jesus’ teachings, the Sermon on the Mount. You know those powerful words, as Jesus urges us, Strive first for the kingdom of God. Love your enemies. Go the extra mile in relationships. Seek to extend forgiveness. Turn the other cheek. Be reconciled with your sisters and brothers. Live lives of integrity and trust. Don’t be anxious about your life, what you shall wear and what you shall eat. Pray for those who would persecute you. Live as God’s people, as the light of the world and salt for the earth. Embrace the wisdom of the One who says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Ponder what it means to be poor in spirit and pure in heart, to hunger and thirst for right living, to grieve over life’s injustices and divisions and pains, to take it as one’s passion to make peace, extend justice, and embody compassionate mercy.

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Luke 10:25-37; 2 Corinthians 4:7-12
Presented July 11, 2010, by Joel Kline
The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Peter Gomes, pastor of Memorial Church at Harvard University, tells of being asked to help officiate at a Christmas Eve service at Boston’s Trinity Church, an Episcopal church in the heart of the city’s business district. It was an overflowing crowd, and though most sang the familiar Christmas carols with gusto, many were unfamiliar with the other elements of worship. An invitation was extended to all in that Christmas Eve crowd to receive communion, and Gomes recalls one young recipient, tears in his eyes, asking, “Now what happens, now what do I do?” Aware of a lengthy line of persons yet waiting to receive the bread and the wine of communion, Gomes mumbled that he should move back to his seat. But he quickly realized how unsatisfactory his answer was; the young man likely was not merely asking a procedural question, but much more, how he might more fully fit his life into the remarkable story of God’s abundant and extravagant grace. Now what happens? Now what do I do?

Whatever that young man’s religious upbringing, he may well have been thirsting for far more than procedural matters, or even assistance with doctrinal issues and questions of right belief. What if he had been searching instead for a new connection, a deepened relationship, with the God who chose to come among us, fully embodied in the life and ministry—in the very person—of Jesus the Christ? What if he was looking for a way to explore the wondrous and living story of a God whose love knows no limits, a God who invites us to take hold of a new way of living? What if that young man was yearning to experience in new and fresh ways—or perhaps for the first time—life in the kingdom of God—life centered upon the values of compassion and peace, overflowing mercy and grace, servanthood and self-giving love?

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Luke 8:26-39; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Presented June 20, 2010,  by Joel Kline
The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

In a book entitled Holy Daring Carmelite sister Tessa Bielicke tells the story of the 16th century Saint Teresa of Avila, describing her as a “grand wild woman” whose outrageous gifts to the modern spiritual life include human vitality, vivid imagination, disciplined wildness, holy madness. Intriguing, isn’t it, how often a serious grappling with the spirit and teachings of Jesus can lead us in directions much of the world may well dismiss as misguided, peculiar, and even mad. I must confess that I know relatively little about Teresa’s life and faith, but I find myself drawn by the images of holy daring, holy madness. Have you not encountered persons whose values and perspective are visibly out of step with the world around them—persons who are willing to take the risk of holy daring? Passionate persons who stand as alternative voices to the warring madness of our day, living and proclaiming God’s vision of life in the peaceable kingdom. Persons of creative imagination who hunger and thirst for justice, and take the risk of participating in the creation of that beloved community in which all persons are embraced as children of God and treated with dignity, honor, and respect. “Beatitudes” people who grapple with what it means to live—here and now—as the merciful and the meek, the poor in spirit and the pure in heart, the ones who grieve life’s brokenness and oppressions while embracing Christ’s way of compassion, self-giving love, and servanthood. Persons at various stages of life—youth participating in work camps, middle agers sensing a gnawing dissatisfaction with business as usual that leads them to ponder God’s calling upon their lives in new ways, older adults who recognize that the challenge of living faithfully does not end with retirement from employment but instead prods them to consider new opportunities and new challenges at a time when others think primarily of personal comfort and security.

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Luke 7:11-17; Galatians 1:11-24
Presented June 6, 2010, by Joel Kline
The Second Sunday after Pentecost

Quite a few years ago, back in my first pastorate, an older couple moved in across the street from our home and soon began attending the church I pastored, which was just down the hill, within easy walking distance from our homes. Each of these two new residents had significant heart-related issues and appeared rather frail, particularly to a healthy runner in my early 30s. But every spring the woman, whose name was Pearl, would anticipate the opening of nearby Hershey Park, enthusiastically extolling the joys of riding roller coasters. No doubt there are many here this morning who, with Pearl, take great pleasure in riding roller coasters, but I’m not one with you on that issue!

When I pastored in Fort Wayne, we annually took the youth group to Cedar Point in Ohio, an amusement park that labels itself “The Roller Coaster Capital of the World.” My disdain for roller coasters became well known among that group, but frequently I would feel “shamed” into riding, and one year, the “Mantis” had just opened—one of those rides where you are strapped in while standing up. Even now, the Cedar Point web site describes the Mantis as “an aggressive thrill;” you “climb 145 feet into the air before diving into a 119-foot-tall giant loop, followed by a 103-foot-tall dive loop, an inclined loop and a flat spin maneuver.” The others in my group were delighted by all of those climbs and loops, and they seemingly couldn’t stop talking about the awesome ride. But to this day, I vividly remember my first words in response to the whole experience, as I announced to the others, “Now I know what hell must be like!”

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John 16:12-15; Romans 8:14-17
Presented May 30, 2010, by Joel Kline
The First Sunday after Pentecost

Barbara Lundblad, professor of preaching at Union Seminary in New York City, remarked during a sermon at the recent Festival of Homiletics I attended, something to this effect: “If I’d have written the Scriptures, I would have cleaned things up a bit first.” She was referring particularly to the early chapters of the book of Genesis, where there are two creation stories, each story in some ways contradicting the other. In the first creation story, found in the initial chapter of Genesis, the writer speaks of God creating humankind, both female and male, simultaneously, in the image of God. “Male and female, God created them,” shares the writer (1:27). In the second creation story, found in the following chapter of Genesis, the man and woman are created separately, with Adam formed first, and then, affirming the human need for meaningful relationship, the Creator fashions Eve out of Adam’s rib.

The divergent stories about creation remind us that their purpose is not to provide a detailed description of how creation occurred, but rather to make the profound affirmation of faith that God is Creator of the world; ours is a creating and a creative God. We find ourselves in difficulty when we seek from Scripture what it never intended to provide. The Scripture offers neither scientific foundation nor a precise history; instead, the Bible is a series of documents grounded in the central conviction that God is the Source of all good gifts in life, that God has breathed the very essence of God into all of creation, and that you and I—and indeed, all humanity and all creation—are to reflect God’s goodness and God’s grace beyond measure.

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