Sermons & Meditations

Isaiah 58:6-14
Presented January 29th, 2006, by J.D. Kline
Preached at Second Baptist Church, Elgin, IL

Not too long ago I read the story of Grace Thomas, a gentle Christian woman raised in the Southern Baptist Church who, in the 1930s, moved from Alabama to Atlanta, Georgia to begin her married life and working career. Grace became a clerk in one of the state government offices, and through that work, developed an interest in law and politics, and eventually enrolled in a local law school that offered night classes.

After years of part-time study, Grace finally completed her law degree. To her family’s surprise, Grace announced that she had decided to enter the 1954 election race for governor of Georgia. There were nine candidates—eight men and Grace—but only one over-riding issue. That issue related to the schools, since in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education the Supreme Court had just declared that racially “separate but equal” schools were unconstitutional, thus paving the way for school integration. The other eight candidates spoke forcefully and angrily against the court’s decision, while Grace raised a counter perspective, asserting the decision to be fair and just, one which ought to be welcomed across the country. Her campaign slogan was “Say Grace at the Polls.” But not many did; in fact, Grace came in dead last, and her family was relieved that she had gotten politics and controversy out of her system.

But she had not. Eight years later, in 1962, Grace once again ran for governor of Georgia. In the midst of the growing civil rights movement, Grace offered a message of racial harmony. In response, Grace received a significant number of death threats, but she would not be deterred. Once again Grace finished last on election day, but she continued to be convinced that her message needed to be heard.

Near the end of the campaign, Grace made a stop in the small town of Louisville, Georgia, and chose the town’s old slave market as the site for campaign speech. On the very spot where slaves had been auctioned a century earlier, a hostile crowd gathered to hear what she would say. Began Grace, “The old has passed away, and the new has come.” And then, gesturing to the market, Grace continued, “This place represents all about our past over which we must repent. A new day is here, a day where Georgians black and white can join hands to work together.”

It was not a message the powers-that-be wanted to hear in the Georgia of 1962, and someone shouted accusingly, “Are you a communist?” Pausing in mid-sentence, Grace responded softly, “No, I am not.” “Well, then,” continued the heckler, “Where’d you get those gall-durned ideas?” Grace thought for a moment, and then pointed to the steeple of a nearby church. Said Grace, “I got them over there, in Sunday School” (source: Tom Long, Testimony, pp. 133-135).

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Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Mark 1:14-20
Presented January 22nd, 2006, by J.D. Kline
The Third Sunday after Epiphany

In my growing up years in the church, I remember wincing whenever I heard the common admonition at the end of a worship service, “Go in the fear of the Lord.” Even when I came to understand that the fear being spoken of had far more to do with respect and awe, with reverence and wonder, than with being afraid, the admonition continued to disturb me. For all too many persons do indeed view God as one to be feared, as one who is somehow out to get us.

One evening this week I happened to see a History Channel documentary about Abraham Lincoln. Though his values were much influenced by the Christian faith, Lincoln was not an active participant in any church, so troubled was he by questions about God arbitrarily assigning persons to eternal punishment. Lincoln could not reconcile the image of God as loving Creator with the notion of everlasting condemnation, a struggle many share yet today.

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1 Samuel 3:1-10
Presented January 15th, 2006, by J.D. Kline
The Second Sunday after Epiphany

In a few remarkable lines Elizabeth Barrett Browning reminds us of the power of paying attention, of being alert to the presence and the reality of God in our midst. Writes Browning,

Earth’s crammed with heaven,
and every common bush afire with God;
and only he who sees takes off his shoes—
the rest sit round and pluck blackberries.

Could it be, as Catholic priest John Powell suggests, “the most serious obstacle to a life of faith is inattention”? The world is charged with the wonder of God’s presence, but we little notice it, so preoccupied are we with ourselves—our own struggles, our own desires, our own agendas, our own limited vision. And so we go about our daily tasks, little noticing that “every common bush is afire with God.”

This morning’s Scripture lesson, from 1 Samuel, chapter three, relating the story of Samuel’s call as a prophet, begins with the assertion, “The word of the Lord was rare in those days” (v. 1). I wonder if the rarity of God’s word was not due to the people’s lack of listening, their lack of paying attention. Preaching professor Tom Long suggests that the rarity of God’s word was more likely a matter of quality than of quantity. There was probably every bit as much God talk in those days as in any age, but “all of their God talk lacked the ring of authenticity. In short, there was a lot of God talk but very little God in it.”

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