Sermons & Meditations

1 Peter 4:8-11
Presented April 29th, 2007, by J.D. Kline
The Fourth Sunday of Easter/Service Sunday

Perhaps you recall the story of Oscar Romero, archbishop in El Salvador, murdered in 1980 while leading worship and offering the Eucharist. Those were turbulent days in the tiny Central American nation of El Salvador. Romero, originally chosen in 1977 as the more conservative of two candidates for the position of archbishop, had quickly recognized that his new position provided opportunity to advocate strongly for the poor who had long been repressed in El Salvador. Indeed, the regime in power at that time was the most repressive in all of Latin America, systematically seeking to eliminate any progressive leadership and terrorizing its people, seemingly with little or no regard for the cost. Not long before his death, Romero asserted, “There are people who opt for guerrilla war, for revolution…. [But] the church’s option is for the beatitudes…. Christ was sowing a moral revolution in which we human brings come to change ourselves from worldly thinking.”

Yet today, we live in a world that remains far more accustomed to the ways of violence and warfare than to the spirit of the beatitudes proclaimed by Jesus, and in many streams of the church the beatitudes have been so “spiritualized” that we no longer hear them as revolutionary. Yet, try as some may, the power of the beatitudes cannot be fully dismissed. Blessed are the poor in spirit… those who mourn… the meek… those who hunger and thirst for righteousness… the merciful… the pure in heart… the peacemakers… those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake—all this seems strangely out of place in a world urging us to get ahead in life, no matter what the cost to others, or even to our own souls. All this seems strangely out of place in a world that encourages us to “look out for number one,” a world that sees self-centeredness and self-indulgence as the norm. And all of this seems strangely out of place in a world that cautions us to be wary of the stranger, a world quick to label as enemy any who look and think differently, a world that finds comfort in creating barriers and walls of separation between peoples.

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Matthew 6:25-34; Romans 12:1-2
Presented April 22nd, 2007, by J.D. Kline
The Third Sunday of Easter

An advertisement a few years back pictures Josh, a young adult, sitting peacefully before a huge stack of athletic and outdoor equipment. On top of the pile of skis, running shoes, fishing gear, kayak, and a host of other equipment is a Ford pickup truck. Josh sits in a meditative and prayerful pose, with hands open in receptivity. Below the picture are these words:

Josh put a new twist on an old philosophy. To be one with everything, he says, you’ve gotta have one of everything. That’s why he also has the new Ford Ranger. So he can seek wisdom on a mountain top. Take off in hot pursuit of enlightenment. And connect with Mother Earth. By looking no further than into the planet’s coolest 4-door compact pickup. He says it gives him easy access to inner peace. Which makes him one happy soul.

You and I live in a culture immersed in a sea of materialism, a culture in which far too many assume that the amassing of more and more possessions is somehow our basic right. Even more, many are convinced that accumulating greater and greater numbers of possessions is a sure sign of God’s blessing, bringing peace and joy to our souls. Is it any wonder, in this kind of climate, that we are prone to act as if everything is ours for the taking, the grabbing, and the hoarding? Some even read Scripture as justification for overtaxing and abusing the environment, convinced that the writers of Genesis, celebrating God’s creation, would define humanity’s “dominion” over other living things (Genesis 1:26) as a free rein to do as we please. But the Scripture writers make it abundantly clear, over and over again, that all of creation is gift—not gift to be stockpiled for selfish gain, but gift to be celebrated, cared for, and shared.

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John 20:19-31; Acts 5:27-32
Presented April 15th, 2007, by J.D. Kline
The Second Sunday of Easter

Andrew Young, United Church of Christ clergy, civil rights leader, former Congressperson and United Nations ambassador, once said of Martin Luther King, Jr. that the thing King most talked about was death. Not death in a morbid sense, but talk about death because King had found something worth living for and dying for. You may remember, some ten years before his assassination in 1968, a first attempt upon King’s life. At the age of 29 King was stabbed in the chest with a letter opener by a demented woman. The letter opener pressed against King’s aorta, and had King sneezed, he likely would have died. To remove that letter opener required surgery that formed a scar in the shape of a cross on King’s chest. Said Martin Luther King in response, “Every morning when I look in the mirror, I realize this day could be my last. It makes you realize, if you haven’t found something you’re willing to die for, you’re not fit to live.”

The New Testament carries the same affirmation, does it not? In John’s Gospel are these words of Jesus, “Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). The other Gospel writers recall a similar message, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it” (Mark 8:34-35; also Matthew 16:24-25 and Luke 9:23-24).

In the aftermath of the first Easter, the early followers of Jesus began to recognize that they now had something—even more, they had Someone—worth living and dying for. According to John’s Gospel, the small band of disciples was cowering behind locked doors on that first Easter evening when Jesus suddenly appeared in their midst, saying quite simply, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19). And then, in words reflecting both promise and gift, Jesus asserts, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (v. 22). Luke, writing in the book of Acts, suggests that the Holy Spirit comes as gift at Pentecost, some fifty days following Easter, but John has things happening far more quickly. On the same day as the resurrection, the disciples receive the Holy Spirit. The key issue, of course, is not a timetable, but the assurance of God’s continuing presence—the Spirit of God that comes both as comforter and as dis-comforter, coupling God’s challenge to discipleship with the promise of God’s gracious and abundant love. Grace—God’s extravagant love—forms the basis for challenging mission. “As God has sent me,” says Jesus, “so I now send you” (v. 21). Empowered by the Spirit, we reach out in gracious love and servanthood to others with the gospel message of hope, forgiveness, and new life.

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Isaiah 65:17-25; Luke 24:1-12
Presented April 8th, 2007, by J.D. Kline
Easter Sunday

Do you remember the scene near the end of the classic movie Fiddler on the Roof? Set in Tsarist Russia in the early 1900s, with revolution in the air, the film portrays a Jewish community in turmoil, both internally, with values and traditions beginning to shift, and externally, as the ruling authorities instigate a pogrom against the Jews. Soon it is mandated that the entire Jewish community must evacuate their homes, leaving the village where their families had lived for generations. In the midst of all the turbulence, one of the main characters turns to the old rabbi and says, “Rabbi, wouldn’t this be a good time for the Messiah to come?” Slowly and sadly the rabbi responds, “We will have to wait for him somewhere else.”

Throughout history people of faith have yearned for that time when their long-held hopes and dreams would find fulfillment. For those of the Jewish faith, it is a yeaning for the long-anticipated Messiah to finally come for a first visit. For those of us in the Christian faith, convinced that Jesus was indeed the Messiah/the Christ, our hope is that the message will at long last take root in human life. It is the hope that the kingdom of God, announced centuries ago by Jesus—that this kingdom will fully unfold, here and now, among us. Both faith traditions yearn for the ancient vision of the prophet to become reality; together we yearn for that day when God will indeed “create new heavens and a new earth,” when “the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind,” when “the wolf and the lamb shall feed together” (Isaiah 65:17, 25).

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