Sermons & Meditations

Colossians 1:11-20
Presented November 25, 2007, by J.D. Kline
The Last Sunday after Pentecost

Once there was a people who surveyed the resources of the world and said to each other, “How can we be sure that we will have enough in hard times? We want to survive whatever happens. Let us start collecting food, materials, and knowledge so we are safe and secure when a crisis occurs.” So they started hoarding, so much and so eagerly that other peoples protested and said, “You have much more than you need, while we don’t have enough to survive. Give us part of your wealth!”

But the fearful hoarders said, “No, no, no, we need to keep this in case of emergencies, in case things go bad for us too, in case our lives are threatened.”

Time passed, and the others said, “We are dying now. Please give us food and materials and knowledge to survive. We can’t wait. We need it now.”

And then the fearful hoarders became even more fearful, because they were afraid that the poor and the hungry would attack them. So they said to one another, “Let us build walls around our wealth so that no stranger can take it away from us.” And thus they started erecting walls so high that they could not see any more whether there were enemies outside or not. And as their fear increased they told each other, “Our enemies have become so numerous that they may be able to tear down our walls. Our walls are not strong enough to keep them away. We need to put bombs on top of the walls so that nobody will dare to even come close to us.”

But instead of feeling safe and secure behind their armed walls, they found themselves trapped in the prison they had built with their own fear. They even became afraid of their own bombs, wondering if they might harm themselves more than their enemy. And gradually they realized that their fear of death had brought them closer to it.

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Isaiah 65:17-25
Presented November 18, 2007, by J.D. Kline
Thanksgiving Sunday

Some years ago I came across a brief book about the practice of spiritual direction entitled Inviting the Mystic, Supporting the Prophet. The authors, Katherine Marie Dyckman and Patrick Carroll, define faith as a verb, as an active process rather than a static reality. Write the authors, “Conversion is not simply a matter of prevailing arguments, of changing from one belief system to another, but a matter, rather, of our personal surrender to a living God.” Faith, the authors suggest, involves placing our trust in God and giving up the illusion of control.

You and I love to be in control, don’t we? Perhaps the greatest learning for me in the aftermath of my wife Janice’s accident and death was the stark reminder that much that occurs in life stands beyond my control or your control. The unanticipated death of a loved one reminds us in a most disruptive way that much of control is indeed an illusion. In my younger years I made a number of pronouncements about what I will and will not do in the course of my lifetime. Back in my early 20s, in my seminary days, I used to assert with some frequency that I would never become a pastor, and if by some chance I did decide to do so, it would never be in eastern Pennsylvania, where the Brethren have a tendency to be rather set in their ways. Nevertheless I did become a pastor—for some 33 years by now—and I began in eastern Pennsylvania. In those same seminary days, Janice and I made occasional trips between the seminary—then located in Chicago’s western suburbs—and our family homes in Pennsylvania, and again, with great conviction, I would announce to Janice as we traveled across the flat toll road through Indiana, that I would never live in northern Indiana. You guessed it—my second pastorate was in northern Indiana. And on those occasions when I came to the Church of the Brethren General Offices in Elgin, I frequently found myself asserting, “Here’s one place I certainly will never move to.” But of course, here I am. When we seek to listen for the promptings of the Spirit and to open ourselves to God’s leading, we may well find ourselves moving in directions we had not foreseen. We may well find ourselves giving up much of the illusion of control.

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Luke 19:1-10
Presented November 4th, 2007, by J.D. Kline
The 23rd Sunday after Pentecost

In her book Christianity for the Rest of Us, Diana Butler Bass seeks to explode the myth that the only growing churches in America today are mega-churches or those who embrace a rigidly evangelical perspective. Butler Bass examines church life in a number of mainline Protestant congregations that are exhibiting significant vitality and growth, and she highlights critical qualities of the spiritual life displayed in their congregational life. First on her list is hospitality.

Hospitality may well conjure up images of little more than a series of social graces performed with the intention of convincing persons to consider church membership. But the kind of hospitality displayed by lively congregations is not simply a recruitment strategy; it is a way of life. It is seeking to welcome others as graciously we ourselves have been welcomed into the fullness of God’s love through encounter with Jesus. Welcome one another, asserts the apostle Paul, just as Christ welcomed you (Romans 15:7). In his book Reaching Out Henri Nouwen defines hospitality as a matter of creating space where a stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. The space created is holy space, and it is offered, not with the intent of compelling the stranger to change so that he or she meets our criteria, but rather, it is a matter of offering a place where transforming encounter with God’s grace might occur.

The familiar story of Jesus encountering Zacchaeus serves as a model of hospitality. In Luke’s Gospel the story falls near the end of Jesus’ lengthy journey toward Jerusalem. Were Jesus primarily interested in making good time as he journeyed from Galilee to Jerusalem, he certainly would not have detoured through Jericho, especially since the road from Jericho to Jerusalem involves a steep, winding, and challenging ascent. But Jesus does indeed go out of his way, and while in Jericho he goes out of his way yet another time, as he reaches out to the despised tax collector who has climbed a sycamore tree, the better to catch sight of Jesus.

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