Sermons & Meditations

Matthew 16:13-20
Presented August 24, 2008, by J.D. Kline
The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Some years ago United Methodist pastor Robert Raines wrote an intriguing book, Living the Questions, in which he reminds us that “the Bible is a book of journeys and questions—of people asking God questions, and God questioning people.” He begins with a powerful quotation by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, spoken in response to a would-be writer approaching him for advice about his writing skills. Asserted Rilke,

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart. And try to love the questions themselves. Do not seek answers that cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

Live the questions now. Many approach religious faith, little wanting to struggle with life’s deepest questions, little wanting to live patiently with that which is unsolved in their hearts. To the contrary, they are hoping beyond hope for answers that are set in stone; they yearn for simple formulas guaranteed to explain away every possible eventuality. The noted preacher William Willimon laments,

Lots of people in our world today want a faith that they can put on a bumper sticker; [they want] three spiritual laws, six basic fundamentals, and four Christian principles to live by. But our God is so much more interesting than that. Jesus is so much larger than that, and life is so much more demanding.

Truth is, faith frequently raises far more questions for us than it answers, and the life of faith centers on the challenge of living in the very midst of questions—our own questions, and the questions God would ask of us. The New Testament is filled with a host of questions Jesus asks—questions that can be unnerving, questions prodding us to realign the values and commitments that give shape to our living, questions that lead to personal transformation. Perhaps no question is more challenging than the one that stands at the heart of this morning’s Gospel lesson. A question Jesus directs to the disciples, and by implication, to each one of us: Who do you say that I am?

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Matthew 14:13-21
Presented August 3, 2008, by J.D. Kline
The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

In his book The Mustard Seed Conspiracy Tom Sine tells the story of a Scandinavian couple, now living in California, who brought with them a love for gathering wild mushrooms. One weekend they went to the foothills near their home in the Bay area and came home with overflowing baskets of mushrooms. So bountiful was the crop they collected that the couple decided to host a dinner party for a houseful of friends, serving a host of mushroom dishes including crepes, soufflés, and omelets. The guests ate until they could eat no more, and the couple scraped the leftover mushrooms into the cat’s bowl.

Later that night, as the guests were preparing to leave, they heard a sudden scream from the kitchen: “The cat!” All the guests rushed into the kitchen, and there was the cat—thrashing, kicking, crying, her sides heaving—having what looked to be a seizure. A doctor was called, who informed the couple that this was “nothing to mess around with,” and instructed all the guests to head to the emergency room. Stretched out on tables in emergency, now well after midnight, the guests had their stomachs pumped. It was miserable end to what had begun as a delightful party.

The guests returned to the house, collecting their possessions, when someone thought to ask what had happened to the poor cat. Together they tiptoed toward the kitchen, quietly inching open the door, anticipating the worst, and there, on the floor, was the poor cat, lying silently . . . surrounded by eight new kittens!

The message of this story, says Tom Sine, is check your signals! As people of faith you and I are urged to discern God’s vision for the future. And in order to discern rightly, we need to get our facts straight; we need to check our signals. We need to be aware of the kind of world in which we live—the challenges, the hurts, the struggles, and the hopes of human life—and we need to sense the kind of life God is calling us to live. We Brethren are celebrating our 300th anniversary, and this weekend hundreds who trace their heritage back to that initial baptism in the Eder River signaling the formation of the Brethren have gathered in Schwarzenau, Germany. Our spiritual forerunners emerged out of a time of deep disillusionment with the state of the church in that day—a church they discerned to be sterile, unbending, and stagnant in its expression of faith. Checking their signals, our spiritual forerunners felt compelled to count the cost of discipleship, to move in a markedly new direction that focused on walking in the footsteps of Jesus and seeking to reflect the life and faithfulness of the initial Christian community.

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