Sermons & Meditations

Jeremiah 31:31-34; John 12:20-33
Presented March 29, 2009, by J.D. Kline
The Fifth Sunday in Lent

Henri Nouwen includes in one of his books a story told to him by European correspondent John Fraser about John’s four-year-old daughter Jessie, who one morning found a dead sparrow in front of the living room window. Apparently the bird had flown into the glass and killed itself. Both disturbed and intrigued after discovering the bird, Jessie asked her father, “Where is the bird now?” John said that he didn’t know. Next Jessie asked, “Why did it die?” With some hesitancy John suggested, “Well, because all living things return to the earth.” “Oh,” said Jessie, “then we have to bury it.” And so a box was found, the little bird was laid in it, a paper napkin was added as a shroud, and a few minutes later a little procession was formed as Jessie, along with her parents and her baby sister, carried the box to a backyard gravesite. The bird was placed in the ground, followed by John placing a piece of moss over the grave and Jessie planting a homemade cross. Then John asked Jessie, “Do you want to say a prayer?” “Yes,” replied Jessie firmly, and after telling her baby sister in no uncertain terms to fold her hands, she prayed, “Dear God, we have buried this little sparrow. Now you be good to her or I will kill you. Amen.”

As they walked back to their home John ponders his daughter’s odd prayer, and finally he says to Jessie, “You didn’t have to threaten God.” After a moment’s thought, four-year-old Jessie answered, “I just wanted to be sure” (Seeds of Hope: A Henri Nouwen Reader, edited by Robert Durback, pp. 213-214).

Seemingly from time immemorial, human beings have struggled with the nature of God. Is God a God of anger and judgment, or is God a God of compassion, mercy, and grace beyond measure? Not long ago I received a note from a fellow who has come to me for assistance in the past, one who now finds himself in prison, the consequence of a series of poor decisions. At the heart of the letter was the young man’s conviction that surely God was punishing him. Is ours a God of vengeance, a God who relishes opportunity to wreak punishment upon wayward people, a God whom we must cajole and threaten if good is to come our way, or is God a God who seeks, even in the very midst of brokenness and pain, to extend healing and wholeness?

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Mark 8:31-38
Presented March 8, 2009, by J.D. Kline
The Second Sunday in Lent

While visiting my mother in the Hanover, PA hospital a week and a half ago and reading The Evening Sun, the local Hanover-Gettysburg area paper, I came across an editorial beginning with the observation, “Life is made up of the small things.” The writer shared the story of Mike Martin, a formerly homeless man who had resurrected a community garden in the area, providing some 1400 pounds of fresh produce last year for local homeless agencies and neighbors in need. In these troubled economic times, suggested the editorial writer, this was an idea that could well spread throughout the community, creating opportunity for the sowing of seeds that make a significant difference in the quality of life. As I considered the words of the editorial, I was reminded that the sowing of seeds impacts our own lives every bit as much as those of our neighbors. The educator and author John Erskine once observed, “I have never had so many good ideas, day after day, as when I worked in my garden,” reminding us that the art of gardening not only has the potential of making produce available for our neighbors, but equally so, providing healing and wisdom for our souls.

Our Lenten theme this year is “Seeds of New Life,” offering a similar reminder that the life of faith nurtures our souls, planting seeds that may well bring new levels of healing and wholeness to the world around us. Our calling as followers of Jesus is to live and proclaim a radically new way of living, planting seeds of compassion and grace, seeds of mercy and peace, seeds of generosity and gratitude, seeds of kindness and hope. You and I are called to plant seeds of risky love, the kind of love Jesus had in mind when prodding his followers to deny self, take up a cross, and follow in paths of discipleship. It is a matter of letting go of self-centeredness and self-preoccupation—an experience Jesus speaks of as losing life in order to find life.

This morning’s Gospel lesson from Mark, chapter eight, is a familiar one—the story of Jesus teaching the disciples that he “must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (8:31). Surely the disciples, by this stage of their life with Jesus, had gotten the sense that it could well be risky business to keep company with Jesus. But now Jesus is telling them, not just that danger is ahead, but even more, that he must walk straight into that danger. What’s more, it is for Jesus a danger that will lead to certain death.

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