Joel D. Kline
June 6, 2004
Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren
The First Sunday after Pentecost
This is graduation season, and I read recently something I had not previously known—that the word “sophomore” at its root literally means wise fool. It is a word that refers to those who know just enough to be dangerous, those who, having learned a great deal upon completing the first year of high school or college, are prone to act as if they now know all they need to know! And the sad truth is that there are all too many Christians who have a sophomoric faith, who assume that if they just know enough facts about the faith, they will have it made! But, truth is, faith is not simply a matter of right knowledge, nor is it a once-and-done event, a now-I-have-it-I’ve-fully-arrived kind of thing.
Faith does indeed assume a time of decision, but that decision involves process, journeying, movement, unfolding growth. The longer I am involved in ministry, for example, the more I realize I yet need to discover and learn and experience. Nearly fifty years ago New Testament scholar J.B. Phillips wrote a small book entitled Your God is Too Small, reminding us that God is so much greater than we are prone to imagine. Centuries before, Augustine went so far as to assert, “If you understand it, it is not God.” And faith with this remarkably vast God stretches us, leading us to new realms of understanding, new levels of experience, new challenges for action.
At its heart, the life of faith is gift; it begins not with your action or my action, but with God’s. As Brennan Manning asserts in The Ragamuffin Gospel, “Grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is gift. All that is good is ours, not by right but by the sheer bounty of a gracious God…. My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.” All is gift.
Surely this is what the apostle Paul has in mind when writing in this morning’s Scripture lesson, from the letter to the Romans, chapter five, “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand” (vv. 1-2). God’s purpose, God’s intent, is that you and I—and indeed all creation—experience full and abundant relationship with our Creator. Do we not find ourselves over and over again overwhelmed in the face of God’s gracious love? Indeed, as the hymn writer puts it, we find ourselves “lost in wonder, love and praise” (“Love divine, all loves excelling,” stanza four).
In The Message Eugene Peterson paraphrases a portion of this morning’s Scripture lesson this way:
We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that God has already thrown open his doors to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.
In Church of the Brethren tradition, we have long understood baptism to be a time of throwing open our doors to God, responding to the good news that God has already thrown open God’s doors to us. And with that initial step, we embrace not a sophomoric faith, but a dynamic and growing life with God at the heart of our living. We discover a new way of seeing and experiencing life, a new way of living and relating in the world around us. We put on a new centeredness, in the process finding the resources and strength to face the challenges of daily living.
When the apostle Paul was writing to the Roman Christians, it was at a time when persecution against the fledgling church was beginning to rear its head. Nevertheless, Paul asserts,
We boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (5:3-5).
The Message paraphrases it this way:
We continue to shout our praises even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience within us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit.
We have a hope we can count on, a hope being attested to this morning, as three persons come to be baptized. For All Who Minister, the worship manual for the Church of the Brethren, lists seven convictions Brethren hold about baptism:
This morning we celebrate new beginnings in the lives of three young people. This morning we celebrate a hope we can count on.
God of compassion and grace, God of justice and peace, thanks be to you for calling us to be a part of this church community. We thank you for new persons being baptized this morning, and for the lives of long-term members at Highland Avenue recently departed from this life. We thank you for persons who have recently begun worshiping with us at Highland Avenue, and for those who have spent a lifetime enriching and strengthening the church’s life and witness. We thank you for Glenn and Linda as they move from here, and for those we have yet to learn to know, who will enrich the church’s life in the future. For the gifts of young and old, male and female, new participants and life-long members, we are grateful and blessed.
Teach us, God, to walk in the footsteps of Christ Jesus our Lord, to put on the ways of servanthood, self-giving love, peacemaking, and hopeful living. Open our eyes and our hearts to your presence in our neighbors near and far—
O God, guide us and our world in paths of peace and right living.
Hear us now, gracious God, as we remember those in special need of your healing touch. We pray for…
God of us all, how grateful we are for life and all its promises and opportunities. In the midst of life’s challenge and fear, grant us your Spirit, that we might see you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly. In the name of Christ we pray. Amen.