A sermon for Heartland Presbytery:
preached at The Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on April 14, 2018.

Good morning, my friends.

I’m glad you’re here today.
All of us at The Kirk are grateful for the ties that bind us together
in Heartland Presbytery, for your friendship and your encouragement in the faith.

Sometimes our work has us so focused on our little piece of the pie
That we forget how God has an entire bakery goin on
With so many good treats in the oven for hungry people to savor.

Not to go overboard with a metaphor:
–But when we worship together,

–when we gather in plenary

–Or around shared mission, as some of us at The Kirk have begun to do at the invitation
Of our friends at Second Presbyterian Church
With our Be The Church Sunday in October,[i]
(I know many of you have your own examples of shared mission)

–Or when we share our resources
for disaster relief through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
For fighting hunger, for helping people develop their own lives well
Through our giving to One Great Hour of Sharing

–Or today, when we will offer gifts to the Heartland Youth Encounter

When we do these things,
we see more clearly how our slice of Chocolate Cream or Apple or
If we’re really on top of it
Maybe its Strawberry Rhubarb pie…
We see how our own particular slice is one of many many goods
Available in God’s wonderful Bakery.

I did go overboard with that metaphor. Wow.

So I am glad you are here today.
And I’m honored for a chance to preach for our worship today.
Humbled, actually.

///
I’ve not preached since Easter.

That’s a strange thing: you go go go through Lent, to Palm Sunday and
Then Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and maybe for some of us
A Holy Saturday or midnight vigil or Sunrise service, and then
The emotions and the energy and the brilliance of the resurrection itself
The empty tomb and the wonder that follows
just the movement of that morning
All of it pushing forward, pushing outward into the world
As the awareness of that amazing gift slowly becomes real.

If you live it, it kind of knocks you over. And you are ready to get moving.
To go out and be part of all that energy and wonder and excitement.

This is Easter, you know. Easter.

I am surprised how hard its been not to be in the pulpit since Easter Sunday.
I had to travel last weekend.
I didn’t really feel that power of Easter walking from terminal to terminal at some airport
Going from Uber to hotel to meeting back to Uber and home again.
I wanted Easter! Give me resurrection excitement. Give me new life!
Instead I dealt with turbulence at 28000 feet. A different kind of excitement, to be sure.

Besides, I love these stories the first few weeks after Easter.
Sure, A friend and colleague filled in quite admirably for me,
And, as more than one of you have told me,
it is a designated “Associate Pastor Preaching” Sunday after all
on some church calendars with more than one pastor on staff.

But these post resurrection stories are so rich,
So full of possibilities, and hope
Both of which I know many of us in this room seek to have more of
In our individual ministries, in our churches,
Possibility and hope.

So last week it was John: the disciples, huddled in a room,[ii]
The door locked, the shutters drawn
Hidden away
And Jesus comes,
And he stands among the ten remaining apostles hidden away there
Peace be with you
And they are astonished and they see and they touch and they
Believe

Ten? you say. I thought there were twelve?
And that’s true. But one was Judas, he’s not there
And other was Thomas, the twin,
who was out running errands or something
stocking up on milk and cereal and bread and fish…who knows [Read more…]

April 1, 2018 – Easter Sunday – “A Life for Fools” from John Knox Kirk – The Kirk of KC on Vimeo.

An Easter sermon preached at The Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on April 1, 2018.

Scripture readings (which you may wish to read prior):
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
and John 20:1-18

To put your mind at ease, there are no practical jokes woven through this sermon.

There are no special Easter eggs today–
those are hidden surprises
That video game designers or movie directors
sneak into their final masterpieces.

When I was a kid, I could take my controller on my Nintendo video game system
Up up down down left right left right B A Start
And it would start me on level 20, instead of at the beginning.
Or I’d get five extra lives. Something like that.

Or on the Legend of Zelda, that’s a videogame popular when I was 13 or so
you’d look for a secret passage that led to a lavish treasure chest.

These were the Easter Eggs I liked to hunt, hidden surprises
Special advantages
Something only you would know.

These aren’t just for video games.

A few weeks ago, our family traveled to Los Angeles for the first time.
It was Spring Break
We were off to see where they made some
great TV shows and blockbuster movies.
I took a picture at the same desk where President Josiah Bartlet sat
on The West Wing,
now resting properly at the Warner Brothers Studio Prop Room.

We saw how they made Harry Potter fly on his broom
We held a real Oscar.

But the first thing I did when we got there
Was I took our daughters to a gastronomical icon in that part of the country
We went to In-N-Out Burger.

I wonder if any of you have been there.

There’s not a lot special about that place, at first glance.
Your average hamburger, fries, milkshake establishment.
But it’s the secret menu that draws people in, by the THOUSANDS.

If you go there, and you don’t know about the secret menu
The offerings seem tame.

One patty or two. Cheese or no. take your pick.
What size fries can we get you?.
Pretty simple.

But if you know the secret menu….
Well, that’s the special code that unlocks everything:
–You can get your fries “Animal Style”
And they’ll smother them with grilled onions and extra special sauce.
–You can order the 4×4 burger,
And they’ll stack four patties and four cheese slices in there,
With or without onions, take your pick.
–There’s a secret grilled cheese sandwich, not on the regular menu
If all that saturated fat seems to be a bit too much for you.
–Or maybe you’re cutting carbs:
Order your burger “Protein Style”
and they will wrap it in lettuce instead of the bun.

These surprises are meant to keep you on your toes
To make something feel a little special, if you’re in the know.

I’ve always found it amusing that they call these things Easter Eggs
Those little surprises. They’re particularly apt for a sermon on a day like today.

The last time that Easter Sunday fell on April Fools Day was sixty-two years ago
way back in 1956.
And I wonder if there was a temptation back then
to have a guy in a bunny suit
Jump out at just the right time during the anthem.

Don’t worry.
Landon promised me he won’t do any of that.
Not this Sunday, anyway. [Read more…]