2016 07 17 – Summertime Fruit – Faithful and Reliable from John Knox Kirk on Vimeo.

A sermon preached at The Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on July 17, 2016.
The seventh in a sermon series on The Fruit of the Spirit.

Adapted from a previous sermon series at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, Kansas 
and inspired and using ideas and content from the Rev. Chris B. Herring
preached at Westminster Presbyterian Church of Saint Louis. Original citation lost.

Matthew 23: 1-4, 23-26
and 1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Tony works on the East Coast,
and he was sitting in his office one day when the telephone rang.[i]

It was his mother.
She told him that Mrs. Kirkpatrick had died
and that the least he could do, you know, was go to the funeral.

Tony’s mother was big on funerals.

She felt it was of enormous importance to show “respect”
and to honor the deceased with our presence.
And, truth be told, when Tony was growing up,
he attended more funerals than he could remember out of “respect.”

But, in Mrs. Kirkpatrick’s case, it was more than respect that made him say yes.
Mrs. Kirkpatrick was a wonderful lady, and as Tony was growing up
she did many wonderful things for the children of her church.
Tony could always COUNT on her giving him candy at Christmastime.
On one occasion,
she took him to a concert so that he could hear his first symphony play.

Mrs. Kirkpatrick had added so much to his life,
and his mother was right.
Going to her funeral was the least he could do to show respect and appreciation.

///
Tony arrived at the funeral home at two o’clock,
just as the funeral was scheduled to begin.

He rushed up the steps and hurried by the somber man at the door.

There were several funerals in progress at the time,
and Tony slipped into what he thought was the designated room for
Mrs. Kirkpatrick’s funeral and he quickly took a seat.

He had done this so… hurriedly, that he failed to notice:
other than an elderly woman, two seats away from him,
no one else was in the entire room!

Tony looked over the edge of the casket,
and HE did NOT look like Mrs. Kirkpatrick!

Tony was at the wrong funeral!
He was just about to leave, when the woman reached over
and grabbed him by the arm: “You WERE his friend—weren’t you?”

Now, he didn’t know what to say. What do you say?

Well, Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
the famous German theologian and martyr, once said,
“There comes a time in every man’s life
when he must LIE
with imagination, with vigor, and with enthusiasm!”

I don’t know if you concur with good Mr. Bonhoeffer, but just for the record,
you should know that Tony lied.

What else could he do?

The woman was reaching out for assurance
that SOMEBODY had SOME connection with her husband
and likewise had some concern for her.

What was he to say?

“I’m sorry, I’m at the wrong funeral. Your husband didn’t have any friends.”

She needed to know that there was somebody
to whom her husband meant something.

And so he lied, and he said he knew him,
and that he had always been kind to him.

Tony went through that whole funeral sitting at her side.
Afterward, the two of them went out and got into the lone automobile
that would follow the hearse to the cemetery.

Tony figured that since he had gone THAT far, he might as well go all the way.
[Read more…]