Intro
As I was reading the passages for today, a
thought quickly came to my mind: these passages don’t seem to connect with one
another. Each of them were
able to speak truths in and of themselves, but when brought together, they
don’t seem to speaking to the same truths.
It was frustrating.
But then as I got on toward Friday and I saw
where the sermon was going a line popped out to me that had really stayed
hidden prior to that. The statement is
this: your faith and hope are set on God.
Because here’s the thing: our hopes and dreams can be established on a
whole lot of different things; on the stock market, on a certain job, on a type
of relationship. We can establish our
hope on a whole lot of things. But when
our hope is founded on God it is then that we are able to behold at least a
somewhat greater glimpse of how God is moving in the world. When we place our hope in God, we are able to
see and hear God. When we place our
reliance on other things, we do not. The
scripture reads this way.
17If
you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to
their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. 18You
know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors,
not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19but
with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or
blemish. 20He was destined before the
foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake.
21Through
him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him
glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God. 22Now
that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you
have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. 23You
have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the
living and enduring word of God.
Although we have now moved two full weeks on
our calendars from Easter morning, we are still revealing the events of that
most important day. Last week, we heard
about Thomas and how, because he was not there when Jesus appeared to the rest
of the disciples, he did not believe.
This initial appearance was said to have taken place in the evening of
Easter Sunday.
This morning we hear about what the Gospel of
Luke tells us took place in the afternoon of that first Easter. The actions occur on a road as two, initially
unnamed, disciples are walking from Jerusalem to a town called Emmaus and discussing
the occurrences of the last few days. As
we are given the story, we find out that they have heard the account of the
women who found the tomb empty and the angels proclaiming that Jesus was in
fact raised. However, this story, and
the reality that they have seen with their own eyes that the tomb is, in fact, empty, have not convinced them that Jesus is no longer
dead. Therefore, the sadness that predominates their personalities because of the death of
their friend and leader is now intermingled with confusion. What are they to believe? What are they to do now?
It is in this setting that the risen Jesus
appears, seemingly from out of nowhere, and begins to ease drop on their
conversation. He quickly becomes
involved in the conversation and gradually reveals to them the truth of the
resurrection that has been there all along, in the form of the Hebrew scriptures. The
amazing thing is, the two disciples are still not able
to see who it is who walks with them.
What I invite you to consider is this: what is it that causes us, as
disciples who currently walk the road of faith, to be unable to see and hear the
truth of God that is before us today?
The scripture reads this way.
13 Now on that
same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles
from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these
things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing,
Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept
from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What are you
discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking
sad. 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas,
answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the
things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 He asked them,
“What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a
prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and
how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and
crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem
Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things
took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They
were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find
his body there, they came back and told us that they
had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some
of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had
said; but they did not see him.” 25 Then he said to them, “Oh, how
foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have
declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer
these things and then enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with
Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in
all the scriptures.
28 As they came
near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going
on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because
it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay
with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread,
blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were
opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 They
said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking
to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33 That
same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and
their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, “The Lord
has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told
what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking
of the bread.
Have you ever had that moment when you pass
by someone and there is that moment of recognition, but for whatever reason you
simply cannot place the person, come up with their name, or how on God’s green
earth, you would know who they are. We
see this happen with our kids all the time when it comes to their teachers (and
sometimes even their pastor’s!) as they see this person that they know so well,
only there is no way that it could be that person (because, as we all know
teachers live at the school, ministers sleep at the church, and neither every
have to go to any stores or restaurants…ever!).
A couple of years ago I was out with the
entirety of my family looking for a suit.
I could tell rather quickly that one of the employees was looking at me
like they knew me, but I did the normal male thing and just kept looking for a
suit. Eventually, they came up to me and
asked, “Is your name Ryan?” And I looked
back at them with confusion and said, “Yes?”
“Did you go to Arlington High School?”
And I thought, if she comes up with my social security number next I’m
going to have to perform a citizen’s arrest, and then I said, “Yes”. And her eyes lit up and she said, “we went to school together, my name is …” And all I could
think to myself in that moment was, “who is this person and do I actually know
who they are?”
This inability to recognize someone happens
to us (or maybe its just me!) all the time when we bump into someone who we
know outside of the context that we traditionally see them, or we haven’t seen
them in a really long time so your mind just isn’t ready. When this happens it does take a few seconds
for us to connect the face with a name, but in those few seconds (or as the
case was with me in the suit store, few minutes), that person who we knew, may
as well be someone whom we’ve never met.
This phenomenon of being unable to recognize
someone who you know is the first thing that caught my attention in regards to
the passage from Luke this morning. Why
is it that these two disciples, who are so close to Jesus that they went to the
tomb after hearing the story from the women (which is what this passage tells
us), why they were unable to recognize Jesus?
Some people say it is because of the different sort of body that Jesus
now had. That it was because his
spiritual body, while still representing the image of the physical body that
had been crucified, was no longer that physical body that Jesus disciples had
known for the last three years. The
understanding that their will be a bodily resurrection is something that most
of the Christian world resonates with.
So much so that we profess it in places like the Apostles Creed where we
state, “I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of
saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the
life everlasting.” With this in place,
it makes conceptual sense that the spiritual body may be different that the
physical flesh and bone that we deal with on a daily basis. With this difference in place, we then have
legitimate rationale for why those two disciples were unable to recognize their
Master.
However, as much as I like this concept,
another idea ended up leaping to the fore and took hold of my attention this
past week. What if the reason that the
disciples on the road to Emmaus couldn’t recognize Jesus was not because of
Jesus but because of the disciples?
Here’s what I mean: what if their way of seeing things (their particular
view of the world and in specific the last few days when Jesus had been
betrayed and then killed), what if that viewpoint had made it almost impossible
for them to see who Jesus really was?
What if their sorrow over the death, anger due to the betrayal, and
confusion at the empty tomb, what if these things of the world which they were
now resting their faith in clouded their perception so that they simply could
not see who Jesus was? We know from our
own experience that we can become so hyper focused on one particular subject
that we can block out almost everything else that is taking place around us.
How many mom’s out
there have had to ask a second time because your kids, or spouse didn’t hear
you? Maybe even at a slightly louder
volume? How many mom’s
out there have had to walk in front of their preoccupied kids in order to
remind them that you were there and trying to get their attention? How many mom’s have literally had to grab
their spouse in order to get them to say anything besides, “yup, un-uh, or
okay”? I mean it’s never happened in the
Nace-Gabriel household, but I’ve heard that things
like that happen with others …, no I can’t lie: it happens to us too! It happens all the time, and as I mentioned
in the children’s message, we need to listen to our mom’s and our wives because
there is a whole lot of wisdom being offered!
And obviously this isn’t a state of affairs
that is merely reserved to the home life. Think about how many times you’ve
wondered if the person you’re “talking with” was ever listening at all because
as soon as your mouth closes theirs opens and heads off in a completely
unrelated direction. I invite you to
recollect all those moments when your boss has refused to hear what you are
saying. What about this: has the phrase,
“have you heard anything that I’ve said” ever come from your lips or been
pointed in your general direction? To
put the light back on us, individually, how often does a friend, a spouse, a
family member, or a co-worker have to say something to you two, three, four
times before what they are saying to you actually starts to sink in? Or how many times have you been at church,
“listening” to the sermon, only to realize that you haven’t heard a word that
has been coming out of the preacher’s mouth (thankfully that doesn’t happen
here at Three Bridges!).
We all have those moments (whether or not we
have headphones attached to our ears) when we are unable to hear that which we
are being told because we have placed an inordinate amount of emphasis on our
own thoughts, doubts, worries, and fears.
With that being said, how often do you think that we miss out on
something important being told to us?
The scripture this morning shows us that in
spite of the ways that we are able to block out the truths of God that are
right before us (and not realizing that the risen Lord is speaking to you is a
pretty large one if your asking me), that doesn’t mean that God has stopped
speaking. Those two disciples, even
though they were able to block out the reality that was right there before
them, they still, as they said, had their “hearts burning within [them] while
he was talking to [them].”
Now you may be saying to yourself, “Yeah, but
what happened on the road to Emmaus was unique.
God doesn’t speak like that to humanity anymore. God doesn’t reveal the truths of scripture,
or of life, like that any longer.” To
those of you who may be thinking that, I have a question: what if your wrong? What if
God is still speaking? Short pause) What we learn through the scriptures (and our
own experience if we are willing to be honest about it) is that through the
movement of the Holy Spirit, God is, in fact, still speaking, and still
speaking to us here today. How often
have the truths of the Almighty been whispered into our ears only to be
filtered out because we were so focused on the things that we feel need to be
done, on the things that we think are important? What if, instead, we allowed ourselves to be
led by God, rather than trying to lead the Almighty?
Much like Jesus was able to show to those
disciples through his talking with them, God is still trying to reveal life’s
truths to us today. We just need to slow
down sort through all of the junk (thoughts, fears, doubts) that we tend to
give too much importance to and instead listening to what is being said. God is still speaking. Now allow yourself the opportunity to hear
all that can be revealed by truly listening to the Almighty.
God, as we have seen on the road to Emmaus,
You are still speaking, still trying to reveal the truths that have been there
all along but we have just refused to hear.
God, we pray for the ability to slow down so that we might be able to
let go of a lot of the stuff that inhibits our ability to hear, so that we
might be able to truly listen to that which Your Spirit is imploring us to
notice.
Congregational Prayer
Giving God, you have shared with us Your good gifts, just as Jesus shared bread with the
followers on the road to Emmaus. And
like that miracle of recognition, may we see the Christ in every good thing.
It is with that prayer in our hearts, O Holy
Lord, that we thank You for our mothers who gave us
life (whether they be our biological mothers or not), for those mothers who
raised us, for those mothers who helped to forge us into who we are today. For those mothers who surrounded us early and
late with love and care, whose prayers on our behalf still echo out, reminding
us of their love. Help us, their
children, to be more worthy of their love.
We know that no sentimentality on this one day, no material gifts – no
flowers or boxes of candy – can atone for our neglect of thought and concern
during the rest of the year. So, in the
days ahead, may our love speak to the hearts who know love best – by kindness,
by compassion, by simple courtesy and daily thoughtfulness. Bless her whose name we whisper before You, and keep her in Your loving care.
Lord, we also ask that You
might hear our prayers for health and wholeness, for comfort and grace: for
those who struggle with incurable illness, those who are recovering from
surgery, those whose pain never eases, those who can hardly get themselves out
of bed in the morning, and those who cannot go to sleep at night. We also pray for those who struggle along
with them because they love them. It is
with this in our hearts that we approach You with the
varied prayers of this Your congregation here at Three Bridges. Lord, we lift to You
….. We also pause so that in the
silence of this forthcoming moment, that You might
hear our deepest prayers, those that we have trouble admitting to ourselves let
alone to others, and breathe upon us the wind of Your Spirit. Lord, hear us as we come to You in silent prayer.
O holy God, we praise You
for this opportunity to come to You in prayer and thank You for all of the ways
that You are still speaking to us today.
Lord, help us to sort through all of the stuff that put in the way, that we put in the way, so that we might be able to
hear and respond to the truths that are still being put forth today. We pray all these things in the name of our
risen Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.