The Hope In Us

Sunday, April 27^th, 2008

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA

1 Peter 3:13-22

Theme: “Harboring, living with and living OUT hope.”

 

NOTE: Before the service started, I noticed that one of our members who had just become a grandmother had come with her new grandson and her 7 year old son as well. She works nights at Wal-Mart, stocking shelves, and had come from work, to home, to church, with no sleep.  Her daughter, the baby’s mother, has been gone from their house since Thursday.  She has a history of severe mental illness, and is, I think, trying to figure out if she wants to be a mother or not.  As the service got started the baby, William  Matthew, began to cry – the music startled him – so I walked over and picked him up out of the car carrier.  As I stood with him in my arms I began to think ahead to the message as it stood (the first part of this manuscript) and realized that there was more that needed to happen in this worship service than for me to get up and read through what I’d written.  As the service progressed, I decided (after asking [Joan] if it was okay(both her and her daughter’s names have been changed)) to keep him in my arms and continue through the service like that.  He joined me at the pulpit for the Morning Prayer, and when it was time to bring the message, I stepped behind the pulpit only to read the passage, which I read from the printout rather than the Bible, since both hands were occupied.  When I say I am going downstairs, I was stepping down from the rostrum to the floor level of the sanctuary, and the rest of the message was delivered somewhat extemporaneously standing in front of the communion table, swaying a little from side to side, with that sleeping baby in my arms.         

 

 “¹³Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? ¹⁴But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, ¹⁵but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; ¹⁶yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. ¹⁷For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil.

¹⁸For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, ¹⁹in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, ²⁰who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.

²¹And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²²who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

 

Manuscript:

 

It is important to me to let you know that you truly ministered to me in freeing me to go and be with my family after my Aunt Donna passed away last week.  We knew she was sick, and we knew it was serious, and we knew it had the potential to BE life threatening.  We DIDN’T – at least those of us who were not with her on a daily or weekly basis – realize that her condition due to her chemotherapy treatments was to be so weakened as to be life threatening in and of itself.  The flowers sent for the funeral were beautiful.  They went back to my sister’s with us after the service, and were a gentle reminder of your thoughts and prayers.  Your ministering continued on my return when I read through all the cards we received in the past few days.  You have truly been Christ’s presence through this sorrowful time. 

 

But I can’t stop at describing the visitation and funeral as a sorrowful time.  It was also a time of joy.  As often is the case, family drew together as they were able.  There weren’t as many cousins as there have been on other occasions, but there were a few of us, and to be able to sit and catch up and visit, and console each other – because we WERE all grieving – was a sweet and precious experience to live through together.  There were tears, but there was laughter as well; at memories and jokes, old family stories retold, and new ones discovered.

 

To be allowed to speak words of comfort and shared grief at such a time is an honor and a privilege … and a burden.  But overriding all, having the opportunity to speak to what Aunt Donna asked me to at her funeral brought home to me the reality of the fact that the difference we make outlives us far more than we realize, and into a far broader arena than we may ever be aware of, even though the group there consisted mostly of extended family and a few close friends and neighbors.

 

To be with my parents and both comfort and BE comforted by them and my Karen and Becky served to remind me of the hope we as Christians have in Christ – that hope that extends beyond the grave. 

 

I think you know I am still a strong believer that the Gospel speaks as much to what we can do about the condition of the world we live in TODAY as it does about what the world we will one day MOVE to is like, but to be able to draw on that knowledge – that COMFORTING knowledge, in the midst of a sudden loss really does make a difference.  Yes, there is sorrow, yes, there is shock, even anger, denial … all the stages of grief are experienced regardless of where we stand theologically.  But to be able to at whatever point be able to step back and say with a degree of certainty that we will one day see Aunt Donna face to face is deeply consoling. 

 

That, I think, was the hope Peter was speaking of when he tells us to be ready to make a defense to anyone who demands from us an accounting of the hope that is in us.  Hope is born of certain knowledge.  It is not ‘hope’ in the wishful sense – it is a hope that comes from a place that we may not be able to name, a place we may not understand, a place that we CAN only dream of on this plane of existence.  But it is a hope born of a reality that we’ve accepted and understand as truth.  That life does not end at death.  And that the Lord we serve has conquered death. 

 

So how does that connect with the world we live in – the world just outside those doors?  We know it to be full of sorrow, pain and suffering.  We know it to BE full of separation and struggle, of grief and a tearing, overwhelming pain that resonates with the brokenness of the world and our own brokenness. 

 

Do we as believers come in and glibly smile and say to someone who’s lost a loved one “they are in a better place”, or “they are no longer suffering”? We could, if it is appropriate, and the time is right.  We can even still say those things regardless of whether it applies or the time is right.  But that runs the risk of causing more harm than good.  Not because the intent of the person saying them is to harm, but because of the place the person hearing them is in.  

 

There are times when the best we can do is provide presence;  when the pain is too deep for words, when we must rely on the Holy Spirit to do the consoling THROUGH our BEING there.  That goes contrary to what we would normally want to do, which is to PROVIDE sound – words that would in some way alleviate the situation.  That is, after all, why we HAVE words; to USE them.  But as I trust we’ve all experienced in our lives at some point, communication happens through more than JUST words.  I think that’s what he means when Peter says, ‘do it with gentleness and reverence.’ 

 

To share even a well-meaning platitude can come across as uncaring.  It is especially important to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit when we approach a family in grief for that reason. 

 

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

 

It means we practice being as genuinely honest as we can be.  We don’t speak words we don’t mean.  We don’t say something just for the sake of saying something.  We learn to listen to that still small voice that prompts the words of Christ to come through our mouths, and we pray for the courage to follow those words with actions that back them up, as well as the courage to hold our tongues when the words that want to come are NOT his.

 

You displayed that welcoming spirit in allowing the memorial service to be held here for Chano a couple of weeks ago.  You share of yourselves when we host a gathering for our Hispanic congregation here.  When you have accompanied us at other gatherings, your love and friendship shines through. 

 

It is in the building of those relationships that we establish the foundation on which we can share the good news of the Gospel with those who have not heard it, and it is on that same foundation that we build the relationships that give US the courage and the strength to go through whatever life throws at us together with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. 

 

Most of you have heard by now that Frankie Sander’s mother, Mabel, passed away last night.  Though she had been ill, it was again a situation where there was no sense that her life was in danger.  Please pray for Frankie.  He is the only child in the family, and the burden of carrying through with the arrangements is falling heavy on his shoulders.  In being with them last night I was able to remind him that he isn’t alone, that he has a family of faith that is holding him up in prayer and standing in the gap for him, and surrounding them with our love.  I would encourage you to reach out to Janet and Frankie and Summer just as you reached out to me.  Though they will be gone to Lovingston for the next few days, returning in the knowledge that they have been prayed for and cared for will be a tangible way for us to be Christ’s presence to them.

 

Living, loving, serving.  That is the ‘tag line’ under our church’s name in the newspaper and on the front of the children’s bulletins.  I trust that we will always display those qualities in our community – that we ARE, in fact, a LIVING church – that we do exist in the present, that we are a LOVING church – in the way we reach out, welcome, and care for those around us, and that we are a serving church – willing to follow our Lord Jesus wherever he leads.    

 

Transcript:

 

Good morning.  I will try to pitch my voice higher so it will carry.  (Suffering from a mild allergy reaction – my voice is affected – it is lower and gravellier (sp?) than it is normally – which is, to say, very little)

(read scripture)

 

You need to know how you ministered to me in freeing me and making it possible for me to go be with my family in the loss of my aunt last week.  (Stepping down from the rostrum) I’m going to go downstairs, because this needs to be ‘right here’ (motioning to the floor – from the same level where people are sitting). 

 

I am always amazed … I shouldn’t say amazed … I’m not even surprised … the flowers you sent were beautiful.  They went back to my sister’s with us after the service, and they were a beautiful and gentle reminder of your prayers and thoughts for us during that time of sorrow.  I can’t stop at calling the funeral a time of sorrow.  I know you’ve experienced it as much as I have.  There is grief, but there is, depending on the person, there is much cause for … for rejoicing in their life, as well as in the opportunity to get together with family.  As painful as it is, being able to gather with cousins and aunts and uncles that in some cases I hadn’t seen for several years, was a strengthening experience.  It … we did cry together, but we did as much laughing as we did crying, because you get together and you get to share the stories that you always hear, you get to share jokes, and you discover new stories that you HADN’T heard. 

 

And you realize in times like that that THAT is what God working through family MEANS.  That is where you get the face of God looking at you in the midst of sorrow. 

 

I don’t know statistics, because this just came to me, and I didn’t have time to research it (grin).  But I remember reading an article somewhere about … it was either a prisoner of war, or someone who was being held captive, being held hostage, talking about what the hardest part about being isolated was – and it was THAT – it was the isolation – it was the sense that you were alone, that there was nobody else BUT you, and that it was you against your captors – armed, strong, multiple, and you were maybe in pajamas, or not wearing ANYTHING, in a cold cell. 

 

But it was … the defining factor in providing the wherewithal to get through THAT experience was the knowledge that they were, in fact, NOT alone, that’s what gives prisoners strength, that’s what gives prisoners of war strength when they are able to communicate with each other.  They may still be in their isolated cells, but in being able to KNOW that they are not alone makes all the difference in how they get along, in how they survive. 

 

So in a way, it was that experience for us, because we got together and we knew that we were not alone. 

 

Uncle Adrian KNEW that he was not alone. 

 

Mike and David KNEW that they were not alone; they had their families, but they knew that they had an extended family around them, that they knew loved them and cared for them and was praying for them. 

 

And I knew that you all were there for me, too.  And it was just reiterated when I got back and saw all the cards, and the calls, and the comments. 

 

You do that very well. 

 

And I KNOW not everybody here was in on it, and that’s okay.  Because that’s part of what a congregation IS.  There are folks who … um … lead, and folks who follow and folks who take part in and folks who are … are … part of the … what’s the word?  … part of the ethos, part of the surrounding atmosphere.  That whether or not you are actively involved in calling and making an order for flowers, or if you’re sending a card, KNOWING that you are part of the caring community makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE. 

 

It’s reflected also when you all let us host a gathering here.  When you go to our gatherings when we’re at a different church, your friendship and your love shines through.  It was reflected when you allowed us to have the memorial service two weeks ago for Chano.  It gave a place for people to come and to gather and to grieve and to begin the process of healing at the same time that they were able to honor Chano’s life. 

 

You’ve heard Mabel Sanders passed away last night.  The word went out, and I thanked Janie for going ahead and calling on the prayer chain (even though it was late – after 9:30) because that was … that was one of those things that need to be KNOWN in order to get the prayers going. 

 

As sick as she may have been, there was no expectation that she was anywhere near death, and it stunned them.  The … um … But being able to walk into their living room and to sit down with Frankie and him look at me and say “How do you DO this?”, and me be able to tell him “I know I’m not alone, that God is right here next to me, and that I am surrounded by folks who love me, and YOU are surrounded by folks who love you and care for you and are praying for you RIGHT NOW” made the difference and brought home to him the fact that he was not alone.  He WAS an only child, but he was FAR from alone last night. 

 

And if I may (glancing down at William Matthew) … [Kylie] is not alone.  [Joan] is not alone.  (Looking at [Joan]) Am I going to get it right?  Is it William Matthew or Matthew William? (Answered) William Matthew. 

 

William Matthew is not alone.  I’m not doing a baby dedication, but I am going to take the freedom to speak for myself and my family, and you are free to join in, (now looking at William Matthew) but you are not alone.  You will be loved and surrounded, cared for, because that is what gives us hope.  That’s the hope that Peter was talking about.  That we have to be ready to give an account of what it is in us that makes us keep on keeping on.

 

I can talk about life after death, and that’s part of it.  I can talk about being fearless in the face of persecution, which is what Peter was addressing, but ultimately, the hope that we have is in knowing that we are not alone.              

 

Let’s pray.  

This beautiful family, O God, that cares, and loves, and expresses it, and shares it, I give you thanks for each and every one here.  Lord, you have called us to care for each other, to be brothers and sisters to each other, to hold each other up, to be there to lean on, and to lean.  For your spirit that infuses each of those moments and calls us to commitment, to you and through you to each other, that draws us not only closer to you but closer to each other, Lord, help us, through Christ our Lord, amen.   

Live for Righteousness

Sunday, April 10^th, 2008

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Good Shepherd Sunday

Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA

1 Peter 2:19-25

Theme: “Living a Holy Life”

 

(¹⁸ Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh.)  ¹⁹For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. ²⁰If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. ²¹For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. ²²“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” ²³When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. ²⁴He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.  

                                               

It seemed a little piece was missing when I first read the passage for this morning, if I had left it simply at the texts indicated in the lectionary.  Opening the Bible and turning to it, I found that the first sentence of the passage was left off the reference. (NOW read v 18) On the one hand, I can understand the omission of the 18^th verse and it’s addressing of Christian slaves.  With a few glaring exceptions around the world, for the most part, including everyone here in this room, slavery is a thing of the past.  On the other hand, the lectionary is never more than suggestions of what the reading MIGHT include for any given Sunday for those denominations, Baptists included, which do not practice STRICT adherence to the prescribed readings.  All that to say: there is a good deal of latitude when it comes to what to include or exclude in passage selections.  If we had started this morning’s reading at verse 18, a good many of us might have gotten stuck on the fact that the passage was addressed to Christian SLAVES.  This way, beginning in verse 19 and reading through to 25, and THEN going back to verse 18, we can a little more clearly begin to address the issues as they were, I believe, intended to begin with:  as being addressed to CHRISTIAN slaves – emphasis on the FAITH of the people, not their STATION in society.

 

It would be easy to write off the verses read as a ‘not applicable’ section of scripture if we WERE to stop at the fact that Peter is speaking to slaves.  After all, nobody here is a slave, at least in the sense that Peter was calling them slaves, are we?  We live in a free society and culture, surrounded by a country founded on the enduring concept of freedom.  We can discuss other forms of slavery as we move forward.  There are so many things we can so easily become enslaved to, aren’t there?  That list might take us a while to get through. 

 

But the topic at hand is living a holy life, and that is something that very definitely applies to anyone who calls themselves a follower of Christ, whether we’re talking about someone who happened to be a slave in the Roman empire or who is today claiming to be a follower of the same Christ as our first-century brothers and sisters.  In that sense, the same rules apply.

 

So what do we have?  In some ways, this echoes the passages we’ve been studying in our Wednesday night Bible studies in Matthew, Jesus asks similar questions to the opening question in verse 19.  In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus asks

 

⁴³ ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” ⁴⁴But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

⁴⁶For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? ⁴⁷And if you greet only your brothers and sisters,^* what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?          

 

Which is pretty much the same tack that Peter is taking here:  if you did something wrong and you are being punished for it, that’s the way it’s SUPPOSED to work.  That is to be expected.  There’s nothing out of the ordinary about that.  He is much more concerned with the variation where you HAVEN’T done anything to warrant a beating, or punishment of some sort, and yet, you receive it anyway. 

 

Hmmm… sounds like a familiar scenario, doesn’t it?  Someone we’ve spoken of fairly recently … who didn’t commit any crime worth the punishment received, and ended up dead on a cross … oh.  Yeah.  Him. 

 

There is a direct correlation between the situation Peter is addressing and the reality of the gospel message being delivered, regardless of which century and to whom.  Just as Christ lived the whole of human experience when he was here on earth, living the life of Christ as his followers involves … living the WHOLE of Christ’s life – if that is what comes our way. 

 

Peter is not telling the believers he is writing to who are FREE to go and enslave themselves, neither is he telling those who are SLAVES to go and emancipate themselves.  Peter was not a violent revolutionary.  He was hotheaded, from what we read in the gospels, but he did not advocate the violent overthrow of the existing structure.  He took it for what it was: much less than perfect, not as God intended, and certainly not friendly to the gospel.  He did not tell the Christians he was writing to to run away and set up enclaves in remote places where people would leave them alone if for no other reason than that they would be really hard to find on the backside of nowhere. 

 

There is no presumption that Christians should be anywhere else but right in the midst of regular, run of the mill, everyday existence in society – WHATEVER society that turns out to be. 

 

You see, if we live righteous, pure, holy lives and we are surrounded by fellow righteous, pure and holy brothers and sisters … it’s kind of a moot point.  We’re only trying to outdo OURSELVES in righteousness and good deeds.  It’s an intramural competition.  It’s tone on tone.  We’re fighting over nothing.    The world isn’t getting any of it. 

 

But if we undertake to live, as nearly as we are able to, righteous, pure and holy lives surrounded by the everyday banalities of western materialism, then we’re actually up against something that we can stand in contrast to.  There would actually be a possibility that someone might look up and say “now, THAT shouldn’t have happened to them, but look at how they are responding.  That’s pretty amazing.” 

 

One of the most outstanding examples in recent memory of this would be the Amish families in Pennsylvania who lost their daughters to a lone gunman a couple of years back.  Their response in reaching out to the family of the man who killed their children created shockwaves for weeks in the general media … to say nothing of what effect it had on the lives of the families they touched in the midst of their own grief. 

 

In her own words, the widow of the gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, Marie Roberts, wrote an open letter to her Amish neighbors thanking them for their forgiveness, grace, and mercy. She wrote, "Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need. Gifts you've given have touched our hearts in a way no words can describe. Your compassion has reached beyond our family, beyond our community, and is changing our world, and for this we sincerely thank you."^[

 

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton, today?

 

We are living with our feet in two worlds:  The world as it is, and the world that is to come.  By our nature as followers of Christ, we are called to stand in that place that puts us in uncomfortable positions. 

 

Yesterday we held a memorial service for a friend of ours who touched as many lives on this side of the border as he did on the far side.  The opportunity was given for anyone to share a memory, a story, a reflection of what knowing him meant.  There were expressions of resignation, there were expressions of grief, even anger, and there were expressions that reflected a deep trust in a merciful and loving God in the face of the tragedy that took his life. 

 

The service was conducted bilingually, for the benefit of those who could not understand either English or Spanish, depending on who was speaking.  As a believer, and as a minister, it was hard to hear some of the things that were said.  They begged for an answer.  Some of them we might have been able to address, but others were things that just had to be left unanswered.  And that was hard.  There is a way of looking at the world, of understanding the world that brings a measure of peace despite the fact that every “I” is not dotted, and every “t” is not crossed.  We learn to live with uncertainty in some things, and to live in a trusting spirit with others.            

     

We are called to live our lives in such a way that THAT will be what comes through:  the ability to live at peace with uncertainty.  One of the women that shared spoke of caring for her husband, who later died, and of dealing with the destruction wreaked on her family home in the wake of tropical storm Ernesto a few years back.  Our friend who died provided that family with a ray of insight into what living in peace in the midst of uncertainty looks like. 

 

We are called to love God, to live in community with each other and in our greater community, and to be Christ’s presence in a sometimes rapidly changing world.  Not that we are immune from change ourselves.  In fact, we would be well advised to embrace change if we are to maintain an ability to speak to our contemporaries in a way that is meaningful to them, in a way that they can understand.  Which is what Jesus did and Paul and the Apostles did after him.  We touch people where they live.  And call them to live for righteousness. 

 

Let’s pray.  

Were Not Our Hearts Burning?

Sunday, April 6^th, 2008

Third Sunday of Easter

Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA

Luke 24:13-35

Theme: “Where does Jesus speak to you? Jesus meets us where we are.  ”

 

¹³Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁴and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. ¹⁵While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, ¹⁶but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. ¹⁷And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. ¹⁸Then 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?” ¹⁹He 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, ²⁰and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. ²¹But 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. ²²Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, ²³and 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. ²⁴Some 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.” ²⁵Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! ²⁶Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” ²⁷Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. ²⁸As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. ²⁹But 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. ³⁰When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. ³¹Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. ³²They 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?” ³³That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. ³⁴They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” ³⁵Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.  

                                               

I’ve shared with you before of the time when I made my profession of faith on the eve of my tenth birthday, at summer camp, Natchez Trace State Park in West Tennessee while John Wood, then pastor of First Baptist Church, Paducah, was bringing the message to the youth with whom my family and I had joined for the week. 

 

I’ve also shared with you of the transforming impact Steve Shoemaker’s telling of the parable of the prodigal son had on me, in calling me back into engagement with faith in Jesus Christ and reconnection with his church. 

 

I’d like to share with you this morning of what those two events had in common, but to do that, and to present a fuller picture of that, I would also need to share with you about a couple of hundred if not more intervening moments that connect the two.  Unfortunately, time does not allow for that lengthy a discourse.

 

Have you ever had an experience like the one Luke is describing here that happened to Cleopas and his companion?  One where you live through something, and it isn’t until AFTER, when you are thinking BACK over the event, that you realize there was something going on inside you that was having a profound effect on you, but you just didn’t realize it at the time?

 

Those two signal events in my life, my initial choice to follow Christ, and my subsequent choice to CONTINUE to follow Christ, despite the struggles that had arisen in my life and in my mind and in my heart, were just such events. 

 

The first, in retrospect from the point of view of someone 34 years older, was a much more innocent choice.  In many ways, it was the thing that needed to be done.  I was at the age where I was becoming more and more aware of what it was to KNOWINGLY make choices that went against what I KNEW to be the RIGHT thing to do; not necessarily the LEGAL thing to do, or the ACCEPTED thing to do, or the EXPECTED thing to do, but the RIGHT, the CORRECT, the JUST, the CHRISTLIKE thing to do.  And I was beginning to struggle with learning how to do that on a regular, consistent basis.  Even at that age, I was beginning to understand myself enough to know that on my own I did not have the strength to say no to the wrong, and yes to the right all the time.  That is, in somewhat simple terms, what prompted my choice to make the decision to surrender to the way of Christ in a public forum. 

 

The more recent event, the later choice to CONTINUE my relationship with God through Christ, to reengage in a denomination that I’d grown antagonistic towards, to remain active in a faith family that accepted those struggles as part and parcel of the life of discipleship, was in many ways a more profound experience.  It came in the wake of some of the roughest spiritual experiences of my life.  It came at a point when I was still questioning everything that I had on some level up until then accepted as gospel, but was now not so sure of.  In some ways, I consider it to have been a more informed decision.  It felt like much more than a rededication, more than a recommitment; it felt like a new encounter, a revelation that even though I was nowhere near the same place I was fifteen years earlier, even though I was more uncertain of more things than I had ever been, there was still a place for me in that community, and in the arms of God. 

 

What ties the two events together is not MY presence.  I was, for all practical purposes, two completely different people at each event.  In the first, I was a child catching a glimpse into the coming world of conflicting desires and hopes, expectations and goals.  In the latter, I was a young, weary, beaten soul, wondering if I would ever find the comfort of home again – in any form.  What ties them together is CHRIST’S presence.

 

In some ways, I see my own experience reflected in the disciples on the road to Emmaus.  Though completely unknown, and virtually unnamed – Cleopas appears nowhere else in the New Testament – we understand that these traveling companions were part of the group that followed Jesus around during his years of public ministry.  We don’t think of it often, but Jesus wasn’t always by himself or accompanied SOLELY by the twelve disciples as he went about preaching, teaching, healing and challenging his listeners to understand the gospel. 

 

I’ve sometimes wondered to myself what Jesus must’ve sounded like, what he might’ve looked like, how he might’ve walked.  In my imagination, he is fearless, direct, dynamic and more charismatic than I can even describe.  I realize that in large part, that is ME reading back into history what *I* would expect to see if I were to encounter Jesus on the road to Emmaus.  But the reality COULD have been radically different.  He may have simply blended into the crowd.  Scripture speaks of how he drew crowds, and that people – even learned scholars – were amazed at the authority with which he taught and spoke.  That tells me that there MUST have been SOMETHING about him that drew people to him.  It might have been in his speech, in the manner with which he spoke – that made you realize that this was a man of substance. 

 

I remember when we first began asking our Hispanic friends to volunteer to read the scripture passage at the beginning of the devotional time at our gatherings.  With most of those that we work with, it is rare to find someone with an education level beyond elementary school.  There are a few who’ve completed middle school or high school, and only a handful that have college-level training or education.  It shows in their speech and in their ability – or lack of ability – to read.  We understand that and don’t make an issue of it.  If someone struggles with the readings, there is always a degree of patience and a truly loving waiting that happens as a few people chime in to help with some of the more difficult words. 

 

The first time Lucio volunteered to read was actually the first time I’d ASKED someone to read.  He jumped at the chance.  Literally, jumped out of his seat and came forward.  In talking to him, he is a mostly quiet person, hesitant to speak.  He usually makes some sort of self-deprecating comment and laughs at himself in any conversation we have.  But when I handed the Bible to him and showed him where to read, he paused briefly, and then in a sure and unhesitant and firm voice, began to read without missing a beat or a syllable.  His voice was full and confident and much more so than mine can, it filled the sanctuary.  At the end of the reading I had to stop for a minute before I could go on, it was that moving. 

 

I sometimes think that may have been what happened when people heard Jesus speak.  He may not have LOOKED any different, but when he opened his mouth, you KNEW there was something different about him.

 

So these disciples, these folks who had followed Jesus from a near distance for part if not all of the three years leading up to that day, meet him on their way to Emmaus and they don’t recognize him.  They’re engrossed in talking about what had happened that week, that Friday, and that morning.  Still trying to figure out what was the truth.  Because, for all the exposure they’d had to Jesus over whatever time they’d been hanging out with him, they were still expecting him to BE THE ONE to rally the people to rise up and overthrow the rule of Rome in their land.  But they were faced with the treason of their own religious leaders and the stunning ending to the week that was the death and burial of their master and teacher.                

 

And some man met them on the road, in the middle of their journey, in the middle of some comment that probably began with the words “but I thought he was going to…” and ended in the utter desolation of the cross and the tomb, regardless of what was being whispered about as of that morning, and asked them what they were talking about, seemingly completely clueless.  So they decided to fill him in.  THEY knew, after all, what the skinny was.  THEY had an inside line on who Jesus REALLY was.  They actually had a BETTER perspective on him than even his disciples did.  THEY were too close to him to see the bigger picture.  But it was all over.  He ended up getting caught and stopped and killed, just as Rome had always done and would always do. 

 

We still do that, don’t we?  Larry Norman, one of the first Christian Rock Musicians, has a line in one of his early songs entitled Readers Digest – written in the late 60’s or early 70’s – is a long stream of consciousness litany of trying to connect present day realities with the eternal truths of faith – a line that is particularly applicable to the week just past jumped out at me – “we shot all our dreamers and there’s no one left to lead us”.  He speaks to the fact that we would really rather not have a true dreamer to lead us.  We don’t want someone who makes us feel the truth of how we are – sometimes weak, sometimes strong, sometimes wise and sometimes foolish – even criminally so at times, so we get rid of them.  We find holes in the story, we find the secret skeletons in their closets.  We knock them down to our level rather than let them lead.      

 

What the travelers found out, of course, was that this stranger that walked with them was the genuine article.  He took their understanding of what they’d seen happen and began to transform it – through patient explanation and enlightening conversation – began to make them ready for the reality that they did not completely take in until he joined them at the table, and took and blessed and broke and gave. 

 

So we come to this part of the message.  What does this mean for us here today, for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?  How can a walk along a dusty road between Jerusalem and one of its outlying communities speak to us today?  Imagine Warsaw to be Jerusalem.  Imagine somewhere between here and Farnham to be Emmaus – there is actually no clear certainty as to where the town mentioned in Luke IS even today.  But picture yourself walking that distance.  And you are in conversation with the friend beside you, so it’s probably not a focused, “let’s get there as soon as possible” walk.  Your steps ebb and flow with the conversation.  A regular walking pace for an average sized human being is about two and a half to three miles an hour, four if that’s all you’re doing and you are in a hurry.  So you have somewhere between 3 and 4 hours to talk as you walk.  And somewhere around the Intermediate School Jesus steps onto the road and asks what you are talking about.  Now, it’s someone you’ve known for probably at least a year.  But you don’t recognize him.  After all, he’s dead.  You saw him die on Friday. 

 

You get to Emmaus, and it’s getting to be suppertime, so you invite him to stay with you.  And he does, and you sit down to the table and he takes charge, and takes the bread and says the blessing and when you open your eyes it hits you like a ton of bricks that it is JESUS sitting beside you.  And you realize what he’s been talking to you about as you walked down to the Totuskey Bridge and as you huffed your way up the hill on this side and the rest of the way down here was all about who HE REALLY WAS.  But you didn’t GET it until NOW.  And here you’ve been following him … or following AFTER him … for so long, it seems.  You just didn’t dare hope for any more, because the worst that could happen ended up happening.  And yet, here he is, right in front of you. 

 

Why, you ask yourself, didn’t I see that it was him sooner?

 

Let’s pray.