April 30, 2006
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Jerusalem -- This Is Our Story We are two Sundays past Easter, two Sundays past the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and we live in the knowledge that the tomb is empty by God’s miraculous power, and if God can free Jesus from death, surely God can free us to new and renewed life in the name of Jesus Christ. Two weeks from Easter, in these weeks that will lead us to Pentecost, we hear one more resurrection story today. We are two Sundays past Easter morning, but Luke tells us that things are still happening later that same day. We join the story after Cleopas and his companion have walked and talked with Jesus on the Emmaus road. Like Mary Magdalene at the tomb, they did not recognize Jesus as the risen Christ at first. They needed a sign to let them know who Jesus is. For Mary Magdalene, it was the way Jesus called her by name (John 20.16); that led Mary to respond, ‘I have seen the Lord’ (John 20.18). There was something in the way Jesus said Mary’s name. Listen as the risen Christ calls you by name. Say the name of the person sitting next to you, now say that person’s name back to them. Imagine as you heard your name, that it is the voice of Jesus himself calling you to live in the light of his resurrection. Jesus talks with the men on that Emmaus road, he taught them, he accepts an invitation to dine with them. They thought they were just inviting a stranger to dinner after a long and difficult day. They thought they were just being hospitable. But then they asked their guest to bless and break the bread, and in the blessing and in the breaking, they knew. There must have been something about the way his hands took the bread and broke it that let them know who Jesus was.Then they said, “were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, and opened scriptures to us…the Lord is risen indeed” (Luke 24.32, 34). Did your heart burn when you first recognized Jesus, when you knew that you knew him as friend and savior, as brother and Lord? It is not heartburn, it is not the reflux that so many of us know, that causes the heart to burn, what burns in our hearts is our passion for the church of Jesus Christ, a willingness to take some risks, to make some sacrifices, to know the sublime joy not only of being a member of the church, but of being in a relationship with Jesus. Our hearts burn here with a rich history, with an appreciation of what has been, an understanding that we have to deal with in the present moment, and look forward to the future giving the best of who we have been – and the best of who we are. A friend of mine says that God calls us to bring the fire from the past, not the ashes. We have a burning desire to bring all the excitement, all the joy, all the energy, all the faith we have known with us. We are called to leave behind all the boredom, all the sadness, all the lethargy, all the doubt back there where it belongs. Those two men with Jesus go to find the disciples where they are hiding and afraid, to tell them that Jesus lives. I can imagine the disciples were stunned, not quite believing that he has risen from the dead, not believing what they heard, when Jesus comes with a word of peace to them. It may just be that when we call on the name of Jesus, he will come to us. When we call upon his name, he will know his power. When at the name of Jesus, our knees are bowed, and our tongues confess that he is our Lord, lives change and we are never the same. Imagine those disciples anxious from the crucifixion, not quite sure what it all means. A writer named Kristin Bargeron Grant puts it this way. She says: “Jesus leads the disciples into exploring their new world. Several things are happening to them. For one thing, they are terrified. For another, they are pretty sure that they already know what they are seeing. After all, there are only two ways to explain why this man who looks like Jesus is standing before them. One is that Jesus hadn’t died at all. But as much as they wanted to believe that, they knew it couldn’t be true. They had seen the cross, the body, the sealed tomb. They had all the evidence they needed, and there was only one other conclusion. This was a ghost, and ghosts are not generally signs of good news. “But Jesus gently coaxes them to a third, unconsidered, incomprehensible conclusion. He doesn’t explain resurrection, but instead encourages them to discover it for themselves. ‘Look at my hands and feet, where I was nailed to the wood. Yes, that’s right. I did die. A ghost? Are you sure? Touch me. Is that what a ghost feels like/ Give me some fish. Do apparitions chew and swallow? It is I. I know you don’t understand it; I know you can’t believe it, but go ahead. Take a guess at what God has done.’ “Luke tells us that the disciples ‘in their joy…were still disbelieving and still wondering.’ They wanted to give in to the hope that was jumping around in their bellies; they wanted to raise their hand and says, ‘Is it Jesus? It is; it’s Jesus!’ But they were so very, very afraid of getting this answer wrong. So Jesus gives them some more clues. He begins again to tell the story of God’s plan to restore all creation, from the covenant with Abraham to the exodus from Egypt, from Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones to Isaiah’s suffering servant. He’s told them all this before, of course, but this time, in the presence of their risen Lord, the doors in the minds of the disciples were unlocked. The rejection, the suffering, the crucifixion, they weren’t a detour from God’s plan after all, but the final steps of God’s long journey down into the plight of broken humanity. Now they are witnesses to the first steps on the other side. Not a dead man, not a ghost, but the victory of God! “And that is the role that Jesus gives to the disciples and to us in this story – we are to be witnesses. Not expert witnesses, just witnesses – people who tell the truth about what they have experienced. Throughout this Easter season, we hear some of the earliest of these testimonies: ‘I touched him, and he was not a ghost.’ ‘I saw the marks in his hands and feet; he was the crucified one.’ ‘we broke bread with him, and he ate.’ Two thousand years later, we can still give evidence of how the risen Jesus has come into our lives and retold the story of our lives in a way that opened our minds to the truth. (“Fresh Evidence” by Kristen Bargeron Grant, in The Christian Century online, p,1). We are the spiritual descendants of those first disciples – we bear the name, Christian, we are branded by our membership in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). We are the ones who hear his words today and make this story our story. It is our story to tell now, this story of how he redeemed us, how in his name we rise and sleep in God’s safety (Psalm 4.8). It is the story of how we know God and God’s unconditional love and we know the movement of the Spirit in this place. This great story of how in the name of Jesus we live in our core values is our story to tell. It is about building relationships, getting to know each other, respecting each other, asking forgiveness and forgiving one another, enjoying each other, supporting each other, welcoming new people and making room for them in this place – looking back and looking forward together. Our story is about doing justice. It is as basic as those verses in Matthew 25, the ones that say pay attention to the least, the left out, the shut out, the despised, the disregarded, and the disrespected. You know the ones, they say when I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me a cup of cold water; when I was new in town, and a stranger and you welcomed me; I was naked and you gave me some decent clothes; I was sick and you took care of me, when I was in prison, you came to see me” (Matthew 25. 35-40). That day when it looked like my choices were to buy needed food, or buy necessary medicine, you helped me make the right decisions and get the help I needed. I did not know how to read, you taught me; my spirit was broken and empty, you prayed for me. I was lonely and you befriended me. Doing justice is as complicated as understanding the relationship of poor health, poor housing, poor education and apathy to the quality of life and the ability to dream in some neighborhoods, and doing something to change it. Justice is about advocating for people who cannot advocate for themselves and supporting those who do. It is about having your say, and allowing others to have theirs. We tell our story when we know and honor God, know and honor relationships, and know and honor justice. Our story is about true discipleship. Our life here and our life as Christians is not only about transformation, it is about moving into deeper discipleship. It is about being followers, students, imitators of Jesus Christ who sends us into the world in his name for mission and ministry. Ours is a story about scripture, the Bible, God’s word being offered to God’s people to help us know God, build relationships, and do justice. Our story is one of declaring Jesus is God’s anointed one, the risen Christ, we have forgiveness in his name. We are witnesses and we are messenger with a story to tell. As we tell our story, we grow stronger, more confident, better able to begin where we are, from right here at 21st st and Broad Street, and then to go into the world God created with the good news of Jesus. We need to be prepared to tell the story, our story. We know about preparation. We followed some rituals as we prepared to come to church this morning. My ritual began last night when I made sure all the things I needed to bring here with me this morning were in a place where I could reach them. This morning I ate the same breakfast I eat every Sunday, I watched the same religious programs, and I listened to spirituals on the way to church. When I got here, I walked into the sanctuary to pray. A few minutes before 10.30 this morning, the elders, deacons, worship leaders and I gathered in the parlor to pray. We were preparing for worship. How shall we prepare to tell our story as followers of Christ? We do it by engaging in the rituals of spiritual formation. Spiritual formation is about how we make deeper our relationship with God, it is another way of knowing God and building relationships, and doing justice. Last Saturday in her presentation, Sharon Watkins gave us five things to do as we continue to form ourselves spiritually. We pray, as we have already today. We read and reflect on the scriptures that are opened up to us. We tithe, as our offering to God, and if tithing is not possible for us, we give to the ministries of the church as generously as we can, and through it all, we offer ourselves. We worship as we offer our praise and thanksgiving to God. And we observe a time of Sabbath rest, we take a day off to replenish ourselves. And we are witnesses. As we prepare, we become better witnesses for Christ in this place. “We are witnesses when we can invite someone to look into our homes, our families, our friendships, our work, our checkbook, our day timers and calendars, and find Jesus there. We are witnesses when we allow ourselves to be touched by folks who are lost and afraid. We are witnesses when we live in a way that defies any explanation other the presence of the risen Christ within us. Look, touch, see, believe! It isn’t a ghost. It’s the living God” (Christian Century, p.2). We declare in this place not only that God is good (all the time), and all the time (God is good), but that the Lord Jesus Christ is risen indeed. Thanks be to God. Amen. Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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