This is the Pastor’s Blog for the Service on Sunday April 19th. Included here is the primary Scripture of this message and the Pastor’s notes. Prior to the service it will include an excerpt of the Pastor’s notes and following the service the complete notes will be added.
Scripture: Luke 24:13-35
3 Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15 So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.
17 And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?”
18 Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?”
19 And He said to them, “What things?”
So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. 21 But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. 22 Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. 23 When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. 24 And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.”
25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
28 Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. 29 But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them.
30 Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.
32 And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” 33 So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.
Pastor’s Message;
Some years ago, my family and I were visiting relatives on the Jersey Shore. The morning of the day we were to leave, my mother-in-law and I were running a couple of quick errands. She drove to a new memorial that had been built on the shore of the Metedeconk River just a few minutes from her house. It is a beautiful memorial, built in memory of Monmouth County residents who died in the 9-11 attacks in 2001. A large angel with outstretched wings kneels as she cradles plaques with the engraved names of the victims.
As we drove home, we switched on the radio to check the traffic on the Garden State Parkway. There was news of long lines at all the major airports – Newark, LaGuardia, JFK, Philadelphia. A man had been arrested as a potential terrorist because he had explosives hidden in the soles of his shoes.
As soon as we got back to my mother-in-law’s house, we loaded up the car with our luggage and left immediately for the airport hours ahead of when we needed to be there. When we arrived, the TSA lines had shrunk a bit but were still quite long. TSA agents were on high alert, screening passengers one by one. Any liquids in your carry-ons? Those were confiscated. Any gels? Those, too, were confiscated. Medications that might be liquid, gel or something similar? In the trash can, please.
As we approached the check-point, we were told to take off our shoes so they could be scanned. My husband, daughter and I all looked at each other with raised eyebrows. This felt weird. Clearly, the rules had changed.
The rules changed right after 9-11 as we grieved the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. We grieved the crash of United flight #93 into that Pennsylvania field. We felt a sense of solidarity for a time. But then grief gave way to fear. We shifted into survival mode; an “us versus them” mentality as the War on Terror commenced. We became hyper-sensitive to matters of security and safety.
Such is life in survival mode – something cataclysmic happens, and we struggle to maintain what is left, to preserve the “old way,” even though the cataclysm has changed reality and the “old way” no longer exists. The ground beneath our feet shifts, the world seems different, and we try to figure out what the new rules are.
Jesus’ followers also found that the ground beneath their feet had shifted. They had experienced the challenging, engaging, wonderful, sometimes enigmatic presence of Jesus of Nazareth who offered a new set of rules – a new way — for living and believing. They had followed him, and had begun to live into this new way. His way was a way of abundance rather than scarcity, a life of joy and thanksgiving in spite of Roman oppression. Jesus’ way was a way of kindness marked by courage and a bold compassion.
But that all changed in just a few days. The One they had hoped was the messiah was executed, and they found themselves not only sad and grieving, but in survival mode, fearful of being discovered, their rabbi and leader cruelly ripped from them. Everything changed.
We’re still on that first Easter day, but we’re in Luke’s gospel instead of the book of John. Instead of being in the Upper Room with Jesus and Thomas, we’re on the road with two of Jesus’ followers who are walking away from Jerusalem. These two are processing what has happened, recalling details that may add some sense to their experience. A person they don’t know comes alongside them and asks them what they’re talking about.
The two are amazed that this stranger hasn’t heard what’s happened. They stop in their tracks with their sadness, in the middle of the road with a stranger who’s asking them what they’re talking about.
When the two companion disciples speak again, they express surprise – they thought everyone had heard about what had happened to Jesus of Nazareth, and the strange rumors swirling about the tomb being empty.
The stranger responds in a curious way: he calls them “slow of heart.”
The “heart” in the ancient world was understood as the seat of the will, of volition, of utmost importance in understanding experiences deeply. A heart weighed down by shock and grief can indeed be understandably slow, clouding understanding. To be “slow of heart” is, in some ways, to exist in survival mode.
The two disciples begin to listen more deeply to their new companion-on-the-road, fascinated by how the story in the scriptures unfolds for them in new ways.
As they near their lodgings for the evening, they offer the new companion hospitality – food and shelter for the evening. As they share a meal together, their slow hearts begin to wake up and burn, quickening with the presence with them at the table as they realize the Risen Jesus has been with them all along.
Their hearts burn with new knowledge and understanding of God-in-Christ’s presence in the midst of loss and suffering. Their understanding is deepened, their vision clears. Their hearts burn with a new understanding of what God has done in raising Christ, of the utterly unexpected and wonderful surprise of new life emerging from death. This new heart knowledge moves them out of survival mode into a new reality where the rules are utterly different. God’s reality and imagination – which for God are one and the same — is richer, higher, deeper than the old rules. Everything changes.
Holding onto the old rules and old ways can often keep us stuck. Holding on to the old ways also requires a lot of energy just to hold on, like holding onto the edge of a cliff. We’re afraid if we let go we’ll not only fall, but the world will end.
In a way, the world did end for Jesus’ followers. All they hoped for came crashing down when Jesus was crucified and buried.
God’s way is different, though. When all seems lost, when hope is dashed is when the stone gets rolled away from the tomb and new life shoots forth. Everything changes – the ways, the rules, life itself.
But, you might say, look around, pastor. Things don’t look much different, do they? In fact, the world looks even worse! I think I might respond with something writer Annie Dillard wrote decades ago. Do we really know what sort of power we invoke when we speak of God’s resurrection power? If we really understood, she says, we’d all be wearing crash helmets when we come to worship. God may take us places from which we will never return.
The awakened heart isn’t afraid of this. The awakened heart sees, and has open hands instead of clenched fists.
Shall we see our Resurrected companion on the road with us and allow our hearts to burn? Shall we move into God’s reality and know deep within our bones that resurrection is for us too? May we step into that new way of life now, without fear? God’s Easter reality is breaking in all around us, changing the rules. May our hearts burn in response.
Closing prayer
