Shut up and Trouble were walking down a path one day. All of a sudden Trouble got lost. So, Shut up went to the police officer’s station to report the missing person. When he arrived there a police officer asked, “What’s your name?” He answered, “Shut up.” The police officer asked again, “What’s your name?” He once again replied, “Shut up.” The police officer, beginning to get angry, asked, “Boy, are you looking for trouble?” To which Shut up responded, “Yeah, I lost him down a path about two miles ago!”
The phrase, “Shut up!” dates back to 1814. It is a verb that according to Webster’s Dictionary means, “to cause a person to stop talking or to cease writing or speaking.” Wikipedia, the Internet information tool, says that “shut up” is a colloquial phrase meaning “be quiet” and referring to “close your mouth.” It is usually considered to be rude and often said from someone in a state of anger. Despite the fact that it is not a nice thing to say, a lot of people seem to be saying it these days. In fact, if you type the phrase “shut up” on the Internet, you will receive over 45 million results.
Now although Jesus is never recorded in the Gospels as telling anyone to “shut up,” it is the case that throughout the book of Matthew Jesus keeps giving explicit orders for people to keep quiet whenever they discover His true identity. If you have your Bible, feel free to turn to some of these examples: Matthew 8:4 – Jesus cures a man with leprosy and says to him to see that he does not tell anyone. Matthew 9:30 – Jesus heals two blind men and sternly says to see that no one knows about this. In Matthew 16:20 after Peter has confessed that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of the living God, Jesus sternly charges the disciples to tell no one that He is the Messiah.
This is not just the case in Matthew but in the other Gospel accounts as well. Take Mark for example. Mark 1:25 – Jesus drives out an evil spirit and sternly orders it to be quiet. Mark 1:34 – Jesus drives out many demons and would not let them speak because they knew who He was. Mark 3:12 – Jesus gives strict orders to the evil spirits not to tell who He was. Mark 5:43 – Jesus raises to life a dead girl and gives strict orders not to let anyone know about this. Mark 7:36 – Jesus heals a deaf and mute man and commands them not to tell anyone. This particular text also remarks that, of course, the more Jesus did so and tried to get people to shut up, the more they kept talking about it. Mark 8:26 – Jesus heals a blind man at Bethsaida and tells him not to go tell anyone in the village.
Up until this point Jesus has kept His true identity as secret as possible. However, the story that takes place at Caesarea Philippi is a turning point in the ministry of Jesus. Many of you remember this tale. Jesus asks His disciples, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They give various answers: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. Then Jesus asks them, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter blurts out, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” Jesus tells Peter that he is correct and that this was revealed to him by their heavenly Father. Simon becomes Peter, the rock upon whom the Church will be built.
Peter’s confession of Christ is significant because from that time on Jesus starts to talk about His future. Jesus tells His disciples that He must travel to Jerusalem where He will go through great suffering, be killed, and be raised from the dead. With our Scripture passage for today Jesus takes the muzzle off the disciples’ mouths. He lets the cat out of the bag. The command from Jesus to shut up and be quiet has come to an end.
The only problem is that Jesus’ conception of what Messiah will be did not jive with what the disciples had been expecting. Peter cannot take the words that Jesus is sharing. He rejects this notion of Messiahship outright. Peter is not ready for such a message to be out in the open for all to hear. He is unable to fathom that Jesus will be defeated by the elders and the chief priests, who with the assistance of the authorities in Rome, will put Jesus to death. So he takes Jesus aside and starts to rebukes Him. When Peter says, “Never Lord,” in effect Peter is telling Jesus to, “Shut up.”
It is important that we not miss the irony in this account from Matthew’s Gospel. Throughout the first half of this book at various points people, and even demons and evil spirits, have made some sort of confession that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the son of the Living God. And every time this happens Jesus commands them to, in essence, “Shut up” and keep quiet. Now, at long last Peter has confessed that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus has not only told Peter that he is correct but has also called an end to the silence and elaborated upon what being the Messiah entails so that they can now share it with everyone, and what does Peter do? He tells Jesus, “Shut up.”
Jesus does not back down but, in turn, tells Peter to “Get behind me Satan,” for Peter was a stumbling block to Jesus because he did not have in mind the things of God, but instead was focused upon human, earthly things. Now we know why Jesus had to tell people to “shut up” and keep his being the Messiah under wraps for so long, because they would not get it. They would not understand that if anyone would come after Him, they must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him. They were not able to grasp that whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever is willing to lose their life for Jesus Christ will find it.
Jesus has now made it abundantly clear that the conditions of discipleship are anything but easy. Following Jesus is not all fun and games, glory and power. Being a Christian actually entails sharing in the sufferings of Jesus. We are called to deny ourselves, take up our own cross, and follow Him wherever He leads. Accepting this way of life means being willing to deny one’s self to the point of losing your life altogether.
Just like the original disciples, though, for many of us this call to follow Jesus is too troublesome. We would rather have Jesus get on board with what we believe He should think, say or do. We may even say things like, “Okay, Jesus, I will follow you, but here are some rules I would like to lay down before I do.” We place conditions on our relationship with Him, making it clear that we will follow Him as long as He does not say this or ask us to do that. After all, we do not want Jesus to disturb or disrupt the routine and comfort of our everyday existence.
And so when we hear Jesus say something we do not appreciate, we join Peter in telling Jesus to “shut up.” We, just like him, say “Never Lord” to a whole host of things: Never Lord will I worship in a church where they play the guitar, beat the drums, or still use the organ; Never Lord will I become a tither and give 10 percent of my income over to You and Your church; Never Lord will I answer that call when Pastor Robin and the church leadership invites me to be on that particular church committee or team; Never Lord will I consider teaching Sunday school, being a youth group leader, going on a mission trip, singing in the choir, or joining a small group; Never Lord will I dare to speak your name in public; Never Lord will I give to you whatever it is that is keeping me from following you completely and totally.
Please do not hear me wrong. I am not judging you, at least anymore than I am judging anyone of us, including myself. Remember that every time a preacher like me points a finger at you (which I try not to do since who wants to be pointed at), I have three fingers pointing right back at me. This may not apply to you, but as for me, I know that everyday there is some moment where I tell Jesus to “shut up” because I do not want to hear what He has to say. Everyday there is something that Christ calls me to do that I perceive to be too difficult and so I say, “Never Lord.”
When I make such mistakes, I take comfort in the fact not only that God loves me and sent Jesus Christ on the cross to die for my sins, but also that I am not the first person to fall into this trap. Pride is the root of all sins. Think about it: Sin is missing the mark, disobeying God, choosing our own way over the way of Christ. The sin of pride has been around since the beginning of sin itself. It was Satan who first said, “It is better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.” Adam and Eve went down that same path when they ate the forbidden fruit, figuring that they knew better than God. This is why Peter is identified with Satan: because he makes the same mistake Satan, Adam, and Eve do, choosing his will over God’s. And down through the ages, we have all made the same error as Satan, Adam, Eve, and Peter, presuming to know better than God what God desires, so that when we begin to hear the radical, demanding call of Jesus on our life, we too presume to know better than God, take Him aside, rebuke Him, and say, “Never Lord.”
This is why the Christian life is not to be entered into lightly because once we go down that road, “Never Lord” is not an option. We should first count the cost because Jesus does not want us to only give Him part of our life. Being a Christian is like being pregnant. Now I have never been pregnant but my wife Erin just was and I know from her experience that you are either pregnant or you are not pregnant, but no one is a little bit pregnant. Jesus wants all of us.
In his book on essential Christian teaching titled Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis puts it this way: “The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says, ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there. I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.’” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great German theologian and preacher who was martyred after becoming part of the assassination attempt to kill Adolf Hitler during World War II, says it like this in his book The Cost of Discipleship: When Christ bids someone to come and follow, Christ calls that person to come and die.
As I said before, this is anything but easy. Giving up control of our lives is hard to do. But as the saying goes, “If God is your co-pilot, it is time to switch seats.” Doing this is easier when we, like Peter, also learn that it is not our job to make sure things turn out all right, for this is to be just like Peter in setting our mind on human things; instead, our task is to witness to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of the living God.Shut up. It is a nasty phrase that we should all try to eliminate from our vocabulary. The good news is that God is willing to forgive us for the times in our lives when we may have told Jesus to “shut up,” those moments when we might have been willing to follow Jesus only up to a certain point, saying “Never Lord” when He asks us to do things outside of our own comfort zones. But there is no need to presume to know better than God what God desires. God wants what is best for each one of us. Jesus Christ offers us the gift of life if we will only deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him, for it is in losing our lives that we find the One who is the Resurrection and the Life. Amen.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
True Confessions of the New Pastor and Proud Papa
The young pastor was quite nervous. Oh, he had preached many sermons in his life, but now he was the new associate pastor at The First United Methodist Church in town. Having labored over his manuscript for many hours, he walked out of the restroom to face the task at hand. Right before he entered the sanctuary, however, he was stopped by a rather large, intimidating looking fellow, presumably one of the church’s elder statesman. Before the young preacher could say a word, the man looked him right in the eye and said, “Preacher, remember one thing: Sermons should be like a woman’s dress: long enough to cover the subject but short enough to be interesting!”
Now before you ask, the answer is no, this event did not actually happen to me. Nevertheless, this joke does communicate the truth that a pastor’s first sermon in their new appointment can be both an exciting and anxious experience. It is a preacher’s first opportunity to introduce herself or himself to their entire congregation. What words are appropriate for such a moment as this? Well, on the occasion of my initial chance to meditate upon the Word of God with you, I thought I might use this message to share with you some true confessions so to speak, my passions as one of your new pastors.
So, here it goes. My first true confession: My name is Jimmy Cooper, and I love Jesus. I grew up in the Church, and therefore there is not a time where I was unaware of Christ’s love for me. I believe that Jesus Christ is the solution to the deepest longings of the human heart. He is the answer to the problems that plague our society.
Moreover, I want you to know that I am convinced that Jesus Christ has sent me and my family to you, the people at First United Methodist Church in St. Charles. I have been sent here to give you a very urgent message, to tell you a story. It is the greatest love story ever told. The simple and yet life changing message is this: God loves you. God loves you so much that God decided that He would rather die for you than lose you. If you were the only human being who had ever been born, if you were the only one who had ever sinned, if you were the only person on the planet in need of forgiveness, Jesus Christ still would have went to the cross and died just for you.
As your pastor, it is my mission to remind you of two things: (1) God loves you and (2) The fact that God loves you should make some kind of visible and apparent difference in your life! Actually, don’t tell Pastor Robin and the staff parish committee, but I figure my job here is fairly simple. W.T. Handy, a former bishop of the Missouri Conference of The United Methodist Church, used to say that pastors have two tasks: Preach Jesus and love the people. He was persuaded that if you did those two things as a pastor, you would succeed. So, let me tell you right from the start that I am not here to play church. I am here to preach Jesus and love you to the best of my ability. In addition, let me say that I think those two things are intimately related. After all, those of you who have known this person Jesus of Nazareth and have been following Him for a while do not need to be told that Jesus said and did some odd and strange things while He was with us. Sometimes He says and does odd things even today! Therefore, if I am going to preach this Jesus to you in all His oddness and strangeness, you will first have to know that I love you, which I will do all in my power to show you. At the same time, though, if I do truly love you, I cannot water Jesus down and offer you Jesus lite. Rather, I must preach Jesus to you, with all His oddness and strangeness intact.
To put it another way, I am persuaded that my job here is to be another John the Baptist. This is why we read the Scripture passage this morning from the Gospel according to St. John. For when it comes to oddness and strangeness in the Bible, it does not get any more odd and strange than John the Baptist. He lived in the dessert, ate locusts and wild honey. Now that is odd and strange. Plus, if today is about getting to know the new pastor, I figured I might as well include my favorite Bible verse, which is John 3:30 – “He must become greater, I must become less,” or from another translation, “He must increase, I must decrease.” Of course, this verse has taken on all new meaning for me these days. With the recent birth of my son Noah James, it appears as if there are a couple of different He’s now in my life who must become greater, who must increase as I become less, as I decrease. If it ever was, it is certainly no longer about what Jimmy wants.
This is why I want to be more like John the Baptist, for he was not all that concerned about his own status, prestige, or recognition. He was not, as some United Methodist pastors are, always on the lookout for the next great appointment. Our story for today illustrates this point. His disciples came to him with the complaint that now that Jesus was baptizing on the other side of the Jordan, everyone was leaving John and going to Jesus. But this did not worry John in the least. His mantra was simple: “He must become greater, I must become less.” “He must increase, I must decrease.” You see, John knew that his job was simply to testify to what he had seen and what he had heard. John became known as the pointer, the one who showed the way to Jesus Christ. In that sense all of us are called to follow in the footsteps of John the Baptist, pointing the way to Jesus the Messiah, insisting that He must become greater, He must increase, even if this means that we must become less, that we have to decrease. The Church is at her best when she remembers that she exists for the sake of her bridegroom, Jesus Christ.
This leads into my second true confession: My name is Jimmy Cooper, and I love the Church. Now this is not always a popular thing to utter in polite company these days. We live in a world where people are spiritual, but not religious. Organized religion is something to be suspicious of, not celebrated. I must admit that I have always wondered: Those people who are against organized religion, what do they want exactly, unorganized religion? That doesn’t sound any better to me…
Of course, on the one hand Jesus was certainly critical of the organized religion of His day. He was tough on them all, whether it was the Pharisees, Saducees or the Zealots. Jesus was constantly questioning the religious status quo of His day. However, this did not drive Him away from the synagogue but in fact led him right into it. He was regularly interacting with the chief priests and the religious rulers of His day, yes calling into question the structures of His day but doing it from within the confines of organized religion itself. His response to the corruption of His organized religion was not to abandon it but to engage it even more so.
Moreover, do not forget that it was Jesus who intentionally founded the Church. If He was so against organized religion, why would He have deliberately called twelve disciples, a clear sign referring to the twelve tribes of Israel. Why would He have sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to give birth to the Church? No, far from being opposed to organized religion, Jesus was the One behind the Church from the beginning. To this day, no one has greater faith in the Church than Jesus Christ. After all, He maintained that upon the rock of Peter Jesus would found the Church that would be so strong that the gates of Hell would not prevail against it!
The problem is that the Church has not always been faithful, which is why most of us know people who are spiritual but not religious, suspicious of organized religion. It is such people who are the subject of my last true confession: My name is Jimmy Cooper, and I love the lost. I will get to speak more to this particular passion next week, but let me say a bit about it now because it relates to my previous confession concerning the Church. You know, the Church is a unique organization in that it exists primarily for those who are not a part of it. If anything frustrates me, it is when congregations merely want to play church, forgetting that our primary task is not to take care of the ones who are already inside; instead, it is to go out into the world, making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Obviously, this requires a humble spirit, a generous heart, a commitment to self-sacrifice, a recognition that it is not all about me, and most importantly, a willingness to follow in the footsteps of John the Baptist as we point the way to Jesus Christ and say, “He must become greater, I must become less,” “He must increase, “I must decrease.”
Now that I have confessed that I love Jesus Christ, His Church and those He and we are still trying to reach, I would like to offer some brief petitions and heartfelt pleas to you all, just in case you are wondering what you can do for me during my first days at First Church.
Pray for me and my family. My wife Erin, my son Noah and I would be delighted to know that we have been added to your prayer list and devotional life. Recently my family has undergone a lot of transitions: my wife’s pregnancy, the birth of Noah, leaving Chicago, moving to St. Charles, our last Sunday at Friendship United Methodist Church, our arrival here at First Church, ending my doctoral coursework, and beginning preparation to complete my foreign language requirements, take my qualifying exams, and write my doctoral dissertation. We praise God that this has gone rather smoothly, but we would nevertheless welcome your intercessions on our behalf. And we promise to do the same for you.
Be here. This may be as obvious as my request for you to pray for us, and as an associate pastor I am used to preaching Sundays when everyone, including the senior pastor, has the tendency to go on vacation. You know, the Sunday after Christmas, the Sunday after Easter, and the month of July. I am not telling you to not go on vacation this summer or to come to church when you are ill. I am simply reminding you that God does not go on vacation from us, and neither should we go on vacation from God. If you go out of town, terrific, have a great time, and feel free to visit another church. Who knows, you just may come back with a great idea for us? Next week, Pastor Robin and I are going to start a new sermon series based on our mission here at First UMC, which is that, “For the love of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we gather people to Christ, grow in Christ, and go for Christ!” Do all you can to be here as we recall the mission of our Church?
How many of you have seen the movie Jerry Maguire? Well, if you have, you will know that my next request comes from one of the most famous lines that Tom Cruise utters in that film. It is, “Help me, help you.” You may be surprised to learn that just because I have been appointed to First UMC does not mean that God has automatically downloaded into my brain all of the history of this church, all of the background information I need to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ, or all of the wisdom about how we can best reach the people of our community with the love of God. I know you may find this hard to believe, but as members of the body of Christ we actually need each other. If I am going to do things like lead our small group ministry and assimilate new members, which by the way is just a fancy way of saying that once people join our church it is my mission to make sure our church helps them to connect with God and our congregation, I am going to need your help. We as your pastoral staff may not know what group to offer unless you tell us what kind of small group you would desperately want to join, not to mention your ideas for who could lead such a group. If I am going to work to ensure that all of our members are a part of one group where they are growing spiritually and another where they are serving others (which by the way is my goal, I like to call it the worship +2 model), then it would assist me greatly to have conversations with you regarding what experiences best communicate God’s grace to you, as well as what passions you have for mission and ministry in the church and world.
Be open to the new things that God is doing in our midst. One of my favorite religious movies of all time is The Blues Brothers. In that classic two great modern theologians, Jake and Elwood Blues, remind us that the Lord works in mysterious ways. Allow me the chance to offer one brief example: just over forty-five years ago a young adult Sunday school class from First United Methodist Church felt compelled to start another Methodist Church in St. Charles. The next year the church was commissioned with sixteen members. This church came to be Faith UMC in St. Charles, my home congregation. Back then, no one probably imagined that someday the church that First UMC planted would then produce one of its future pastors, and yet, forty-six years later, I present myself to you as a small return on that investment, only a portion of the great things that God has done through the willingness of those original First UMC missionaries who went on to plant Faith UMC. Who knows? If First Church had not done this, I may not be standing before you today.
Indeed, the Lord works in mysterious ways. God wants to do a new thing in our midst. Alas, too many churches get in the way of what God wants to do. They say things like, “We’ve never done it that way before.” Instead, I invite us to dream God’s dreams for this place, to jump on board with what God is already doing, to enjoy the ride He wants to give us! I think you can tell but just in case you can’t, my last confession is simply that I am thrilled to be here. I am honored to be one of your associate pastors. I covenant with you that I will preach Jesus and love you until God calls me somewhere else. Until then, let’s enjoy the ride. Hopefully, not only will my sermons be long enough to cover the subject and short enough to be interesting, but I also hope that First Church can continue to be faithful as we fulfill the tasks that God has called us to, that this community will be a living witness that the last can become first, that we are willing to say with our lips and our lives, “He must become greater, I must become less.” “He must increase, I must decrease.” Amen.
Now before you ask, the answer is no, this event did not actually happen to me. Nevertheless, this joke does communicate the truth that a pastor’s first sermon in their new appointment can be both an exciting and anxious experience. It is a preacher’s first opportunity to introduce herself or himself to their entire congregation. What words are appropriate for such a moment as this? Well, on the occasion of my initial chance to meditate upon the Word of God with you, I thought I might use this message to share with you some true confessions so to speak, my passions as one of your new pastors.
So, here it goes. My first true confession: My name is Jimmy Cooper, and I love Jesus. I grew up in the Church, and therefore there is not a time where I was unaware of Christ’s love for me. I believe that Jesus Christ is the solution to the deepest longings of the human heart. He is the answer to the problems that plague our society.
Moreover, I want you to know that I am convinced that Jesus Christ has sent me and my family to you, the people at First United Methodist Church in St. Charles. I have been sent here to give you a very urgent message, to tell you a story. It is the greatest love story ever told. The simple and yet life changing message is this: God loves you. God loves you so much that God decided that He would rather die for you than lose you. If you were the only human being who had ever been born, if you were the only one who had ever sinned, if you were the only person on the planet in need of forgiveness, Jesus Christ still would have went to the cross and died just for you.
As your pastor, it is my mission to remind you of two things: (1) God loves you and (2) The fact that God loves you should make some kind of visible and apparent difference in your life! Actually, don’t tell Pastor Robin and the staff parish committee, but I figure my job here is fairly simple. W.T. Handy, a former bishop of the Missouri Conference of The United Methodist Church, used to say that pastors have two tasks: Preach Jesus and love the people. He was persuaded that if you did those two things as a pastor, you would succeed. So, let me tell you right from the start that I am not here to play church. I am here to preach Jesus and love you to the best of my ability. In addition, let me say that I think those two things are intimately related. After all, those of you who have known this person Jesus of Nazareth and have been following Him for a while do not need to be told that Jesus said and did some odd and strange things while He was with us. Sometimes He says and does odd things even today! Therefore, if I am going to preach this Jesus to you in all His oddness and strangeness, you will first have to know that I love you, which I will do all in my power to show you. At the same time, though, if I do truly love you, I cannot water Jesus down and offer you Jesus lite. Rather, I must preach Jesus to you, with all His oddness and strangeness intact.
To put it another way, I am persuaded that my job here is to be another John the Baptist. This is why we read the Scripture passage this morning from the Gospel according to St. John. For when it comes to oddness and strangeness in the Bible, it does not get any more odd and strange than John the Baptist. He lived in the dessert, ate locusts and wild honey. Now that is odd and strange. Plus, if today is about getting to know the new pastor, I figured I might as well include my favorite Bible verse, which is John 3:30 – “He must become greater, I must become less,” or from another translation, “He must increase, I must decrease.” Of course, this verse has taken on all new meaning for me these days. With the recent birth of my son Noah James, it appears as if there are a couple of different He’s now in my life who must become greater, who must increase as I become less, as I decrease. If it ever was, it is certainly no longer about what Jimmy wants.
This is why I want to be more like John the Baptist, for he was not all that concerned about his own status, prestige, or recognition. He was not, as some United Methodist pastors are, always on the lookout for the next great appointment. Our story for today illustrates this point. His disciples came to him with the complaint that now that Jesus was baptizing on the other side of the Jordan, everyone was leaving John and going to Jesus. But this did not worry John in the least. His mantra was simple: “He must become greater, I must become less.” “He must increase, I must decrease.” You see, John knew that his job was simply to testify to what he had seen and what he had heard. John became known as the pointer, the one who showed the way to Jesus Christ. In that sense all of us are called to follow in the footsteps of John the Baptist, pointing the way to Jesus the Messiah, insisting that He must become greater, He must increase, even if this means that we must become less, that we have to decrease. The Church is at her best when she remembers that she exists for the sake of her bridegroom, Jesus Christ.
This leads into my second true confession: My name is Jimmy Cooper, and I love the Church. Now this is not always a popular thing to utter in polite company these days. We live in a world where people are spiritual, but not religious. Organized religion is something to be suspicious of, not celebrated. I must admit that I have always wondered: Those people who are against organized religion, what do they want exactly, unorganized religion? That doesn’t sound any better to me…
Of course, on the one hand Jesus was certainly critical of the organized religion of His day. He was tough on them all, whether it was the Pharisees, Saducees or the Zealots. Jesus was constantly questioning the religious status quo of His day. However, this did not drive Him away from the synagogue but in fact led him right into it. He was regularly interacting with the chief priests and the religious rulers of His day, yes calling into question the structures of His day but doing it from within the confines of organized religion itself. His response to the corruption of His organized religion was not to abandon it but to engage it even more so.
Moreover, do not forget that it was Jesus who intentionally founded the Church. If He was so against organized religion, why would He have deliberately called twelve disciples, a clear sign referring to the twelve tribes of Israel. Why would He have sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to give birth to the Church? No, far from being opposed to organized religion, Jesus was the One behind the Church from the beginning. To this day, no one has greater faith in the Church than Jesus Christ. After all, He maintained that upon the rock of Peter Jesus would found the Church that would be so strong that the gates of Hell would not prevail against it!
The problem is that the Church has not always been faithful, which is why most of us know people who are spiritual but not religious, suspicious of organized religion. It is such people who are the subject of my last true confession: My name is Jimmy Cooper, and I love the lost. I will get to speak more to this particular passion next week, but let me say a bit about it now because it relates to my previous confession concerning the Church. You know, the Church is a unique organization in that it exists primarily for those who are not a part of it. If anything frustrates me, it is when congregations merely want to play church, forgetting that our primary task is not to take care of the ones who are already inside; instead, it is to go out into the world, making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Obviously, this requires a humble spirit, a generous heart, a commitment to self-sacrifice, a recognition that it is not all about me, and most importantly, a willingness to follow in the footsteps of John the Baptist as we point the way to Jesus Christ and say, “He must become greater, I must become less,” “He must increase, “I must decrease.”
Now that I have confessed that I love Jesus Christ, His Church and those He and we are still trying to reach, I would like to offer some brief petitions and heartfelt pleas to you all, just in case you are wondering what you can do for me during my first days at First Church.
Pray for me and my family. My wife Erin, my son Noah and I would be delighted to know that we have been added to your prayer list and devotional life. Recently my family has undergone a lot of transitions: my wife’s pregnancy, the birth of Noah, leaving Chicago, moving to St. Charles, our last Sunday at Friendship United Methodist Church, our arrival here at First Church, ending my doctoral coursework, and beginning preparation to complete my foreign language requirements, take my qualifying exams, and write my doctoral dissertation. We praise God that this has gone rather smoothly, but we would nevertheless welcome your intercessions on our behalf. And we promise to do the same for you.
Be here. This may be as obvious as my request for you to pray for us, and as an associate pastor I am used to preaching Sundays when everyone, including the senior pastor, has the tendency to go on vacation. You know, the Sunday after Christmas, the Sunday after Easter, and the month of July. I am not telling you to not go on vacation this summer or to come to church when you are ill. I am simply reminding you that God does not go on vacation from us, and neither should we go on vacation from God. If you go out of town, terrific, have a great time, and feel free to visit another church. Who knows, you just may come back with a great idea for us? Next week, Pastor Robin and I are going to start a new sermon series based on our mission here at First UMC, which is that, “For the love of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we gather people to Christ, grow in Christ, and go for Christ!” Do all you can to be here as we recall the mission of our Church?
How many of you have seen the movie Jerry Maguire? Well, if you have, you will know that my next request comes from one of the most famous lines that Tom Cruise utters in that film. It is, “Help me, help you.” You may be surprised to learn that just because I have been appointed to First UMC does not mean that God has automatically downloaded into my brain all of the history of this church, all of the background information I need to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ, or all of the wisdom about how we can best reach the people of our community with the love of God. I know you may find this hard to believe, but as members of the body of Christ we actually need each other. If I am going to do things like lead our small group ministry and assimilate new members, which by the way is just a fancy way of saying that once people join our church it is my mission to make sure our church helps them to connect with God and our congregation, I am going to need your help. We as your pastoral staff may not know what group to offer unless you tell us what kind of small group you would desperately want to join, not to mention your ideas for who could lead such a group. If I am going to work to ensure that all of our members are a part of one group where they are growing spiritually and another where they are serving others (which by the way is my goal, I like to call it the worship +2 model), then it would assist me greatly to have conversations with you regarding what experiences best communicate God’s grace to you, as well as what passions you have for mission and ministry in the church and world.
Be open to the new things that God is doing in our midst. One of my favorite religious movies of all time is The Blues Brothers. In that classic two great modern theologians, Jake and Elwood Blues, remind us that the Lord works in mysterious ways. Allow me the chance to offer one brief example: just over forty-five years ago a young adult Sunday school class from First United Methodist Church felt compelled to start another Methodist Church in St. Charles. The next year the church was commissioned with sixteen members. This church came to be Faith UMC in St. Charles, my home congregation. Back then, no one probably imagined that someday the church that First UMC planted would then produce one of its future pastors, and yet, forty-six years later, I present myself to you as a small return on that investment, only a portion of the great things that God has done through the willingness of those original First UMC missionaries who went on to plant Faith UMC. Who knows? If First Church had not done this, I may not be standing before you today.
Indeed, the Lord works in mysterious ways. God wants to do a new thing in our midst. Alas, too many churches get in the way of what God wants to do. They say things like, “We’ve never done it that way before.” Instead, I invite us to dream God’s dreams for this place, to jump on board with what God is already doing, to enjoy the ride He wants to give us! I think you can tell but just in case you can’t, my last confession is simply that I am thrilled to be here. I am honored to be one of your associate pastors. I covenant with you that I will preach Jesus and love you until God calls me somewhere else. Until then, let’s enjoy the ride. Hopefully, not only will my sermons be long enough to cover the subject and short enough to be interesting, but I also hope that First Church can continue to be faithful as we fulfill the tasks that God has called us to, that this community will be a living witness that the last can become first, that we are willing to say with our lips and our lives, “He must become greater, I must become less.” “He must increase, I must decrease.” Amen.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Opening Our Eyes to Jesus Incognito
The captain of the ship looked into the dark night and saw faint lights in the distance. Immediately he told his signalman to send a message: “Alter your course 10 degrees south.” Promptly a return message was received: “Alter your course 10 degrees north.” The captain was angered; his command had been ignored. So he sent a second message: “Alter your course 10 degrees south—I am the captain!” Soon another message was received: “Alter your course 10 degrees north—I am seaman third class Jones.” Immediately the captain sent a third message, knowing the fear it would evoke: “Alter your course 10 degrees south—I am a battleship.” Then the reply came: “Alter your course 10 degrees north—I am a lighthouse.”
The captain from the illustration I have just shared was suffering from impaired vision. The dark night had blinded him to the lighthouse that laid before him. It remained hidden, incognito from him, even though he was on a collision course with it, heading straight for it. It took seaman third class Jones three times to open the captain’s eyes so that he could see the lighthouse that had until then remained undiscovered to him.
Today’s Gospel lesson records the narrative of two disciples who eyes were also in need of being opened to what or whom, though hidden, was right in front of them. The story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is one of, if not the most, dramatic resurrection stories in all of the New Testament. It is found only in the Gospel of Luke though there is a brief reference to it in Mark’s account. Luke says that this occurrence took place on that very day of the first Easter morning. Interestingly, the city of Emmaus has never been positively identified. In fact, at least four modern towns have been considered as possible cites for the ancient location of Emmaus.
According to Luke’s account, two disciples are making the journey from Jerusalem to this unknown place called Emmaus. One of them is identified as Cleopas, who is sometimes acknowledged as Clopas, the father of Simeon who followed James the brother of Jesus as the leader of the Jerusalem church.
As they walk along discussing the recent events that have taken place in Jerusalem, they are joined by the risen Jesus, but they do not recognize Him. We are told that their eyes were kept from identifying Him. What does this mean? Some have suggested that some miracle of blinding occurred to them; however, I would instead contend that what it might suggest is that a special opening of the eyes is necessary for observing the risen Christ. We can see this in the way that although all see an empty tomb, the risen Jesus is not visible to everyone.
There is some evidence to back up the notion of the inward character of this blindness. For even when the two disciples stand still they do not know the identity of the other pilgrim, who we know to be Jesus. When Jesus acts as if He is ignorant of the recent events that have taken place Cleopas is shocked. While his response is open to slightly different translations, the meaning is apparent: the event of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is widely known throughout Jerusalem. Where has this stranger been?
To answer Jesus’ lack of information the two disciples tell the main parts of the story of Jesus. It is clear that they had accepted Him as a prophet. The chief priests and rules of Jerusalem had Jesus put to death. The disciples had hoped that He was the Messiah but their hopes had now been dashed, shattered, and obliterated. Their reference to the 3rd day is a hint to apparent knowledge of Jesus’ prediction of His resurrection. To be sure, women were unable to find Jesus’ body and claimed that they had seen a vision, while others had tested the validity of their hypothesis. Still, for all the proof of an empty tomb no one had seen the risen Christ.
In certain respects it may be easy for us to relate to the situation described on this first Easter Sunday. Here we are, Easter is only a week old, and yet for many of us the warm fuzzy feelings of the Empty Tomb have already worn off. We proclaim “Christ is risen,” but the lack of impact it has made upon our daily lives may cause us to question, “Is He risen indeed?” Or we may have heard from others who caught a glimpse of the empty tomb and yet we have personally been unable to see the risen Christ. Like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the risen Jesus could be right in our midst and still we remain blinded to His presence. How can we open our eyes and see the risen Christ, the Jesus who is right beside us but remains hidden, incognito? The two disciples on their way to Emmaus provide a picture of how our eyes too can be opened.
One way that these two disciples opened their eyes to the incognito Jesus in their midst was through the reading and relearning of Scripture. You see, like the Jews of Jesus’ day, these two disciples thought that they knew how the story was going to go. They had preconceived notions of what Messiah would look like. However, God had something different, something far greater, prepared. They did not understand the design and works of God. They were slow of heart, unready to believe what the prophets had already spoken. And so Jesus explained to them what was said in the Scriptures concerning Himself. Of course, it would have been nice if Luke had written down what Jesus had said to those two disciples on the road to Emmaus. What we do know is that Jesus criticized their lack of faith, using the entirety of the Old Testament to prove that the Christ should suffer and then enter into His glory. The specific texts that make these points are not mentioned, but Luke clearly believes that the total witness of Moses and all the prophets is that the Messiah’s role includes a suffering that will lead to ultimate victory.
Like those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, we may think we know how the story should go. We might have preconceived ideas as to how God should operate. If we are to avoid such pitfalls, we need to relearn the story as well, letting Jesus interpret the Scriptures for us. This helps us to open our eyes to new ways of hearing the story.
Hearing the story in a new way allows us to open our eyes and see that Jesus has been forced to explain Himself, who He is, and what He is doing from the very beginning. This is attested to by the similarities between how Luke’s story ends and how it began. Today we have heard the story of two disciples on the road to Emmaus. But this is not the first time we have heard the tale of two people going away from Jerusalem and running back again. Remember the story in Luke 2 where Mary and Joseph lose sight of Jesus. They discover that He is not there with them. They, like the two on the road to Emmaus, have a moment of sorrow and grief, head back to Jerusalem, and then when they find him in the temple he says, “Didn’t you know I must be about my Father’s business?”
The closer we examine it, the more we see how the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is strikingly similar to Mary and Joseph’s voyage. It consists of two people on a journey who have lost the Jesus they have known. When they do encounter Jesus they are surprised as to how it takes place. He explains to them that this is how it had to be. For the two disciples on the road to Emmaus Jesus opened the Scriptures to them and elaborated upon how it was necessary that the Messiah should suffer those things. It was almost as if He was saying again, “Didn’t you know that I must be about my Father’s business?”
The second mode of unveiling for these disciples occurs in the breaking of the bread. Jesus is unveiled and manifested in the breaking of the bread. When they arrive at the home of the travelers, Jesus is invited to share in their hospitality. All of a sudden the stranger assumes the role of the host. Taking bread, Jesus blesses it and breaks it, and the disciples eyes were opened. The breaking of the bread is reminiscent of the feeding of the 5,000 from Luke 9:16 and the Last Supper from Luke 22:19.
Luke does not tell us these stories to remind us of something miraculous that happened long ago in a land far, far away; instead, Luke attempts to persuade his readers that just as Jesus was revealed to those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, this is a pattern in which we can now live and move and have our own being. The miracle of seeing the risen Christ can occur even today in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Of course this is not to suggest that Christ’s reality is to be found only there or that the fellowship of the church somehow creates the resurrection faith. It is simply observed that in this event of the church’s worship, in the breaking of the bread, the risen Christ is made known (v. 35). This is why we in the United Methodist Church practice open Communion because Mr. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, believed that taking Communion could be a converting ordinance. From reading stories like the one of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Wesley came to understand that in the breaking of the bread people who do not know the saving love of Jesus Christ can have their eyes opened to God’s love for them.
In fact, we see this pattern of the importance of the teaching of the Scriptures and the breaking of the bread throughout Scripture. In Acts 2, the early church devoted themselves to the apostles teachings and the breaking of the bread. Those two practices are intertwined. Even in this story, when the two disciples exclaim, “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the road?” they confess that their experience of the risen Christ through the breaking of the bread illuminates their whole past, including their reading of Scripture. The Scriptures that had once been so unclear are now opened through the risen Christ and the breaking of the bread. Likewise, the Scriptures attest to the importance of practices like Holy Communion, reminding us that Christ invited us to do this and remember Him.
The third way of opening our eyes to the Jesus incognito occurs when we recognize that is through the learning of the Scriptures and the breaking of the bread that we are made ready to help others open their eyes to the Jesus incognito in their lives. After Jesus opened the Scriptures to them and was revealed to them in the breaking of the bread, the two disciples ran back and said, “The Lord is risen indeed.” When the pilgrims returned to Jerusalem to witness they found out that the eleven had already heard the good news. The report that the Lord had appeared to Simon confirmed that their account of the Resurrection is true. Jesus then appeared in the Upper Room and commissioned them to go into all the world with the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins.
It is through hearing the word of God together and knowing the Lord in the breaking of the bread that we are energized for the mission out into the world. It is through means of grace like searching the Scriptures and the Lord’s Supper that we receive God’s grace and are empowered to share the good news of Easter hope. As we say in our Holy Communion liturgy, “Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we might be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by His blood.” Through practices like Scripture reading and partaking in Holy Communion, we are transformed into people who go out into the world as the body of Christ, telling others that Jesus, though incognito, is ready to be seen by them as well.
The story of the resurrected Jesus is not a simple one. His resurrected body defies logic. He walks through walls and eats fish…what is up with that? The Christ who is at first invisible, who then appears at places removed in distance, who appears again and vanishes, is hardly an ordinary person. Back then everyone seemed to be able to recognize the historical fact of the empty tomb, but for many their eyes remained closed to the Jesus incognito standing right before them.
Still, this incognito Jesus comes to us in surprising ways if we are merely willing to open our eyes like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Certain means of grace and Christian practices help us to remove those scales from our eyes. Opening our eyes to Him is possible through things like retelling the story of Scripture and breaking the bread. This is how we are to live on our journey as his disciples, to hear again the story of Scripture, to bring our little stories, our troubled worlds into the still moment of the Lord telling the story His way, and then to come with hearts burning to the Lord’s table. So, do you have such a story on your heart today? Has your vision been clouded, causing you to already lose sight of the Easter message from a week ago? If so, join the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Like them we can with Jesus read the Scriptures, break the bread, and be empowered for the mission of telling others about the risen Christ. Open your eyes…Jesus is here! Amen.
The captain from the illustration I have just shared was suffering from impaired vision. The dark night had blinded him to the lighthouse that laid before him. It remained hidden, incognito from him, even though he was on a collision course with it, heading straight for it. It took seaman third class Jones three times to open the captain’s eyes so that he could see the lighthouse that had until then remained undiscovered to him.
Today’s Gospel lesson records the narrative of two disciples who eyes were also in need of being opened to what or whom, though hidden, was right in front of them. The story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is one of, if not the most, dramatic resurrection stories in all of the New Testament. It is found only in the Gospel of Luke though there is a brief reference to it in Mark’s account. Luke says that this occurrence took place on that very day of the first Easter morning. Interestingly, the city of Emmaus has never been positively identified. In fact, at least four modern towns have been considered as possible cites for the ancient location of Emmaus.
According to Luke’s account, two disciples are making the journey from Jerusalem to this unknown place called Emmaus. One of them is identified as Cleopas, who is sometimes acknowledged as Clopas, the father of Simeon who followed James the brother of Jesus as the leader of the Jerusalem church.
As they walk along discussing the recent events that have taken place in Jerusalem, they are joined by the risen Jesus, but they do not recognize Him. We are told that their eyes were kept from identifying Him. What does this mean? Some have suggested that some miracle of blinding occurred to them; however, I would instead contend that what it might suggest is that a special opening of the eyes is necessary for observing the risen Christ. We can see this in the way that although all see an empty tomb, the risen Jesus is not visible to everyone.
There is some evidence to back up the notion of the inward character of this blindness. For even when the two disciples stand still they do not know the identity of the other pilgrim, who we know to be Jesus. When Jesus acts as if He is ignorant of the recent events that have taken place Cleopas is shocked. While his response is open to slightly different translations, the meaning is apparent: the event of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is widely known throughout Jerusalem. Where has this stranger been?
To answer Jesus’ lack of information the two disciples tell the main parts of the story of Jesus. It is clear that they had accepted Him as a prophet. The chief priests and rules of Jerusalem had Jesus put to death. The disciples had hoped that He was the Messiah but their hopes had now been dashed, shattered, and obliterated. Their reference to the 3rd day is a hint to apparent knowledge of Jesus’ prediction of His resurrection. To be sure, women were unable to find Jesus’ body and claimed that they had seen a vision, while others had tested the validity of their hypothesis. Still, for all the proof of an empty tomb no one had seen the risen Christ.
In certain respects it may be easy for us to relate to the situation described on this first Easter Sunday. Here we are, Easter is only a week old, and yet for many of us the warm fuzzy feelings of the Empty Tomb have already worn off. We proclaim “Christ is risen,” but the lack of impact it has made upon our daily lives may cause us to question, “Is He risen indeed?” Or we may have heard from others who caught a glimpse of the empty tomb and yet we have personally been unable to see the risen Christ. Like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the risen Jesus could be right in our midst and still we remain blinded to His presence. How can we open our eyes and see the risen Christ, the Jesus who is right beside us but remains hidden, incognito? The two disciples on their way to Emmaus provide a picture of how our eyes too can be opened.
One way that these two disciples opened their eyes to the incognito Jesus in their midst was through the reading and relearning of Scripture. You see, like the Jews of Jesus’ day, these two disciples thought that they knew how the story was going to go. They had preconceived notions of what Messiah would look like. However, God had something different, something far greater, prepared. They did not understand the design and works of God. They were slow of heart, unready to believe what the prophets had already spoken. And so Jesus explained to them what was said in the Scriptures concerning Himself. Of course, it would have been nice if Luke had written down what Jesus had said to those two disciples on the road to Emmaus. What we do know is that Jesus criticized their lack of faith, using the entirety of the Old Testament to prove that the Christ should suffer and then enter into His glory. The specific texts that make these points are not mentioned, but Luke clearly believes that the total witness of Moses and all the prophets is that the Messiah’s role includes a suffering that will lead to ultimate victory.
Like those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, we may think we know how the story should go. We might have preconceived ideas as to how God should operate. If we are to avoid such pitfalls, we need to relearn the story as well, letting Jesus interpret the Scriptures for us. This helps us to open our eyes to new ways of hearing the story.
Hearing the story in a new way allows us to open our eyes and see that Jesus has been forced to explain Himself, who He is, and what He is doing from the very beginning. This is attested to by the similarities between how Luke’s story ends and how it began. Today we have heard the story of two disciples on the road to Emmaus. But this is not the first time we have heard the tale of two people going away from Jerusalem and running back again. Remember the story in Luke 2 where Mary and Joseph lose sight of Jesus. They discover that He is not there with them. They, like the two on the road to Emmaus, have a moment of sorrow and grief, head back to Jerusalem, and then when they find him in the temple he says, “Didn’t you know I must be about my Father’s business?”
The closer we examine it, the more we see how the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is strikingly similar to Mary and Joseph’s voyage. It consists of two people on a journey who have lost the Jesus they have known. When they do encounter Jesus they are surprised as to how it takes place. He explains to them that this is how it had to be. For the two disciples on the road to Emmaus Jesus opened the Scriptures to them and elaborated upon how it was necessary that the Messiah should suffer those things. It was almost as if He was saying again, “Didn’t you know that I must be about my Father’s business?”
The second mode of unveiling for these disciples occurs in the breaking of the bread. Jesus is unveiled and manifested in the breaking of the bread. When they arrive at the home of the travelers, Jesus is invited to share in their hospitality. All of a sudden the stranger assumes the role of the host. Taking bread, Jesus blesses it and breaks it, and the disciples eyes were opened. The breaking of the bread is reminiscent of the feeding of the 5,000 from Luke 9:16 and the Last Supper from Luke 22:19.
Luke does not tell us these stories to remind us of something miraculous that happened long ago in a land far, far away; instead, Luke attempts to persuade his readers that just as Jesus was revealed to those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, this is a pattern in which we can now live and move and have our own being. The miracle of seeing the risen Christ can occur even today in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Of course this is not to suggest that Christ’s reality is to be found only there or that the fellowship of the church somehow creates the resurrection faith. It is simply observed that in this event of the church’s worship, in the breaking of the bread, the risen Christ is made known (v. 35). This is why we in the United Methodist Church practice open Communion because Mr. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, believed that taking Communion could be a converting ordinance. From reading stories like the one of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Wesley came to understand that in the breaking of the bread people who do not know the saving love of Jesus Christ can have their eyes opened to God’s love for them.
In fact, we see this pattern of the importance of the teaching of the Scriptures and the breaking of the bread throughout Scripture. In Acts 2, the early church devoted themselves to the apostles teachings and the breaking of the bread. Those two practices are intertwined. Even in this story, when the two disciples exclaim, “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the road?” they confess that their experience of the risen Christ through the breaking of the bread illuminates their whole past, including their reading of Scripture. The Scriptures that had once been so unclear are now opened through the risen Christ and the breaking of the bread. Likewise, the Scriptures attest to the importance of practices like Holy Communion, reminding us that Christ invited us to do this and remember Him.
The third way of opening our eyes to the Jesus incognito occurs when we recognize that is through the learning of the Scriptures and the breaking of the bread that we are made ready to help others open their eyes to the Jesus incognito in their lives. After Jesus opened the Scriptures to them and was revealed to them in the breaking of the bread, the two disciples ran back and said, “The Lord is risen indeed.” When the pilgrims returned to Jerusalem to witness they found out that the eleven had already heard the good news. The report that the Lord had appeared to Simon confirmed that their account of the Resurrection is true. Jesus then appeared in the Upper Room and commissioned them to go into all the world with the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins.
It is through hearing the word of God together and knowing the Lord in the breaking of the bread that we are energized for the mission out into the world. It is through means of grace like searching the Scriptures and the Lord’s Supper that we receive God’s grace and are empowered to share the good news of Easter hope. As we say in our Holy Communion liturgy, “Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we might be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by His blood.” Through practices like Scripture reading and partaking in Holy Communion, we are transformed into people who go out into the world as the body of Christ, telling others that Jesus, though incognito, is ready to be seen by them as well.
The story of the resurrected Jesus is not a simple one. His resurrected body defies logic. He walks through walls and eats fish…what is up with that? The Christ who is at first invisible, who then appears at places removed in distance, who appears again and vanishes, is hardly an ordinary person. Back then everyone seemed to be able to recognize the historical fact of the empty tomb, but for many their eyes remained closed to the Jesus incognito standing right before them.
Still, this incognito Jesus comes to us in surprising ways if we are merely willing to open our eyes like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Certain means of grace and Christian practices help us to remove those scales from our eyes. Opening our eyes to Him is possible through things like retelling the story of Scripture and breaking the bread. This is how we are to live on our journey as his disciples, to hear again the story of Scripture, to bring our little stories, our troubled worlds into the still moment of the Lord telling the story His way, and then to come with hearts burning to the Lord’s table. So, do you have such a story on your heart today? Has your vision been clouded, causing you to already lose sight of the Easter message from a week ago? If so, join the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Like them we can with Jesus read the Scriptures, break the bread, and be empowered for the mission of telling others about the risen Christ. Open your eyes…Jesus is here! Amen.
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