Today’s
passages are filled with buzz words that trigger many thoughts and feelings to
modern ears, just as they have for centuries. In Acts we hear that the first
converts were devoted to the disciple’s teaching and to fellowship. They shared
all things in common. There were signs and wonders done in their midst, and
many were added to their numbers every day.
Sometimes
this story is used by people who are fed up with the hypocrisy of the church. “We
are nothing like the first century church,” they say, and they are right. We do
not know what signs and wonders were performed in those days, but I do wonder
how long they were able to share things in common. It also makes me think of a
carnival atmosphere or a renaissance festival. It sounds like a party, and
maybe it was.
Unfortunately,
we’ll never know. What we do know is that they were gathered with an
expectation. Initially that expectation was that they would experience the
active presence of God, and as that experience took hold it became something
new. It became an expectation that God’s return and God’s judgement was going
to happen very soon.
So,
when Peter wrote these words about God’s judgement and about living in reverent
fear, he was telling the believers to stay strong in their faith, because God
was coming soon. He wasn’t threatening them with some kind of boogyman. He was
telling them that the sacrifice that had been made by Jesus had covered all
that had come and gone. The future, however, was up to them.
And
in the nearest future – for them and for us – the most immediate experience of
God is found in our love for one another. How else can we respond to God’s
action of purifying our souls but to love one another – deeply, from the heart?
Such
love is not safe. Loving one another is not the same as being nice to one
another, for love requires vulnerability. The villains in books and movies say
that it makes you weak, and it does. But the heroes always prove that it is
also the source of our greatest strength. Either way, love is the great
equalizer that makes all of our other social cues and levels of power and
influence irrelevant. It places us at the same table.
Earlier
this week I attended such an table at the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette. They
were hosting a breakfast for area clergy to support an upcoming event called 8
Days of Hope. At my table sat the Pastor of First Baptist, the Mayor of
Lafayette, and another pastor from a small town I had never heard of.
Throughout the room there were servant leaders with various titles, but all of
us were focused on one thing – the fact that there is still enough suffering in
our community to warrant the attention of national relief organizations.
The
speaker, a man named Steve Tabor, talked about his personal experience of going
down to help out in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. At the time he was a
successful businessman who wanted to give back. Yet after he saw what a natural
disaster can do to the lives of others, he could no longer return to his old
life. After that he started up a non-prophet based on partnering with local
organizations in communities that had experienced disasters in order to
mobilize volunteers from across the country for a short term commitment with a
huge impact.
Now,
in many ways, he’s doing the same thing that we are doing through Presbyterian
Disaster Assistance. He’s just doing it in a shorter time span. What’s
important about all of this is not the number of people that his organization
can mobilize or the number of homes that can be done (although 300 homes in 8
days is pretty impressive). What matters is that Steve had what some might call
an Emmaus road experience.
This
is a man who already knew and loved the teachings of Jesus. This is a man who
probably made good and bad decisions along the way, but who realized that he
needed to love others more genuinely and openly. Why? Because when he sat at
table with strangers helping strangers he realized that Christ was present.
That’s
what happened on the way to Emmaus. Two of the disciples were walking to Emmaus.
We don’t know why. Maybe they were trying to get away and start over. Their
beloved teacher and friend was killed most brutally and publicly. What’s worse
is that they thought he was the one that was going to call Jerusalem to
revolution! They thought he was the one who would restore the Jewish state and
kick out the Romans.
And
then some crazy story comes along that Jesus is alive? No wonder they got out
of town. No wonder they were not expecting to see Jesus and did not even
recognize him on the road. I know it still seems a little odd, but it was
evening. There is too much unknown to say what it was that kept them from
seeing him, but the most obvious answer is that they did not want to see him.
This
resurrected Jesus did not fit into their understanding or expectation of what
it meant to be God’s people, which is why it is so important that Jesus framed
it for them that way. By turning first to the scriptures, Jesus taught them
that they should have no other expectation but the suffering death and
resurrection of the Messiah.
Still
not convinced, they ask him to stay – even though he was ready to move on. I
think that’s a pretty big detail. Jesus was walking ahead. He had somewhere
else to be. If they had not invited him in, he would have moved on. I don’t
think that means that the work of God is totally dependent on our invitation,
but I do think it means that God is going to do what God is going to do with or
without me or you.
So,
they prevailed on the stranger, and when he broke the bread it triggered
something deep inside from their last meal together. “This is my body,” he had
said. “Do this in remembrance of me,” he had said.
And
even as they realized who he was he vanished. I have to admit that I don’t
really know what to do with the hocus pokus moments of scripture. I’ll just say
that they don’t do much for my understanding of God’s presence and God’s
providence. The way this particular passage speaks to me is not as proof that
God can do miraculous things. Instead it is in the way that our awareness of
God’s active presence is limited by our own expectations. And often times we
only get it when we look back on where we’ve been.
But
the really important thing is not to be able to prove that God was there.
Nobody needs an “I walked to Emmaus with Jesus” t-shirt. What we need is to
allow those times and places to transform and direct the path we will follow
the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that.
For
us, and for our congregation, it means that all those buzz words and triggers
out there in the world pull us to one common table – to one common expectation –
and that is the sure knowledge that God is with us, purifying our souls so that
we may love genuinely!
That
reminds me of one more thing that Steve Tybor said at the breakfast the other
morning to a room full of clergy. He said, “I’ve heard a lot of great sermons,
but the best ones were the ones that I’ve seen in the actions of people loving
other people.”
As we
move forward in faith, we are called to the one table that equalizes and
grounds our hopes and fears in one common reality – Christ is risen, the Lord
is with us, and we are called to live and love one another! Those are easy
words to say, and they get complicated when we start talking about school
systems and health care and the role of the government and poverty and justice
and racism and women’s health issues and gun violence and war and mental
health.
These
are all topics that can trigger any number of responses, and we need to be
engaged in them all thoughtfully and faithfully. Because if we don’t approach
them with love and faith and compassion for the stranger, we may find that we
have missed the chance to break bread with Jesus. My hope and my prayer is that
we don’t leave him at the door, that we recognize him at this table together,
and that we might all be transformed again and again by the love of God - the only love that never gives up or
gives out - but always triggers a response of love for the sake of loving.
I
pray that we may be transformed by this love today and tomorrow and all the
days to come, and all to the glory of God. Amen!
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