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Sermon of April 6, 2008 Dr. Jim Standiford “GOD'S SPRING CONSTRUCTION PROJECT: 2. ONE DUMB QUESTION”  1 Peter 1:17-23  Luke 24:13-35

Christ is risen. He is risen indeed! Thanks be to you, O God, for the new life that we have in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.   In O. Henry’s story, “The Ransom of Red Chief,” a couple of crooks hatch a plot to kidnap the son of a notable citizen of a small town in Alabama and demand a ransom of $2,000. They grab the boy, who calls himself Red Chief, but he turns out to be a lot more than they can handle. He is like the kid left behind by his parents in the movie, “Home Alone.” He throws a brick and hits one of his kidnappers in the eye, he tries to scalp him in his sleep, he knocks him out with a rock thrown from a sling, and he rides him like a horse down the mountain. The boy is having the time of his life. The kidnappers send a ransom demand to the boy’s house, though by now they’re only asking, $1,500, figuring that $2,000 is too much to ask for such a kid. The boy’s father sends back this note: Gentlemen: I received your letter today by post, in regard to the ransom you ask for the return of my son. I think you are a little high in your demands, and I hereby make you a counter-proposition, which I am inclined to believe you will accept. You bring Johnny home and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, and I agree to take him off your hands. You had better come at night, for the neighbors believe he is lost, and I couldn’t be responsible for what they would do to anybody they saw bringing him back. We have a citrus tree garden at home. It is not very big, just three trees surrounded by an expanse of gravel. Growing out of the rocks in a place where it receives no water and frequently gets stepped on when we are picking fruit, is a yellow daffodil, bright, beautiful, full of life. It is hearty, determined, and an inspiration. I frequently tell some of the other plantings I have to baby-along, “Why can’t you be like the daffodil? It is a vision of life.” In today’s passage from 1 Peter, the method God uses to rescue humanity from sin is described as a ransom, not with gold or silver but with the blood of Jesus. There are many theories of atonement and even several ransom theories, but at their foundation they all are a verbal picture of one way in which God shows love for us through the life and death of Jesus. Peter states that since God judges all people impartially and because of God’s love for us, we are to love one another deeply from the heart. On this first Sunday after Easter, we celebrate this new life by baptizing babies. We baptize because baptism is a dying to sin and being raised to new life. We baptize babies because they are new life given to our families and the church, and the love of God washes over them, and God is present with them throughout their lives. I invite you to see in these new lives a representation of the new life Easter gives all of us. During these spring Sundays we are considering what I am calling, “God’s Spring Construction Project,” what God is doing with the new life of Easter to build a new life in our individual lives and in the church. Last week’s lesson told of God coming to Thomas. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Thomas is consistently listed as one of the top twelve disciples. He is on everyone’s big list. In our story today God comes in the risen Christ to two no-bodies. Cleopas is listed in no other place and even here the second disciple is unnamed. Since they are no-bodies they can be representatives of all of us. We can learn much from their experience of the risen Christ. In the Creation account of Genesis 2:7 we hear, “God breathed into the human the breath of life and the human became a living soul.” Here, the breath of the Spirit with each breath of our bodies reminds us that God does not run out of Easters. Have you heard the story about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson? They went on a camping trip. As they lay down for the night, Holmes said, “Watson, look up into the sky and tell me what you see.” Watson replied, “I see millions of stars.” Holmes inquired, “And what does that tell you?” Watson replied, “Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Theologically, it tells me that God is great and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, it tells me that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you?” Holmes replied, “Somebody stole our tent!” For the two disciples walking to Emmaus, their dialogue was about who stole their savior. They had had a dream of a great Messiah who would make Passover true again by freeing them from bondage to the Romans, but their dream had died on the cross along with Jesus. We can learn several lessons from this story for our new lives. First, Emmaus represents for all of us the place to which we try to escape. It was not a resort town, but the place to which they resorted to get away, to clear their heads, or perhaps to hide. With Jesus’ death the disciples’ hopes of fulfillment had been reduced to frustration. Like these two disciples we all come up against situations in life and we just wish to escape. Some people go to sleep, others go to drink, others go to blog sites to rant, or they go to walk on the beach, or to hike in the hills. It has been suggested Emmaus was home for these two disciples. Even if that was the case, on that day it was a place of escape. The second lesson is that God meets us wherever we are. While the two disciples see only a stranger joining them on the road, the reader knows it is the risen Christ. As the writer of Psalm 139 has testified, so these two experience, there is no place we can go that God does not encounter us. God does not come to us seeking to punish us, or exact revenge, but to give even more love. Their baggage of doubt and frustration impedes the fervor of their faith and they do not recognize Jesus. Like these two, many of us today also yearn for the presence of God. However, we too are preoccupied, suspicious, too busy, or just going through the motions of life and consequently we do not recognize God’s presence in life. In today’s objective world of fact and truth, matter and money, mystery, meaning, risk and relationship seem silly to so many. In our passage the two disciples are eager to discuss and debate the idea of God, but unprepared to experience God. So they ask one whale of a dumb question, “Are you the only person in Jerusalem who doesn’t know what’s going on?” They are unaware they are asking the only person who truly does know what is going on. The nature and depth of their ignorance is evident as they talk further. This stranger takes his fellow travelers deep into their own tradition, into all that they already know, the law and the prophets. He helps them see with new eyes the possibilities of new life. This stranger helps them look from a different perspective. Too often we are like these two disciples we walk along eyes downcast trying to read the bits of gravel on the ground like they were tea leaves in a cup helping us know the future. In contrast, our Bishop speaks of taking off in an airplane as an image of gaining altitude to expand one’s perspective. The church as a community of faith also gives us altitude and a new higher perspective. It is one of the reasons John Wesley included “conferencing” in his list of the means of grace. The risen Christ conferences with the two disciples, helping them to see that perhaps everything that happened wasn’t a terrible mistake after all. Perhaps Jesus death had a larger meaning. Perhaps God wasn’t yet finished with Jesus’ followers but was just beginning with them. Sometimes when one dream dies it does so to allow a greater dream to be born. This stranger helps them look from a different perspective. Too often we are like these two disciples we walk along eyes downcast trying to read the bits of gravel on the ground like they were tea leaves in a cup helping us know the future. In contrast, our Bishop speaks of taking off in an airplane as an image of gaining altitude to expand one’s perspective.* The church as a community of faith also gives us altitude and a new higher perspective. It is one of the reasons John Wesley included “conferencing” in his list of the means of grace. The risen Christ conferences with the two disciples, helping them to see that perhaps everything that happened wasn’t a terrible mistake after all. Perhaps Jesus death had a larger meaning. Perhaps God wasn’t yet finished with Jesus’ followers but was just beginning with them. Sometimes when one dream dies it does so to allow a greater dream to be born. The third lesson is we experience Christ in life. The stranger explained the scriptures to the disciples. He spoke to their heads, to their intellect. Later the disciples reported their hearts burned while he taught. However, it was in the breaking of bread at table, in a most familiar experience of Jesus that they truly see who he is. Here they not only have heartburn but they have hearts filled with love. Luke is careful to point out that as the traveling threesome came near the village Jesus walked on ahead as if he were going on. He does not impose on them. God does not force us ever. However, the disciples strongly invite him to stay and eat with them. It is in the hospitality they have learned from him but now offer to a stranger, that they then encounter Christ. As they eat, he breaks the bread and they recognize him. We talk about the “Discipleship Pathway” around here. There are four elements to it, inviting, learning, connecting and serving. All of these are important for our full discipleship. In the story the learning element is Jesus’ interpreting the scriptures to the disciples. The invitation happens when the disciples invite Jesus to stay to share dinner. The connecting element takes place in the meal and in Jesus breaking the bread for it connects them with the clearest expression of his love for all of us, his sacrificial death on the cross. The fourth lesson for us from this passage, and the fourth element in the discipleship pathway, is the disciples serve others. They do this by going and telling others of the risen Christ. Luke tells us that same hour they returned to Jerusalem to tell their fellow disciples that they had experienced the risen Christ. In the words of 1 Peter, God’s “Spring Construction Project” of new life in us includes “loving one another deeply from the heart.” Telling others about Christ and what he has done for us is vital. Adam Hamilton began his presentation Wednesday night by giving his personal testimony. It was powerful and foundational for all the rest of his talk. However, it is also very important we let God’s new life live in our actions. Jesus taught these disciples but it was when he served them by breaking bread that they truly saw him. Others will see Jesus when we act his love to them, when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, assist our neighbors, listen to a child, visit a shut-in. In addition to telling others about Jesus and acting love to others, we serve when we stand for justice, speak out for compassion, witness against corruption, and deal with systemic violence in all forms. The dumbest question recorded in scripture is when Cleopas asks Jesus, “Don’t you know what has happened in Jerusalem?” The smartest question you can ever ask Jesus is, “What do you want me to do to serve you today?” Will you ask Jesus now? - - - - - [*]  Notes: The reference to Bishop Mary Ann Swenson’s idea of a higher perspective is from her “e360” of September 7, 2007.