Walking with Hope In Your Heart
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For April 23, 2023:
Walking with Hope In Your Heart
by Tom Willadsen
Luke 24:13-35, Acts 2:14a, 36-41, 1 Peter 1:17-23, Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of a storm
There's a golden sky
And a sweet silver song of a lark
Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Or your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on! Walk on! With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone
“You’ll Never Walk Alone” could be the theme for Cleopas and that other disciple as they trudged away from Jerusalem, dejected, broken-hearted. Their walk was the opposite of lonely. Jesus appeared to them after opening and warming their hearts. With open eyes and hearts on fire they raced back to Jerusalem. They had seen the Lord, there really was a golden sky and hope in their heart.
In the Bible
The passage from Acts 2 is the latter half of Peter’s sermon on Pentecost. In this reading Peter emphasizes the crucified Christ. While his audience is extremely diverse — just ask the poor lay reader who is assigned the Pentecost reading! — it should be regarded as Jewish. In this portion of the speech Peter makes it clear that his audience is responsible for the crucifixion. They are convicted, persuaded, and they repent! The conclusion is gratitude, but only after guilt, remorse, and repentance.
The contrast between “near and far” can be viewed two ways: Jews living in Jerusalem and those from the distant (and hard to pronounce) districts or Jews and Gentiles.
Psalm 116 is a song of thanksgiving at recovery from physical illness. The vows the psalmist prays were presumably made in the throes of illness and despair. The cup of salvation mentioned in v. 13 is a symbol of God’s deliverance, a reference to the cup Jesus shared with the disciples at the Last Supper. This cup was part of the sacrifices of thanksgiving offered at the temple in Jerusalem. It is not the cup of anguish Jesus mentions in his prayer in Gethsemane immediately before his arrest.
Peter is writing to a group of Gentile converts to Christianity. There’s an implicit arrogance in what he says to them, especially in the portion of his letter that precedes this week’s lection. Still, the theme is one of new birth and profound acceptance by the living God in Christ. The life they lived prior to knowing Christ was impermanent; their new life in Christ is eternal. And they are part of this eternal life that God intended for everyone. Peter makes implicit references to Isaiah 40:6-9 in contrasting the impermanence of grass and flowers to the eternal life they have found in Christ.
Today’s reading from Luke takes place on Easter evening, so it’s out of sequence from last week’s lesson from John’s gospel, which concluded on the Sunday evening a week after the resurrection. Some similar themes appear in today’s gospel passage, especially the slowness of the two to recognize Jesus while he was with them. This passage is a good reminder that the good news of the resurrection is a journey, not only a moment. It takes time to accept and apply its significance.
There is something of an allusion to Genesis 18, when three men appear to Abraham who announce that Sarah will have a child. Who are these guys? Where did they come from? What happened to them after they got up from the table of the feast that Abe whipped up for them? Mysterious strangers who reveal stunning news! The two zip back to Jerusalem after they join Jesus for communion and he disappears. By the time they get back the risen Christ has appeared to Simon Peter, so Luke has planted the seeds for the sequel.
In the News
Solvitur ambulando... “It is solved by walking.”
In the last decade many businesses have begun holding walking meetings, which are exactly what they sound like, no jargon here. Rather than sitting around a conference table or in a coffee shop people are getting up from their chairs and conducting business while walking. The connection between walking and talking is ancient — and known to every English speaker because they rhyme. Imagine how Fats Domino would have sounded had he sung, “I’m perambulatin’, yes indeed, and I’m speaking, about you and me…” Business professionals have found that in many cases walking and talking are a combination that makes people work more effectively.
Researchers have found that walking makes our brains more relaxed, causing them to release chemicals that improve executive function and creativity. There are also social benefits to walking meetings:
David Haimes, a senior director of product development at Oracle, has experienced this in his meetings with team members: “The fact that we are walking side-by-side means the conversation is more peer-to-peer than when I am in my office and they are across a desk from me, which reinforces the organizational hierarchy.”
Walking meetings are not ideal for every type of gathering. David Haimes recommends no more than three people in a walking meeting because it can be hard to hear when a larger group is on the move.
Perhaps Cleopas and the other disciple, joined by a mysterious stranger, are the archetype for walking meetings. They were side-by-side, looking ahead, together in their despair and confusion. When Jesus joined them, as they talked, the three grew close enough that they shared a meal together. They were transformed from fellow travelers to literal companions (from the Latin com “with” and panem “bread”) with Jesus. The surprising revelation of Jesus led Cleopas and the other one to retrace their steps and strengthen their circle of companionship with the other disciples. The circle grew as the reading from Acts explains. It all began with a walking meeting.
In the Sermon
There are numerous hymns about walking. In Lent, for example, you probably sang “Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley.” I grew up singing “We Are One in the Spirit,” which was an anthem of solidarity which could have been sung by Cleopas and his companion en route to Emmaus
We will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
We will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
And together we will spread the news
That God is in our land.
Turning to popular music, as I often do, we find many reasons and ways to walk. Patsy Cline went walking after midnight, Aerosmith, and later with Run-D.M.C., walked this way. Marc Cohn walked in Memphis, while Missing Persons lamented that nobody walks in L.A. Huey Lewis walked on a thin line. Annie Lenox walked on broken glass and Katrina and the Waves walked on sunshine.
It is no accident or coincidence that Jesus appeared to people who were walking. Many people have found the Latin phrase Solvitur ambulando — “It is solved by walking.” to be true. When writer’s block hits I get up and walk a few laps around my building. Usually I find a way around or through the thing that had me stymied.
Walking in nature puts us in the undeniable presence of the Creator.
Cleopas and the other one found Christ — or really, Christ found them — while they were moving, in transit. A reminder that faith is dynamic.
In the season of Easter we proclaim that Christ is risen! (Present tense.) We sing “Christ is alive!” (Present tense.) And to be alive is to move and change. Walking can put us in sync with our own bodies, other people, and remind us of our place in God’s living, dynamic world.
How would your congregation experience today’s sermon if you delivered it while walking? Walking laps in the sanctuary would certainly be different from pacing back and forth across the chancel. But what if you walked into the congregation and addressed worshipers the way Phil Donahue used to walk into his audience with his microphone? They might experience a moving, dynamic message.
During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic the BBC played Gerry and the Pacemakers’ 1963 version of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” each evening in support of first responders, medical personnel, and those in quarantine. It was a powerful message of solidarity and hope in a moment of global fear. Invite your members to walk with Cleopas and the other one. You’re having a meeting together, walking side-by-side. You just spent Lent journeying with Christ to the cross, now join him on the other side of the empty tomb. Walk on through the wind and rain with hope in your heart!
SECOND THOUGHTS
So, You Don’t Wanna do Evangelism
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
A Screaming Street Corner Preacher
Both of our kids went to the Ohio State University. Our son met his wife met in the marching band. He went on to become a criminologist, she a registered nurse. Our daughter graduated with a self-designed bachelor’s degree in comparative religion before moving on to seminary.
Not surprisingly, when our kids were at OSU, we went to a lot of football games. And at every game we would go to the band’s “Skull Session” concert before the kickoff and then make our way with them and roughly 110,000 other football fans, to the old Horseshoe stadium.
Every time we did that, we’d pass this guy standing on a wooden crate, screaming into a microphone which was connected to a megaphone that was sitting at his feet and cranked up so loud that it distorted his words beyond recognition. But that didn’t matter because we knew, in a general sense, what he was saying. Behind him, every Saturday, was another person holding a big sign on a stick. The sign showed big orange flames and said, “Where will you go when you die? Hell is real!” or words to that effect. They changed from week to week but the message was always the same.
I had mixed feelings about that guy as we walked past him, week after week.
On one hand, I thought, “Bless his heart. He means well. He really does believe that we are all going to Hell, all 110,000 of us, if we don’t come around to seeing the world and God and Jesus as he sees them. And he really, genuinely does want to save us.”
But, on the other hand, I thought, “For at least half of the 110,000 of these people going to see a football game, this guy and those like him — the money-grubbing tele-evangelists, the snake handlers, the screaming, street corner loonies, the Ten Commandment fetishists, the cult leaders, and the judgmental fundamentalists — are the only Christians they ever see and they think we’re all like that.”
I don’t want them to think that we’re all like that. I don’t want them to have the impression that the guy screaming at all those football fans speaks for all Christendom.
But what’s the answer? Do we just turn away and leave evangelism to those whose use of it will, eventually, spell the death of the Christian church? Or do we reclaim it for Progressive Christianity? And how can we possible do that?
Back to Basics
There is a story about Napoleon — I don’t remember where I heard it — that during one of his campaigns he sent a message, asking to meet with Francis II, Emperor of Austria. Francis sent a message back, that he would never enter the same room that was occupied by the thief who stole the crown of France.
Napoleon’s reply: “Tell His Majesty, the Emperor that I did not steal the crown. I found it lying in the gutter and I picked it up with my sword.”
Now I’m not about to suggests that we all sharpen our swords but I am suggesting that evangelism, the highest and most sacred endeavor to which Jesus called us in his Great Commission, has been left in the gutter by the mainline denominations. Having seen it abused, misused, mangled, and exploited for profit, and afraid that we will be found guilty by association, we have turned our backs and walked away.
That, of course, is nonsense. It is time for us to put our fears aside and reach into that gutter, pluck evangelism from the sordid dross in which we have left it, and polish it for a new day.
And to prepare for that new day, we must return to the old days. Indeed, the very day that is depicted in this week’s lection from Acts (2:14a, 22-32), where we find Peter taking the Great Commission seriously.
The text is the second half of the one usually read on Pentecost. The disciples and the early Christians have come together in Jerusalem for the Jewish Feast of Pentecost (Shavuot) which was a thanksgiving celebration for the fruit of the wheat harvest and a memorial to the law Moses received on Mount Sinai. It was called Pentecost (fifty) or the Feast of Weeks, because it was celebrated fifty days (seven weeks) after the first day of Passover.
In the story as we have it, the disciples experience the Holy Spirit of God descending upon them and they are empowered to speak in the different languages of all who have gathered in the area. Some of the listeners are awed but others scoff and Peter responds by telling the primarily Jewish audience that what they are experiencing is no less than the fulfillment of the prophecy made by Joel (2:28-32).
Then, he launches into a sermon about Jesus who, he tells them, was crucified as the result of a conspiracy by the temple officials, operating on behalf of the Jewish people, and the Roman government but was raised from the dead fulfilling the prophecy of David in Psalm 101.
The audience is convicted by Peter’s eloquence and his message and the people ask what they should do. Peter responds that they must “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven.” If they do this, he tells them, they will receive the Holy Spirit just as they have seen happen to the Christians before them, a gift that is available not just to them but to their families and all Jews, everywhere.”
The story says that this wasn’t all that he said, there was much more and it was all so effective that about 3,000 people were all baptized that day and began to follow The Way, which was what they called Christianity before they called it Christianity.
Quite a day, huh? Would that there could be more like them. Unfortunately, those kinds of days are rare. They are outliers in the broad story of the growth of Christianity in its earliest days and we would be making a huge mistake if we just stood around waiting for our churches to grow out of events like that one regardless of how great our preacher is.
And that’s not just me talking; it’s the conclusion of Dr. Rodney Stark, sociologist, historian, and one of the world’s leading authorities on the growth of early Christianity in its first 300 years.
Meet Professor Stark
In his magnum opus The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries (New York: Harper One, 1996) professor Stark seeks to put an end to some of the common, persistent myths about Christianity’s rapid growth.
He does not deny that the strong faith and deep belief of the original Christians was a factor in the quick expansion of Christianity up to the reign of Constantine. He does, however, point out that there were other things at work as well, things that can be measured by the social sciences and emulated by Christians, today.
For instance, after studying the modern day grown of certain religious groups he has observed that networks of family and friends play a huge role in conversion. Someone is more likely to convert to a religion when their family and close friends have done so.
If all your family and friends are fans of the Detroit Lions, the chances are good that you will be, too. And, if all of your friends and family are committed Christians, there’s a better than even chance that you will become a Christian as well.
He also notes that research shows how new religious movements mainly draw their converts from religious people who have become inactive in their former religion. Perhaps they have become fed up with infighting and arguing in their church or they have had their feelings hurt or they have become burned out or disillusioned by something they have seen or experienced.
A member of my own family who, for years, was active in a “big box” evangelical church volunteered to become part of the finance committee of the church. She resigned from the position after only a few months. She told me that “It was either leave that committee or leave the church. I learned more than I wanted to know about what goes on in the lives of Christians and the back offices of the church.”
Another common myth is that the early church spread most rapidly through the ranks of the poor and marginalized people of the Roman Empire but, while some early converts to Christianity might have been poor, modern research has shown that those most likely to move from one religious affiliation to another are people from the middle and privileged classes. Though were not exactly sure why this is the case, it seems likely that middle and upper-class people are able to afford the kind of education and leisure time that encourages and allows them the time to think about and question the assumptions of popular religion.
That is why, says Stark, that contrary to popular belief, vast numbers of early Christian converts came from upper class Jews whose education had led them to become critically aware of the greed, power, avarice, and corruption that was infecting the temple hierarchy at that time.
Some other reasons which modern research believes may have been responsible for Christianity’s early growth:
Pagans witnessed how Christians responded to the plagues and disasters in Rome’s rapidly rising urban populations. Christians responded to earthquakes and epidemics with messages of hope and care for each other and all who suffered. It was said that while everyone else was running away from the trouble, the Christians ran into it.
Also, the massive number of deaths that resulted in these tragedies disrupted the normal social bonds that people had with their neighbors and families. Pagans left alone and grieving would find attractive the social bonds which drew Christians together and helped them survive even when they were not related to each other.
To put it simply, says Stark, life in the urban centers of the Roman Empire was often a life of sickness, lawlessness, misery, despair, and fear. Yet, Christians were able to imagine and even promise not just a better world in the future but solutions to everyday problems.
Christianity was blessed with many Godly, religious women who married pagan men, whom they often converted to Christianity and then raised their children to be Christians.
Finally, Stark points out that, while Christians were persecuted only sporadically in different areas around the empire, and few were put to death, their willingness to suffer actually made Christianity more attractive to non-believers. After a pogrom that was meant to discourage people from converting, the early church actually grew!
So, What Do We Do?
What can we learn from Professor Stark and the early church that can make our evangelistic mission more palatable to its practitioners as well as more effective and successful? Six things come to mind:
Amen.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Katy Stenta:
Luke 24:13-35
Walking Toward Healing
“Walk as much as you can.” If you have ever done any kind of healing, it has probably been recommended to you walk. I recently went through surgery, and was told to walk to rebuild my digestive system. As Jesus walked to Emmaus, I cannot help but remember that Jesus was not just crucified, but also brutally speared in the side. And I think of Easter, resurrection and the healing and building of community is probably a long term task for Jesus. One that required walking. I think that he walked with the disciples not just to talk to them, but to build the community, to do the longer term Easter, the slow unfurling of Easter that happens — the acknowledgement that Easter and resurrection does not happen in a day. And perhaps to acknowledge that Jesus, in his full humanity, also needed the walk to Emmaus, and that walk back home. He was getting everything working together again — both inside and out.
* * *
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Baptism is the Beginning
Jesus is Lord seems to be enough to be baptized here. There seems to be so little in requirements for baptism here that 3,000 people can be baptized. Is this not a problem for Peter? What kind of church is he building here? It sounds like he is just letting everyone be baptized? Aren’t people going to fight? About the church? About the rules? About the color of the carpet? This congregation sounds messy. What comes next here? Probably whoever there is the most dominant group is going to be in charge. Is this just a fad religion? What does this faith mean if everyone is so easily baptized? Baptism seems to be just the beginning here, the baby steps. It reminds me when we name a baby even though we don't really know much about that baby. When we have a baby we go around proclaiming the baby’s weight and length, as if that will matter later in life. Facts that do not ultimately matter later. Baptism and where a person’s faith is at the beginning is just the start of a person. Their faith will change and grow, just as a baby’s weight and length will change. Even gender and names might change later with a person. It is important to remember that baptism is just the beginning. God works in mysterious ways and allows people to grow into the full person God is loving them into.
* * *
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
God has inclined God’s ear to me. The God who has bent down to hear me better makes me think of how a parent gets down on one knee to hear children better. God, who transformed Godself into human form in order to hear our words better. This means the words of I am the child of your “servant girl” or the child of “your slave” and you have “freed me.” The freedom that God gives us, even as God takes the form of a slave, is amazing. There is new evidence that Mary might have been a slave. How beautiful is it that God continues to translate into forms to understand us and make Godself understandable to us.
* * * * * *
From team member Mary Austin:
Luke 24:13-35
Familiar Roads
The road to Emmaus, so close to Jerusalem, must have been familiar to Jesus and his friends. Seven miles, or a couple of hours, was an easy trip for people accustomed to walking. On this evening, though, the road is completely different.
After years of taking the same walk every day, Pico Iyer says that walking is illuminating. “For years I used to take this walk as a break after five hours at my desk, a small reward, perhaps, for forcing myself to stay sitting through sunshine and mist. But then I began to notice something: walking shook things loose in me. The very act of ambulation sent my thoughts down different tracks. Movement in some ways—because I had no destination and didn’t have to notice where I was going—allowed my mind to run off the leash like a dog on a beach. If I was stuck at my desk, walking could unstick me.”
In Japan, where he lives, walking is part of the culture. In “some temples in Kyoto, twenty miles away, greet me at the entrance with Japanese characters on the ground that mean, “Look beneath your feet.” Everything you need is here, in other words, if only you’re wide-awake enough to see it.”
He adds, “walking allows you to inhabit your imagination entirely.” Perhaps walking along the road shook something loose in the travelers, and allowed them to see Jesus in a new way.
* * *
Luke 24:13-35
Surprise!
It may be the biggest surprise in history when the clueless traveler along the Emmaus road turns out to be the risen Christ, now breaking bread at the table. Social scientists say we all need regular doses of surprise. “Why is surprise important? It turns out that surprise works on the dopamine system in our brains, helping us to focus our attention and inspiring us to look at our situation in new ways.” That’s certainly true for the travelers, as they hurry back to Jerusalem with the news that the world is turned upside down.
Our surprise response has four stages (per the book Surprise: Embrace the Unpredictable and Engineer the Unexpected)
* * *
Luke 24:13-35
Not Taking to the Road
The travelers to Emmaus make a longer journey than they imagine, as they hurry back to Jerusalem after meeting Jesus. For most Americans, the trend is going the other way. Before the pandemic, the average commute had climbed to the highest ever, adding an average of 55 minutes to the work day. This added 9.6 work days to the year, for the average commuter. Post-pandemic, 8 in 10 workers have hybrid or remote work, adding more free time to their lives, and effectively giving everyone a raise.
* * *
1 Peter 1:17-23
Love vs. Power
Reflecting on the grace of Jesus Christ, the epistle writer urges, “Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart.”
Patty DeLlosa helps us live that out in our everyday lives, musing “I used to think the opposite of love was hate. But life experience tells me that's not true. Hate is so tinged with other emotions, including love! No. In my understanding the opposite of love is power. Love accepts and embraces. Power refuses and crushes opposition. Love is kind and knows how to forgive. Power is competitive and takes others into account only when it stands in the Winner's Circle.”
Loving deeply from the heart, as the epistle recommends, is a mutual love that uses power to serve.
* * * * * *
From team member Elena Delhagan:
C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia is perhaps my favorite fantasy series of all time. The book I return to again and again is the fourth in the series, titled A Horse and His Boy. It doesn’t feature the Pevensie children as main characters but, instead, chronicles the journeys of two children and two talking horses who escape from Calormen and travel north into Narnia.
My absolute favorite scene comes when the boy Shasta is traveling alone, feeling sorry for himself because of all the misfortunes he has had. As he walks, Aslan the lion (Lewis’ allegorical figure for Christ) shows up and walks with Shasta. It is dark, and Shasta cannot see his companion, but the time comes when he can bear it no longer and begins to speak.
“Who are you?” he said, barely above a whisper.
“One who has waited long for you to speak,” said the Thing. Its voice was not loud, but very large and deep.
“Are you – are you a giant?” asked Shasta.
“You might call me a giant,” said the Large Voice. “But I am not like the creatures you call giants.”
“I can’t see you at all,” said Shasta, after staring very hard. Then (for an even more terrible idea had come into his head) he said, almost in a scream, “You’re not — not something dead, are you? Oh please – please do go away. What harm have I ever done you? Oh, I am the unluckiest person in the whole world.”
Once more he felt the warm breath of the Thing on his hand and face. “There,” it said, “that is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows.”
As I read about Cleopas and his companion meeting the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus, I keep thinking about Shasta. Like the men walking to Emmaus, Shasta was consumed by his sadness, and it is in the midst of that grief that the risen Lord shows up.
Later, Shasta asks the lion again to reveal itself to him.
“Who are you?” asked Shasta.
“Myself,” said the Voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook: and again “Myself,” loud and clear and gay: and then the third time “Myself,” whispered so softly you could hardly hear it, and yet it seemed to come from all around you as if the leaves rustled with it.
Shasta was no longer afraid that the Voice belonged to something that would eat him, nor that it was the voice of a ghost. But a new and different sort of trembling came over him. Yet he felt glad too. …
He turned and saw, pacing beside him, taller than a horse, a Lion. The horse did not seem to be afraid of it or else could not see it. It was from the lion that the light came. No one ever saw anything more terrible or more beautiful.
I cannot help but see the parallels between Shasta’s encounter with the lion Aslan and the men’s meeting with Jesus, culminating in them recognizing him as they ate together and Christ broke the bread. Shasta’s walk through the night rings similar to the men’s long walk to Emmaus — a trek that would be approximately seven miles long on a dusty road in the desert. More than that, as biblical scholar Robert Hoch reminds us, “There are some walks that are longer than others — not because of the miles or even because of the landscape, but because of the burdens.” Both Shasta and the men were lost in their grief, in their disappointment, in the shambles that come when every hope you have is dashed. Finally, the One who is terrible and beautiful appears to both, first as a stranger and then revealed to be friend.
As we live out this Easter season, I believe resurrection still comes to us in unexpected ways, walking with us, talking with us, but most of all, reminding us that we never need to walk alone.
* * *
The word for “repent” in Greek is metanoia. It is a combination of the preposition meta, meaning “with” or “after,” and the verb νοέω, which denotes “thinking” or “understanding.” Thus, when Peter addresses the crowd in the Acts 2, the first thing he replies when they ask him what they ought to do is to repent. Columbia Theological Seminary New Testament Professor J. Mitzi Smith notes that it “means to have an afterthought or to think critically about something or someone and come to a reasonable decision that involves changing one’s perception or thinking.”
Here, the gathered crowd is being asked to repent of their wrong understanding of Jesus and come to a new belief in him as Lord and Messiah. Who have we formed opinions about that may be untrue or unkind? What wrong beliefs are we challenged to change our minds about?
* * *
This psalm is often read in Jewish community as a song of thanksgiving. After all, the psalmist reflects in it how he was saved from suffering and even death! It is a reminder that salvation is something that is done for us; it is not something we achieve on our own.
Growing up in Canada, my baseball team was always the Toronto Blue Jays. No matter how dismally they played, I remained a fan. Recently, I read a news blurb online about how John Schneider, the team’s current manager, was out to lunch with his wife and saw a woman at a table nearby choking. Schneider performed the Heimlich on the woman and saved her life. I am certain that woman neither expected to choke on her lunch when she woke up that day, nor that it would be a major league baseball team’s manager who saved her.
Isn’t that how salvation goes, though? Isn’t it always so... unexpected?
Let us humble ourselves to acknowledge all the ways we need saving, and let us receive it with thanksgiving – even if it comes in unexpected ways.
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship
One: Let us call on God who has inclined the ear to us.
All: What shall we return to God for all the bounty given to us?
One: Let us lift up the cup of salvation as we call on the name of our God.
All: We will pay our vows to God in the presence of God’s people.
One: We are the servants of our God, the children of God.
All: With thanksgiving we lift up our voices to our God.
OR
One: The Risen Christ is with us this day!
All: We welcome the Christ into our midst.
One: We will find the Christ in the faces of friends and strangers.
All: We will honor the Christ in whatever guise he comes.
One: Christ will be honored as we esteem others with love.
All: We will revere Christ in all whom we meet.
Hymns and Songs
O Sons and Daughters, Let Us Sing
UMH: 317
PH: 116/117
GTG: 235/255
NCH: 244
CH: 220
ELW: 386/387
W&P: 313
Hail, Thou Once Despised Jesus
UMH: 325
H82: 495
ELW: 535
AMEC: 175
He Lives
UMH: 310
AAHH: 275
NNBH: 119
CH: 226
W&P: 302
Surely the Presence of the Lord
UMH: 328
NNBH: 129
CH: 263
W&P: 131
Renew: 167
Christ for the World We Sing
UMH: 568
H82: 537
W&P: 561
AMEC: 565
Renew: 299
O Zion, Haste
UMH: 573
H82: 539
NNBH: 422
CH: 482
LBW: 397
ELW: 668
AMEC: 566:
This Little Light of Mine
UMH: 585
AAHH: 549
NNBH: 511
NCH: 524/525
ELW: 677
STLT 118
Here, O Lord, Your Servants Gather
UMH: 552
PH: 465
GTG: 311
CH: 278
ELW: 530
: W&P: 597
In Christ There is NO East or West
UMH: 548
H82: 529
PH: 439/440
GTG: 317/318
AAHH: 398/399
NNBH: 299
NCH: 394/395
CH: 687
LBW: 259
ELW: 650
W&P: 600/603
AMEC: 557
Blest Be the Tie That Binds
UMH: 557
PH: 438
GTG: 306
AAHH: 341
NNBH: 298
NCH: 393
CH: 433
LBW: 370
ELW: 656
W&P: 393
AMEC: 522
Let Us Break Bread Together
UMH: 618
H82: 325
PH: 513
GTG: 525
AAHH: 686
NNBH: 358
NCH: 330
CH: 425
LBW: 212
ELW: 471
W&P: 699
AMEC: 530
STLT 406
Unity
CCB: 59
They’ll Know We are Christians by Our Love
CCB: 78
GTG: 300
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who comes to dwell among your creatures:
Grant us the wisdom to find in one another your Christ
and the desire to proclaim the Good News to all your people;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you come to dwell among us. Help us to find your Christ in the midst of your people so that we may proclaim the Good News to all. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to open our hearts to others.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have made us from one earth and from one Spirit. You have called us to love one another, enemy and friend alike. Yet we have placed divisions between us that have obscured the presence of your Christ from our eyes. We have caused conflicts to arise among us that have turned others away from finding Christ. We have grieved your Spirit that desires to unite all people in your love and grace. Forgive us and call us back to you and into unity with all your children. Amen.
One: God’s love is poured out upon all the earth and upon all creatures. Receive this loving grace and share it with all God’s people.
Prayers of the People
Praised and glorious are you, O God of resurrection power. You come among us in the presence of the Risen Christ to draw us together in your love. You come to draw all people to yourself through us.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have made us from one earth and from one Spirit. You have called us to love one another, enemy and friend alike. Yet we have placed divisions between us that have obscured the presence of your Christ from our eyes. We have caused conflicts to arise among us that have turned others away from finding Christ. We have grieved your Spirit that desires to unite all people in your love and grace. Forgive us and call us back to you and into unity with all your children.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you make your presence know to us. We thank you for being with us in the beauty of the natural world and in the companionship of others. We thank you for the support and care you give us through our family, friends, and congregations. We thank you for the risen Christ who dwells with, among, and within us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need and, especially, for those who have been pushed aside from the love you desire to share with them. We pray for those who are told they are not loved and are not loveable. We pray for the healing of divisions among your children. We pray for those who work for peace and reconciliation.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Learning Things By Heart
by Chris Keating
Luke 24:13-35
A quick glance over the texts for this Sunday reveals several references to hearts. That includes the crowd’s response to Peter’s sermon in Acts 2:37 (“they were cut to the heart”), 1 Peter’s invitation to “love one another deeply from the heart,” (1 Peter 1:22), and the disciple’s recognition that Jesus’ appearance had caused their hearts to burn within them in Luke 24:32.
Today’s children’s message offers an invitation for the children to see how our hearts can guide us into a loving relationship with God. Before we get there, here’s a bit of background.
Scripture attaches specific meanings to various parts and organs of the body. Where Western culture associates the heart with feelings and emotions (New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 2, p. 764), Near Eastern culture viewed the heart as having primary importance in thinking, reasoning, and planning. The heart is viewed as having primary importance in controlling human conduct (see Deuteronomy 6:4). This gets carried over into the New Testament where the heart is often seen as guiding our response and intentions toward God.
Sometimes, we have to learn with both our heads and our hearts, just like sometimes we learn with our hands or our eyes. When something feels right to us, we might say, “In my heart I feel that such and such is true.” In the same way, the story of the disciples journeying to Emmaus is a story that involves learning with our wholeselves — heads and hearts. In the story, the disciples encounter Jesus as they walk toward Emmaus but do not know who he is until they share in breaking of the bread. This is what he meant when he had invited the disciples to share the Lord’s Supper “in remembrance of me.” Let the story help identify the connections between “head learning” and “heart learning.”
Hold up a poster or handout with pictures/drawings of a heart and of a brain.
Ask the children to name some things that might be examples of “head learning.” (Learning to read, math, learning safety rules, etc.) Identifying “heart learning” ideas might be harder, but these could include discovering new favorite foods, meeting new special friends, visiting new places, or having experiences that are so special we may treasure them in our heart forever.
As the disciples walked away from Jerusalem, they were sad and confused because they had seen Jesus die. It was terrible. They were scared and sad. What’s more, they had heard that some women had gone to Jesus’ tomb and could not find him. They were sad because they had hoped that Jesus would be God’s Messiah. These were the facts — and they did not know how to look with their hearts, just their heads.
But as they walked, a new friend walked with them. He listened to them, and asked questions. He told them stories from scripture that talked about the Messiah. Israel’s prophets had said that the Messiah would need to suffer before entering glory. They were amazed at the things he was saying to them, and by the time they got to Emmaus, they invited him to join them for dinner.
When they sat down, the new friend took bread and said a prayer. As soon as he handed them the bread, they realized that this was not a stranger! This was Jesus. Their “heads” told them that it couldn’t be, but their hearts helped them discover the risen Lord.
Expanding on this theme can help children begin to identify connections between learning what it means to trust God even when our “head learning” gives us a different message. Faith teaches us to use our head and our hearts. The disciples realized that as they were listening to Jesus their hearts were burning inside of them!
Invite the children to form hearts with their hands and fingers, and guide them to place them at the center of their chests. Close with a special prayer thanking God for helping us to learn with our whole bodies — heart and head.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, April 23, 2023 issue.
Copyright 2023 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
- Walking with Hope In Your Heart by Tom Willadsen based on Luke 24:13-35, Acts 2:14a, 36-41, 1 Peter 1:17-23, Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19.
- Second Thoughts: So, You Don’t Wanna do Evangelism by Dean Feldmeyer. Most modern, mainline church members would rather stick needles in their eyes than take on anything with the label “evangelism.” That’s because evangelism has gotten a bad rap, largely due to money grubbing TV evangelists and street corner crackpots. But there’s more to Christian evangelism than that. Way more.
- Sermon illustrations by Katy Stenta, Mary Austin, Elena Delhagen.
- Worship resources by George Reed.
- Children’s Sermon: Learning Things By Heart by Chris Keating based on Luke 24:13-35.
Walking with Hope In Your Heartby Tom Willadsen
Luke 24:13-35, Acts 2:14a, 36-41, 1 Peter 1:17-23, Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of a storm
There's a golden sky
And a sweet silver song of a lark
Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Or your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on! Walk on! With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone
“You’ll Never Walk Alone” could be the theme for Cleopas and that other disciple as they trudged away from Jerusalem, dejected, broken-hearted. Their walk was the opposite of lonely. Jesus appeared to them after opening and warming their hearts. With open eyes and hearts on fire they raced back to Jerusalem. They had seen the Lord, there really was a golden sky and hope in their heart.
In the Bible
The passage from Acts 2 is the latter half of Peter’s sermon on Pentecost. In this reading Peter emphasizes the crucified Christ. While his audience is extremely diverse — just ask the poor lay reader who is assigned the Pentecost reading! — it should be regarded as Jewish. In this portion of the speech Peter makes it clear that his audience is responsible for the crucifixion. They are convicted, persuaded, and they repent! The conclusion is gratitude, but only after guilt, remorse, and repentance.
The contrast between “near and far” can be viewed two ways: Jews living in Jerusalem and those from the distant (and hard to pronounce) districts or Jews and Gentiles.
Psalm 116 is a song of thanksgiving at recovery from physical illness. The vows the psalmist prays were presumably made in the throes of illness and despair. The cup of salvation mentioned in v. 13 is a symbol of God’s deliverance, a reference to the cup Jesus shared with the disciples at the Last Supper. This cup was part of the sacrifices of thanksgiving offered at the temple in Jerusalem. It is not the cup of anguish Jesus mentions in his prayer in Gethsemane immediately before his arrest.
Peter is writing to a group of Gentile converts to Christianity. There’s an implicit arrogance in what he says to them, especially in the portion of his letter that precedes this week’s lection. Still, the theme is one of new birth and profound acceptance by the living God in Christ. The life they lived prior to knowing Christ was impermanent; their new life in Christ is eternal. And they are part of this eternal life that God intended for everyone. Peter makes implicit references to Isaiah 40:6-9 in contrasting the impermanence of grass and flowers to the eternal life they have found in Christ.
Today’s reading from Luke takes place on Easter evening, so it’s out of sequence from last week’s lesson from John’s gospel, which concluded on the Sunday evening a week after the resurrection. Some similar themes appear in today’s gospel passage, especially the slowness of the two to recognize Jesus while he was with them. This passage is a good reminder that the good news of the resurrection is a journey, not only a moment. It takes time to accept and apply its significance.
There is something of an allusion to Genesis 18, when three men appear to Abraham who announce that Sarah will have a child. Who are these guys? Where did they come from? What happened to them after they got up from the table of the feast that Abe whipped up for them? Mysterious strangers who reveal stunning news! The two zip back to Jerusalem after they join Jesus for communion and he disappears. By the time they get back the risen Christ has appeared to Simon Peter, so Luke has planted the seeds for the sequel.
In the News
Solvitur ambulando... “It is solved by walking.”
In the last decade many businesses have begun holding walking meetings, which are exactly what they sound like, no jargon here. Rather than sitting around a conference table or in a coffee shop people are getting up from their chairs and conducting business while walking. The connection between walking and talking is ancient — and known to every English speaker because they rhyme. Imagine how Fats Domino would have sounded had he sung, “I’m perambulatin’, yes indeed, and I’m speaking, about you and me…” Business professionals have found that in many cases walking and talking are a combination that makes people work more effectively.
Researchers have found that walking makes our brains more relaxed, causing them to release chemicals that improve executive function and creativity. There are also social benefits to walking meetings:
David Haimes, a senior director of product development at Oracle, has experienced this in his meetings with team members: “The fact that we are walking side-by-side means the conversation is more peer-to-peer than when I am in my office and they are across a desk from me, which reinforces the organizational hierarchy.”
Walking meetings are not ideal for every type of gathering. David Haimes recommends no more than three people in a walking meeting because it can be hard to hear when a larger group is on the move.
Perhaps Cleopas and the other disciple, joined by a mysterious stranger, are the archetype for walking meetings. They were side-by-side, looking ahead, together in their despair and confusion. When Jesus joined them, as they talked, the three grew close enough that they shared a meal together. They were transformed from fellow travelers to literal companions (from the Latin com “with” and panem “bread”) with Jesus. The surprising revelation of Jesus led Cleopas and the other one to retrace their steps and strengthen their circle of companionship with the other disciples. The circle grew as the reading from Acts explains. It all began with a walking meeting.
In the Sermon
There are numerous hymns about walking. In Lent, for example, you probably sang “Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley.” I grew up singing “We Are One in the Spirit,” which was an anthem of solidarity which could have been sung by Cleopas and his companion en route to Emmaus
We will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
We will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
And together we will spread the news
That God is in our land.
Turning to popular music, as I often do, we find many reasons and ways to walk. Patsy Cline went walking after midnight, Aerosmith, and later with Run-D.M.C., walked this way. Marc Cohn walked in Memphis, while Missing Persons lamented that nobody walks in L.A. Huey Lewis walked on a thin line. Annie Lenox walked on broken glass and Katrina and the Waves walked on sunshine.
It is no accident or coincidence that Jesus appeared to people who were walking. Many people have found the Latin phrase Solvitur ambulando — “It is solved by walking.” to be true. When writer’s block hits I get up and walk a few laps around my building. Usually I find a way around or through the thing that had me stymied.
Walking in nature puts us in the undeniable presence of the Creator.
Cleopas and the other one found Christ — or really, Christ found them — while they were moving, in transit. A reminder that faith is dynamic.
In the season of Easter we proclaim that Christ is risen! (Present tense.) We sing “Christ is alive!” (Present tense.) And to be alive is to move and change. Walking can put us in sync with our own bodies, other people, and remind us of our place in God’s living, dynamic world.
How would your congregation experience today’s sermon if you delivered it while walking? Walking laps in the sanctuary would certainly be different from pacing back and forth across the chancel. But what if you walked into the congregation and addressed worshipers the way Phil Donahue used to walk into his audience with his microphone? They might experience a moving, dynamic message.
During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic the BBC played Gerry and the Pacemakers’ 1963 version of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” each evening in support of first responders, medical personnel, and those in quarantine. It was a powerful message of solidarity and hope in a moment of global fear. Invite your members to walk with Cleopas and the other one. You’re having a meeting together, walking side-by-side. You just spent Lent journeying with Christ to the cross, now join him on the other side of the empty tomb. Walk on through the wind and rain with hope in your heart!
SECOND THOUGHTSSo, You Don’t Wanna do Evangelism
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
A Screaming Street Corner Preacher
Both of our kids went to the Ohio State University. Our son met his wife met in the marching band. He went on to become a criminologist, she a registered nurse. Our daughter graduated with a self-designed bachelor’s degree in comparative religion before moving on to seminary.
Not surprisingly, when our kids were at OSU, we went to a lot of football games. And at every game we would go to the band’s “Skull Session” concert before the kickoff and then make our way with them and roughly 110,000 other football fans, to the old Horseshoe stadium.
Every time we did that, we’d pass this guy standing on a wooden crate, screaming into a microphone which was connected to a megaphone that was sitting at his feet and cranked up so loud that it distorted his words beyond recognition. But that didn’t matter because we knew, in a general sense, what he was saying. Behind him, every Saturday, was another person holding a big sign on a stick. The sign showed big orange flames and said, “Where will you go when you die? Hell is real!” or words to that effect. They changed from week to week but the message was always the same.
I had mixed feelings about that guy as we walked past him, week after week.
On one hand, I thought, “Bless his heart. He means well. He really does believe that we are all going to Hell, all 110,000 of us, if we don’t come around to seeing the world and God and Jesus as he sees them. And he really, genuinely does want to save us.”
But, on the other hand, I thought, “For at least half of the 110,000 of these people going to see a football game, this guy and those like him — the money-grubbing tele-evangelists, the snake handlers, the screaming, street corner loonies, the Ten Commandment fetishists, the cult leaders, and the judgmental fundamentalists — are the only Christians they ever see and they think we’re all like that.”
I don’t want them to think that we’re all like that. I don’t want them to have the impression that the guy screaming at all those football fans speaks for all Christendom.
But what’s the answer? Do we just turn away and leave evangelism to those whose use of it will, eventually, spell the death of the Christian church? Or do we reclaim it for Progressive Christianity? And how can we possible do that?
Back to Basics
There is a story about Napoleon — I don’t remember where I heard it — that during one of his campaigns he sent a message, asking to meet with Francis II, Emperor of Austria. Francis sent a message back, that he would never enter the same room that was occupied by the thief who stole the crown of France.
Napoleon’s reply: “Tell His Majesty, the Emperor that I did not steal the crown. I found it lying in the gutter and I picked it up with my sword.”
Now I’m not about to suggests that we all sharpen our swords but I am suggesting that evangelism, the highest and most sacred endeavor to which Jesus called us in his Great Commission, has been left in the gutter by the mainline denominations. Having seen it abused, misused, mangled, and exploited for profit, and afraid that we will be found guilty by association, we have turned our backs and walked away.
That, of course, is nonsense. It is time for us to put our fears aside and reach into that gutter, pluck evangelism from the sordid dross in which we have left it, and polish it for a new day.
And to prepare for that new day, we must return to the old days. Indeed, the very day that is depicted in this week’s lection from Acts (2:14a, 22-32), where we find Peter taking the Great Commission seriously.
The text is the second half of the one usually read on Pentecost. The disciples and the early Christians have come together in Jerusalem for the Jewish Feast of Pentecost (Shavuot) which was a thanksgiving celebration for the fruit of the wheat harvest and a memorial to the law Moses received on Mount Sinai. It was called Pentecost (fifty) or the Feast of Weeks, because it was celebrated fifty days (seven weeks) after the first day of Passover.
In the story as we have it, the disciples experience the Holy Spirit of God descending upon them and they are empowered to speak in the different languages of all who have gathered in the area. Some of the listeners are awed but others scoff and Peter responds by telling the primarily Jewish audience that what they are experiencing is no less than the fulfillment of the prophecy made by Joel (2:28-32).
Then, he launches into a sermon about Jesus who, he tells them, was crucified as the result of a conspiracy by the temple officials, operating on behalf of the Jewish people, and the Roman government but was raised from the dead fulfilling the prophecy of David in Psalm 101.
The audience is convicted by Peter’s eloquence and his message and the people ask what they should do. Peter responds that they must “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven.” If they do this, he tells them, they will receive the Holy Spirit just as they have seen happen to the Christians before them, a gift that is available not just to them but to their families and all Jews, everywhere.”
The story says that this wasn’t all that he said, there was much more and it was all so effective that about 3,000 people were all baptized that day and began to follow The Way, which was what they called Christianity before they called it Christianity.
Quite a day, huh? Would that there could be more like them. Unfortunately, those kinds of days are rare. They are outliers in the broad story of the growth of Christianity in its earliest days and we would be making a huge mistake if we just stood around waiting for our churches to grow out of events like that one regardless of how great our preacher is.
And that’s not just me talking; it’s the conclusion of Dr. Rodney Stark, sociologist, historian, and one of the world’s leading authorities on the growth of early Christianity in its first 300 years.
Meet Professor Stark
In his magnum opus The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries (New York: Harper One, 1996) professor Stark seeks to put an end to some of the common, persistent myths about Christianity’s rapid growth.
He does not deny that the strong faith and deep belief of the original Christians was a factor in the quick expansion of Christianity up to the reign of Constantine. He does, however, point out that there were other things at work as well, things that can be measured by the social sciences and emulated by Christians, today.
For instance, after studying the modern day grown of certain religious groups he has observed that networks of family and friends play a huge role in conversion. Someone is more likely to convert to a religion when their family and close friends have done so.
If all your family and friends are fans of the Detroit Lions, the chances are good that you will be, too. And, if all of your friends and family are committed Christians, there’s a better than even chance that you will become a Christian as well.
He also notes that research shows how new religious movements mainly draw their converts from religious people who have become inactive in their former religion. Perhaps they have become fed up with infighting and arguing in their church or they have had their feelings hurt or they have become burned out or disillusioned by something they have seen or experienced.
A member of my own family who, for years, was active in a “big box” evangelical church volunteered to become part of the finance committee of the church. She resigned from the position after only a few months. She told me that “It was either leave that committee or leave the church. I learned more than I wanted to know about what goes on in the lives of Christians and the back offices of the church.”
Another common myth is that the early church spread most rapidly through the ranks of the poor and marginalized people of the Roman Empire but, while some early converts to Christianity might have been poor, modern research has shown that those most likely to move from one religious affiliation to another are people from the middle and privileged classes. Though were not exactly sure why this is the case, it seems likely that middle and upper-class people are able to afford the kind of education and leisure time that encourages and allows them the time to think about and question the assumptions of popular religion.
That is why, says Stark, that contrary to popular belief, vast numbers of early Christian converts came from upper class Jews whose education had led them to become critically aware of the greed, power, avarice, and corruption that was infecting the temple hierarchy at that time.
Some other reasons which modern research believes may have been responsible for Christianity’s early growth:
Pagans witnessed how Christians responded to the plagues and disasters in Rome’s rapidly rising urban populations. Christians responded to earthquakes and epidemics with messages of hope and care for each other and all who suffered. It was said that while everyone else was running away from the trouble, the Christians ran into it.
Also, the massive number of deaths that resulted in these tragedies disrupted the normal social bonds that people had with their neighbors and families. Pagans left alone and grieving would find attractive the social bonds which drew Christians together and helped them survive even when they were not related to each other.
To put it simply, says Stark, life in the urban centers of the Roman Empire was often a life of sickness, lawlessness, misery, despair, and fear. Yet, Christians were able to imagine and even promise not just a better world in the future but solutions to everyday problems.
Christianity was blessed with many Godly, religious women who married pagan men, whom they often converted to Christianity and then raised their children to be Christians.
Finally, Stark points out that, while Christians were persecuted only sporadically in different areas around the empire, and few were put to death, their willingness to suffer actually made Christianity more attractive to non-believers. After a pogrom that was meant to discourage people from converting, the early church actually grew!
So, What Do We Do?
What can we learn from Professor Stark and the early church that can make our evangelistic mission more palatable to its practitioners as well as more effective and successful? Six things come to mind:
- We witness best when we simply share our story with the right person, at the right time, in the right place, and in the right way. Sharing how Jesus and his resurrected body, the church, have affected, helped, improved and, sometimes, saved our lives with a person when they are open to hearing it is our best and most effective way of witnessing.
- And our second most effective witness is how we live our lives, running toward the tragedy when others run away, loving the unlovable, embracing the outcast, and fearlessly facing the difficulties that sometimes arise from that witness, which brings us to
- Our wounds and scars. These are our third most effective witness and we should bear them proudly. This, says those who display their scars, shows what I have suffered but it is also proof that I survived and am now able to flourish, thanks to the grace and promise of Jesus Christ.
- Remember that the mission field is not to be found only in far off, distant lands. Those most likely to be converted by our witness, in whatever form we make it, are our friends, our family, our neighbors, and our co-workers.
- Do not shrink from facing the difficulties of discipleship and asking others to do so as well. History has shown that the church thrives when the cost of membership is highest. Such high cost makes it harder for people with little commitment to join the church and adopt Christian belief and practice. It screens out “free riders.” High costs are likely to increase the level of commitment and participation of those who do join; and
- Our Christian religion, has grown regardless of the high demands we place on our members, because we are a faith that is inclusive by nature, welcoming under our tent, as the earliest Christians did, Jews and gentiles, Romans, Greeks, and Ethiopians, rich and poor, slave and free, young and old, male and female.
Amen.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Katy Stenta:Luke 24:13-35
Walking Toward Healing
“Walk as much as you can.” If you have ever done any kind of healing, it has probably been recommended to you walk. I recently went through surgery, and was told to walk to rebuild my digestive system. As Jesus walked to Emmaus, I cannot help but remember that Jesus was not just crucified, but also brutally speared in the side. And I think of Easter, resurrection and the healing and building of community is probably a long term task for Jesus. One that required walking. I think that he walked with the disciples not just to talk to them, but to build the community, to do the longer term Easter, the slow unfurling of Easter that happens — the acknowledgement that Easter and resurrection does not happen in a day. And perhaps to acknowledge that Jesus, in his full humanity, also needed the walk to Emmaus, and that walk back home. He was getting everything working together again — both inside and out.
* * *
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Baptism is the Beginning
Jesus is Lord seems to be enough to be baptized here. There seems to be so little in requirements for baptism here that 3,000 people can be baptized. Is this not a problem for Peter? What kind of church is he building here? It sounds like he is just letting everyone be baptized? Aren’t people going to fight? About the church? About the rules? About the color of the carpet? This congregation sounds messy. What comes next here? Probably whoever there is the most dominant group is going to be in charge. Is this just a fad religion? What does this faith mean if everyone is so easily baptized? Baptism seems to be just the beginning here, the baby steps. It reminds me when we name a baby even though we don't really know much about that baby. When we have a baby we go around proclaiming the baby’s weight and length, as if that will matter later in life. Facts that do not ultimately matter later. Baptism and where a person’s faith is at the beginning is just the start of a person. Their faith will change and grow, just as a baby’s weight and length will change. Even gender and names might change later with a person. It is important to remember that baptism is just the beginning. God works in mysterious ways and allows people to grow into the full person God is loving them into.
* * *
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
God has inclined God’s ear to me. The God who has bent down to hear me better makes me think of how a parent gets down on one knee to hear children better. God, who transformed Godself into human form in order to hear our words better. This means the words of I am the child of your “servant girl” or the child of “your slave” and you have “freed me.” The freedom that God gives us, even as God takes the form of a slave, is amazing. There is new evidence that Mary might have been a slave. How beautiful is it that God continues to translate into forms to understand us and make Godself understandable to us.
* * * * * *
From team member Mary Austin:Luke 24:13-35
Familiar Roads
The road to Emmaus, so close to Jerusalem, must have been familiar to Jesus and his friends. Seven miles, or a couple of hours, was an easy trip for people accustomed to walking. On this evening, though, the road is completely different.
After years of taking the same walk every day, Pico Iyer says that walking is illuminating. “For years I used to take this walk as a break after five hours at my desk, a small reward, perhaps, for forcing myself to stay sitting through sunshine and mist. But then I began to notice something: walking shook things loose in me. The very act of ambulation sent my thoughts down different tracks. Movement in some ways—because I had no destination and didn’t have to notice where I was going—allowed my mind to run off the leash like a dog on a beach. If I was stuck at my desk, walking could unstick me.”
In Japan, where he lives, walking is part of the culture. In “some temples in Kyoto, twenty miles away, greet me at the entrance with Japanese characters on the ground that mean, “Look beneath your feet.” Everything you need is here, in other words, if only you’re wide-awake enough to see it.”
He adds, “walking allows you to inhabit your imagination entirely.” Perhaps walking along the road shook something loose in the travelers, and allowed them to see Jesus in a new way.
* * *
Luke 24:13-35
Surprise!
It may be the biggest surprise in history when the clueless traveler along the Emmaus road turns out to be the risen Christ, now breaking bread at the table. Social scientists say we all need regular doses of surprise. “Why is surprise important? It turns out that surprise works on the dopamine system in our brains, helping us to focus our attention and inspiring us to look at our situation in new ways.” That’s certainly true for the travelers, as they hurry back to Jerusalem with the news that the world is turned upside down.
Our surprise response has four stages (per the book Surprise: Embrace the Unpredictable and Engineer the Unexpected)
- Freeze — when we are stopped in our tracks because of the unexpected
- Find — when we get hooked into trying to understand what’s going on/how this happened
- Shift — when we begin to shift our perspectives, based on conflicting findings
- Share — when we feel the pull to share our surprises with others
* * *
Luke 24:13-35
Not Taking to the Road
The travelers to Emmaus make a longer journey than they imagine, as they hurry back to Jerusalem after meeting Jesus. For most Americans, the trend is going the other way. Before the pandemic, the average commute had climbed to the highest ever, adding an average of 55 minutes to the work day. This added 9.6 work days to the year, for the average commuter. Post-pandemic, 8 in 10 workers have hybrid or remote work, adding more free time to their lives, and effectively giving everyone a raise.
* * *
1 Peter 1:17-23
Love vs. Power
Reflecting on the grace of Jesus Christ, the epistle writer urges, “Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart.”
Patty DeLlosa helps us live that out in our everyday lives, musing “I used to think the opposite of love was hate. But life experience tells me that's not true. Hate is so tinged with other emotions, including love! No. In my understanding the opposite of love is power. Love accepts and embraces. Power refuses and crushes opposition. Love is kind and knows how to forgive. Power is competitive and takes others into account only when it stands in the Winner's Circle.”
Loving deeply from the heart, as the epistle recommends, is a mutual love that uses power to serve.
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From team member Elena Delhagan:C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia is perhaps my favorite fantasy series of all time. The book I return to again and again is the fourth in the series, titled A Horse and His Boy. It doesn’t feature the Pevensie children as main characters but, instead, chronicles the journeys of two children and two talking horses who escape from Calormen and travel north into Narnia.
My absolute favorite scene comes when the boy Shasta is traveling alone, feeling sorry for himself because of all the misfortunes he has had. As he walks, Aslan the lion (Lewis’ allegorical figure for Christ) shows up and walks with Shasta. It is dark, and Shasta cannot see his companion, but the time comes when he can bear it no longer and begins to speak.
“Who are you?” he said, barely above a whisper.
“One who has waited long for you to speak,” said the Thing. Its voice was not loud, but very large and deep.
“Are you – are you a giant?” asked Shasta.
“You might call me a giant,” said the Large Voice. “But I am not like the creatures you call giants.”
“I can’t see you at all,” said Shasta, after staring very hard. Then (for an even more terrible idea had come into his head) he said, almost in a scream, “You’re not — not something dead, are you? Oh please – please do go away. What harm have I ever done you? Oh, I am the unluckiest person in the whole world.”
Once more he felt the warm breath of the Thing on his hand and face. “There,” it said, “that is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows.”
As I read about Cleopas and his companion meeting the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus, I keep thinking about Shasta. Like the men walking to Emmaus, Shasta was consumed by his sadness, and it is in the midst of that grief that the risen Lord shows up.
Later, Shasta asks the lion again to reveal itself to him.
“Who are you?” asked Shasta.
“Myself,” said the Voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook: and again “Myself,” loud and clear and gay: and then the third time “Myself,” whispered so softly you could hardly hear it, and yet it seemed to come from all around you as if the leaves rustled with it.
Shasta was no longer afraid that the Voice belonged to something that would eat him, nor that it was the voice of a ghost. But a new and different sort of trembling came over him. Yet he felt glad too. …
He turned and saw, pacing beside him, taller than a horse, a Lion. The horse did not seem to be afraid of it or else could not see it. It was from the lion that the light came. No one ever saw anything more terrible or more beautiful.
I cannot help but see the parallels between Shasta’s encounter with the lion Aslan and the men’s meeting with Jesus, culminating in them recognizing him as they ate together and Christ broke the bread. Shasta’s walk through the night rings similar to the men’s long walk to Emmaus — a trek that would be approximately seven miles long on a dusty road in the desert. More than that, as biblical scholar Robert Hoch reminds us, “There are some walks that are longer than others — not because of the miles or even because of the landscape, but because of the burdens.” Both Shasta and the men were lost in their grief, in their disappointment, in the shambles that come when every hope you have is dashed. Finally, the One who is terrible and beautiful appears to both, first as a stranger and then revealed to be friend.
As we live out this Easter season, I believe resurrection still comes to us in unexpected ways, walking with us, talking with us, but most of all, reminding us that we never need to walk alone.
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The word for “repent” in Greek is metanoia. It is a combination of the preposition meta, meaning “with” or “after,” and the verb νοέω, which denotes “thinking” or “understanding.” Thus, when Peter addresses the crowd in the Acts 2, the first thing he replies when they ask him what they ought to do is to repent. Columbia Theological Seminary New Testament Professor J. Mitzi Smith notes that it “means to have an afterthought or to think critically about something or someone and come to a reasonable decision that involves changing one’s perception or thinking.”
Here, the gathered crowd is being asked to repent of their wrong understanding of Jesus and come to a new belief in him as Lord and Messiah. Who have we formed opinions about that may be untrue or unkind? What wrong beliefs are we challenged to change our minds about?
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This psalm is often read in Jewish community as a song of thanksgiving. After all, the psalmist reflects in it how he was saved from suffering and even death! It is a reminder that salvation is something that is done for us; it is not something we achieve on our own.
Growing up in Canada, my baseball team was always the Toronto Blue Jays. No matter how dismally they played, I remained a fan. Recently, I read a news blurb online about how John Schneider, the team’s current manager, was out to lunch with his wife and saw a woman at a table nearby choking. Schneider performed the Heimlich on the woman and saved her life. I am certain that woman neither expected to choke on her lunch when she woke up that day, nor that it would be a major league baseball team’s manager who saved her.
Isn’t that how salvation goes, though? Isn’t it always so... unexpected?
Let us humble ourselves to acknowledge all the ways we need saving, and let us receive it with thanksgiving – even if it comes in unexpected ways.
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WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship
One: Let us call on God who has inclined the ear to us.
All: What shall we return to God for all the bounty given to us?
One: Let us lift up the cup of salvation as we call on the name of our God.
All: We will pay our vows to God in the presence of God’s people.
One: We are the servants of our God, the children of God.
All: With thanksgiving we lift up our voices to our God.
OR
One: The Risen Christ is with us this day!
All: We welcome the Christ into our midst.
One: We will find the Christ in the faces of friends and strangers.
All: We will honor the Christ in whatever guise he comes.
One: Christ will be honored as we esteem others with love.
All: We will revere Christ in all whom we meet.
Hymns and Songs
O Sons and Daughters, Let Us Sing
UMH: 317
PH: 116/117
GTG: 235/255
NCH: 244
CH: 220
ELW: 386/387
W&P: 313
Hail, Thou Once Despised Jesus
UMH: 325
H82: 495
ELW: 535
AMEC: 175
He Lives
UMH: 310
AAHH: 275
NNBH: 119
CH: 226
W&P: 302
Surely the Presence of the Lord
UMH: 328
NNBH: 129
CH: 263
W&P: 131
Renew: 167
Christ for the World We Sing
UMH: 568
H82: 537
W&P: 561
AMEC: 565
Renew: 299
O Zion, Haste
UMH: 573
H82: 539
NNBH: 422
CH: 482
LBW: 397
ELW: 668
AMEC: 566:
This Little Light of Mine
UMH: 585
AAHH: 549
NNBH: 511
NCH: 524/525
ELW: 677
STLT 118
Here, O Lord, Your Servants Gather
UMH: 552
PH: 465
GTG: 311
CH: 278
ELW: 530
: W&P: 597
In Christ There is NO East or West
UMH: 548
H82: 529
PH: 439/440
GTG: 317/318
AAHH: 398/399
NNBH: 299
NCH: 394/395
CH: 687
LBW: 259
ELW: 650
W&P: 600/603
AMEC: 557
Blest Be the Tie That Binds
UMH: 557
PH: 438
GTG: 306
AAHH: 341
NNBH: 298
NCH: 393
CH: 433
LBW: 370
ELW: 656
W&P: 393
AMEC: 522
Let Us Break Bread Together
UMH: 618
H82: 325
PH: 513
GTG: 525
AAHH: 686
NNBH: 358
NCH: 330
CH: 425
LBW: 212
ELW: 471
W&P: 699
AMEC: 530
STLT 406
Unity
CCB: 59
They’ll Know We are Christians by Our Love
CCB: 78
GTG: 300
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who comes to dwell among your creatures:
Grant us the wisdom to find in one another your Christ
and the desire to proclaim the Good News to all your people;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you come to dwell among us. Help us to find your Christ in the midst of your people so that we may proclaim the Good News to all. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to open our hearts to others.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have made us from one earth and from one Spirit. You have called us to love one another, enemy and friend alike. Yet we have placed divisions between us that have obscured the presence of your Christ from our eyes. We have caused conflicts to arise among us that have turned others away from finding Christ. We have grieved your Spirit that desires to unite all people in your love and grace. Forgive us and call us back to you and into unity with all your children. Amen.
One: God’s love is poured out upon all the earth and upon all creatures. Receive this loving grace and share it with all God’s people.
Prayers of the People
Praised and glorious are you, O God of resurrection power. You come among us in the presence of the Risen Christ to draw us together in your love. You come to draw all people to yourself through us.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have made us from one earth and from one Spirit. You have called us to love one another, enemy and friend alike. Yet we have placed divisions between us that have obscured the presence of your Christ from our eyes. We have caused conflicts to arise among us that have turned others away from finding Christ. We have grieved your Spirit that desires to unite all people in your love and grace. Forgive us and call us back to you and into unity with all your children.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you make your presence know to us. We thank you for being with us in the beauty of the natural world and in the companionship of others. We thank you for the support and care you give us through our family, friends, and congregations. We thank you for the risen Christ who dwells with, among, and within us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need and, especially, for those who have been pushed aside from the love you desire to share with them. We pray for those who are told they are not loved and are not loveable. We pray for the healing of divisions among your children. We pray for those who work for peace and reconciliation.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
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CHILDREN'S SERMONLearning Things By Heart
by Chris Keating
Luke 24:13-35
A quick glance over the texts for this Sunday reveals several references to hearts. That includes the crowd’s response to Peter’s sermon in Acts 2:37 (“they were cut to the heart”), 1 Peter’s invitation to “love one another deeply from the heart,” (1 Peter 1:22), and the disciple’s recognition that Jesus’ appearance had caused their hearts to burn within them in Luke 24:32.
Today’s children’s message offers an invitation for the children to see how our hearts can guide us into a loving relationship with God. Before we get there, here’s a bit of background.
Scripture attaches specific meanings to various parts and organs of the body. Where Western culture associates the heart with feelings and emotions (New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 2, p. 764), Near Eastern culture viewed the heart as having primary importance in thinking, reasoning, and planning. The heart is viewed as having primary importance in controlling human conduct (see Deuteronomy 6:4). This gets carried over into the New Testament where the heart is often seen as guiding our response and intentions toward God.
Sometimes, we have to learn with both our heads and our hearts, just like sometimes we learn with our hands or our eyes. When something feels right to us, we might say, “In my heart I feel that such and such is true.” In the same way, the story of the disciples journeying to Emmaus is a story that involves learning with our wholeselves — heads and hearts. In the story, the disciples encounter Jesus as they walk toward Emmaus but do not know who he is until they share in breaking of the bread. This is what he meant when he had invited the disciples to share the Lord’s Supper “in remembrance of me.” Let the story help identify the connections between “head learning” and “heart learning.”
Hold up a poster or handout with pictures/drawings of a heart and of a brain.
Ask the children to name some things that might be examples of “head learning.” (Learning to read, math, learning safety rules, etc.) Identifying “heart learning” ideas might be harder, but these could include discovering new favorite foods, meeting new special friends, visiting new places, or having experiences that are so special we may treasure them in our heart forever.
As the disciples walked away from Jerusalem, they were sad and confused because they had seen Jesus die. It was terrible. They were scared and sad. What’s more, they had heard that some women had gone to Jesus’ tomb and could not find him. They were sad because they had hoped that Jesus would be God’s Messiah. These were the facts — and they did not know how to look with their hearts, just their heads.
But as they walked, a new friend walked with them. He listened to them, and asked questions. He told them stories from scripture that talked about the Messiah. Israel’s prophets had said that the Messiah would need to suffer before entering glory. They were amazed at the things he was saying to them, and by the time they got to Emmaus, they invited him to join them for dinner.
When they sat down, the new friend took bread and said a prayer. As soon as he handed them the bread, they realized that this was not a stranger! This was Jesus. Their “heads” told them that it couldn’t be, but their hearts helped them discover the risen Lord.
Expanding on this theme can help children begin to identify connections between learning what it means to trust God even when our “head learning” gives us a different message. Faith teaches us to use our head and our hearts. The disciples realized that as they were listening to Jesus their hearts were burning inside of them!
Invite the children to form hearts with their hands and fingers, and guide them to place them at the center of their chests. Close with a special prayer thanking God for helping us to learn with our whole bodies — heart and head.
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The Immediate Word, April 23, 2023 issue.
Copyright 2023 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
