Pastoral Prayer for Pentecost Sunday, May 31, 2020

Posted on June 1, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

Spirit of tender mercies, your scattered Church comes together in the unity of the one Lord, one faith, and one baptism to collectively pray for the blowing rush of your Holy Spirit to descend upon us; our God, now is the time to breathe into your people and enliven us to be a living witness of Love in a world that is bleak and heartbreaking.

Our nation, one that should be celebrating the hard work of our seniors finishing their studies and marveling at humankind’s ability to shoot people into orbit, is instead  mourning the deaths of those we know who have died from an invisible illness and for the unweaving of the social and moral fabric of our culture.

Holy Spirit, purify our hearts of stone with your Holy Fire. Set your Church apart and make us holy in Christ and not full of ourselves. Enable your churches to show others what it means to transcend all the -isms of our world from racism to classism, from narcissism to barbarism. Lord, fill us with your Spirit to remind us we are not victims of what the world throws at us but rather we are victors and change-agents of love, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Holy Spirit, wake up your Church to be what you always dreamed it to be: A beacon of love and grace. Descend upon your people, O God, and turn the lenses of our hearts back out and into our streets and neighborhoods to let us see the needs, the injustice, the violence, the brokenness, the prejudice that surrounds us. We have become so obsessed with selfies we are not able to see the face of Christ in the other in our midst. Give us your Holy Spirit’s vision to see a world that needs each of us to live and act like Jesus to one other.

We pray for the students and their parents who are graduating to a new phase of their lives. The students may not see it now but they are the solution to our world gone awry. In-Spirit them!

We pray for those who are ill and for those who are dying, in many cases alone because of the isolation COVID-19 generates. In-Spirit them!

We pray for our leaders – that politics and partisanship melts into a collegial civitas that works together for prosperity and justice for all.  In-Spirit them!

We pray for those whose hearts are full of weight from their silent prayers to you as a result of a failed marriage or relationship, broken dreams with lost work, or from unspoken fears of a new diagnosis.  In-Spirit them!

We pray for all those who have been victims of abuse, racism, and unjust social systems; we hold up to you our civil servants and institutions that they would serve the people with energy, imagination, purity and love.  In-Spirit them!

And now hear us as we pray as your scattered but smothered in the Spirit of Christ Church, the prayer Jesus taught his followers to say as we pray –

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed by Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come;
Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory forever!
So be it! Amen!

Posted in Prayers | Leave a comment

Resources for Leaders: Re-Opening In-Person Gatherings for Places of Worship

Posted on May 24, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

These are documents from the Presbytery of Tropical Florida that have been compiled from pastoral and presbytery officials since mid-March 2020.

A Letter from our General Presbyter

A Session Planning Workbook

 A Conversation Guide for Re-Opening In-Person Gatherings

 A Sessional Report to be Returned to the Presbyter

Here is a list of documents from Mayor Trantalis’ Office regarding Re-Opening Measures for Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Guidelines for opening Fort Lauderdale, Phase 1

City of Fort Lauderdale’s Voluntary Guide to Re-Opening Religious Institutions

CDC Guidelines

For Opening Workplaces

CDC Guidelines for Re-Opening Faith Communities

Posted in COVID-19 | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

We Are God’s Peculiar People!, 1 Peter 2.2-10

Posted on May 16, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

Sermon:        We Are God’s Peculiar People
Scripture:     1 Peter 2:2-10
Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:      First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Date:              May 10, 2020

Today we are looking at a text that tradition says was written by the Apostle Peter although the verdict is still out on that fact.  This general epistle or letter was sent to a number of churches during a time of intense political and cultural persecution of the Church and Christians in general during the last third of the first century.  1 Peter is a letter of encouragement and was written to shore up the spirits of the persecuted Christians as well as remind them who they really are to begin with. Turn in your Bible to 1 Peter 2.2-10 located towards the end of your New Testament right before you get to the book of Revelation.

Peter is writing to a Church that was undergoing an identity crises as a result of persecution, Roman political pressure (think, Emperor Nero and the likes), antagonism from other faiths like the Jews as well as from the local, indigenous religions, and then by the age-old problem of Christian values being borrowed by the culture who follow the faith’s form but dolefully lack in its depth, purpose, and Christ-like expression.  In many ways, the environment surrounding the first century church is an environment the Church finds itself ensconced today.

Church in America is losing its true Christian identity.  Once considered a necessary part of our American ethos, it is viewed more negatively than in any point in our history.  Like the first century, the Christian faith has been conscripted by politicians from as far back as Constantine when he decreed the Holy Roman Empire. Let us not forget that the Holy Roman Empire was established because Constantine saw how Christianity could be the thread that united his vast empire. It was because of his political shrewdness that forced the ancient Church Fathers to gather in Nicaea and come to an agreement about what being a Christian really means! The Romans had a certain way they understood Jesus.  The eastern /Persian influences had an understanding of who Jesus was. The folks in Palestine understood Jesus in a very Jewish way while folks in northern Africa thought to that to know Jesus was to know the secret knowledge about who he was.  Constantine told the Church to get its act together and sort out the facts about Jesus so he could have a united political power.  Thank God, politics hasn’t influenced the Church in America like that today!

Church in America today is ridiculed today for being patronizing, sexist, homophobic, privileged, racist, and out of touch with who and where the people are in our culture.  The church has gone to great lengths to make itself “user friendly” and has adapted to the cultural milieu instead of asking the culture to form itself to Christ’s. Contemporary critics of organized religion today indict religious folks with one of two arguments. First, they remind us that there is little difference between how Christians and pre-Christians live; it’s hard to tell the two groups apart; do people we encounter even know that we are a followers of Christ? Second, those who act like Uber-Christians are seen as unreasonable and out of touch; I cite those pastors near Miami and in Tampa that continue to hold worship services exposing their members to the virus because its their god-given right to do so.

Beloved, the Church today is in danger of losing its identity in ways the churches in the first century did.  Our text today is a call for the church to reclaim her Christian identity and make a difference in the world today. Listen to the Word of the Lord!

1 Peter 2:2-10

                  2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

                  4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and 5 like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in scripture:

“See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

                  7 To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very head of the corner,”

8 and

“A stone that makes them stumble,
and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

                  9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

10 Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.[1]

Beloved, the Good News of the Gospel is this: The Church is in a perfect position to disengage from the Constantinian shackles of reacting to and reflecting back to the surrounding culture’s demands; the opportunity lies before us, says Rodney Clapp, former editor of Christianity Today, for the Church to regain its thoroughly Christian identity and emerge as a culture of influence in its own right.[2]

How does our text suggest we do that? First, we are return to the font of goodness to be nourished by God and not by the culture. Second, we are to build upon the foundation stone, the Source of our faith in Jesus. Third, we are to proudly reclaim our identity as God’s peculiar people!

Peter instructs you and me to be like infants who are yearning, rooting, for pure spiritual milk so that we can grow strong in our salvation.  Friends, let us not forget what a hungry baby sounds and acts like! How do you know when a baby wants to be fed?  That’s right! They cry and scream until the nipple is in the mouth! They are hungry, they are craving momma’s milk and will not stop letting you know it until they’re satisfied! We know that breast milk is good for newborns in that its full of essential nutrients and antibodies from the momma. There are no chemical additives; it’s warm and pure.

One of the reasons Church has lost its identity is that over the years, it has made the Bible the best-selling book in the world but also the least read as well. In one LifeWay study, it reported that only 32% of Americans who attend a Protestant church read the Bible daily. As quoted in an article on biblical literacy, the authors muse, “Perhaps Google really has made us stupid, and we’ve lost the ability to concentrate. Perhaps we’re surrounded by too many distractions. For some, the Bible gets displaced by Instagram or Twitter or (now) Disney+. For others (the Martha-types), the Bible could be crowded out by feverish serving and activities. But for many others, it’s more subtle”[3] and the article asks you and me, “What’s your excuse?” The question of Christian identity emerges by asking ourselves, “What am I being fed by?”

Yet, our identity is also defined by the foundation upon which we build our faith.  Is it the American dream? If so, what does that even mean now when the definition of “returning to normal” is as elusive as ever. Is it money, stocks and bonds? Maybe it’s real estate or even the power you perceive you have at the job. Friends, the American Dream isn’t a bad thing. Normal is not necessarily a bad thing. Money, real estate and professional influence are not bad things in and of themselves but the facts on the ground in our world today is that our Christian identity is shaped by our nationalism, party affiliation, bank account and stock portfolio as opposed to being shaped by the cornerstone, cut straight and true, named Jesus. We have lost our identity by allowing culture to shine light on our faith and not vice-versa.  Our grounded identity in Jesus Christ gives meaning to our dreams, our sense of social justice expressed through our politics, as well as how we are faithful trustees of the financial provisions we have been given. The hard question Peter is asking us is whether our identity is built on the cornerstone and foundation of Christ or is our spiritual identity set upon the shifting foundations of a fickle culture?

Finally, how do we regain our Christian identity?  We regain it by totally embracing the fact that we, the Church, are God’s peculiar people!  Verse 9 in our version this morning reads, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”  The King James Version has a refreshingly appropriate reading of the same verse.  It reads, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light!”

We are a chosen generation. A royal priesthood. A holy nation. A PECULIAR PEOPLE! As Dr. Clapp mentioned earlier, this is the Church’s grand moment to stand up and be a counterculture in the larger culture!  This is our chance to rise up as a peculiar people who are foils to the culture around us.  When culture looks at Church and Christ-followers, we should expect they view us as a peculiar people!

We are peculiar because we don’t espouse party planks but embrace the challenge of living our lives with a deeply committed sense of justice grounded in selfless giving and love.

We are peculiar because we don’t identify ourselves by whom or what we are against but are known as people who are strident about who and what they believe and who they are for.

We are peculiar because we identify with the lost and not the found, with the last and the least instead of the first and the best, with the down and out as opposed to the high and mighty.

We are a peculiar people because we are not impressed with power but are infatuated with the humble who choose to be last in line.

Beloved, what shapes your Christian character and identity in Christ? How are you getting nourished, with fatty spiritual carbohydrates that make you feel fat, happy and comfortable or through the pure spiritual breast milk of God?  Which provides the foundation and cornerstone of your faith – the whims of culture or Jesus Christ? Do people know that you and I are peculiar people or are we just a part of the flow of the crowd?  Let’s reflect upon these things, my friends.  Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
https://patrickhwrisley.com

© 2020 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] Rodney Clapp, A Peculiar People. The Church as Culture in a Post-Christian Society (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Pres, 1996), pp 39, 75.

[3] Bible Literacy Crisis! (And What You Can Do About It in 2020) JANUARY 14, 2020 by Justin Dillehay and Ivan Mesa. Accessed on May 7, 2020 at https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/bible-literacy-crisis/.

Posted in Sermon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Abundant Life Through the Good Shepherd, John 10:1-10

Posted on May 4, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

Sermon:        Abundant Life Through the Good Shepherd
Scripture:     John 10:1-10
Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:      First Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale
Date:               May 3, 2020

You may watch the service and sermon here.

Turn in your Bible to John 10.  Let me set up the scene while you’re getting there.  In order for chapter 10 to make any sense, we need to know what’s going on in the chapter before it.  You see, when placed together, chapters 9 and 10 create a drama in three distinct acts.[1]

Act One is from verses 9.1-12.  It’s a Story whereby a man who was born blind was healed with a little of Jesus’ spit that was rubbed on his eyes.  Miraculously, the man could see for the very first time in his life and the crowd was going crazy over it.

Act Two is from verses 9.13-41.  This part of the Story reminds us that no good deed ever goes unpunished.  You see, Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath which was considered a violation of the Law Code for doing any work on God’s day.  The healed blind man was brought before the Pharisees and religious leaders and who demanded an explanation for the violation. Sadly, the Pharisees and others did not like the man’s explanation and called for the healed blind man’s parents to come and testify. The parents, who did not want any problems with the religious officials appeared before the court and said, “Hey, he’s of legal age and isn’t our responsibility so take it up with him!  We had nothing to do with his healing!”  So, the religious officials call the healed blind man back to appear before the court, who by this time was pretty much over having the best day of his life ruined by the religious buzzkills.  He finally told the Pharisees, “If this man, i.e. Jesus, was not from God, he could do nothing.”  Well, the Pharisees got upset for being schooled by the illiterate healed blind man and kicked him out of the community.

Act Three is where we pick up today.  Jesus hears the healed blind man has been excommunicated for giving God the glory for the healing and seeks him out. Jesus asks him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” and the man declares, “I believe it’s you, Jesus!”  Some Pharisees heard this and confronted Jesus about it and unloads on them, “This blind man sees and yet you who are the keepers of the Law are blind as bats about the Ways of God and your sin remains!”  This is where we pick up in the Story today.  Remember, Jesus is speaking to the religious officials in our Story. Listen to the Word of the Lord!

John 10:1-10

“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.”  6Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 7So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.[2]

Some of you may not know but I married a twin. It was only after we started dating that I learned there are certain challenges when dating a twin.  For example, it was hard for me to tell the two of them apart on the telephone whenever I called. I thought I recognized Kelly’s voice from her sister, Kathy’s, but there were a few times in the early stages of our relationship Kathy led me on a time or two.  It was only after getting to know Kelly and spending time with her that I could discern the subtle nuances of each of their voices.

Beloved, this is what Jesus is telling us today. This is what he was telling the Pharisees centuries ago. The religious officials who were to be shepherding the people with the Words and Ways of God corrupted the message ever so subtly. Over the centuries, they transformed God’s covenant of loving relationship with the chosen people into a relationship conditioned on proper spiritual and physical behaviors. The Pharisees made God’s Word to mean that if you do certain things and behave in a certain way, then you can have relationship with God. Jesus turned what they said upside down. Jesus proclaimed that if you have a meaningful relationship God, then a person’s behaviors will naturally fall into place.

Hence, the fact the blind man was healed on the Sabbath was a violation of behavior that there should not be any work on the Sabbath because it pollutes the day’s holiness; Jesus, on the other hand, declared that the healing of a broken man and restoring him to health and relationship with God’s community will prompt the healed man to live a God-honoring life. It’s here that Jesus goes and really stirs the proverbial pudding raising the ire of the Pharisees.  Aristotle’s first rule of rhetoric is to know your audience before speaking to them and Jesus had his audience nailed.  He was speaking to the supposed shepherds of the flock of David. He was speaking to those who were entrusted by God with the care of the Jewish people.

We miss the shock value of Jesus’ words today that were clearly heard by the Pharisees because they knew their Hebrew scriptures. As Jesus spoke, I must believe the Pharisees had churning around in the back of their mind the words of God spoken by Ezekiel. The prophet Ezekiel some 600 years earlier wrote in Ezekiel 34 the following condemnation from God to the religious leaders of his day.  God declares,

1The word of the Lord came to me: 2Mortal, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel: prophesy, and say to them—to the shepherds: Thus says the Lord God: Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. 4You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild animals…10Thus says the Lord God, I am against the shepherds; and I will demand my sheep at their hand, and put a stop to their feeding the sheep; no longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, so that they may not be food for them.

It’s at this point Jesus begins speaking of himself as the Good Shepherd, the gate to a place of safety and the caretaker of the Sheep.  Jesus was announcing that from now on, the voice the sheep will hear is a voice of love and grace, a voice of concern and care, and a voice of protection and solace. It would be a voice of comfort and not a voice of burden.  It would be a voice correction and not a voice of retribution.  It would be a voice of grace and not a voice seeking personal gain.  Jesus’ words were the equivalent of a rhetorical slap across the face of those religious leaders in charge because they knew the rest of Ezekiel 34 where God declares,

15I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. 16I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.

If we are honest, we will admit it is often hard for us to discern the stranger’s, the thief’s voice, from the voice of the Shepherd who wants to care for us.  On one hand, we hear the stranger’s subtle voice because our lives have been inundated by the din of our world; on the other hand, we hear the subtle voice of the thief within the church itself. Like the times of both Ezekiel and of Jesus, some things just don’t change.

The voices of the culture wooing us away from abundant life are many.

There’s the voice of, “If it feels good, do it.”

There’s the voice of, “Bigger is better.”

There’s the voice of, “The more you have, the happier you are.”

There’s the voice of, “My way is best way” which is similar to the voice that says, “If it does not harm anyone else then what’s the problem?”

But the church also declares strange, thieving voices that compete with the words of the Good Shepherd.  There are elements in the church that have reimagined the voices of the Pharisees like the voice of the Prosperity Gospel that declares God will abundantly bless you with physical and tangible blessings if you have enough faith and give enough money to the church.  These are the ones who forget that Jesus was born surrounded by manure, was homeless, and who did not own a thing other than his clothes.

There’s the strange, thieving voice in the church that says if you don’t believe like I believe or do what I do then you’re not a real Christian at best or you’re going to hell at worst. These are the ones who obviously have not read our Story about the Good Shepherd today.[3]

There’s the strange, thieving voice in the church that dares to lift the so-called charismatic gifts above the supreme charismatic gift all Christ-followers are to demonstrate and that is self-sacrificing, intentional, inconvenient agape love.[4]

There’s the thieving, strange voice in some churches that tell you that it’s okay to believe whatever you want to believe about Jesus but who ignore the Lord’s words in today’s scripture whereby Jesus says he is the gatekeeper and caretaker of the sheep. Jesus is not a way but the Way. How God works that out, I don’t know as that is God’s work. I believe the demise of the American church began decades ago when we ceased to unequivocally declare loud and clear that Jesus is the gate and that whoever enters through that gate will be made healthy and whole.

The Good News of our Story is that Jesus comes to give us abundant life.  We tend to think of abundant life as that when God pours blessings upon blessings in our life.  Friends, our understanding of abundant life is too westernized, too Americanized.  We think abundant life is about more and more when it really is about less and less.

Abundant life is the embracing of the simple gifts of life that God provides. Perhaps this is one of the blessings we can open up during this time of COVID-19.  We are reminded that abundant life is about the simple things in life.  Like being in community. For a phone call from a loved-one you haven’t heard from in a long time.  Abundant life is a family gathered around the dining room table sewing masks for medical personnel and first responders they will never meet but whose lives they are protecting.  Abundant life is seeing beauty in the small, little things in nature or gestures of kindness of those you walk by on the road.

Jesus promised you and me abundant life. If you want to experience it, all you have to do is to listen for and to the Good Shepherd’s voice.  You now know how to tell the difference! Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL  33301
https://patrickhwrisley.com

© 2020 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1] Bartlett, David L.; Barbara Brown Taylor. Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 2: Lent through Eastertide (Feasting on the Word: Year A Volume 2) (Kindle Location 16078). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.  Article by Shannon Michael Pater.

[2] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[3] Bartlett, David L.; Barbara Brown Bartlett. Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 2: Lent through Eastertide (Feasting on the Word: Year A volume) (Kindle Locations 16105-16107). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition. Ibid.

[4] See 1 Corinthians 13 en toto. Speaking in tongues is fine but Paul insists that love trumps it in the gifts department.

Posted in Sermon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Power of a Well-timed Question, Luke 24:13-35

Posted on April 27, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

Sermon:        The Power of a Well-Timed Question
Scripture:     Luke 24:13-35
Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:      First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Date:          April 26, 2020

You may watch the service by clicking here.

Luke 24:13-35

            13Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” 25Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

28As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.[1]

It’s Sunday morning and you leave the church and head north on 15th Avenue until you hit Federal Highway and Sunset.  You continue to head north on 1 and make your way to Imperial Point Hospital. The deal is this: You’re not in your car or riding a bike; you’re walking the seven miles towards Pompano. How long would it take you to walk that far in the hot Florida afternoon? Google says about two and half hours although I’m not sure how accurate that is.

This is the scene in today’s text.  Cleopas and one other person are making their way home from the religious festivities of Passover. They have a hot dusty walk to a little village called Emmaus which many believe is some 7 miles west of Jerusalem. They have just experienced this incredible week-long festival that packed the city with people from all over the world. There was worship. There were celebrations. There was political intrigue and an arrest in the quiet garden just outside Jerusalem’s walls where this so-called anarchist called, Jesus, was taken by force to the city’s religious and political officials. This Jesus had a kangaroo court of a trial and was publicly executed, buried, and then left for dead. The women disciples of his group, who were really the first apostles, discovered an empty tomb and an angel of Light and even saw Jesus himself!  They ran to tell the other disciples what they had experienced and let the others determine what to do with the news for themselves.

It appears that Cleopas and his companion were a part of that group of ‘others’ the women told their story to that day.  Now it was time to go home.  Easter has come and gone.  The Tomb is empty. They haven’t seen Jesus so what else are they going to do about it? They walk home some three hours away.

It’s at this point in the Walk to Emmaus Story Jesus does something that is so simple but very profound in sharing the good news Story.  Like we will see Deacon Philip in Acts where he comes alongside a chariot with an Ethiopian eunuch and asks what he was reading, Jesus matches his gait to this duo and says, “Well, hi!  What are y’all talking about so passionately?”

For over thirty years of ministry people have told me how hard sharing their faith is and they just can’t be evangelists. Perhaps we members in the Church need to learn from Jesus and that is the art of a well-timed question.  Jesus did not approach these two and make a declaration of who he was, what he’s about, and how they should respond to his presence! When people begin a conversation with a declarative statement, they intend for you to pay attention and get the facts right.  However, when a conversation begins with a question, the questioner is inviting the other person to enter into a conversation and dialogue.  It’s in shared conversation and dialogue that trust is built, clarity and understanding can emerge, and the environment for listening is constructed.

During his ministry, Jesus tended to meet people and lead with questions just like he does in today’s Story. “What are y’all talking about?”

Christ-Followers and Church have been getting this whole evangelism thing wrong for several hundred years.  We tell people what to believe, how they should act, and declare the consequences to them if they don’t. Maybe that’s why people of all ages don’t think about Church much these days. Maybe they equate God with the Church in a way we would rather they not, i.e. that God is just grumpy grump abiding someplace “out there” who wants to see and know how we’ll behave. The feeling is expressed by many pre-churched and pre-Christians that all God cares about is how a person acts…can I tick off the right boxes.

I wonder if it might be better to change our methods and follow Jesus’ example of the well-timed question instead.  Instead of declaring our righteous agenda to them, maybe we should instead ask them to share what is going on with them in their life instead. When we represent the Christ this way we are indicating that God is not some Grumphead but is a God who totally understands us through Jesus; Jesus asking us the well-timed question is his way of sharing his ultimate joy, wish, and dream to have an intimate relationship with you and me. Questions are all about relationship building. This is Jesus’ method of relationship building.

Sadly, when the church has asked questions of people in the past, the questions come with pre-loaded declarations. You have heard of those, what I call, old Christian pick-up lines haven’t you? Here’s a few of them.

Are you saved?

If you died today, would you go to heaven or hell?

Have you received the gift of the Holy Spirit?

You see, all these pre-loaded questions come with agendas that the person asking the questions wants to be met. “Are you saved?” usually means the person assumes they are not.  “If you died today, where would you go?” usually means the person thinks you’re going to turn and burn. “Have you received the gift of the Holy Spirit?” usually means the person thinks that if you are a Christian, you’re lacking in some way.  Pre-loaded Christian questions usually have an agenda behind them. I have always believed that if you want to get answers from the questions you’re asking people but aren’t getting the answers you want, then the best thing to do is to change the questions you’re asking them!

Jesus, though, tailored his questions to whomever he was talking with at the time.  His desire was to build relationship first and then get the facts right second.  Jesus’ use of a well-timed question was the way he intentionally got to meet people where they are.  He wants to know the questions of their heart that they are struggling with right at that moment.

Perhaps, Church, we can learn something from this.  Perhaps the Church needs to ask those around her different questions in order to get to know others better. The questions we have been asking aren’t working. If we got to know them better and what their needs are, what their dreams are, what their hopes are, and what their fears are, then we will be better to minister to the needs of those around us more strategically. It’s only after Jesus asked a well-timed harmless question was he able to know what these two travelers were struggling with that moment.  Once Jesus listened to their Story, he was able to respond to their concerns.

Beloved, what are the conversations you are overhearing on the road while you travel through April with its pandemic and economic stress?  What are people around you speaking of in terms of their hopes and fears? Have you listened enough to even know if God or Spirit is in the realm of their thinking? Are we too quick to jump in those conversations with our own agendas, our own answers to their problems, declaring what they should or shouldn’t do, or believe or not to believe?

I think we need to be bold enough to simply ask others, “What are you talking about?” That in turn gives us our Christoformed life a voice as we make our way together with others. Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

© 2020 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Posted in Sermon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment