SERMONS

Luke 24: 13-35, Hebrews 13:1-2
Bethany United Church of Christ
Angela L. Ying
May 3, 2009
Do you ever miss what is right in front of you?

Right there — and you cannot see it.

Well, after weeks of not being able to see what was in front of me, I went to the eye doctor who informed me that I might need a pair of reading glasses.

What? Bifocals? Not me?

I already have been near-sighted since the four grade, and knew glasses were in my genes. But, an extra pair of reading glasses. How could I not recognize the fine print right there in front of me?

I swallowed my pride and graciously received the prescription, but was not convinced I needed to fill it – or in need of another pair of eyes to see. So, in my good and stubborn nature, I walked around for the next weeks squinting every time I needed to read something.

At Bethany, there is not the worship bulletin and the large print worship bulletin, as churches describe it. There is one worship bulletin printed in large print – for all to see!

Two people — not alone or a lone ranger, but two people walking in pairs — are on the road to Emmaus, outside of the capital city of Jerusalem.

They are “on the road.” In other words, on a journey, in motion, in continual change and movement, on the go, not stationery or not a couch potato — but rather, active, traveling, walking, not in a hurry.

The two walking companions are talking with each other about all the things that had happened. And in their sharing, there is remembering, grieving and telling of stories.

While the two were talking, Jesus drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing Jesus. Busy to get to the next thing, they are preoccupied with what they are doing.

We discover that the two companions are full of grief and sadness because they cannot understand what had happened. What had happened was nothing of what they had anticipated or expected.

Death not life, pain not joy, loss not healing, despair not hope, closed borders not open doors.

Jesus is right there, and yet Jesus let’s the two keep talking away.

Why does Jesus not tell them — here am I? Or straighten them out then and there. They probably would not have believed him, as the women and all of the disciples had first been frightened, before they gave witness.

Knowing that he was obviously a newcomer to the community, the two companions said, “Are you the only visitor/stranger who does not know the things that have happened in these days?” As in “have you not kept up with the current affairs of the day? Have you not read the Sunday newspaper? Have you no clue?”

And yet, continuing to walk alongside, Jesus says, “What things?”

Instead of laying everything out, making everything transparent for the two in the faith community, Jesus let’s them see for themselves — in their own time — which is actually harder than you think.

For as with God’s grace, one is not forced to receive and God will not force someone to see.

As Jesus often said, “Let those who have eyes to see, see.”

The two on the journey continue, “We were hoping that Jesus would be the one to deliver us. And besides (as a side note) some women from our community have really astounded us – the women went to the empty tomb and came back reporting that they had seen a vision of angels who told them that Jesus is alive.

Then some went to the empty tomb themselves and found it to be “just as the women had said, but Jesus they did not see.”

Right in front of their eyes and they were talking about some women and some friends saying Jesus is alive, but Jesus they did not see. Right there — and they could not see Jesus.

Sound familiar?

In our reading of scripture, it says, “Their eyes were kept from recognizing Jesus.”

I did not understand what this meant until I was a mother. For before then, I thought I always wanted to see everything – know everything. Not necessarily so.

As my wise grandmother and mother have passed down to me — there are many a times in life when you want to have one eye open and open eye closed, at the same time, to truly see.

As when you go walk in solidarity with thousands of others on May Day on the Immigrants Rights March and everyone is chanting in Spanish. So you get into the spirit and start chanting in Spanish, even though you do not know any Spanish. When you ask what you and the people are saying, it is “Yes we can!” And you say to yourself, “I recognize that!”

Whenever I get discouraged that things are not working out and that there will always be people in our lives who refuse to see or seem to enjoy work avoidance, my elder sister reminds me “this is when the fun begins — this is when, by faith, we stand up and ask God to bring it on, so we can see what is going on!”

Later on the journey, we hear that “their eyes were opened, and they recognized Jesus.”

The story relates what happens in moving from blindness to sight, from disbelief to confession, from sadness to delight.

Two actions of Jesus lead Cleopas and his companion to recognize Jesus.

The first, Jesus interprets the Scriptures which leads them into further faith formation.

We need God’s Word to grow in faith, not simply our own resources. We need the entire Bethany community to listen for a Word from God and to ask what is God doing?

Though the two companions recount the story of the empty tomb from the women and from the disciples who eventually confirm the women’s words, this is not enough.

Their faith lens needs to be viewed through God’s Word and the Scriptures, so the two companions can experience faith in God for themselves.

In Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, God’s story and God’s purpose for the people find its culmination.

The resurrection of Jesus is not just a miracle of a revived dead corpse. In Jesus’ resurrection, the plan and kin-dom of God is fulfilled through justice.

One has to go back to the immigrants of Abraham and Sarah, the multiracial leader Moses and the one day fearless, one day fearful prophet, Elijah and not just the trials before Pilate and Herod, Roman gallows and the empty tomb — to know and experience Jesus Christ.

The second action of Jesus that leads the two people to recognize Jesus is Jesus breaks bread with the two companions.

We remember the feeding of the 5,000 and the Last Supper with the disciples. We remember the sacrament of Holy Communion which we celebrate this day.

Note that the experience of eating together as a community precipitates recognition and not vice versa.

And yet, recognition does not come mechanically or in 3 easy steps.

It is the gift of God — a self revelation by which God honors covenants made long ago to the people, connecting their experiences of being immigrants in a strange land to your experience, where the God who walks alongside and opens your eyes, every day.

Though the two could not see Jesus, could not see what was right in front of them — strangely enough, it is their spiritual practice of hospitality — and of doing justice and loving kindness for a stranger, a new visitor, which causes them to walk humbly with their God without even knowing it.

They invite the stranger, the foreigner, the immigrant, and outsider to stay with them and to be in communion with them.

Though they cannot recognize Jesus at the time, their deep compassion for the other — another human being on the road —moves them to a deeper level of connecting with God.

They chose to walk alongside the stranger.

Did you know that two commoners, two strangers to each other, Mozart and Da Pointe walked together to create some of the most brilliant operas, including the Marriage of Figaro. On their own, they could not have done it. Only when they walked alongside the other strangers’ gifts and God given talents did the magic of the words and music come beautifully together.

Jesus, the stranger, the new visitor, the guest paradoxically, is the very one who takes bread and gives the blessing, breaking the bread and offering the bread to the companions. And what happens next? The two companions have their eyes opened and they recognize Jesus!

A glimpse of God — and Jesus is gone from their sight, but not gone from their hearts and minds.

This had all happened on the road and with the breaking of the bread.

Strange how faith in life in works — even when you cannot see what lies ahead for you as individuals and as a community, let alone what is right there in front of you — an open and inviting heart for another human being provides the very possibility for you to get a glimpse of the God who walks alongside and opens your eyes!

Strange how faith in life works — just as you are letting go of ever fully knowing the One you have followed, discerned, laughed, prayed, and even sat down and eaten with — God comes again in a whole different way than you had planned, and meets you by walking alongside on the road. The complex journey of not always seeing the whole picture, the disappointing hour of faith and doubt, the very moment you thought you could go a bit mad from everything going on in the world is when you begin to recognize God.

Strange how faith in life works — where hospitality from you in the community turns into bread for the journey for all — given by the stranger.

And yet, when we think of how Jesus has met us in faith on the road, in our doubts, fears and disappointments, we see that perhaps it is not that strange after all.

And once your eyes are open and you recognize Jesus — you may wonder why Jesus does not physically hang around. Show you the ropes. Guide your every footstep on the road.

This does not happen. For if it did, we might be tempted to cling and hang on to Jesus without growing a spirit in which your own heart and faith, and the faith of this community are on fire — the very light you need to keep on the road — walking alongside one another.

Kosuke Koyama in his book “Three Mile an hour God” (I am reminded by him that it says Three Mile, and not Thirty or Sixty miles, an hour God), Koyama writes: hospitality is a process – something each one of us needs to learn and grow from … “the movement,” and I might add healthy tension, “between the unfamiliar and the familiar is called the movement of love. If we stay in our familiar, comfort zones, love becomes weak from lack of exercise!”

This week, I finally found the courage to walk into a local drugstore and pick up a simple pair of reading glasses.

I don’t know if I will need them all the time to see.

And yet, who knows — you can miss quite a bit if you cannot recognize the God who walks alongside and opens your eyes!