Well-Known Christians
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
Dear Fellow Preacher,
The world now laments the death of the world's most recognized Christian. One of the curious things in the resurrection stories of the gospels is that the risen Jesus was sometimes not instantly recognized. This issue of The Immediate Word addresses the question of how we can recognize -- or know -- Jesus. Lead writer Carlos Wilton reflects on the marvelous story of the disciples' encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus and how they came to recognize him in the breaking of bread.
Other team members add their perspectives, illustrations, quotations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
Well-known Christians
Luke 24:13-35
Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19; 1 Peter 1:17-23
By Carlos Wilton
"Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him." Luke 24:31
The Message on a Postcard
"Who is the best-known Christian in the world today?" Until this past Saturday, April 2, a great many people around the world would have answered, "Pope John Paul II." On that day we witnessed the passing of an extraordinary Christian, a man whose significance extended far beyond the Roman Catholic church he headed. Even those who disagreed with John Paul II's conservative theology admired the way he brought sweeping changes to the papacy -- breaking out of the cloistered world of the Vatican to travel the world, bringing Christ to the people. This is the pope who became a familiar figure on television: leaning down to kiss the earth upon arriving in a new country, hobnobbing with prime ministers and presidents, waving to adoring crowds from his specially designed limousine, the "popemobile." Like no other pope before him, John Paul had the proverbial common touch.
There's no doubt about it: Karol Wojtyla was a well known Christian -- probably the best-known Christian of our time. He achieved that distinction not only because of the office he held but because of the kind of person he was. Yet there is another sense of the term "well known" -- a sense that refers not to breadth of knowledge but to depth. This way of being well-known is not limited to religious celebrities like the pope. It is available to any honest seekers who open their hearts to a living relationship with Jesus Christ.
As Jesus broke bread in the presence of two hungry travelers, "their eyes were opened, and they recognized him." That word "recognized" (epiginosko) can be translated "well known" -- although this is surely a different sense of the word, a depth dimension of knowing rather than a breadth dimension. Jesus knew those weary wanderers on the Emmaus road before they knew him. He knew them through and through.
For their part, the two disciples were unable to recognize Jesus until he offered them gifts of word and sacrament -- his teaching on the road, that caused their hearts to "burn within" them, and his breaking of the bread at journey's end.
Some Words on the Word
Of the familiar story of the walk to Emmaus, Fred Craddock has written,
The story is typically Lukan in that it echoes an Old Testament story, the Lord's appearance to Abraham and Sarah at Mamre (Genesis 18:1-15). Also typically Lukan is the journey as the frame for the story. The time is Easter evening (vv. 13, 29), making this passage a natural choice for Easter evening worship services. In fact, the story may have been composed with worship in mind: notice the focus on word and sacrament, with a summary of the gospel, and movement from the table to witnessing to others.... The movement is by walking, slowly and hopelessly from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and then hastily and hopefully from Emmaus to Jerusalem. It is not important that Emmaus has never been identified with certainty, that one of the two disciples is totally unknown to us, and that Cleopas is encountered nowhere else. These uncertainties, natural questions for the historically curious, recede before the memorable impact of the story. (Luke, in the Interpretation commentary series [Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1990], p. 284)
The impact of this story is focused on the moment of recognition, the dramatic denouement in which all suddenly becomes clear to Cleopas and his friend, who have not realized until that moment they have been walking and talking with the risen Lord.
Asked by a persistent reporter to define the meaning of jazz, legendary trumpeter Louis Armstrong is reputed to have answered, "If you have to ask the question, you'll never know." Something similar is true of Jesus' revelation of himself in Luke 24. We cannot reach Jesus by dint of our own effort, by "asking the question." We know him only because he chooses to reveal himself to us. He does so not dramatically and with power, but humbly and personally. The risen Jesus does not appear to the rich and famous, the movers and shakers of that time. He does not show up before the throne of the emperor in Rome, demanding to be vindicated. Rather, he falls in beside a couple of dispirited wanderers who are wending their way home after having their lives' hopes dashed.
The place at which Jesus reveals himself to them is not in intellectual discussion (although, in retrospect, they realize their hearts were "burning within them," as he taught them from the Hebrew Scriptures). No, he reveals himself to them in the breaking of bread, in a rite similar to the one we call the Lord's Supper. One does not need to be intellectually brilliant to comprehend the meaning of this sacrament -- indeed, many of our churches now offer the bread and the cup even to young children. For who truly does understand the Lord's Supper, even among those with academic degrees in theology? As the Lord breaks bread with us, we see him. We recognize him. It's that simple -- and that profound.
Craddock expresses a useful understanding of the particular means by which we apprehend Christ in the sacrament, that of remembrance:
There are three times in which to know an event: in rehearsal, at the time of the event, and in remembrance. In rehearsal, understanding is hindered by an inability to believe that the event will really occur or that it will be so important. At the time of the event, understanding is hindered by the clutter and confusion of so much so fast. But in remembrance, the nonseriousness of rehearsal and the busyness of the event give way to recognition, realization, and understanding. This is a time of understanding an important trip, a wedding, a gathering of friends, or a conversation with a stranger turned Christ at table. (p. 287)
The occasion of the death of any person, even a famous man like Pope John Paul II, is a time of remembrance. It is in the remembering that the meaning of this life becomes apparent. It is by remembering that we experience again what the departed person meant to us, and how God has blessed us through such a person. It is through remembering that we begin to glimpse the power and significance of new life in Christ.
A Map of the Message
In the hours before John Paul II died, an NPR interviewer was asking Catholic scholar and journalist Michael Novak how the Vatican planned to announce the pope's death to the world. Yes, Novak said, there would be the traditional actions performed by Vatican functionaries, such as the ceremonial calling-out of the pope's name by his camerlengo, or chamberlain, and the smashing of the pope's signet ring. Yet even before these ancient traditions had been fulfilled, the world would already be well aware of the momentous event that had taken place. The world would first learn of the pope's death from the news media -- from reporters who themselves would have been notified only moments before, through thousands of e-mail and text messages sent out by the Vatican's public-relations department. Novak said he expected to learn of the pope's death through a text message flashed to his cell phone.
That observation alone indicates how much the papacy has changed during John Paul's tenure. This pope believed the institution of the papacy should be as transparent as possible, and worked to make it so. John Paul shrewdly used the fame that accompanied his position to advance the work of the Roman Catholic church -- and, indeed, the cause of Christianity in general.
Fame, however, is a subject fraught with spiritual difficulty. It is easy to become seduced by the lure of popular acclaim. Not many of us will ever become celebrities, but we are all vulnerable to the pressure of the crowd -- even the small crowds that constitute the various communities and societies in which we live. The potentially idolatrous lure of fame is apparent in this song lyric:
"Fame!
I'm going to make it to heaven,
Light up the sky like a flame,
Fame!
I'm gonna live forever,
Baby, remember my name...."
Those words, the title song of a 1980 movie, reflect a powerful and seldom-questioned belief of many in our culture: to be famous is to live forever. We have only to observe the legions of reporters camped outside the Michael Jackson trial to realize how alluring -- and how shallow -- fame is. To be a celebrity -- to be "celebrated," well-known is a dream of many, from the "American Idol" hopeful on television to the envious supermarket shopper who picks up a gossipy tabloid along with the broccoli.
A word-study based on the Greek epiginosko, "well known," reveals that this word has deep theological meaning. This meaning extends far beyond the superficial understanding of pop-artist Andy Warhol, whose "fifteen minutes of fame" remark has become a byword. When Jesus breaks bread at Emmaus, "they recognize him." That's epiginosko. The eyes of those disciples' hearts are spiritually opened, and they are able to see in a way that has not been possible before. Suddenly, this man sharing bread with them is no mere stranger, no passing acquaintance. He is their Lord and master: a man with whom, during his physical life, they have enjoyed a deep spiritual bond. Now, they are astonished to discover that Jesus' physical life continues, and this depth dimension of their relationship lives on.
Epiginosko is also found in 1 Corinthians 13:12b: "then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known." That line could literally be translated, "then I will know well, even as I have been well known." In a beloved soliloquy from Shakespeare's Hamlet, the title character holds in his hand the skull of a long-deceased friend and muses, "Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well, Horatio...." Shakespeare is writing in English rather than Greek, of course, but here he captures the same sort of depth knowledge that goes beyond mere celebrity. Hamlet's monologue is poignant precisely because the jester Yorick was a man the young Danish prince deeply loved and admired.
Among the most dreaded fears in life -- especially in life's latter years -- is the prospect of no longer being well known, in that simple human sense. There's a fear of being forgotten, of losing intimacy, of no longer having anyone to know us or remember us. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul reassures us that because God's love in Christ is eternal, we will continue -- in life or in death -- to be beloved of God, to be well known in the deepest sense. It's the sort of message Pope John Paul II spent his life proclaiming, in word and in deed.
Yet how can we be certain, at the last, that Christ will recognize us? Another passage of scripture provides the answer. In Matthew 25, Jesus' Parable of the Last Judgment, the disciples ask, "Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?" Jesus replies, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." Although the verb, here, is a form of orao (to see), rather than epiginosko (to know), the implication is the same: Jesus promises to recognize us if we have first given recognition and aid to the needy among us.
We are well known, in the deepest sense of that expression, when Jesus knows us. He knows us before we know him. He offers us that precious gift of recognition in word and sacrament, and recognizes us, in turn, as we extend recognition to the least among us. That, too, is a thought that would have made Pope John Paul II smile.
Team Comments
Chris Ewing responds: "I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications" (Psalm 116:1). Today's psalm well expresses that hunger for remembrance that Carl has identified as one of our core yearnings, a yearning easily misunderstood as a quest for fame, but not ultimately satisfied by celebrity. No, we need to be loved by one who knows us through and through ... and known by one who loves us through and through.
Yet if we need and yearn for that, we also, paradoxically, fear and often flee it. To be known that thoroughly is frightening, and so individual and family counselors' offices are full of people in flight from the very intimacy they crave. So are our pews. Today's readings offer some opportunities to address our anxieties about intimacy, by grounding both our longing and our fear in the reliable knowing and love of God.
The psalmist portrays a mutually responsive relationship between the believer and God, where trust is vindicated in reliable, compassionate presence. This surely is what all of us hope for in both our relationship with the divine and in our relationships with each other ... but it can be a very hard thing to trust. We find it hard to trust each other, of course, because we humans are not reliable. There is no deeper wound than one received from a loved one; and who of us has not hurt and been hurt by those we love the most? Such wounds may be unintentional, but they are real nonetheless; and it doesn't take very many such wounds, nor very severe, before we begin unconsciously protecting ourselves from further injury. It is often only much later that we realize that when we shut ourselves off from pain, we also close ourselves off from love.
Our fear of intimacy with God has another element: that of a very large power imbalance. We cannot, in this life at least, know God anywhere near as thoroughly as we believe God knows us; nor is this a relationship among equals in any other respect. God, after all, as Peter's epistle points out (v. 17), will judge all people "impartially according to their deeds"; no wonder he exhorts us to live in "reverent fear!" Very many of us are prone to take the tack often taken by children toward their parents: choosing to be very selective about what reaches authoritarian ears! Of course, the fact that we do not discuss something with God does not mean God is unaware of it (though we may have managed to keep our own selves unaware of it); it just means that the matter is excluded from the healing and transformative possibilities of the divine-human relationship.
Small wonder, then, that when Peter's hearers on the Day of Pentecost -- in a very different kind of burning-heart moment from that on the road to Emmaus, but one just as important to intimacy -- were stunned into recognition that they had rejected the Messiah and asked "What should we do?" (Acts 2:37), Peter's immediate response was, "Repent." Bring the terrible thing into the light, bring it into the relationship, turn around and start again on a different footing.
This is a terribly frightening thing to do, and made more frightening by the fact that for most of us, our experience in doing this with other people has had mixed results. While sometimes it has healed hurt and restored intimacy, in other cases (especially where wrongdoing was found out before being confessed and repented) it has resulted in great pain and irreparable rifts, leading many to prefer the uncomfortable silence of unacknowledged suspicion to the deep pain of truth broken open.
This is where we need to remind our people (and ourselves!) of two things: first, that God already knows; and second, that God's first and last word to us is love. If even our rejection, torture, and execution of Jesus were not grounds to end the relationship, but were instead made into the means of redemption, then surely anything else we bring to God can and will be healed and become a path to deeper intimacy. Thanks be to God!
George Murphy responds: In 2 Corinthians 6:8-9, Paul is speaking of himself and his fellow missionaries and says that "we are treated as imposters and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see -- we are alive; as punished, and not yet killed." Comparison with the other pairs of opposites (imposters/true, dying/alive, punished/not killed) suggests that being "unknown" is bad and being "well known" is good. Paul clearly wanted to be "known" for something -- as one who proclaimed Christ. Being "unknown" can be a serious drawback if you want to get a message out, because then people aren't as likely to listen to you.
So when Paul was a stranger in Athens and was given a chance to speak at the Areopagus, he seized it (Acts 17:16-34). The fact that some of the Athenians scoffed when he spoke about the resurrection didn't cancel out the good that was accomplished through his speech. As press agents sometimes say with a bit of overstatement, there's no such thing as bad publicity. On the other hand, I don't think Paul was particularly interested in being the most famous leather worker in the Roman world (even though now he probably is).
But being "known" in the sense that Paul apparently thought good is a means to an end, that end being getting the gospel proclaimed widely and credibly. Fame isn't an end in itself. A bit later in 2 Corinthians (8:18-19) Paul refers to "the brother who is famous among all the churches for his proclaiming of the good news." He was famous but since Paul didn't give his name we can't identify him or find out more about him. He had his "fifteen minutes of fame" -- which is all right because it got the job done.
We tend to think of history as being accomplished entirely by famous men and women, but of course that's largely because those are the people our history books devote the great majority of space to. It's kind of like that old joke about what a coincidence it is that our greatest presidents were born on holidays. But of course real history is far from being simply the exploits of famous people. Without the un-famous people who seldom get named by historians there would have been no food grown, no soldiers to fight in the armies led by generals, no average scientists and engineers to develop and apply the insight of the great geniuses and, for that matter, no mothers to give birth to and nurture all the famous men and women. There would have been no ordinary people to hear and respond to the great preachers and theologians, who would have ended up talking to themselves.
For that matter, sometimes it would be best to be one of the nameless spear carriers in the great drama of history. In this connection C. S. Lewis (in an essay I unfortunately can't put my finger on at the moment) calls attention to a few lines in King Lear (Act 3, Scene 7). When Gloucester is to have his eyes plucked out, a man identified only as the first servant protests and tries to stop the atrocity, but is quickly killed. He is not even an important enough character to be given a proper name by Shakespeare and yet, Lewis notes, in the real world that would be the best part to have in that scene in the light of eternity. We ought to remember that it's possible to be infamous as well as famous.
But Lewis has some other things to say about fame and being known in his essay, "The Weight of Glory" (in Screwtape Proposes a Toast and Other Pieces [Fontana, 1965]). Here he points out that being "known" is part of the biblical concept of "glory" that is promised to Christians -- but it is being known by God, not by other human beings.
In 1 Corinthians 8:3, Paul speaks of being known by God as a consequence of loving God and in 13:3 he expresses the hope that ultimately "I will know fully, even as I have been fully know." On the other hand the terrible sentence, "Truly I tell you, I do not know you" is spoken by the bridegroom to the foolish bridesmaids in Jesus' parable (Matthew 25:12).
(The word "know" in English is ambiguous: We can say that we "know" a piece of information and that we "know" a friend. Of course God presumably knows even the damned in the first sense. Some other languages have different words. In German wissen is to know facts while kennen is to know a person.)
Mary Boyd Click responds: Carlos, I'd like to pick up on your comment on the language of word and sacrament in this passage from Luke. The church considers word and sacrament to be "means of grace." What we mean is that word and sacrament are the avenues by which we come to know Christ. They are also the meeting place where Christ gets to know us in that deeper sense. It seems to me that Luke is telling us that "well-known Christians" traffic in these two things.
Once in a theology class with Dr. Shirley Guthrie in 1991, he asked the class a simple question: How can we come to know Christ and have Christ know us? Guthrie was teaching us one of the volumes of Barth's Church Dogmatics. "What would you tell someone if he/she asked you that question?" queried Guthrie. When no one rose to the bait, Guthrie told us in a "dumbed-down Dogmatics fashion" how Karl Barth answered it. Guthrie said, "Barth told the seeker that if he/she was really desiring to know Christ, then one might try just hanging around people who claimed they knew him. See what rubs off on you. See what you think of these people who have a personal relationship with Christ." In short Barth said if one wants to know Christ in that deeper sense, then he/she should go to church!
I doubt there are many people today who would readily hand out that response. In fact some people might say, "If you really want to know Christ, by all means don't go looking for him in church!" The church gets lots of bad press today and sometimes for good reason, but that's another topic. My denomination, Presbyterian, defines church as that place where the word is preached and heard and the sacraments are rightly administered. Luke takes it one step further. For him, church is the "knowing place," the place where we meet the risen Lord through the word and sacraments.
Barth believed that as well. He was convinced that something happens in church that helps make believers out of nonbelievers. Something happens that gives people fresh insights into sticky predicaments in life. Something happens in church that warms our hearts as Wesley said, gives hope that lifts sorrow, and helps us to see the life, death, and resurrection of Christ in a new way.
There is something of that message in Luke's dramatic story of the road to Emmaus. Thomas Walker writes, "Many have noticed that the structure of this story includes elements of early Christian worship: gospel proclamation (vv. 19-24), scripture reading and interpretation (Luke 24:25-27), and the Lord's Supper" (Luke 24:28-35) (Luke, Interpretation Bible Studies [Geneva Press, 2001], p. 100). Was Luke writing to people who no longer had eyewitness stories to tell of Christ's resurrection appearances yet yearned to re-connect with the risen Lord and were not sure how to do it? Was Luke telling them that the real meeting place for the risen Lord was in the Christian community gathered to hear scripture read and interpreted, in the Christian community as it took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to one another in the name of Christ? Want to know something of the risen Christ? Hang around people who worship together and maybe the mystery will unfold.
As Carlos points out, there are a couple of events that happen in worship that can lead to knowing Christ in a deeper sense. One is the act of remembering and the other is the act of recognition. The act of remembrance has a way of teasing out the truth from a lie, enabling us to come to know who Christ was, who we are, and who God is. The act of recognition is what happens when we gain new insight, when we connect to previously unconnected things, when we see things from a different perspective. Recognition brings life together. It is essential for acquiring a sense of meaning. Fred Craddock wrote in his commentary on Luke, "Remembering is often the activating of the power of recognition" (Luke, p. 283). This is exactly what happened to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. As Christ reminded them of what was prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures, they began to see the liberating and salvific intentions of God that had previously been hidden from them, or that previously they had given up on. Remembering has a way of opening our eyes to see anew, to recognize things we've never noticed before.
Charles Krauthammer, in an editorial in the Washington Post (April 4, 2005), states that the death of Pope John Paul II is causing him to see a divine hand at work in this world. He writes ironically, "I am not much of a believer, but I find it hard not to suspect some providential hand at play when the white smoke went up at the Vatican 27 years ago and the Polish cardinal was chosen to lead the Catholic Church. Precisely at the moment the West most desperately needed it, we were sent a champion. It is hard to remember now how dark those days were. The 15 months following the pope's elevation marked the high tide of Soviet communism and the nadir of the free world's post-Vietnam collapse." Remembrances aided by the interpretive Spirit of Christ can open our eyes; cause our heart to burn within with excitement and hope. This is the work of the risen Christ who helps us to see and affirm in a new way God's providential workings in history and in human beings. The risen Christ is dedicated to that on-going work of revealing God's gracious works and mighty acts to us. His commitment gives me reason to hope. It is the reason I continue to hang around people who know him. It is the reason I continue to traffic in scripture and sacraments.
Related Illustrations
From Carlos Wilton:
Each year, Forbes magazine releases its "Celebrity 100 List," a ranking of the 100 top celebrities in the world. Being a financial magazine, Forbes is most interested in the earning power of these celebrities -- so those who profit from their fame, such as entertainers, authors, and professional athletes, generally come out on top. The June, 2004 list includes these top 10 names:
1. Mel Gibson
2. Tiger Woods
3. Oprah Winfrey
4. Tom Cruise
5. Rolling Stones
6. J. K. Rowling
7. Michael Jordan
8. Bruce Springsteen
9. Steven Spielberg
10. Johnny Depp
http://www.forbes.com/celebrity100
The fame of a man like John Paul II is, of course, of a very different order.
***
Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face. As soon as one is aware of being "somebody," to be watched and listened to with extra interest, input ceases, and the performer goes blind and deaf in his overanimation. One can either see or be seen.
-- John Updike, Self-Consciousness: Memoirs (New York: Random House, 1989), chapter 6
***
"Why doesn't anyone see God nowadays?" a student asked a rabbi.
The rabbi's answer was simple: "Because people are not willing to look that low."
***
After examining his patient, the doctor took ushered him into the conference room and said, "I have some good news and some bad news."
"Give me the good news first," said the patient.
"They're going to name a disease after you."
***
Best-selling novelist Stephen King came from very humble beginnings, and labored for years before making it big with his horror novel, Carrie, and a string of other creepy stories that soon followed. It took a bit longer for King's face to become recognizable to the masses.
The first time someone asked him for his autograph was in a deli. The man behind the counter looked at him in a peculiar way, and asked if he was somebody famous. King, excited about being recognized for the first time, was about to reveal his name. But then the deli man blurted out, "I know -- you're Francis Ford Coppola!"
King said that yes, he was Francis Ford Coppola, and gave the man a napkin on which he had signed the movie director's name.
***
Missionary doctor Albert Schweitzer -- who had also, in his early years, been both a published theologian and an organ virtuoso -- was laboring one day under the hot African sun, building his hospital at Lambarene, in the present-day nation of Gabon. A large timber had to be raised into place, and try as he might, Schweitzer couldn't manage it. He looked up and saw a well-dressed African man standing in the shade of a tree, and asked him to lend a hand. "Oh, no," the man objected, "I don't do that kind of work. I am an intellectual."
Albert Schweitzer, holder of five earned doctoral degrees, then replied, "I used to be an intellectual, but I couldn't live up to it."
***
There is a well known story about the funeral of Charlemagne, ruler of the Frankish people in the early Middle Ages. The Emperor's casket was borne, in a mighty procession, from his castle to the cathedral at Aix (Aachen). It was met there by the local bishop, who barred the cathedral door.
"Who comes?" the Bishop asked, according to custom.
"Charlemagne, Lord and King of the Holy Roman Empire," proclaimed the Emperor's herald.
"Him I know not," the Bishop replied. "Who comes?"
The herald, a bit shaken, replied, "Charles the Great, a good and honest man of the earth."
"Him I know not," the Bishop said again. "Who comes?"
Trying again, the herald responded, "Charles, a lowly sinner, who begs the gift of Christ."
To which the Bishop, Christ's representative, responded, "Enter! Receive Christ's gift of life!"
***
Humility does not mean you think less of yourself. It means you think of yourself less.
-- Ken Blanchard
***
All of us are somewhere on a journey to God ... the gap between least and most advanced is infinitely smaller than the gap between the most advanced and God Himself.
-- John Ortberg
From Chris Ewing:
To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket -- safe, dark, motionless, airless -- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.
-- C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves
***
Love cures people -- the givers and the receivers.
***
Religion is falling in love with God.
-- Bishop Carey
***
Christianity is accepting the reality that God has been in love with us all the time. The calling of the evangels is to tell others the good news.
-- Wayne H. Keller, Lectionary Worship Workbook, series II, cycle B
***
The story is told that Pitt the Younger (a British Prime Minister) once visited Cambridge. At the time, several bishoprics and deanships were vacant, and the Prime Minister was to advise the monarch on whom to appoint to these choice positions. So naturally, the fellows of the colleges clustered around the PM wherever he went, hoping to be noticed.
One person unimpressed by their behaviour was Archdeacon Paley, the university preacher that Sunday. With the Prime Minister in the congregation, and half the university hanging on his coattails, Paley walked up to the pulpit and announced his text: "There is a young lad here with five loaves and two fishes ... but what are they amongst so many?"
-- Iain Luke
***
The Seasons of the Spirit curriculum resource for March 6, 2005, carried the folktale of an emperor who decided that, instead of handing his empire over to one of his sons, summoned children from all over the empire and told them that one of them would become the next emperor. "As you leave today you will be given a seed that you must nurture and care for and in one year's time return here with your plants and then I will choose the new emperor."
Each child received a special seed, and hurried home to plant it. One lad, named Ling, planted and watered and carefully tended his seed, but it did not sprout. His friends at school were all talking about their plants, but still his had not so much as sprouted. A year later he still had nothing to show and was afraid to go back to the emperor, but his mother convinced him to go. So he made his slow and frightened journey back to the great hall, which of course was filled with beautiful plants and trees and bushes of all different colours and shapes. Ling ran to hide in the furthest corner with his bowl of bare earth.
Just then the emperor arrived, and, looking around, complimented the children on their wonderful plants ... and then he saw Ling, and commanded his guards to fetch the boy. Ling was terrified, certain he would be put to death for failing to grow anything from the seed he was given. The guards brought him, and when the laughter at his empty pot had subsided, the emperor declared, "Today I have chosen your new emperor. Behold! Here he is. This boy, Ling, will be the new emperor."
Ling couldn't believe his ears. "But I failed to grow anything from the seed!" he exclaimed. But the emperor said, "I gave each of you a boiled sweet, not a seed. All of you have returned with beautiful plants, none of which could have grown from the sweet I gave you. This is the only boy with the courage and honesty and trust to return today still with the same seed. It is he alone who has the makings of an emperor."
***
If you're willing to face the music, you may someday lead the band.
***
Whatever is mentionable is manageable.
-- F. Rogers Candace, in Mr. Rogers Country
***
Since we cannot make the journey backward into innocence,
help us to go forward into wisdom.
Since we cannot begin again from the beginning,
help us to go faithfully on from here.
Since we cannot turn ourselves by our own willing,
will you turn us, Great God, to yourself.
-- Prayers for the Turning Year
From Mary Boyd Click:
The following essay was a prize-winning entry in a writing contest in the Fairfax County Public School System in Virginia.
"It Would Be Really Strange If ... My Mom Didn't Have Cancer"
By Christopher Weschler, Age 10
It would be really strange if my mom didn't have cancer, because I've learned a lot. I have learned there is a good side to everything, and even though it's not really good, like cancer, I've learned to face what's good not bad. I learned what a great school and neighbors we had, and they were good to help us live. I learned friends are stronger than doctors. I learned doctors aren't always right, but love is. I learned that if you give out good, good comes to you. I have learned how my school and friends are a family.
It would be really strange if my mom didn't have cancer, because I learned how to work as a family better. I learned for a family to progress it takes all of us. If one doesn't do it, none of us can do it. I learned how to help other family members take the better route. I learned to hang in for the hard stuff and make it good stuff. I learned that cries can be good. I learned there are different kinds of pain. I learned how you have to take in things that are really hard in the beginning, and you just have to let them be. I learned that you should always look in the day for angel acts. I learned to make things sound better than they really are. I learned to use the strength and time now and not to wait for it, because it won't be there again. I learned to use your strength and time wisely. It would be really strange if my mom didn't have cancer because I learned to not give up hope, and I am here today and so is my MOM.
-- Reprinted in Connection: Life with Cancer, Spring 2001
***
The act of remembering itself generates new memories.... New memory traces a re-laid down on top of a foundation of old memories, and old memories can only be recalled in a context of recent experiences. Imagine a single painting being created over the course of a lifetime on one giant canvas. Every brush stroke coming into contact with many others can be seen only in the context of those prior strokes ... and also instantly alters those older strokes. Because of this, no recorded experience can ever be fully distinct from anything else. Whether one likes it or not, the past is always informed by the present, and vice versa.
-- David Shenk, The Forgetting (Doubleday, 2001), p. 55
***
"You suffer, therefore I am."
-- Eli Wiesel, from The Forgetting, by David Shenk (Doubleday, 2001)
***
We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? ... Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
-- From Nelson Mandela's 1994 inaugural speech
***
Re: knowledge of Christ and hope after death:
Stanley Hauerwas lauds Karl Barth as the one Christian Gifford Lecturer (over against Paul Tillich and Reinhold Neibuhr) who best combined theology and ethics in his life as a witness to his faith. He sites Eberhard Busch's biography of Barth, which includes this touching and humble quotation from some of Barth's last writings just before his death.
How do I know whether I shall die easily or with difficulty? I only know that my dying, too, is part of my life.... And then -- this is the destination, the limit and the goal for all of us -- I shall no longer "be," but I shall be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ in and with my whole "being," with all the real good and the real evil that I have thought, said and done, with all the bitterness that I have suffered and all the beauty that I have enjoyed. There I shall only be able to stand as the failure that I doubtless was in all things, but ... by virtue of his promise, as a peccator justus. And as that I shall be able to stand, then ... in the light of grace, all that is now dark will become very clear.
-- Stanley Hauerwas, With the Grain of the Universe (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2001, p. 204)
Worship Resources
By George E. Reed
N.B. All copyright information is given from the first cited place where found. Some copyright information may differ in other sources due to adaptations, etc.
Music
Hymns
"Maker, In Whom We Live." WORDS: Charles Wesley, 1747; MUSIC: George J. Elvey, 1868. Public domain. As found in UMH 88.
"Children Of The Heavenly Father." WORDS: Caroline V. Sandell-Berg, 1855; trans. Ernst W. Olson, 1925; MUSIC: Swedish melody. Trans. (c) 1925, renewed 1953 Augsburg Fortress. As found in UMH 141; LBOW 474; TNCH 487.
"Christ Is Alive." WORDS: Brian Wren, 1968, alt.; MUSIC: Psalmodia Evangelica, 1789. Words (c) 1975 Hope Publishing Co. as found in UMH 318; Hymnal '82: 182l; LBOW 363; TPH 108; Renew 300.
"He Lives." WORDS: Alfred H. Ackley, 1933; MUSIC: Alfred H. Ackley, 1933. (c) 1933, renewed 1961 The Rodeheaver Co. As found in UMH 310; AAHH 275; TNNBH; CH 226.
"Alleluia, Alleluia." WORDS: Donald Fishel, 1973; MUSIC: Donald Fishel, 1973. As found in UMH 162; Hymnal '82: 178; TPH 106.
"Nothing Between." WORDS: Charles Albert Tindley, ca. 1906; MUSIC: Charles Albert Tindley, ca. 1906, arr. F. A. Clark. Public domain. As found in UMH 373.
Songs
"As We Gather." WORDS & MUSIC: Roy Hicks, Jr., 1970. (c) 1976 Latter Rain Music. As found in Renew 7.
"I Will Celebrate." WORDS & MUSIC: Linda Duvall. (c) 1982 Grace Fellowship. As found in Renew 77.
"Your Love Is Changing The World." WORDS & MUSIC: John Polce; arr. Shirley Lewis Brown. (c) 1979 John Polce, Brotherly Love Productions, Inc. As found in Renew 287.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: We bring our praise to God.
People: For God has heard our voices.
Leader: God has listened to our cries.
People: We will turn to God our whole life long.
Leader: What shall be the sign of our gratitude?
People: We shall lift the cup of salvation.
Leader: Let us offer our praise and thanksgivings.
People: In the house of God we praise God's Name.
COLLECT / OPENING PRAYER
O God, whose Name is above every name: We come to acknowledge that being known deeply by you is all the fame we need; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or
O God, you are the One whose Name is beyond saying. You are the One who is and was and will be forever. We worship and adore you today aware that you know us even better than we know ourselves. Though you are the Creator and we are mortal creatures, you know us and love us. Help us to be content in that knowledge now and forever. Amen.
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION / PARDON
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another the state of our lives.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before our brothers and sisters that we seek after that which cannot satisfy. We look for recognition from others thinking that will make us feel important and successful. We point out to one another the failures of others so that our minor accomplishments look bigger and better. We even dream of fame that goes beyond our small circle of family and friends.
All the while we do this we ignore the fact that you, the Creator of all that was and is and ever shall be know us more completely than we even know ourselves. You not only know us but you adore us and delight to spend time with us. In you we are known and valued beyond all measure.
Forgive us our foolish striving for fame and glory that will pass away almost before it comes into being. Call us back to you and by the power of your Spirit fill us with the joy of being known and important to you, the One who fills our every longing. Amen.
Leader: God delights in you and grants you forgiveness, love and grace that will never fade nor fail. Celebrate your celebrity status in the heart of your God.
GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC.
We praise you and adore you, O God, for though you are beyond our knowing, you have revealed yourself to us. Through creation and your ever-present Spirit we are blessed with your self-revelation.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess that although know us to the very depths of our souls we are slow to recognize you. You come to us time and time again and we see only the outward and miss your Spirit moving among us. We hear the scriptures read and we fail to hear your Word. We receive the bread and cup at Holy Communion and miss completely that you are the one who gives and is given. Forgive us and open our beings to your presence. Help us to celebrate the joy of being known by you.
We give you thanks for your faithfulness is coming and offering yourself to us even when we fail to be aware of your gifts. We are blessed beyond telling by your infinite love and care. You have given us the wonders of creation so that we may enjoy them, share them with others and care for them in your Name. You have lifted us far beyond our station as simple clay. You have blessed us with you own Spirit, life, and breath.
(Other specific thanksgivings may be offered.)
Aware of your great love for us and for all your creation, we offer up to you the cares of our hearts. We share with you distress over the injustices in this world even while we are aware that we have participated in many of them. As you go forth among your creatures let our love, our spirits, and our prayers go with you to those in need. Help us to care for others out of the wondrous strength that comes from being known and loved by you.
(Other petitions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of Jesus who taught us to pray saying, "Our Father ...."
Hymnal & Songbook Abbreviations
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
Hymnal '82: The Hymnal 1982, The Episcopal Church
LBOW: Lutheran Book of Worship
TPH: The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
TNNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
TNCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
PMMCH3: Praise. Maranatha! Music Chorus Book, Expanded 3rd Edition
A Children's Sermon
The talk of the town
Object: newspaper articles on a subject that everyone in the community or the country is talking about
Based on Luke 24:13-25
Good morning, boys and girls. Have you heard about __________________? Did you see the stories in the newspaper? (let them answer) It's been on television and the radio, also. Have you heard your mom and dad talking about it? (let them answer) By the time they are tired of talking about it, someone else will bring it up. This is quite a story.
The same thing happened about Jesus. After Jesus was resurrected there was a lot of talk, especially in and around Jerusalem. Some said that Jesus was hiding while others said that the Roman soldiers must have hidden his body. Others said he was resurrected. It didn't really make any difference where people went, because there was a lot of talk about Jesus just as there is about ___________________ in our town.
That is the way it was in and around Jerusalem after Jesus was resurrected. People were talking to friends and strangers. If they stopped for coffee they talked about it, and before they went to the temple to pray, they talked about it.
Our story in our town starts on the front page and then it is on the first page of another section. Pretty soon the editor is writing about it in his column and then there are just articles here and there.
In Jerusalem they did not have newspapers so you had to depend on the talk of others. Sometimes people added to the story or subtracted from the story. Not everyone could talk to a Peter, John, Thomas, or Mary Magdalene, but we know of one disciple by the name of Cleopas who could not get it out of his mind. He was talking so fast to his friend that when another person came up to ask what Cleopas what he was talking about, he did not even look up. He just said to the new person, "Where have you been? You must be the only person in Jerusalem who does not know what happened."
Well, that new person was Jesus. Jesus listened to them talk while they walked and they found him very interesting but they still did not know who he was. It was only when they stopped to eat and Jesus blessed the meal that they realized they were talking to the Messiah, the same person they were talking about all day. As soon as they knew who he was, Jesus vanished from sight.
Cleopas and his friend raced back to Jerusalem to tell the eleven disciples what had happened to them. It was a very exciting day.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, April 10, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2004 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 permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
The world now laments the death of the world's most recognized Christian. One of the curious things in the resurrection stories of the gospels is that the risen Jesus was sometimes not instantly recognized. This issue of The Immediate Word addresses the question of how we can recognize -- or know -- Jesus. Lead writer Carlos Wilton reflects on the marvelous story of the disciples' encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus and how they came to recognize him in the breaking of bread.
Other team members add their perspectives, illustrations, quotations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
Well-known Christians
Luke 24:13-35
Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19; 1 Peter 1:17-23
By Carlos Wilton
"Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him." Luke 24:31
The Message on a Postcard
"Who is the best-known Christian in the world today?" Until this past Saturday, April 2, a great many people around the world would have answered, "Pope John Paul II." On that day we witnessed the passing of an extraordinary Christian, a man whose significance extended far beyond the Roman Catholic church he headed. Even those who disagreed with John Paul II's conservative theology admired the way he brought sweeping changes to the papacy -- breaking out of the cloistered world of the Vatican to travel the world, bringing Christ to the people. This is the pope who became a familiar figure on television: leaning down to kiss the earth upon arriving in a new country, hobnobbing with prime ministers and presidents, waving to adoring crowds from his specially designed limousine, the "popemobile." Like no other pope before him, John Paul had the proverbial common touch.
There's no doubt about it: Karol Wojtyla was a well known Christian -- probably the best-known Christian of our time. He achieved that distinction not only because of the office he held but because of the kind of person he was. Yet there is another sense of the term "well known" -- a sense that refers not to breadth of knowledge but to depth. This way of being well-known is not limited to religious celebrities like the pope. It is available to any honest seekers who open their hearts to a living relationship with Jesus Christ.
As Jesus broke bread in the presence of two hungry travelers, "their eyes were opened, and they recognized him." That word "recognized" (epiginosko) can be translated "well known" -- although this is surely a different sense of the word, a depth dimension of knowing rather than a breadth dimension. Jesus knew those weary wanderers on the Emmaus road before they knew him. He knew them through and through.
For their part, the two disciples were unable to recognize Jesus until he offered them gifts of word and sacrament -- his teaching on the road, that caused their hearts to "burn within" them, and his breaking of the bread at journey's end.
Some Words on the Word
Of the familiar story of the walk to Emmaus, Fred Craddock has written,
The story is typically Lukan in that it echoes an Old Testament story, the Lord's appearance to Abraham and Sarah at Mamre (Genesis 18:1-15). Also typically Lukan is the journey as the frame for the story. The time is Easter evening (vv. 13, 29), making this passage a natural choice for Easter evening worship services. In fact, the story may have been composed with worship in mind: notice the focus on word and sacrament, with a summary of the gospel, and movement from the table to witnessing to others.... The movement is by walking, slowly and hopelessly from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and then hastily and hopefully from Emmaus to Jerusalem. It is not important that Emmaus has never been identified with certainty, that one of the two disciples is totally unknown to us, and that Cleopas is encountered nowhere else. These uncertainties, natural questions for the historically curious, recede before the memorable impact of the story. (Luke, in the Interpretation commentary series [Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1990], p. 284)
The impact of this story is focused on the moment of recognition, the dramatic denouement in which all suddenly becomes clear to Cleopas and his friend, who have not realized until that moment they have been walking and talking with the risen Lord.
Asked by a persistent reporter to define the meaning of jazz, legendary trumpeter Louis Armstrong is reputed to have answered, "If you have to ask the question, you'll never know." Something similar is true of Jesus' revelation of himself in Luke 24. We cannot reach Jesus by dint of our own effort, by "asking the question." We know him only because he chooses to reveal himself to us. He does so not dramatically and with power, but humbly and personally. The risen Jesus does not appear to the rich and famous, the movers and shakers of that time. He does not show up before the throne of the emperor in Rome, demanding to be vindicated. Rather, he falls in beside a couple of dispirited wanderers who are wending their way home after having their lives' hopes dashed.
The place at which Jesus reveals himself to them is not in intellectual discussion (although, in retrospect, they realize their hearts were "burning within them," as he taught them from the Hebrew Scriptures). No, he reveals himself to them in the breaking of bread, in a rite similar to the one we call the Lord's Supper. One does not need to be intellectually brilliant to comprehend the meaning of this sacrament -- indeed, many of our churches now offer the bread and the cup even to young children. For who truly does understand the Lord's Supper, even among those with academic degrees in theology? As the Lord breaks bread with us, we see him. We recognize him. It's that simple -- and that profound.
Craddock expresses a useful understanding of the particular means by which we apprehend Christ in the sacrament, that of remembrance:
There are three times in which to know an event: in rehearsal, at the time of the event, and in remembrance. In rehearsal, understanding is hindered by an inability to believe that the event will really occur or that it will be so important. At the time of the event, understanding is hindered by the clutter and confusion of so much so fast. But in remembrance, the nonseriousness of rehearsal and the busyness of the event give way to recognition, realization, and understanding. This is a time of understanding an important trip, a wedding, a gathering of friends, or a conversation with a stranger turned Christ at table. (p. 287)
The occasion of the death of any person, even a famous man like Pope John Paul II, is a time of remembrance. It is in the remembering that the meaning of this life becomes apparent. It is by remembering that we experience again what the departed person meant to us, and how God has blessed us through such a person. It is through remembering that we begin to glimpse the power and significance of new life in Christ.
A Map of the Message
In the hours before John Paul II died, an NPR interviewer was asking Catholic scholar and journalist Michael Novak how the Vatican planned to announce the pope's death to the world. Yes, Novak said, there would be the traditional actions performed by Vatican functionaries, such as the ceremonial calling-out of the pope's name by his camerlengo, or chamberlain, and the smashing of the pope's signet ring. Yet even before these ancient traditions had been fulfilled, the world would already be well aware of the momentous event that had taken place. The world would first learn of the pope's death from the news media -- from reporters who themselves would have been notified only moments before, through thousands of e-mail and text messages sent out by the Vatican's public-relations department. Novak said he expected to learn of the pope's death through a text message flashed to his cell phone.
That observation alone indicates how much the papacy has changed during John Paul's tenure. This pope believed the institution of the papacy should be as transparent as possible, and worked to make it so. John Paul shrewdly used the fame that accompanied his position to advance the work of the Roman Catholic church -- and, indeed, the cause of Christianity in general.
Fame, however, is a subject fraught with spiritual difficulty. It is easy to become seduced by the lure of popular acclaim. Not many of us will ever become celebrities, but we are all vulnerable to the pressure of the crowd -- even the small crowds that constitute the various communities and societies in which we live. The potentially idolatrous lure of fame is apparent in this song lyric:
"Fame!
I'm going to make it to heaven,
Light up the sky like a flame,
Fame!
I'm gonna live forever,
Baby, remember my name...."
Those words, the title song of a 1980 movie, reflect a powerful and seldom-questioned belief of many in our culture: to be famous is to live forever. We have only to observe the legions of reporters camped outside the Michael Jackson trial to realize how alluring -- and how shallow -- fame is. To be a celebrity -- to be "celebrated," well-known is a dream of many, from the "American Idol" hopeful on television to the envious supermarket shopper who picks up a gossipy tabloid along with the broccoli.
A word-study based on the Greek epiginosko, "well known," reveals that this word has deep theological meaning. This meaning extends far beyond the superficial understanding of pop-artist Andy Warhol, whose "fifteen minutes of fame" remark has become a byword. When Jesus breaks bread at Emmaus, "they recognize him." That's epiginosko. The eyes of those disciples' hearts are spiritually opened, and they are able to see in a way that has not been possible before. Suddenly, this man sharing bread with them is no mere stranger, no passing acquaintance. He is their Lord and master: a man with whom, during his physical life, they have enjoyed a deep spiritual bond. Now, they are astonished to discover that Jesus' physical life continues, and this depth dimension of their relationship lives on.
Epiginosko is also found in 1 Corinthians 13:12b: "then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known." That line could literally be translated, "then I will know well, even as I have been well known." In a beloved soliloquy from Shakespeare's Hamlet, the title character holds in his hand the skull of a long-deceased friend and muses, "Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well, Horatio...." Shakespeare is writing in English rather than Greek, of course, but here he captures the same sort of depth knowledge that goes beyond mere celebrity. Hamlet's monologue is poignant precisely because the jester Yorick was a man the young Danish prince deeply loved and admired.
Among the most dreaded fears in life -- especially in life's latter years -- is the prospect of no longer being well known, in that simple human sense. There's a fear of being forgotten, of losing intimacy, of no longer having anyone to know us or remember us. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul reassures us that because God's love in Christ is eternal, we will continue -- in life or in death -- to be beloved of God, to be well known in the deepest sense. It's the sort of message Pope John Paul II spent his life proclaiming, in word and in deed.
Yet how can we be certain, at the last, that Christ will recognize us? Another passage of scripture provides the answer. In Matthew 25, Jesus' Parable of the Last Judgment, the disciples ask, "Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?" Jesus replies, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." Although the verb, here, is a form of orao (to see), rather than epiginosko (to know), the implication is the same: Jesus promises to recognize us if we have first given recognition and aid to the needy among us.
We are well known, in the deepest sense of that expression, when Jesus knows us. He knows us before we know him. He offers us that precious gift of recognition in word and sacrament, and recognizes us, in turn, as we extend recognition to the least among us. That, too, is a thought that would have made Pope John Paul II smile.
Team Comments
Chris Ewing responds: "I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications" (Psalm 116:1). Today's psalm well expresses that hunger for remembrance that Carl has identified as one of our core yearnings, a yearning easily misunderstood as a quest for fame, but not ultimately satisfied by celebrity. No, we need to be loved by one who knows us through and through ... and known by one who loves us through and through.
Yet if we need and yearn for that, we also, paradoxically, fear and often flee it. To be known that thoroughly is frightening, and so individual and family counselors' offices are full of people in flight from the very intimacy they crave. So are our pews. Today's readings offer some opportunities to address our anxieties about intimacy, by grounding both our longing and our fear in the reliable knowing and love of God.
The psalmist portrays a mutually responsive relationship between the believer and God, where trust is vindicated in reliable, compassionate presence. This surely is what all of us hope for in both our relationship with the divine and in our relationships with each other ... but it can be a very hard thing to trust. We find it hard to trust each other, of course, because we humans are not reliable. There is no deeper wound than one received from a loved one; and who of us has not hurt and been hurt by those we love the most? Such wounds may be unintentional, but they are real nonetheless; and it doesn't take very many such wounds, nor very severe, before we begin unconsciously protecting ourselves from further injury. It is often only much later that we realize that when we shut ourselves off from pain, we also close ourselves off from love.
Our fear of intimacy with God has another element: that of a very large power imbalance. We cannot, in this life at least, know God anywhere near as thoroughly as we believe God knows us; nor is this a relationship among equals in any other respect. God, after all, as Peter's epistle points out (v. 17), will judge all people "impartially according to their deeds"; no wonder he exhorts us to live in "reverent fear!" Very many of us are prone to take the tack often taken by children toward their parents: choosing to be very selective about what reaches authoritarian ears! Of course, the fact that we do not discuss something with God does not mean God is unaware of it (though we may have managed to keep our own selves unaware of it); it just means that the matter is excluded from the healing and transformative possibilities of the divine-human relationship.
Small wonder, then, that when Peter's hearers on the Day of Pentecost -- in a very different kind of burning-heart moment from that on the road to Emmaus, but one just as important to intimacy -- were stunned into recognition that they had rejected the Messiah and asked "What should we do?" (Acts 2:37), Peter's immediate response was, "Repent." Bring the terrible thing into the light, bring it into the relationship, turn around and start again on a different footing.
This is a terribly frightening thing to do, and made more frightening by the fact that for most of us, our experience in doing this with other people has had mixed results. While sometimes it has healed hurt and restored intimacy, in other cases (especially where wrongdoing was found out before being confessed and repented) it has resulted in great pain and irreparable rifts, leading many to prefer the uncomfortable silence of unacknowledged suspicion to the deep pain of truth broken open.
This is where we need to remind our people (and ourselves!) of two things: first, that God already knows; and second, that God's first and last word to us is love. If even our rejection, torture, and execution of Jesus were not grounds to end the relationship, but were instead made into the means of redemption, then surely anything else we bring to God can and will be healed and become a path to deeper intimacy. Thanks be to God!
George Murphy responds: In 2 Corinthians 6:8-9, Paul is speaking of himself and his fellow missionaries and says that "we are treated as imposters and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see -- we are alive; as punished, and not yet killed." Comparison with the other pairs of opposites (imposters/true, dying/alive, punished/not killed) suggests that being "unknown" is bad and being "well known" is good. Paul clearly wanted to be "known" for something -- as one who proclaimed Christ. Being "unknown" can be a serious drawback if you want to get a message out, because then people aren't as likely to listen to you.
So when Paul was a stranger in Athens and was given a chance to speak at the Areopagus, he seized it (Acts 17:16-34). The fact that some of the Athenians scoffed when he spoke about the resurrection didn't cancel out the good that was accomplished through his speech. As press agents sometimes say with a bit of overstatement, there's no such thing as bad publicity. On the other hand, I don't think Paul was particularly interested in being the most famous leather worker in the Roman world (even though now he probably is).
But being "known" in the sense that Paul apparently thought good is a means to an end, that end being getting the gospel proclaimed widely and credibly. Fame isn't an end in itself. A bit later in 2 Corinthians (8:18-19) Paul refers to "the brother who is famous among all the churches for his proclaiming of the good news." He was famous but since Paul didn't give his name we can't identify him or find out more about him. He had his "fifteen minutes of fame" -- which is all right because it got the job done.
We tend to think of history as being accomplished entirely by famous men and women, but of course that's largely because those are the people our history books devote the great majority of space to. It's kind of like that old joke about what a coincidence it is that our greatest presidents were born on holidays. But of course real history is far from being simply the exploits of famous people. Without the un-famous people who seldom get named by historians there would have been no food grown, no soldiers to fight in the armies led by generals, no average scientists and engineers to develop and apply the insight of the great geniuses and, for that matter, no mothers to give birth to and nurture all the famous men and women. There would have been no ordinary people to hear and respond to the great preachers and theologians, who would have ended up talking to themselves.
For that matter, sometimes it would be best to be one of the nameless spear carriers in the great drama of history. In this connection C. S. Lewis (in an essay I unfortunately can't put my finger on at the moment) calls attention to a few lines in King Lear (Act 3, Scene 7). When Gloucester is to have his eyes plucked out, a man identified only as the first servant protests and tries to stop the atrocity, but is quickly killed. He is not even an important enough character to be given a proper name by Shakespeare and yet, Lewis notes, in the real world that would be the best part to have in that scene in the light of eternity. We ought to remember that it's possible to be infamous as well as famous.
But Lewis has some other things to say about fame and being known in his essay, "The Weight of Glory" (in Screwtape Proposes a Toast and Other Pieces [Fontana, 1965]). Here he points out that being "known" is part of the biblical concept of "glory" that is promised to Christians -- but it is being known by God, not by other human beings.
In 1 Corinthians 8:3, Paul speaks of being known by God as a consequence of loving God and in 13:3 he expresses the hope that ultimately "I will know fully, even as I have been fully know." On the other hand the terrible sentence, "Truly I tell you, I do not know you" is spoken by the bridegroom to the foolish bridesmaids in Jesus' parable (Matthew 25:12).
(The word "know" in English is ambiguous: We can say that we "know" a piece of information and that we "know" a friend. Of course God presumably knows even the damned in the first sense. Some other languages have different words. In German wissen is to know facts while kennen is to know a person.)
Mary Boyd Click responds: Carlos, I'd like to pick up on your comment on the language of word and sacrament in this passage from Luke. The church considers word and sacrament to be "means of grace." What we mean is that word and sacrament are the avenues by which we come to know Christ. They are also the meeting place where Christ gets to know us in that deeper sense. It seems to me that Luke is telling us that "well-known Christians" traffic in these two things.
Once in a theology class with Dr. Shirley Guthrie in 1991, he asked the class a simple question: How can we come to know Christ and have Christ know us? Guthrie was teaching us one of the volumes of Barth's Church Dogmatics. "What would you tell someone if he/she asked you that question?" queried Guthrie. When no one rose to the bait, Guthrie told us in a "dumbed-down Dogmatics fashion" how Karl Barth answered it. Guthrie said, "Barth told the seeker that if he/she was really desiring to know Christ, then one might try just hanging around people who claimed they knew him. See what rubs off on you. See what you think of these people who have a personal relationship with Christ." In short Barth said if one wants to know Christ in that deeper sense, then he/she should go to church!
I doubt there are many people today who would readily hand out that response. In fact some people might say, "If you really want to know Christ, by all means don't go looking for him in church!" The church gets lots of bad press today and sometimes for good reason, but that's another topic. My denomination, Presbyterian, defines church as that place where the word is preached and heard and the sacraments are rightly administered. Luke takes it one step further. For him, church is the "knowing place," the place where we meet the risen Lord through the word and sacraments.
Barth believed that as well. He was convinced that something happens in church that helps make believers out of nonbelievers. Something happens that gives people fresh insights into sticky predicaments in life. Something happens in church that warms our hearts as Wesley said, gives hope that lifts sorrow, and helps us to see the life, death, and resurrection of Christ in a new way.
There is something of that message in Luke's dramatic story of the road to Emmaus. Thomas Walker writes, "Many have noticed that the structure of this story includes elements of early Christian worship: gospel proclamation (vv. 19-24), scripture reading and interpretation (Luke 24:25-27), and the Lord's Supper" (Luke 24:28-35) (Luke, Interpretation Bible Studies [Geneva Press, 2001], p. 100). Was Luke writing to people who no longer had eyewitness stories to tell of Christ's resurrection appearances yet yearned to re-connect with the risen Lord and were not sure how to do it? Was Luke telling them that the real meeting place for the risen Lord was in the Christian community gathered to hear scripture read and interpreted, in the Christian community as it took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to one another in the name of Christ? Want to know something of the risen Christ? Hang around people who worship together and maybe the mystery will unfold.
As Carlos points out, there are a couple of events that happen in worship that can lead to knowing Christ in a deeper sense. One is the act of remembering and the other is the act of recognition. The act of remembrance has a way of teasing out the truth from a lie, enabling us to come to know who Christ was, who we are, and who God is. The act of recognition is what happens when we gain new insight, when we connect to previously unconnected things, when we see things from a different perspective. Recognition brings life together. It is essential for acquiring a sense of meaning. Fred Craddock wrote in his commentary on Luke, "Remembering is often the activating of the power of recognition" (Luke, p. 283). This is exactly what happened to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. As Christ reminded them of what was prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures, they began to see the liberating and salvific intentions of God that had previously been hidden from them, or that previously they had given up on. Remembering has a way of opening our eyes to see anew, to recognize things we've never noticed before.
Charles Krauthammer, in an editorial in the Washington Post (April 4, 2005), states that the death of Pope John Paul II is causing him to see a divine hand at work in this world. He writes ironically, "I am not much of a believer, but I find it hard not to suspect some providential hand at play when the white smoke went up at the Vatican 27 years ago and the Polish cardinal was chosen to lead the Catholic Church. Precisely at the moment the West most desperately needed it, we were sent a champion. It is hard to remember now how dark those days were. The 15 months following the pope's elevation marked the high tide of Soviet communism and the nadir of the free world's post-Vietnam collapse." Remembrances aided by the interpretive Spirit of Christ can open our eyes; cause our heart to burn within with excitement and hope. This is the work of the risen Christ who helps us to see and affirm in a new way God's providential workings in history and in human beings. The risen Christ is dedicated to that on-going work of revealing God's gracious works and mighty acts to us. His commitment gives me reason to hope. It is the reason I continue to hang around people who know him. It is the reason I continue to traffic in scripture and sacraments.
Related Illustrations
From Carlos Wilton:
Each year, Forbes magazine releases its "Celebrity 100 List," a ranking of the 100 top celebrities in the world. Being a financial magazine, Forbes is most interested in the earning power of these celebrities -- so those who profit from their fame, such as entertainers, authors, and professional athletes, generally come out on top. The June, 2004 list includes these top 10 names:
1. Mel Gibson
2. Tiger Woods
3. Oprah Winfrey
4. Tom Cruise
5. Rolling Stones
6. J. K. Rowling
7. Michael Jordan
8. Bruce Springsteen
9. Steven Spielberg
10. Johnny Depp
http://www.forbes.com/celebrity100
The fame of a man like John Paul II is, of course, of a very different order.
***
Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face. As soon as one is aware of being "somebody," to be watched and listened to with extra interest, input ceases, and the performer goes blind and deaf in his overanimation. One can either see or be seen.
-- John Updike, Self-Consciousness: Memoirs (New York: Random House, 1989), chapter 6
***
"Why doesn't anyone see God nowadays?" a student asked a rabbi.
The rabbi's answer was simple: "Because people are not willing to look that low."
***
After examining his patient, the doctor took ushered him into the conference room and said, "I have some good news and some bad news."
"Give me the good news first," said the patient.
"They're going to name a disease after you."
***
Best-selling novelist Stephen King came from very humble beginnings, and labored for years before making it big with his horror novel, Carrie, and a string of other creepy stories that soon followed. It took a bit longer for King's face to become recognizable to the masses.
The first time someone asked him for his autograph was in a deli. The man behind the counter looked at him in a peculiar way, and asked if he was somebody famous. King, excited about being recognized for the first time, was about to reveal his name. But then the deli man blurted out, "I know -- you're Francis Ford Coppola!"
King said that yes, he was Francis Ford Coppola, and gave the man a napkin on which he had signed the movie director's name.
***
Missionary doctor Albert Schweitzer -- who had also, in his early years, been both a published theologian and an organ virtuoso -- was laboring one day under the hot African sun, building his hospital at Lambarene, in the present-day nation of Gabon. A large timber had to be raised into place, and try as he might, Schweitzer couldn't manage it. He looked up and saw a well-dressed African man standing in the shade of a tree, and asked him to lend a hand. "Oh, no," the man objected, "I don't do that kind of work. I am an intellectual."
Albert Schweitzer, holder of five earned doctoral degrees, then replied, "I used to be an intellectual, but I couldn't live up to it."
***
There is a well known story about the funeral of Charlemagne, ruler of the Frankish people in the early Middle Ages. The Emperor's casket was borne, in a mighty procession, from his castle to the cathedral at Aix (Aachen). It was met there by the local bishop, who barred the cathedral door.
"Who comes?" the Bishop asked, according to custom.
"Charlemagne, Lord and King of the Holy Roman Empire," proclaimed the Emperor's herald.
"Him I know not," the Bishop replied. "Who comes?"
The herald, a bit shaken, replied, "Charles the Great, a good and honest man of the earth."
"Him I know not," the Bishop said again. "Who comes?"
Trying again, the herald responded, "Charles, a lowly sinner, who begs the gift of Christ."
To which the Bishop, Christ's representative, responded, "Enter! Receive Christ's gift of life!"
***
Humility does not mean you think less of yourself. It means you think of yourself less.
-- Ken Blanchard
***
All of us are somewhere on a journey to God ... the gap between least and most advanced is infinitely smaller than the gap between the most advanced and God Himself.
-- John Ortberg
From Chris Ewing:
To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket -- safe, dark, motionless, airless -- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.
-- C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves
***
Love cures people -- the givers and the receivers.
***
Religion is falling in love with God.
-- Bishop Carey
***
Christianity is accepting the reality that God has been in love with us all the time. The calling of the evangels is to tell others the good news.
-- Wayne H. Keller, Lectionary Worship Workbook, series II, cycle B
***
The story is told that Pitt the Younger (a British Prime Minister) once visited Cambridge. At the time, several bishoprics and deanships were vacant, and the Prime Minister was to advise the monarch on whom to appoint to these choice positions. So naturally, the fellows of the colleges clustered around the PM wherever he went, hoping to be noticed.
One person unimpressed by their behaviour was Archdeacon Paley, the university preacher that Sunday. With the Prime Minister in the congregation, and half the university hanging on his coattails, Paley walked up to the pulpit and announced his text: "There is a young lad here with five loaves and two fishes ... but what are they amongst so many?"
-- Iain Luke
***
The Seasons of the Spirit curriculum resource for March 6, 2005, carried the folktale of an emperor who decided that, instead of handing his empire over to one of his sons, summoned children from all over the empire and told them that one of them would become the next emperor. "As you leave today you will be given a seed that you must nurture and care for and in one year's time return here with your plants and then I will choose the new emperor."
Each child received a special seed, and hurried home to plant it. One lad, named Ling, planted and watered and carefully tended his seed, but it did not sprout. His friends at school were all talking about their plants, but still his had not so much as sprouted. A year later he still had nothing to show and was afraid to go back to the emperor, but his mother convinced him to go. So he made his slow and frightened journey back to the great hall, which of course was filled with beautiful plants and trees and bushes of all different colours and shapes. Ling ran to hide in the furthest corner with his bowl of bare earth.
Just then the emperor arrived, and, looking around, complimented the children on their wonderful plants ... and then he saw Ling, and commanded his guards to fetch the boy. Ling was terrified, certain he would be put to death for failing to grow anything from the seed he was given. The guards brought him, and when the laughter at his empty pot had subsided, the emperor declared, "Today I have chosen your new emperor. Behold! Here he is. This boy, Ling, will be the new emperor."
Ling couldn't believe his ears. "But I failed to grow anything from the seed!" he exclaimed. But the emperor said, "I gave each of you a boiled sweet, not a seed. All of you have returned with beautiful plants, none of which could have grown from the sweet I gave you. This is the only boy with the courage and honesty and trust to return today still with the same seed. It is he alone who has the makings of an emperor."
***
If you're willing to face the music, you may someday lead the band.
***
Whatever is mentionable is manageable.
-- F. Rogers Candace, in Mr. Rogers Country
***
Since we cannot make the journey backward into innocence,
help us to go forward into wisdom.
Since we cannot begin again from the beginning,
help us to go faithfully on from here.
Since we cannot turn ourselves by our own willing,
will you turn us, Great God, to yourself.
-- Prayers for the Turning Year
From Mary Boyd Click:
The following essay was a prize-winning entry in a writing contest in the Fairfax County Public School System in Virginia.
"It Would Be Really Strange If ... My Mom Didn't Have Cancer"
By Christopher Weschler, Age 10
It would be really strange if my mom didn't have cancer, because I've learned a lot. I have learned there is a good side to everything, and even though it's not really good, like cancer, I've learned to face what's good not bad. I learned what a great school and neighbors we had, and they were good to help us live. I learned friends are stronger than doctors. I learned doctors aren't always right, but love is. I learned that if you give out good, good comes to you. I have learned how my school and friends are a family.
It would be really strange if my mom didn't have cancer, because I learned how to work as a family better. I learned for a family to progress it takes all of us. If one doesn't do it, none of us can do it. I learned how to help other family members take the better route. I learned to hang in for the hard stuff and make it good stuff. I learned that cries can be good. I learned there are different kinds of pain. I learned how you have to take in things that are really hard in the beginning, and you just have to let them be. I learned that you should always look in the day for angel acts. I learned to make things sound better than they really are. I learned to use the strength and time now and not to wait for it, because it won't be there again. I learned to use your strength and time wisely. It would be really strange if my mom didn't have cancer because I learned to not give up hope, and I am here today and so is my MOM.
-- Reprinted in Connection: Life with Cancer, Spring 2001
***
The act of remembering itself generates new memories.... New memory traces a re-laid down on top of a foundation of old memories, and old memories can only be recalled in a context of recent experiences. Imagine a single painting being created over the course of a lifetime on one giant canvas. Every brush stroke coming into contact with many others can be seen only in the context of those prior strokes ... and also instantly alters those older strokes. Because of this, no recorded experience can ever be fully distinct from anything else. Whether one likes it or not, the past is always informed by the present, and vice versa.
-- David Shenk, The Forgetting (Doubleday, 2001), p. 55
***
"You suffer, therefore I am."
-- Eli Wiesel, from The Forgetting, by David Shenk (Doubleday, 2001)
***
We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? ... Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
-- From Nelson Mandela's 1994 inaugural speech
***
Re: knowledge of Christ and hope after death:
Stanley Hauerwas lauds Karl Barth as the one Christian Gifford Lecturer (over against Paul Tillich and Reinhold Neibuhr) who best combined theology and ethics in his life as a witness to his faith. He sites Eberhard Busch's biography of Barth, which includes this touching and humble quotation from some of Barth's last writings just before his death.
How do I know whether I shall die easily or with difficulty? I only know that my dying, too, is part of my life.... And then -- this is the destination, the limit and the goal for all of us -- I shall no longer "be," but I shall be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ in and with my whole "being," with all the real good and the real evil that I have thought, said and done, with all the bitterness that I have suffered and all the beauty that I have enjoyed. There I shall only be able to stand as the failure that I doubtless was in all things, but ... by virtue of his promise, as a peccator justus. And as that I shall be able to stand, then ... in the light of grace, all that is now dark will become very clear.
-- Stanley Hauerwas, With the Grain of the Universe (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2001, p. 204)
Worship Resources
By George E. Reed
N.B. All copyright information is given from the first cited place where found. Some copyright information may differ in other sources due to adaptations, etc.
Music
Hymns
"Maker, In Whom We Live." WORDS: Charles Wesley, 1747; MUSIC: George J. Elvey, 1868. Public domain. As found in UMH 88.
"Children Of The Heavenly Father." WORDS: Caroline V. Sandell-Berg, 1855; trans. Ernst W. Olson, 1925; MUSIC: Swedish melody. Trans. (c) 1925, renewed 1953 Augsburg Fortress. As found in UMH 141; LBOW 474; TNCH 487.
"Christ Is Alive." WORDS: Brian Wren, 1968, alt.; MUSIC: Psalmodia Evangelica, 1789. Words (c) 1975 Hope Publishing Co. as found in UMH 318; Hymnal '82: 182l; LBOW 363; TPH 108; Renew 300.
"He Lives." WORDS: Alfred H. Ackley, 1933; MUSIC: Alfred H. Ackley, 1933. (c) 1933, renewed 1961 The Rodeheaver Co. As found in UMH 310; AAHH 275; TNNBH; CH 226.
"Alleluia, Alleluia." WORDS: Donald Fishel, 1973; MUSIC: Donald Fishel, 1973. As found in UMH 162; Hymnal '82: 178; TPH 106.
"Nothing Between." WORDS: Charles Albert Tindley, ca. 1906; MUSIC: Charles Albert Tindley, ca. 1906, arr. F. A. Clark. Public domain. As found in UMH 373.
Songs
"As We Gather." WORDS & MUSIC: Roy Hicks, Jr., 1970. (c) 1976 Latter Rain Music. As found in Renew 7.
"I Will Celebrate." WORDS & MUSIC: Linda Duvall. (c) 1982 Grace Fellowship. As found in Renew 77.
"Your Love Is Changing The World." WORDS & MUSIC: John Polce; arr. Shirley Lewis Brown. (c) 1979 John Polce, Brotherly Love Productions, Inc. As found in Renew 287.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: We bring our praise to God.
People: For God has heard our voices.
Leader: God has listened to our cries.
People: We will turn to God our whole life long.
Leader: What shall be the sign of our gratitude?
People: We shall lift the cup of salvation.
Leader: Let us offer our praise and thanksgivings.
People: In the house of God we praise God's Name.
COLLECT / OPENING PRAYER
O God, whose Name is above every name: We come to acknowledge that being known deeply by you is all the fame we need; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or
O God, you are the One whose Name is beyond saying. You are the One who is and was and will be forever. We worship and adore you today aware that you know us even better than we know ourselves. Though you are the Creator and we are mortal creatures, you know us and love us. Help us to be content in that knowledge now and forever. Amen.
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION / PARDON
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another the state of our lives.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before our brothers and sisters that we seek after that which cannot satisfy. We look for recognition from others thinking that will make us feel important and successful. We point out to one another the failures of others so that our minor accomplishments look bigger and better. We even dream of fame that goes beyond our small circle of family and friends.
All the while we do this we ignore the fact that you, the Creator of all that was and is and ever shall be know us more completely than we even know ourselves. You not only know us but you adore us and delight to spend time with us. In you we are known and valued beyond all measure.
Forgive us our foolish striving for fame and glory that will pass away almost before it comes into being. Call us back to you and by the power of your Spirit fill us with the joy of being known and important to you, the One who fills our every longing. Amen.
Leader: God delights in you and grants you forgiveness, love and grace that will never fade nor fail. Celebrate your celebrity status in the heart of your God.
GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC.
We praise you and adore you, O God, for though you are beyond our knowing, you have revealed yourself to us. Through creation and your ever-present Spirit we are blessed with your self-revelation.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess that although know us to the very depths of our souls we are slow to recognize you. You come to us time and time again and we see only the outward and miss your Spirit moving among us. We hear the scriptures read and we fail to hear your Word. We receive the bread and cup at Holy Communion and miss completely that you are the one who gives and is given. Forgive us and open our beings to your presence. Help us to celebrate the joy of being known by you.
We give you thanks for your faithfulness is coming and offering yourself to us even when we fail to be aware of your gifts. We are blessed beyond telling by your infinite love and care. You have given us the wonders of creation so that we may enjoy them, share them with others and care for them in your Name. You have lifted us far beyond our station as simple clay. You have blessed us with you own Spirit, life, and breath.
(Other specific thanksgivings may be offered.)
Aware of your great love for us and for all your creation, we offer up to you the cares of our hearts. We share with you distress over the injustices in this world even while we are aware that we have participated in many of them. As you go forth among your creatures let our love, our spirits, and our prayers go with you to those in need. Help us to care for others out of the wondrous strength that comes from being known and loved by you.
(Other petitions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of Jesus who taught us to pray saying, "Our Father ...."
Hymnal & Songbook Abbreviations
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
Hymnal '82: The Hymnal 1982, The Episcopal Church
LBOW: Lutheran Book of Worship
TPH: The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
TNNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
TNCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
PMMCH3: Praise. Maranatha! Music Chorus Book, Expanded 3rd Edition
A Children's Sermon
The talk of the town
Object: newspaper articles on a subject that everyone in the community or the country is talking about
Based on Luke 24:13-25
Good morning, boys and girls. Have you heard about __________________? Did you see the stories in the newspaper? (let them answer) It's been on television and the radio, also. Have you heard your mom and dad talking about it? (let them answer) By the time they are tired of talking about it, someone else will bring it up. This is quite a story.
The same thing happened about Jesus. After Jesus was resurrected there was a lot of talk, especially in and around Jerusalem. Some said that Jesus was hiding while others said that the Roman soldiers must have hidden his body. Others said he was resurrected. It didn't really make any difference where people went, because there was a lot of talk about Jesus just as there is about ___________________ in our town.
That is the way it was in and around Jerusalem after Jesus was resurrected. People were talking to friends and strangers. If they stopped for coffee they talked about it, and before they went to the temple to pray, they talked about it.
Our story in our town starts on the front page and then it is on the first page of another section. Pretty soon the editor is writing about it in his column and then there are just articles here and there.
In Jerusalem they did not have newspapers so you had to depend on the talk of others. Sometimes people added to the story or subtracted from the story. Not everyone could talk to a Peter, John, Thomas, or Mary Magdalene, but we know of one disciple by the name of Cleopas who could not get it out of his mind. He was talking so fast to his friend that when another person came up to ask what Cleopas what he was talking about, he did not even look up. He just said to the new person, "Where have you been? You must be the only person in Jerusalem who does not know what happened."
Well, that new person was Jesus. Jesus listened to them talk while they walked and they found him very interesting but they still did not know who he was. It was only when they stopped to eat and Jesus blessed the meal that they realized they were talking to the Messiah, the same person they were talking about all day. As soon as they knew who he was, Jesus vanished from sight.
Cleopas and his friend raced back to Jerusalem to tell the eleven disciples what had happened to them. It was a very exciting day.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, April 10, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2004 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 permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
