Preached Sunday, August 24 by Maggie Mraz, Intern Pastor
Luke 24:13-35
So, here’s some good news: Tonight is a school night! Well, maybe it’s not good news for everybody, but for lots of us it’s really good news. The beginning of the school year is very promising, isn’t it? UNC classes began last week. I know that Scroggs, Culbreth and Carrboro all begin tomorrow because I have a child going to each school! Even if you are not wild about academics there are cool things about starting school. You get new supplies, new shoes, haircuts and you see friends again. The pace of life changes and everything is just very new. The homework hasn’t piled up yet, sports haven’t really gotten underway. Right now…today…things are really full of hope.
Green Chapel will continue for another 7 weeks as we begin our second series called, “Aspects of Hope.” We may expect some beautiful Sunday mornings of worship out here on the Green maybe with hot cider and powdered donuts (if someone would be inspired to bring them). We may expect to hear several voices over the next few weeks sharing their perspective on hope including:
Greg Arthur, associate pastor from CUMC; Matt LeRoy, recent graduate of Asbury Seminary who has recently moved to Chapel Hill to plant a church; Shay Hall, youth pastor from CUMC; Kaytee Flowers, a youth and SV neighbor; Loren Miller, who leads us in song each week and me. If you don’t know me, I am Maggie Mraz, intern pastor from Christ Church, wife, mother of 3, SV neighbor and most of all a disciple of Jesus.
The series promises to be very great. I expect it to be. We all have expectations for the upcoming days. Some will be met and surely there will be surprises along the way because sometimes the outcome doesn’t meet our expectations.
We are coming to the end of the pool season. We always have great hopes for the summer at the pool. They begin to rise up in the late winter/early spring year after year as pool season creeps up and catalogs for summer swim wear begin to show up in mailboxes. All the bathing suits look really great on the people who model them, right? These pages offer hope for the potential to look fabulous at the neighborhood pool all summer long. You pick out a couple suits, hop on the web and order away. It’s all very promising.
You know this path, right ladies? Guys? Come on! So last summer I picked out a suit on sale, trying to be conscious of what I’m doing, right, and I place the order and am feeling really good about myself. I wait. Then the day arrives when FedEx drops a package on my front porch and the hour of revelation has come. I put it on. It looked so cute in the picture…on the model…a halter top, fun bright green color. I am so going to look good. Then the moment of truth arrives. I step in front of the mirror. Hmmmm. I’m not so sure about this one, but wait a minute maybe it’s just the mirror. It can’t really look as bad as I think it does. I mosey down the hall to my teenage daughter’s room to get her opinion. We both agree. I look like a green inch worm. Horrifying! This is not what I expected. That suit is now hidden in the depths of one of my dresser drawers never to see the North Carolina sunlight.
Now that’s some deep theological insight on hope for you. But we do this kind of stuff all the time, don’t we? We put our hope in silly stuff like the perfect bathing suit. I am sure that each one of you could all tell a similar story.
It’s true though, isn’t it? Lots of times the outcome of a situation does not meet our expectations.
Today’s gospel story tells of a journey where we find people with hope that has been stomped on and crushed and then they meet Jesus and everything changes. This story from Luke tells us about two disciples walking along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus as they discuss the recent chaotic events of life when suddenly Jesus shows up. He does that. All throughout Luke’s gospel we find him showing up in the lives of people and then leaving with renewed hope. After encountering Jesus they are never the same again. This story really does a beautiful job of showing us the hope we have as people who believe in Jesus.
We find this story in the last chapter of Luke. It’s the evening of Easter…the first one. We hear clearly that the outcome of the situation of the day does not meet the expectations of the people. Here’s what has happened:
Jesus was crucified. He died. He was buried. He rose from the dead and a few women are claiming to be witnesses of the resurrected Jesus. People are confused. It is difficult to understand what has happened. The events of the last few days have left them with lots to talk about. People’s expectations and the situation of the day don’t match up. Many are in dismay. They thought Jesus was the one who was going to redeem Israel, but now everything is all messed up.
Jesus shows up. The two don’t recognize him. They speak with him. He let’s them fill him in on what’s happened (TO HIM). And then he sets things right and they don’t even realize it is him while they walk together. It’s so mysterious! Not until he reveals himself to them are they no longer concerned with the sorrows of the day, but they quickly return to Jerusalem to tell others that their hope is alive.
On Wednesday mornings a few of us meet for prayer in the church library. Please come and join us if you like. We meet at 9:30 each week. Anyway, I read this passage this week before we prayed. It is such a great story. When I got to verse 31 I had to pause. Read Luke 24:25-31. The room was silent and we just shook our heads. It is so maddening. These two people have walked along with Jesus, listened to him explain everything they need to know about him and they don’t recognize him. Not until they have been together for quite a while do they see him and then…HE VANISHED from their sight. Amazing!
What a perfect image of our Christian faith. We walk along through life. God is at work all over the place and we don’t always see it. But it’s hopeful, isn’t it? God works in mysterious ways and we can count on him to show up in our lives. We need to watch out with hope of catching a glimpse of God at work. Like the people we read about in the gospels who encounter Jesus and are changed from being in his presence we too live in the same hope.
I shared out here earlier in the summer that I went on a retreat a few years ago that profoundly impacted my life. I went with little or no expectations and returned home never to be the same person again. During the time away I had the opportunity to do something I had never done before; make a public confession. My fellow participants and I gathered with the retreat leaders for a chapel service. We were offered words of encouragement by the spiritual director and then instructed to take a turn coming up in the front of the chapel to stand before the cross and make a confession to God. I had never done anything like that before…not in public. I honestly hadn’t confessed anything even in a private prayer in years…lots of years. I remember this moment like it was yesterday (and it was a little over 3 years ago).
I was sitting in the second row of the chapel and waited my turn as the women before me offered their prayers of confession. I remember very clearly that as the other women spoke I sat in judgment. I heard things like, “I’m not very nice to my mother and I don’t get along with my sister.” Stuff like that. Well I thought they were the lamest confessions I had ever heard in my life (as if I had ever heard any). I was sure that when my turn came I was going to make my confession count. I was basically the biggest jerk in the room.
My turn comes and I make my way up there and stand before the cross with my back to the people. Suddenly the one who had so many opinions about everybody else couldn’t speak. I just stood there for what seemed like a really long time. I was standing in front of the cross and I couldn’t seem to get anything to come out of my mouth. I finally managed to say, “You know how hard this is for me.” This was a prayer. I wasn’t talking to the people. I confessed that I believed in God, but I didn’t want anybody to know it. I hid my faith. I was sorry.
When the words came out of my mouth a rush of heat seemed to come out of nowhere that blew into my chest. It was like a furnace inside me was turned on; an inferno erupted within me. I ended up in a big heap of tears. When I went home from that weekend I found that quite to my surprise Jesus was there with me. I was compelled to read the bible and to pray. I was overwhelmed, confused and stunned in a wonderful way. Suddenly I realized that God was walking with me. Life was never the same again.
In Luke’s gospel we hear Jesus telling people that the kingdom of God is near. There is reason to hope. God is walking near to us…even if we don’t see it. May we all live in hope and have our eyes opened to see God working in our midst. Have hope. Jesus is alive and He is near. Let’s have expectations and know that there will be surprises…beautiful surprises along the way. Amen.
End with a prayer.
