Posts
Vicar Josiah
R. Armstrong
Zion
Lutheran Church and St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
The Third
Sunday of Easter
4 May 2014
Love God. Love People. Nothing Else
Matters.
The Gospel of St. Luke 24.13-35
“We
all need to eat and drink to stay alive. But having a meal is more than eating
and drinking. It is celebrating the gifts of life we share. A meal together is
one of the most intimate and sacred human events. Around the table we become
vulnerable, filling one another’s plates and cups and encouraging one another
to eat and drink. Much more happens at a meal than satisfying hunger and
quenching thirst. Around the table we become family, friends, community, yes, a
body.
That is why it is so
important to “set” the table. Flowers, candles, colorful napkins all help us to
say to one another, ‘This is a very special time for us, let’s enjoy it!’” -
Henri Nouwen
Grace, Mercy, and Peace are yours in
the Name of our Risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Imagine with
me for a minute that someone approaches you and asks you to describe what it
means to be a Christian. What would you say? Where would your mind go first? We
Christians are often very hard-pressed to find a simple answer when it comes to
describing what our faith in Jesus Christ actually looks like, aren’t we?
Someone has asked you to answer the question, “What does it mean to be a
Christian?” in ten words or less. I want you to think about what your answer
might be.
Bart Campolo is a pastor. He has done extensive work with
children who are the victims of domestic violence and founded a wonderful
ministry called Mission Year. Pastor Bart came out to my college when I was a
freshman and he spoke in our chapel. Pastor Bart was asked that question: “What
does it mean to be a Christian, in ten words or less?” His response? “Love God.
Love people. Nothing else matters.”
Love God.
Love people.
Nothing else
matters.
NOTHING else matters.
Nothing else matters but love.
After
Pastor Bart spoke at chapel, several of the students were furious. They were
angry that Pastor Bart simplified the beliefs of Christianity down to one word:
love. To this day, I am pretty certain that what bothered my fellow students
the most about this, was that it took control AWAY from them. If God is calling
us to love God and our neighbor, then THAT means we don’t get to decide who is
WORTHY of that love! If you search the Scriptures, you will see that it is LOVE
that is at the VERY center, the VERY HEART of EVERYTHING we believe about Jesus
and the world. Sure, you can talk about faith, hope, peace, grace, mercy,
healing, reconciliation, and salvation until you are blue in the face, but we
don’t GET THOSE THINGS WITHOUT LOVE. As 1 John 4: 7 and 8 says, “Beloved, let
us love one another. For love is of God,
and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. That person who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
If it is
correct that the simplified explanation of Christian belief is “Love God. Love
people. Nothing else matters,” then the question we Christian people are faced
with is, “How does that work, exactly? How do WE baptized children of God,
saved through the grace of Jesus Christ, show the world that love? What,
exactly, does that look like?” You might be surprised by my answer, but I think
it all comes down to eating. Yes, eating food. Eating food together.
And what I ACTUALLY mean by “eating food together” is “welcoming the stranger.”
All throughout the Scriptures, from the beginning of Genesis in the Old
Testament to the very end of Revelation in the New Testament, the Bible is FULL
of strangers. Moses was a “stranger in a strange land” with a horrible speech
impediment.
Adam and Eve are kicked out of the Garden.
The Hebrew children are
held as slaves and THEN forced to journey for 40 years in a desert.
Once they
reach the other side of the desert, they are forced into EXILE.
The prophets
were a bunch of nutcases with terrible personality disorders.
Noah was a drunk,
Abraham was too old,
Jacob was a liar,
Leah was ugly,
Joseph was abused,
Gideon
was a coward,
Samson was a womanizer,
Rahab was a prostitute,
Jeremiah and
Timothy were too young,
David cheated on his wife and was a murderer,
Elijah
was suicidal,
Isaiah preached naked,
Jonah ran from God,
Naomi was a widow,
Job
LOST EVERYTHING,
Peter denied Christ,
The Disciples fell asleep while praying,
The Samaritan woman was a divorcee,
Zaccheus was too short,
Timothy had ulcers,
Thomas was a doubter,
Paul was a religious zealot and a terrorist,
and LAZARUS
WAS DEAD!
And yet, my friends, God STILL welcomed ALL of these oddballs,
outcasts, sinners, and strangers to perform His labor of love in this fallen
world! (Pause) The list of folks I just mentioned are commonly called “heroes
of the faith,” but these people were ANYTHING BUT heroes! They were strangers.
They were weirdos! They looked NOTHING like the religious elite of the day!
What they NEEDED was to be welcomed. What they needed was for God to welcome
them to His table, for God to welcome them to the GREAT FEAST of his love!
Jesus himself says in the story of the sheep and the goats from Matthew that
when you welcome a stranger to your table, you are actually welcoming God.
Our Gospel
text for today is the well-known Road to Emmaus story. It is preached on and
discussed EVERY year around Easter time. Its themes have become worn out and
over-used, in a way. But there is one part about this story that caught my eye
and I just can’t shake it. Jesus has died and has come back from the dead.
Jesus is walking around in his resurrected body, meeting with his loved ones
and revealing his Glory and Love to them. The two disciples who are walking the
road to Emmaus have NOT witnessed Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. They are
looking to start over with their lives. So, they are making the seven mile trek
on foot to the next town. Sure, the two Marys at the tomb have told them that
Jesus has left the tomb, but, they are confused and distressed by this news.
They feel like strangers and outcasts. They are skipping town to begin again.
The Resurrected Jesus meets them on the road and walks with them. He joins
their discussion and walks with them. No matter HOW MANY hints Jesus drops
them, they simply do NOT recognize him as their Lord and Savior! This passage
is PACKED full of theological and political questions.
Who is Jesus now?
Who
are WE now, if Jesus is dead?
Who are we NOW, if Jesus is truly alive?
And IF
Jesus is alive, WHERE IS HE?
At the end
of their journey together, the two disciples welcome Jesus, who they only see
as a stranger, to their table to eat with them. And the text says that when
Jesus is sitting at dinner with them, he says a prayer before they eat and
breaks the bread to pass it. SUDDENLY they recognize the “stranger” for who he
REALLY is. He is Jesus, their Lord and Savior. The last line of the passage
says that Jesus was “made known to them in the breaking of the bread.” ALL
of the theological questions in the WORLD could not reveal Jesus to them. But
when they SAT DOWN and ATE together, Jesus became known to them! And, my
friends, when we, the people of Zion/St. John’s, welcome strangers to our table
and eat together, Jesus becomes known to us! WHY do you think we continue to
celebrate communion in our churches THOUSANDS of years later?? YOU have been
welcomed to THIS table, sinners and strangers that you are! And because of the
Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, he is CONTINUALLY made known to us in
the breaking of the bread! (Pause)
On October
2, 2006, a tragic event occurred in this country which the majority of us seem
to have moved on from. But, when it happened, it rocked the little Amish
community of Nickel Mines, a town just outside of Lancaster, PA to its core. A
local milkman and friend of the Amish who lived with his wife, children, and
parents, Charles Carl Roberts IV, entered the local one room school house with
a loaded gun and shot 10 little girls executioner style, killing 5 of them,
before he committed suicide. The media swept in and made a HAY DAY of the
event, drawing a great deal of unnecessary attention to this quiet and peaceful
little Amish community. While the press was covering the story, several of the
family members of the little girls were asked what they were going to do about
this. The answer was the same every time. “We will cling to our faith in God,”
they said. After the media left Nickel Mines, the close-knit community was left
to mourn and grieve the loss of their precious little girls, working towards
healing. But, the most important part of this story is what happened AFTER the
media left Nickel Mines. The wife, children, and parents of Carl
Charles Roberts decided that it was time for them to pack up their bags and
leave the town that they loved, the town they had lived in the whole lives. Carl’s
wife approached the local church and told her Amish friends that the family was
leaving Nickel Mines. They simply could not remain there any longer and be a
CONSTANT reminder to the Amish community of the tragedy that had occurred. They
felt too much shame and guilt to stay. They felt like strangers, now. The Amish community came together and agreed to extend forgiveness and love to
the family of Carl Charles Roberts IV. Amish ladies prepared meals for them and
invited them to eat at their tables. Forgiveness, healing, and reconciliation
were happening all around them. When the community of Nickel Mines told the
media that they would “cling to their faith in God,” they meant it. You will
notice that the Amish families invited the family of Roberts to sit and eat
with them. “And Jesus was known to them in the breaking of the bread.”
The Amish
community of Nickel Mines took the unconditional love of Jesus Christ
seriously. They loved God. They loved people. They recognized that nothing else
mattered. They invited strangers to their table and they ATE TOGETHER. They
responded and continue to respond to the grace and love God has shown them in
Jesus Christ by showing grace and love to others. They don’t do this because
they HAVE to, but because it is their response to the LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST that
was first shown to them. To the Amish community of Nickel Mines, this is just
how they have been called to live. WE have been called to live in the same way.
But know this: When you screw up and exclude people from your table, God
continues to forgive you time and time again. Now THAT is love. The love of
Christ. Love WITHOUT conditions.
This past
Easter Sunday, I was reminded of the fact that LAST Easter Sunday was the very
last time my grandfather, Pastor Howard Armstrong, preached a sermon to his
congregation. I thought about my Poppy ALL day. And it struck me as I was
writing today’s sermon, that the last text he preached on was the story of The
Road to Emmaus. I had always had a very close relationship with my Poppy, but
we had our differences. He was very excited that I was becoming a pastor, but
he was not too thrilled by the fact that I had become a Lutheran. I think he
felt I had taken a step in the wrong direction. I hadn’t seen him for months
because I had been away at seminary, but when I came home for Easter break, my
dad announced to the family that we were all going to his church to hear him
preach because this would probably be the last time. For the first time
in years, my entire family went to North Urbana Chapel in Hammondsport together
and watched as my Poppy, frail from his cancer, wheeled himself in his
wheelchair towards the front of the sanctuary and whispered his hour-long
sermon into a microphone. I will NEVER forget his words that day. My Poppy, the
great Rev. Howard Armstrong, said to the congregation he had served for over 20
years and loved so dearly, “My ministry has come to an end. And with that, I
want you to know from me what the MOST IMPORTANT thing about our faith is. It’s
love,” he said, “it’s love.” And THEN, he said those words I NEVER thought I
would hear him say. He said, “Love God. Love people. Nothing else matters.”
Following his sermon, we gathered as a family for the last time, and ate Easter
dinner together. And Jesus was made known to us in the breaking of the bread.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen.
