Acts 2: 14a, 36-41
NPMC
Psalm 116
3 Easter
1 Peter 1: 17-23
April 6, 2008
Luke 24: 13-35
Anita Retzlaff
Journey of the Heart
Grace to you and peace from God the Father of our Lord and
Savior Jesus the Christ! In our moment of silent meditation this morning we
ponder the mystery of the resurrection giving thanks to God for Jesus our
companion on the journey. Jesus gave himself to us in ways that we are still
struggling to comprehend and we seek wisdom in our discernment. Let us pray.
Lord, help us set aside fear and thoughtless busyness so that our hearts might
be receptive to a new word from you. AMEN
The colour white of Easter remains: even yet filling our senses as we worship
today. The cross and the linen draping have been removed. We are 14 days into
resurrection life. The empty tomb remains a powerful symbol yet even the memory
of it seems to be receding as we turn our attention to Gardenscape, spring
concerts, drying earth. As we wait on the musky smell of fresh raked yards and
nippy evenings arranging lawn furniture and clay pots, we wonder, “Christ has
risen. What has changed?”
“Some of us went to the tomb and found it as the women had said, but we do not
see him…. We had hoped… ”, recount the men who meet Jesus on the daytime trek to
Emmaus. For us, 14 days into resurrection life, we too are not sure what
happened, what, for us today, has changed in light of an empty tomb. Like the
two men walking along the dusty road reflecting on the death of Jesus, we too
recite the story, the events of Jesus’ life and the startling mystery of Easter
morning.
We say along with Christians for almost two millennia, “I believe in Jesus
Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of
the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was
buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended
into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father and he will come again
to judge the living and the dead.” I know that there are parts of this
confession that make some of us cringe because we don’t know exactly how to
believe in events we haven’t personally witnessed.
However, the pivotal action in the latter part of the Jesus story is his
insistence that even though the powers of the day will effectively silence his
preaching, death will not stop his message. Jesus makes that promise. Sounds so
simple, doesn’t it? Yet what happened at Golgotha was nothing less than the
piercing of the heart of God. Within the deep darkness of the tomb the
resilience of Jesus’ message of love bursts forth from the powers of death that
would dare to hold it down.
So, the outgrowth of Easter for us turns out to be a journey, a journey of the
heart. For as the men, walking that familiar road, admit their confusion as to
the evidence before them, we too are on a similar journey, discerning whether or
not love can be as radical and available as the resurrection seems to indicate.
Cleopas and his friend are unable to connect their religious traditions with the
promise of Jesus. They can’t imagine that the disappearance of his body from its
burial site can mean anything hopeful. They are heartsick. Jesus himself had
promised his followers that he would rise after three days yet it seems that no
one expected anything to come of it.
Even as they walk along they assume that the journey is over, done, finished.
Hope has turned to despair; their hearts are empty. The promise of a
never-ending kingdom of love is now as dry as the dust they kick up as they
walk. The journey of the heart is a dead end.
Today, we associate the metaphor of the heart with the source of love and
compassion. We love from the heart. Falling in love has to do with the heart
while our deepest affection is expressed as “heartfelt.” The symbol of the heart
is huge at Valentine’s Day. In the world of the bible, the heart is a powerful
metaphor for the God-given gift of human will, of choice, of human intent and
freely chosen action. In the women’s bible study we have been reading the
account of Pharaoh, Moses and the Israelites in the dynamic story of freedom
from slavery and hard won escape. Time and again the bible claims that God
hardened Pharaoh’s heart. In this context the heart is the source of human
decision-making, stubbornness and power. A hardened heart, like Pharaoh’s does
not allow for the love of God to be the guide and director of human action.
And so when Jesus says to the two men on the dusty road, “Oh, how foolish you
are, and how slow of heart to believe all the prophets have declared” we come to
the crux of their problem and of ours. We are slow to believe, slow to
understand that the journey with God has markers all along the way. And we have
not been paying attention. Our hearts are not open to receive. The prophets in
scripture give evidence. Jesus gives evidence, showing in the very act of
offering his life the force of love in the world; a force stronger than
violence, a force stronger than hatred and a force stronger than death.
However, we keep missing it. We are slow of heart. We think that we can fight
violence with violence and things should come out O.K. We think that if we
indulge ourselves with all the things that money can buy we will reach
contentment. Recognition often comes slowly with us. Really, we have little
expectation of the promise that Jesus gives, that love is born anew over and
over again, even out of death. Yet there is nothing more powerful as a force for
shalom and peaceful living on this earth than love – period! That is all that
Jesus is saying, then and now. “Were not our hearts burning within us while he
was talking to us on the road?” This is the presence of love walking alongside
them; close, palpable, redemptive. The hearts of the two men journeying together
are no longer slow to believe but suddenly and effectively caught up in the
power of risen love.
Centuries of heart-hardened people have viewed sacrificial love as wussy,
ineffective, a path for losers. It becomes the path of least resistance to hide
behind violence or frenetic activity, self-prescribed busyness or the insatiable
drive to get ahead. In so doing we block out the one thing that can save us all,
an openness to give love and to be loved. And that necessitates the ability to
make ourselves vulnerable and willing to occupy the lowly places where our need
and the need of others is no longer hidden. Most often we do not want to be
vulnerable in that way. The desire to run from our fear and anxiety, that
avoidance is the most devilish resistance that we face in recognizing that Jesus
walks beside us. We desire the love of the Lord but we do not always find what
we seek.
On the Emmaus road, however, heart meets heart; the love of God, through Jesus
along the roadside, meets the love of two travelers, two who search. And further
down the road the journey of the heart becomes a journey of the community. We
live in a very complicated and complex world today and that is becoming all the
more evident as time moves along. When a community does not have any expectation
of the promise of love in the world, that community will likely crucify anything
that exposes its vulnerability. It is much easier in a culture of fear and macho
violence to do combat than it is to invite suffering for the sake of love and a
redemptive outcome. When fear reigns supreme, when ultimate control is the
bottom line, we are told by the powers-that-be that a violent response is our
only choice. Jesus challenges that position.
The good news is, that many of us though somewhat slow of heart, in the
fellowship of the community, will recognize our common heritage of love in
Christ. And so along with the searchers written of in the Acts passage, we too
are cut to the heart when we recognize our need for repentance. “Repent and be
baptized,” Peter says, “for the promise is for you, for your children and for
all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.”
This week over coffee in the church kitchen my dad, Bernie, reminded us of the
true scandal of Jesus’ resurrection. Not only did Jesus forgive those who
crucified him or wanted him crucified, rather, Jesus having divine power and the
authority to exact vengeance, instead invites perpetrators to join him in his
work of the kingdom. Instead of taking revenge, instead of hardening his heart
toward those who seek to avoid love’s demands, Jesus invites them, invites us
into his inner circle. Amazing! In our places of business we would not likely
invite someone who has betrayed our trust to take on more responsibilities for
the company. In our homes we are more likely to be punitive than to invite
intimacy when faced with the disappointment or disobedience of a family member.
Jesus does the opposite; opens his heart to the offender, to us.
Our journey into the heart of God can be a painful one. Sometimes it feels like
40 years of wilderness wandering, an image not unfamiliar to the experience of
many of God’s people. Our journey with God through all seasons of our life is a
journey that stands up to fear. It can be characterized as a struggle, a battle,
a time of confinement even lack or the absence of God. Jesus does not deny us
this part of the journey. In fact, only through struggle and searching do we
most often learn the important lessons of life.
Are not our hearts burning within us today? 14 days into resurrection life we
can say with great thanksgiving that God goes before us, beside us, behind us
and among us. Jesus invites us into the inner circle of ministry to the world.
We will make the difference that love compels. We are the messengers of Christ
who walk along the dusty road meeting up with strangers and journeying together
awhile. This is our life together at Nutana Park Mennonite Church. We are
pilgrims together, sometimes slow of heart but ultimately assured that we
journey into the heart of God.
Prayer – God of all ages, you know our hearts. Make of us instruments of your
peace and love in the world. Show us, remind us, that you walk together with us
through all moments of our lives. You know the joy and the pain we carry, and in
that knowledge we rest assured of your love, a love that will never die. AMEN