Sermon for
April 3, 2005
2nd Sunday of Easter
“Burning Hearts, Centered Lives”
Luke 24:13-25
Their hearts burned
within them, these 2 other disciples of Jesus as they walked away from the
tragic and confusing events at Jerusalem and made their way to Emmaus with
this stranger at their side. This stranger who would become their
guest that night seemed to them to be the only one in Jerusalem who “did
not know what had taken place there in these days.” Still, their
hearts burned within them when he began to open the scriptures to them.
Their hearts burned within them for they were to soon find out that this
stranger who seems to be the only one who does not know of these
earth-shattering events is the only one who actually knows the real
meaning of all that has happened. Their hearts burned within them
and that spark in their own spirits erupted into the very joy of the
spirit of God as they rushed to tell the others that had just been with
Jesus, their risen Lord.
The Scripture invites
us this morning to consider how much we are like these two strangers who
are in the very presence of Jesus after Easter and they don’t even know
he’s there. You and I know that experience very well, don’t we?
How often are we aware of the imminent presence of Christ right here with
us in every moment of every day of our lives? That’s the message
of Easter, isn’t it? That’s the hope of the resurrection!
In our everyday lives we are so like these two who travel along unaware of
who it is that walks beside them.
But as they travel,
their hearts burned. Whatever it is that is going on in the hearts
of these two believers who find themselves in the presence of Jesus after
the resurrection, the scripture also calls us to wonder this morning
whether our hearts have ever burned like that.
What is it all about,
this burning heart? It’s certainly not something that Pepcid OTC
will take care of. It’s something you don’t want to go away.
It’s a good thing. But what is it?
Is it like a warm
feeling inside evoked by events and circumstances in our lives?
Is it that feeling in you, that feeling of competence you experience when
you get an “A” on
a test or hear your superior
say, “That’s good work!” Is that it? Is that the
feeling? No, it
is more than that.
Is it that feeling of confidence and satisfaction that comes when you made
the last car payment, or when the house is finally paid for, or when you
have a fully funded retirement account. Is that it? Is that
the feeling? No, it is more than that.
Maybe it’s that feeling of joy in relief when, on the scheduled day in
class, you are really not ready for that test or that paper is not yet
done, but the teacher announces that it’s all postponed. Or when
the surgeon schedules you but upon further examination announces at your
pre-surgery appointment, “You know, I believe we can treat this with
medication.” Or when the pathologist, upon reading the biopsy
report says, “It’s not malignant.” Is that it? Is that
the feeling? No, it must be more than that. It is more than
all of this.
But if it’s not that, then what is
it? Most of the time this is all we have to get by! Without
some feeling of personal competence for a job well done or some small
sense of satisfaction and confidence in plans well-made, or some relief
now and then from the schedule or problems or tragedies of life, what is
there to hang onto? What is left to spark our inner being?
If you don’t do well or you don’t prepare well or a very real tragedy
of life overtakes you, you often fear for your very life, don’t you?
Your heart burns all right but it burns with the pain of dashed
expectations and lost hope.
Did they not experience
something more? Did they not share in something much more assuring
and solid than they had before? Was it not more like this, to quote
the words of the Church of England minister who founded the 18th
century movement that became the United Methodist Church? Upon
hearing the book of Romans explained through the reading of Martin
Luther’s commentary, John Wesley wrote in his journal:
About a quarter
before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in
the heart through faith
in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in
Christ alone for my salvation;
and an assurance was given me that he had taken away
my sins, even mine, and saved
me from the law of sin and death…this I know, I have
now peace with God.
John Wesley
[John Wesley, Albert C. Outler, ed. (New York:
Oxford University Press) 1964, pp. 66-67.]
Their
hearts burned within them.
It was not a feeling of
competence, for they who had followed this prophet now felt lost
and bewildered.
It was not a feeling of
confidence and satisfaction in a well-planned and hopeful future,
for they had little hope of a
future at all.
It was not a feeling of joy and
relief brought on by a deliverance from tragedy, for their
Lord was dead.
No, their hearts burned and it was unlike anything
they could immediately identify as familiar. As a matter of fact,
it’s not a feeling at all. Feelings come and go; they are
completely capricious experiences, too dependent on the circumstances and
whims of the moment as well as our own success or failure at negotiating
the ways of life. This, this somehow had staying power and would
sustain them for a very long time. This was different. This
was not fleeting feeling; this was different.
As Jesus walked with them that day
as a stranger he knew their hopelessness very well, for God had heard the
cries and pain of a desperate and lonely humanity every since the Fall of
creation. A world originally created at the very center of the peace
and love of God was fractured and torn by a humanity that chose to go its
own way, to find life for itself, to center life on things other than God
(like personal accomplishment, or self-provision, or self-preservation).
The really sad story is that we know this very well in our own lives every
day. And if you bet your life on these things you are doomed to live
a very empty and desolate life, ever at the mercy of the peaks and valleys
of a broken and shattered world.
But God knew we
didn’t always have to be so afraid. We simply need to return to
the center of our lives, to this God who loves us and has never let us go.
We simply need to trust God again and give our lives back to the one who
cares and provides for us. You see, this God loves us so much that
God became a human being just like us in the person of Jesus Christ.
He took upon himself on the cross the deepest fears of a lost and
bewildered humanity. Christ turned upside down the values of our
shortsighted culture by turning failure into success, tragedy into glory,
and death into life on the cross. The Messiah suffered these things
because God simply could not stand the suffering of creation any longer.
By his suffering, death, and resurrection, fear and death have no more
power. All of creation is empowered and enabled to live again with
God at the very center of life.
A centered
life—that’s what burning hearts are all about. It’s not a
feeling with which we are so familiar. It’s not a feeling at all,
but rather an experience of the spirit, a conviction that becomes a state
of heart. It’s not a feeling, it’s a blessing, a blessing evoked
by a loving, forgiving, patient, empowering, and risen Lord. It’s
not a feeling, it’s a gift. It is more like the gift you receive
when
One of your
classmates comes up to you on the playground and says,
“Hey, you know what? I like you just like you are!”
A friend who, after
a long period of distrust and misunderstanding in
your relationship, says, “I forgive you.”
Your
little daughter or granddaughter runs up to you, wraps her arms around
your neck
and says, “I love you” and jumps down in equal exuberance and thinks
it’s the
most exciting thing in the whole world;
Someone you have
known as a child or young person who now in his older years calls
you up and says, “I just want to thank you. I’ve never forgotten
the influence
you have had on my life.”
It’s not a feeling,
it’s a gift. It’s not a feeling, it’s a blessing. It’s not
something that is the result of your hard work or your good planning or
just dumb luck. It doesn’t anesthetize your pain or prevent
tragedy. It is a gift—a gift of God granted right in the midst of
everyday difficult and even tragic moments of life. It is a gift
that sustains, comforts, and assures your inner being. It is an
experience of spirit, a conviction that becomes a state of heart that has
real staying power in a culture where competence and confidence and
accomplishment so often come and go. It is a blessing, a gift of God
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Their hearts burned
within them, and so do yours. Why is the Gospel so sure about this?
I’ll tell you why. Their hearts burned within them and, just like
us, they didn’t even know he was there.
Our Lord is here this
morning and welcomes you to his table. As you receive the gift of
his love and grace through this bread and wine, you’ll receive his
blessing and your lives will be more centered on him that they were before
you came to his table today.
Our Lord is right there
with you every moment of every day, pronouncing the blessing of God in the
midst of your very real and difficult circumstances of life. He is
right there and often you don’t even recognize him.
