Missed Opportunities

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
August 5th 2007

Jason Simons
Luke 24:13-35
“Missed Opportunities”


We, as Americans, are a divided nation made up of and defined by red and blue states and people. When asked to describe ourselves, one of the first things we say is Republican or Democrat, sometimes before American or even Christian. A popular social utility for college students, Facebook, with some 3 million users, lists political views as basic personal information, right behind birthday and hometown, and ahead of religious views. Politics has infiltrated almost all spheres of our public life and has become both a definer and divider socially. In my experience at Wabash, where 75 percent of students consider themselves to be conservative, there seems to be an unspoken that Republicans are friends with Republicans and Democrats with Democrats. The mixing of the two should be kept to a minimum. But this is not just an issue at Wabash. It is an issue at colleges and universities across the country, in the workplace, and even in the church. This is a troubling issue, as it appears that politics will continue to polarize and divide Americans in the future. Most alarming, though, is what the politics of a red and blue nation is doing to the Church. Simply put, it has created a black and blue church.
If we look at our own denomination, we can see evidence of this. The fights between interest, advocacy, or affinity groups as they are known (you pick your favorite adjective) like the Presbyterian Laymen and More Light Presbyterians has been going on for several decades (the Laymen trace their roots back to the fight over Sabbath laws in the early 1900s), but have been amplified in recent years by the politicization of the nation and its infiltration into the religious sphere. Currently, the biggest fight is over ordination standards. It is a fight that has already caused a number of churches to leave and could potentially cause a major split in the denomination. Fights such as this are causing great distrust among Presbyterians on opposite sides of the political and religious spectrum. A study of Presbyterians found that over 40 percent of members did not trust members on the opposite side of the spectrum, even though they were involved in bible studies together. The body of Christ is deeply divided. There is no unity to be found in the Presbyterian Church.
Sociologists and denominational leaders have debated and tossed around numerous explanations for the decline of our denomination and the larger phenomenon of mainline, which includes Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Disciples of Christ, almost since it began late in the 1950s and early 1960s. The explanations range from “they’re too liberal to grow” to “they are the victims of a seismic shift of American life and culture.” I’m convinced that none of the explanations offered have been very correct. While rightly describe cultural factors and other elements that contributed to the decline, they have missed the heart of what is going on—we, as a Church, have the wrong perspective. We have become too caught up in the fights, in instilling God’s true will (which he apparently has at least two of) in the church and in our larger society. We have become so confident in our knowledge and ability to reason that we do not let God be God. Drawing back to our Scripture from last Sunday, we have forgotten that Christ is the head and we are just the ligaments that make his will move. We forget that we cannot do our job without the head. We forget that gifts we are equipped with just aren’t good enough without the revelation that comes from Jesus Christ.
Our passage this morning speaks directly to the very real dangers of getting so caught up in our own fights and everyday lives that we forget who is really in charge and what and who life is really about. We find two disciples walking on the road on their way to Emmaus. They are trying to make sense of what has happened in recent days, and you can imagine the emotional roller-coaster they had been on. They had seen their leader, the one for whom they had sold all their possessions to follow in the hope that he would redeem Israel, be handed over to the authorities and executed for reasons they could not understand. They were no doubt questioning whether or not their commitment had been worth it. They had nothing to show for it—they had no money and were now outcasts in society, and they still weren’t sure just who this man was. As we find throughout the Gospels, they just don’t seem to understand.
And then a man, a complete stranger for all that they know, joined them on the road. Naturally, they began speaking with him and he asked them about the big news of the past few days. They were astonished that this man hadn’t heard of all that had taken place, so they recounted the story to him, again not knowing who they were speaking with. When they were finished, the man, a stranger in their mind, responds by reprimanding them and then explaining to them what had really happened. The Messiah, the Son of God, the Word Incarnate is sharing the whole of the Gospel with them. In many ways, this was the culmination of the story of Israel, and they missed it.
But, they don’t totally mess it up. When they reach their destination, they invite the stranger to stay with them and dine with them. They extend an invitation to this stranger for no reason other than that he is in need. They did not know at the time the significance of this simple invitation, this simple act of hospitality. For, as a result of their hospitality, their eyes were opened to the risen Lord through the simple act of breaking bread together. And then it all comes together in their minds. They realize just what had happened. They understood that they had not only missed God speaking directly to them, but that they completely missed God’s presence with them.
I shudder to think about all that we miss, and I wonder if we have totally messed it up. I often wonder if we see the Bible as more of a historical account of what God did some two thousand years ago than as a real and present witness to how God moves among God’s people. The United Church of Christ has launched a new marketing campaign with the operative phrase being, “God is still speaking.” That we must call the attention of Christians back to this very fact seems to suggest to me that we have, indeed, missed it. But here’s the good news—God is still speaking. Now, we must learn to listen.
Our faith tradition tells us that we celebrate God’s presence by breaking bread with one another, just like the disciples did with the risen Christ. And in the same manner, this meal calls us to hospitality. It begins by extending an invitation to a stranger, for it is in the stranger that we find Christ’s presence. As we come to the table this morning, we are reminded of the fact that God is still speaking and that we are called to set aside our fights and our burdens and to come to the table as one people, by virtue of our baptism. For, it is at this table that we find Christ’s presence, that we experience unity. Amen.