New Pastor arrived in July 2012 Welcome Pastor Karen Martin Tichenor.
Listen to this weeks songs, stories and sermon, Oct 23, 2011
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This Sunday, July 31 I will preach a sermon on The Lord’s Prayer. We will experience the Lord’s Prayer in different ways, and hopefully discover some of the “hidden” power in this prayer. Then, next month, I will begin a series on the book of Acts, based on the book “Preaching for Church Transformation.”
Soldotna United Methodist Church
Rev. Karen Martin Tichenor, Pastor
Soldotna, Alaska
New Pastor arrived in July 2012 Welcome Pastor Karen.
November 1, 2009
All Saints Sunday
Sermon Series: Creating the New Community
Sermon Title: Are You Hungry
Luke 24:28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
How hungry are you? When was the last time you came to the table really, really hungry? There is something about coming to the table with your stomach empty and your desire heightened that makes the food taste better. Smell the ham? Or remember a thanksgiving day when you could smell all the cooking going on in the kitchen but things didn’t quite run on schedule and instead of eating at noon it was three o’clock — three extra hours of smelling, anticipating, thinking about eating. A ravenous appetite can change the way you experience the meal. Your senses are on edge and your need for the food changes how you feel and what you expect as you come to the table.
In the same way the hunger and need of the early church changed the way they experienced their meal with Jesus. I’ll put the scripture on the screen so we can all be reminded of what happened to these two men which increased their hunger and heightened their appetite before the meal takes place. Let’s remember that this is after the crucifixion and people are still not sure what has happened. The women are first to the tomb and they return to tell the disciples that the tomb is empty.
11But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
Even after Peter runs to the tomb to see for himself the scripture tells us.
12Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
Then we jump to the beginning of our story “On the Road to Emmaus”
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16but they were kept from recognizing him.
This is the first post-resurrection appearance of the risen Christ in the gospel of Luke. Two unknown disciples, not the ones close to Jesus the ones they called the “disciples” or the twelve, not the inner circle, Peter, James and John. Jesus first appearance is to two who were not known elsewhere in scripture. This is their story. Perhaps there were others to whom Jesus appeared but whose stories we have never heard. Right in the middle of the story, there is statement of what they knew and understood about Jesus.
21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”
The early church tells the story in a way that conveys — through the experiences of people in the narrative — the very problems and issues present in the church. In the days following the resurrection they simply didn’t have the ability to understand the scope, the significance, the transformational qualities of what had happened. But over the weeks, and months that followed they continued to meet and talk and to seek understanding. And God responded to their seeking.
Luke 11:9-10 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
The promise, that their desire to know more would be fulfilled, is described concisely in the next verse of our story.
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
I don’t believe I have read this verse in the past twenty years that it did not quicken my appetite, make me hungry to know what Jesus told them on the road. Isn’t that what the early church was searching for — to know and understand all that the scriptures had said regarding the coming of the messiah? If we only knew what he said to them? You think they would have taken notes, or made a list or shouted it from the rooftops in such a way that the whole world could know. This is it. This is the foundation of all our faith in Jesus Christ. This is what we seek for, long for, and search for — to know and understand. But the early church didn’t tell the story in that way. They didn’t focus so much on what those two disciples were told that day. Perhaps it wasn’t as surprising as you might think. Maybe when Jesus told the story it was so easy to grasp and understand they simply thought that everyone would get it when they heard it told in that way. What they focused on in the telling of the story was the experience that the disciples had when they sat down to eat the evening meal.
28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
The experience that created the new community and eventually produced the gospels that we turn to in our search for faith is what we call today, Holy Communion.
It is in this meal that our hunger for God to be close to us is met. It is when we gather around this table that God promises to come close. It is in the breaking of the bread that Christ is made real and more present to the new community. The early church told it this way.
33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
Jane attended a church much larger than this one. There were several hundred people in church with her on that particular Sunday. But as she came down the aisle to receive the elements the closer she came the more alone she felt. When she knelt at a communion rail something like this one, it seems as if she was the only person there. She started praying and pouring out the ache that was hidden in her heart. Her husband of twenty-six years had left her for another relationship three months ago and she was just now beginning to understand the extent of her financial challenges, the depth of pain from the loss of a hoped for future, and the new realities of surviving kids, and work, and new relationships all alone. Then it happened. Jane would not tell you she got any magical answers. When she got up from that communion rail her situation hadn’t changed a bit from when she knelt. Except for one thing, she wasn’t alone anymore. Christ had come close and as she knelt at that rail praying she simply heard the words, “I will be with you.” She rose and returned to her seat with a hint of a smile on her face that mystified those who were sitting around her and who knew her story. There presence, as helpful as they were, had not filled the emptiness in her heart. But sitting in that pew, after that experience at the communion rail she knew deep on the inside she would never be alone again for Christ would always be close.
Then there was Harry. He didn’t know what to think about all this communion stuff. He had only been coming to church for about a year. He started after his company had laid him off and he was facing losing the house and possibly his marriage when his former boss called and invited him to church. He came because the boss said there were a number of other companies who had members in his church and something just might turn up from some new relationships. He didn’t have any reason not to go, so he went. It was big enough that he didn’t feel like he stood out in the crowd and he didn’t have any other ideas on how to find a new job. There was a support group for people who had lost their jobs and while it was difficult to go the first time, he went anyway and quickly discovered that he was not alone in how he felt or in how he was responding to losing his job. So Sunday after Sunday he came and after a few months they had a class for folks who were new to the church and he decided that made a lot of sense because he was really new to all the church stuff. The class covered the basics and talked about a relationship with Jesus but he never quite figured out what they meant by that. Then they came to the place in the class where they were talking about Holy Communion and that morning before the worship service they read the scripture from Luke 24 about the disciples on the Road to Emmaus and how Christ was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. So that’s what he was thinking about as he came down the aisle. The bread was broken and placed in his hands, he turned and dipped it in the cup and went to the communion rail to kneel. He doesn’t remember exactly what he prayed, but he remembers what happened after he prayed. His prayer went something like this, “God I don’t even know if I am praying in the right way, I don’t even know if there is anyone that listens to these prayers, but if there is, I really need to know that someone bigger than me cares about what is happening in my life. The burdens are too heavy and the questions are too many and the way out of the mess I am in is hidden somewhere that I cannot find. I am doing everything I know how to do but it simply isn’t working. I need help and I need it now, so if there is anything to this ‘Jesus will meet you at the table business’, please meet me now.” He took the bread dipped in the wine and placed it in his mouth after he finished the prayer. There were no bright lights or voices in his head, just a warmth that started in the center of his chest and then spread throughout his body — and he knew that somehow things would work out. Two weeks later, one of the guys in his support group called to tell him about a company that he had interviewed with but had not been hired. After he got the rejection call he remembered that Harry had just the skills they said they were looking for and maybe Harry ought to apply. He did and was hired.
Sometimes what happens at this meal depends on how hungry we are when we come to the table. What do we expect to happen? What do we hope to receive from this bread and wine?
The church was formed around this meal and it has been sustained by this meal and if we ever capture a vision for the feast that God prepares for us each time we come to this table we will never fail to become the new community that brings God’s transforming power to the community in which we lives and serve in the name of Christ.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.