What To Do When You Don't Know What to do - When You Have to Wait Part 1 by Pastor Gabrielle Martone at Pearl River United Methodist Church on Sunday 19 April 2020
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Luke 24:13-32 NRSV
Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”
Sometimes after Easter you just need that deep breath. Even though Easter this year was different, it still has that impact of just needing to breathe. And a question that often gets asked after Easter is, "Okay, so what do we do now? What does any of this mean? And what do you mean, Easter is a season and not just a day? And how do we respond to the reality that Jesus Christ is the Lord today, tomorrow, and every day? How does that play differently into our lives now? How do we celebrate the resurrection in our everyday lives?"
And I think back and I ponder that, like I said last week, we are more like the first Easter now than we ever have been before, and so one of the comforting parts of looking into scripture for me has been, "So, what did other people do after their worlds were completely flipped right-side-up? How did the disciples respond to the movement of Jesus Christ? And what can we learn about what we do now from them?"
The first post-resurrection narrative we have is the walk to Emmaus. Two of Jesus's followers are walking to Emmaus, and it's seven miles from Jerusalem, and so it was going to be a full day's walk. As they're going, they're discussing. And I imagine that their conversation went something like, "Can you believe what is going on?" I imagine that their conversation goes like pretty much every conversation I have with people when I see them now. "Can you believe what's happening?" How much longer are you and I am going to be in quarantine? What is it looking like for the governor to reopen schools and reopen the states, and what's going to happen there? And have you seen the death toll? And what about the recovery toll? And where are we at? And there's all of this stress in these conversations.
And I can imagine that if I were walking, socially distant, from somewhere seven miles, from my city center to another place, and some random person came up to us and said, "Oh hey, what are y'all talking about?" I'd be like, "Do you not know we're in the middle of a pandemic? Do you not understand what's going on? Please, sir, six feet away. Don't let me catch the 'Rona. Where's your mask and your gloves? Don't you know what's going on in this world? How do you not understand what has happened?"
And if that stranger then asked me, "Well, give me more detail." Can I believe what happened? Can I wrap my brain around what's been going on? I imagine that if I were one of Jesus's followers, I'd look at this stranger with deep sadness and say, "I think it was all for nothing." This following that I did, this man that I believed to be the Messiah, was crucified. And I believed him. Hook, line and sinker. And look at what happened. Jesus is dead." And yeah, there's been these rumors that have come from some of the women in our group, but if I were one of the Jesus followers from the first century, I'd be like, "Yeah, but you know those ladies. They're a little off-kilter. And they keep saying that Jesus has been resurrected, and 'We ran to the tomb and he wasn't there,' but I still don't believe it. It still doesn't really make any sense to me."
And then the stranger breathes deeply and says, "You are foolish. Did you not know that this was exactly what needed to happen? The Son of Man needed to suffer, just like the prophets and all of the forefathers have said for decades and centuries, before the Son of Man could come into his glory. Did you not know? Have you not seen? Do you not understand?" While the disciples and the Jesus followers are so concerned of "what do we do next?" that they missed seeing Jesus.
And it's not until they call him back, as they enter into Emmaus, and Jesus goes to go on his way, and they say, "Jesus, come back! You, Dude, come back. It's almost dark and we've eaten nothing. So share in this with us." Jesus takes the bread and blesses it and breaks it and gives it to them, and all of a sudden their eyes were opened and they believed. Their eyes were opened, and they believed.
What do we do now? What do we do now, in a state and a place in which we have no concept of what this life is supposed to be like? When the entirety of our time in quarantine feels like Holy Saturday, when we are waiting and waiting for something to happen? And we dream about what our life might look like, or could look like, or when will we go back to that thing, or when is somebody going to give us a definitive answer? What do we do now? How do we exist in a space and a time and a moment in history where, once again, what we expected to happen did not, and we are all discombobulated?
What if during this time we listened? We took a deep breath? Not to the news, not to the press conferences, not to the people on Facebook and Nextdoor who all of a sudden have decided that they are now experts on disease control. What if we listened to the way Jesus was trying to break into even this discombobulated time? What if we stopped talking so much about corona and instead started to listen for how Jesus is trying to speak to us? What if we opened our Bibles more and read the scriptures that told us how to be strong and courageous and to trust in God? What if we put down all of the other distractions we've inevitably created for ourself even in this, and we took a deep breath and we waited in silence and listened for the still small voice of God? What if we collectively, as a nation and a people, listened? Not to gain knowledge for ourselves, not to gain prestige for ourselves, not so that we were concerned with our own outcome, but we listened so that we cared for one another?
What do we do now? How do we live in a world that is post-resurrection? How do we live in a world in which all things have been fulfilled, but in the exact opposite way that we thought that they were going to? How do we live in this world, in this time, in this place, breathing deeply with one another? How do we listen for the still, small voice of God who comes to us in the form of Jesus, that when we are too busy being focused on the events of what was or what is happening that we forget to look at the one who has held yesterday, today, and tomorrow? Jesus is walking alongside of us. Are you listening for his voice, or are you so distracted by the conversations and the noise that we are continuing to filter into our lives that we are forgetting that Jesus walks with us? And have we blinded ourselves so completely to the way that Jesus Christ breathes life into us that it's not until Jesus breaks bread in front of us, until Jesus does something miraculous for us, that we recognize that he was with us all along?
What do we do now? What do we do now, when it feels like our entire lives are falling apart? What do we do now, when we are afraid, afraid for our families and our friends and our lives? When we are afraid of when the layoffs will come, when we are afraid of how we'll provide for our families, when we are afraid of what could be or might be or will be? What do we do now? We listen. We listen for the voice of God, who says, "Do you not understand? I suffered for you. I was raised into my glory for you. I did this so you would know how deeply you are loved by the creator of the universe, and you're still not paying attention."
What do we do now? How do we move on from here? We listen. We read. We wait. And we trust that Jesus Christ is with us, today and every day. Amen.
