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The Third time is always the charm.
For those of you who are not aware we are in our second week of looking at Jesus’ farewell passages. Last week we talked about one way to celebrate Easter is to embody the words of Jesus to study the scriptures and hold dear those things he said to the disciples after the resurrection. By cherishing these ‘Farewell Words" we are hoping to be :"Farewell Disciples:."
This week’ theme is on learning and ‘getting it’
Sometimes I wonder if the disciples ever sat back and went oh.. I get it.. did they ever have those "Ah-Ha" moments where it just finally made sense? If they did then this passage would be one of them. We find them on the road traveling away from the center of the controversy. Jesus has been arrested, the disciples scattered, and Jesus was crucified and the disciples find that the body is missing from the tomb. As they are traveling away from the hub-bub and controversy they find that leaving a geographic place does not always mean that one can leave the feelings and emotions that have come with that place.
And on top of that they meet a stranger on the road who begins to talk with them about the events of the past few days. And lo and behold he begins to teach them about the messiah and show the scriptures to them. At gut level the disciples have heard this discussion before. They are Jews - they are familiar with the scriptures, and they are also the ‘twelve’ they know Jesus in a more intimate way than anyone else on the face of the earth. But they have yet to get it. So too – it is with you and me. For some of us we have warmed a bench every week for decades, but not gotten it yet. We haven’t had the ah-ha moment. Some of us .. Even preach it every week and tend to forget what it is all about...
Basically I call this the "Third time is a Charm form of Evangelism." Churches have to repeat themselves over and over for people to hear the gospel. They have to be willing to become a broken record of the gospel and grace. For people have to hear the story over and over before they begin to get it. They have to hear it, and then they have to experience it, and then they have to be it.
I think this is pretty plain to see in this scripture... I want to expound on this though for you and me... The Third times a Charm normally works by recognizing that we hear the gospel in many ways.. And that can be boiled down into three "Chances" (though we all know that God will never ‘give up’ on us. He will always continue to tell us the story and to love us into the kingdom, – our job is to quit resisting the irresistible Grace of God.) These Chances I like to call past-present-future.
Past -
The disciples were Jews. They were all Jewish men familiar with their religion. They to some degree had begun to recognize who Jesus was/is. They were conscious of their history the knew who they were in the midst of their experience with Jesus and their experience with the world. But that hadn’t been enough. Even after all those years of Hebrew school, and Torah school as children – still they didn’t understand what was going on… They knew their History and their past but they didn’t get it – they didn’t see the Gospel for what it was..
For you and me – we must also be conscious of our history. We must also be burdened by the past. We must be willing to know who we are - and where we have come from. This was illustrated to me at a Conference I went to this week on refugee services. During the conference we had an opportunity to listen to a panel of refugees who had been forced to leave their homes and travel to refugee camps, and then to apply for asylum and transport to another nation. Each refugee on the panel was asked to relate the very real human story of how they came to be refugees in this country living in asylum from their native home. Each person to the letter started their story with a comprehensive lesson on the history of their home land. They shared the conflicts, the powers that were in charge, and the difficult pressures that prevented peace and eventually caused them to be forced from their homes and to travel far away to preserve their lives from the violence of their homelands. They were unable to just tell the story of how someone beat them and forced them from their homes – they knew that part of the story - an important part of the story was why someone had beat them and forced them from their homes and why their was absolutely no place for them to go.
Friends - as Christians – we can’t just know our pasts.. We can’t just know the scripture... we must know that we are refugees from sin. We have been called by God to leave what we know – and to travel to an unknown land – a land called Grace and to make a new home. We must know the story of what brought us here. It is one thing to know that Jesus is the Messiah, the Risen one. It is another to Believe that he died for us while we were yet sinners and that proves God’s love for us. Then we will become Farewell Disciples – then we will be Refugees of Sin living in the asylum of the Lord.
Present -
The disciples, as I have mentioned before, walked, talked, and ministered with Jesus as he traveled. They knew Jesus in a more intimate way then all of us. They were literally living in the midst of God in the flesh. Yet they still weren’t sure exactly what was going on - they heard the words and saw the actions – and even participated – but they didn’t get it.
For you and we also live in the midst of great time of ministry, a time of culture for the world. We happen to be the most informed society in modern history. We can find out more information, and be present to more people in chat-rooms, communicate with anyone through email and even pin point just about any location in the world. We are overwhelmed by information about things – and never find ourselves intimately in relation to people, to ourselves, or to God.
It is amazing that we can be so ‘connected’ and yet at the same time so lost to the concept of faith. We know about Jesus – but we don’t know Jesus. We know about faith – but we don’t practice faith. We know about discipleship but we are hesitant to commit to it. So in the same ways we have failed to get it. We fail to understand the point of the gospels, the point of the church , and in the end the point of the Resurrection.
But here comes that third ‘chance.’
Future -
As Jesus walked and talked with the disciples on the road and began to explain all of these things again in the light of Easter weekend, the empty tomb, and the Risen Savior, they began to see, feel, and hear what it means to be disciples. They began to embody the love of the savior in their lives and saw themselves being changed.
So too for you and me – every time the church gathers we have the opportunity to remember what it is all about. God is relentless in his pursuit of us. He will go to any length to have you hear the story – whether that means seeing a sunset and realizing that someone created all this; or whether it is holding a newborn baby and feeling the love of a parent and knowing that someone holds you everyday and loves you in a very similar way; or whether it is reading the scriptures, hearing the word preached, and signing the songs of worship and as Wesley says knowing for sure that Christ died for you, truly for you. All of these are examples of beginning to embody the truth. Not just knowing the truth, not just talking about the truth but being the truth.
When you begin to recognize that as disciples Jesus calls us to reflect him. We are called to reflect Jesus to the world. In the end the world does not want to know about Jesus, they don’t want to be around someone who likes Jesus. They want to see Jesus. You and I must be the Farewell Disciples. We must get it – Jesus doesn’t want us to be ‘knowledgeable’ he want us to share the good news.. And in the words of St. Francis – use words if necessary. Think about this "Does the church have a mission, or does the mission have a church?"
This is the Heart of the Third Time is a Charm – that eventually, on a dusty road – journeying to the next place in the life we encounter a stranger. A stranger who knows us better than we know ourselves. He shows us the wounds, and calls us by name, he eats with us. And he looks at us and says "Go tell the world what you know."
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.