worship this Sunday…

Growing up, I was the class clown. (Ok, I still am the class clown.) But I also was the class clown then too! Back then, I loved nothing more than getting a laugh from my classmates, or even rarely from my teachers. I lived my life constantly scanning for an opening to make a joke or even share one that I had heard before.

With that, though, I did have a bad habit of trying to do the worst possible thing in comedy. If my joke didn’t get a laugh, I would often resort to try to explain why the joke was funny in hopes of rescuing the moment. This, by the way, never works and is in fact an act of terrible violence to the joke itself. A joke loses its life if you have to explain it. This is the first and highest rule of comedy, and evidently, the hardest one for a child to learn. It took me years, but I think I did finally learn that rule.

Our Scripture passage this week is not a joke, but to be frank, I have similar concerns when it comes to preaching on it. The thing is, this is just such a beautiful and amazing story that trying to explain why it’s a wonderful story could take the life right out of it. I think sometimes preaching can fall into explaining, which can take the real, lived beauty of a story and lose it…when, in fact, the beauty of the story is the truth of it.

So, would you do me a favor?

Would you take a moment and just read this story for yourself?

I’d love for each of us to get the chance to just enjoy this story…to wonder about it and to feel the drama and the surprise. You know, like we would any story. And, please, don’t worry or ask anything about “what it means.” Instead, just lean into it as the story unfolds and let that lived experience be your lesson.

See you on Sunday when I hopefully help us hear the story again without pulling its life away, and I’m sure, crack a couple of jokes. I can’t help it!

Sincerely,
Brent

Luke 24: 13-35

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?’ That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’ Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.