MUCC Sermon May 8th 2011

McFarland United Church of Christ Sermons

“Holy Conversations”_ _____ Second Sunday After Easter (May 8, 2011) Rev. Kerri Parker, McFarland UCC Luke 24:13-35 Back when I worked for a social services agency, we used to run into a pretty big problem on Friday afternoons. You see, we had an immigrant assistance program, but it was only staffed four days a week. That was all we could manage with the funding we had, to have people providing services Monday through Thursday. If someone walked through the doors on a Friday, there was no one who could assist. It was so disappointing to say, “I’m sorry, there’s no one here right now who can help you with that. Can you come back on Monday?” To make it even more challenging, the folks we worked with had very limited English language skills. They were primarily Spanish speakers, who came to us because they wanted to learn English, to become fluent in local culture and part of the community. Most of them approached us because they needed help dealing with complicated, grief- and anxiety-filled situations in their lives. And when the staff was gone for the week, all the receptionist knew how to say was, “ellas no estan” – “they’re not here.” That was the limit of what we could do. “No, there’s no one to help you.” The person’s need – no matter how important, no matter how sad it was – would have to wait. That was the limit of the communication we could offer. If their need didn’t present itself in the appropriate way, at the appropriate time, they were out of luck. Now when I arrived, I can’t pretend we had any great improvement in the situation. I had five years of extremely rusty high school Spanish under my belt. I couldn’t even roll my ‘r’s anymore. I didn’t work for the program, but somehow, shortly after I joined the agency, the receptionist got wind of this alleged skill. And so when I was the only manager in the office on a Friday afternoon, I would get the phone call. “Um, there’s somebody out here looking for help, and I don’t know what they’re saying.” So I would trot out of my office, over the front desk, and introduce myself. If I was lucky, they would respond with, “¿Hablas español?” If I was not so lucky, they would launch immediately into the detailed explanation of their need, in Spanish, and I was left to stand there, looking sympathetic, but not fully following. And then I would be forced to admit, “Solo un poquito. Lentamente por favor.” “Just a little. Slowly, please?” We would stand there, cobbling together a combination of our limited Spanish and English vocabularies – Spanglish – and gestures toward specific lines on important documents, until we could arrive at some sort of mutual understanding of what was going on. Often, I could find some way to lessen the crisis – explaining what the important letter was asking, telling them what time the court appointment was, explaining what their next steps might be. It was an exhausting way to end my week, but it made up some of the most meaningful moments of my time there. --- How do you have a conversation with someone when you don’t speak the same language? You start with any fragile connection you can build. You start with a one-to-one relationship. You build this relationship on storytelling and empathy, on careful listening, borrowing words and concepts from one another. You keep trying, opening your hearts to one another, cobbling a new language together, and listening for the wisdom that comes in these holy moments. --- Jesus and the disciples were speaking two different languages that day, on the road to Emmaus - two different languages, two different worldviews. The disciples were speaking the language of the world as it existed before Jesus, before resurrection. The limited vocabulary they had to work with was: fear, suffering, division, death, my-way-or-the-highway, the empire wins. So when Jesus asked them, “what are you talking about, as you go along?” that was how they answered him. “We had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel.” We had hoped (past tense). We had hoped that he would fit into our notions of what a Savior looks like. All the while, standing beside them with an inquiring, sympathetic look, was the unlikely Savior from an unlikely place, who they could not recognize. And so Jesus reached out to them, using Resurrection language, born in the light of an unlikely Easter morning. Language rooted in his teachings, but now filled with the music of divine love. The vocabulary was this: Promise. Anticipation. Fulfillment. New Life. Generosity. Widening possibilities. He heard their version of the story, and offered his own vocabulary to flesh it out. Jesus accompanied them along the way, taking the time to travel this road with them. He had sympathy for where they were, emotionally. They had heard of the resurrection, but as of yet, it was still just a tale. The language of the world-as-it-is was still more powerful, in their minds and hearts. So he cobbled together the language they had with the language he had, to make a new thing they could understand. In-between places call for in-between language. Language that admits to the world as it appears to be, but layers over it a good and gracious God, a divine presence that wills life for us all. Jesus language. A new language that consistently says, “yes, but…” – “Yes, suffering, but sympathy, too.” “Yes, death, but life, too, beyond that.” “Yes, unjust powers, but also a holy community where those powers do not reign supreme.” --- This is the language of Christianity. This is the language that disciples and evangelists used to spread Jesus’ way throughout the world. These are the building blocks of our conversation, of our relationship with one another. And in today’s tale of the road to Emmaus, we hear one of the first conversations in this new, resurrection language. We are Christians. We are an Easter people, and we speak resurrection language. Jesus taught it to us, all those long years ago. And Jesus is still teaching it to us. This is what God calls us to do, as disciples of the Risen Christ. My friends, Jesus shows us how to do it. Jesus shows us how to grow a church. Jesus shows us how to do ministry together. Find the lost and lonely ones going along the road. There’s not some mystical secret about this. It’s not rocket science. The lost and lonely ones are going down the road, just like you and me. We bump into them all the time. Sometimes they’re here, sitting in a chair next to you on Sunday morning, desperately lonely and yet they struggled to walk out their own front door. Sometimes they’re slouched on a sofa, or at a desk at school, immersed in their own private thoughts, convinced nobody loves them for who they are. Sometimes they’re in the next cubicle over at your workplace, trying to figure out how to get through the thirty five things they have left to do today before they collapse, exhausted, into bed. These are Jesus’ people. They are walking along the road talking about what they have experienced, using the only language they have, to make sense of what happens to them on a daily basis. And they need Good News. Do what Jesus did: befriend them. Befriend these people. Listen to them. Listen with love to what is burning in their hearts. Offer them the gift of resurrection language: Hope. Fellowship. Caring. Possibility. New life. Extend the gift of table fellowship to the lost, the lonely and the broken ones. Share a table. Break bread together. Christ will be there, too. Amen. http://www.archive.org/download/MuccSermonMay8th2011/MUCC_Sermon_20110508.mp3