People of the Word

Hello, you're listening to Second City Sermons,

a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown,

Harrisburg. This epiphany in Lent, we're back

in the Gospels, specifically the Gospel of Mark.

We are seeing the revelation of God in Jesus.

Mark is showing us the true King becomes a servant

for us. He says right at the heart, the Son of

Man came not to be served, but to serve and to

give his life as a ransom for many. And Mark

is nearly always asking his audience, what do

you make of that? So, what do you make of this

good news? We'd love to meet you and we hope

you'll consider coming and joining with us each

Sunday morning at 10 a .m. in the heart of Midtown

Harrisburg. You can find us online at secondcitychurch

.org and on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

We hope you enjoy this sermon. God bless. Thanks

be to God. Let's pray. Lord, we bless you and

we praise you, Lord, for freeing this sister

who is seeking to care for these women. God,

I pray that you will do a great work even through

her short imprisonment. God, that through her

suffering, Christ might receive great glory.

And God, even through this answered prayer, that

we, your church here, all the way around the

world, Might devote ourselves more to life with

you and to laying our burdens before you and

Finding in you that our despair is turned to

hope that our sorrows can be turned to joy God

bless us now as we look at this resurrection

narrative Or through this news I feel like our

hearts at least my heart already feels like it

is burning for you to work So I pray that you

would do that now. Amen All right You just heard

from Elise one of my favorite passages in the

Bible and I know I say that occasionally But

it's true. I can have multiple favorites just

like you can this is one of them I Love this

story because it has some suspense to it. It

has some sorrow and grief. It also has some humor

in it It always seemed a little strange to me

that Luke is the only one that recounts this

story. It's just so wonderful. Most likely, because

he tells us actually in chapter one that one

of the things that he's doing in his gospel is

he's trying to give a true account of the things

that happened. And he interviews people and all

these kinds of things. And he mentions Cleopas

here probably because he had interviewed Cleopas.

Hey, what are some of the stories of Jesus? And

Cleopas probably said, I've got a good one for

you. tell you about our walk back to Emmaus.

I think it's just such a wonderful story. And

that's why you've heard it a few times from my

lips. We've looked at this story a few times

together. And so when I was preparing for it,

I searched some of my old sermons and this is

where it's a little embarrassing. And last year

on this very week I preached from this passage

and I didn't remember that. I was like, how are

you supposed to remember what I'm saying if the

words from my own mouth seem to go out sometimes

and they die in my own ears? I preached this

passage not once last Easter tide, but twice.

The second week of Easter, which we are on today,

and the third week of Easter. Anyway, I am not

gonna give you my sermon from last year. partly

because it just doesn't work that way. In case

you're wondering, I've never actually gone back

and been like, wow, that was really great. They

need to hear that again. But I am going to give

you a similar introduction and tell you something

that I said last year. So what I want us to do

in this Easter tide is I want us to look, actually

what we're going to do is we're going to look

at some of the resurrection narratives, the post

resurrection narratives of Jesus. And then also

through those stories say, who are we to be as

a people? What does it mean for second city church?

And what are some of our priorities in light

of Jesus post resurrection interactions with

his disciples? Okay. So this morning we're going

to consider this idea that we are to be the people

of the word. And you can think about the power

of words, especially in light of me not even

remembering that I preached this text twice last

year, last April, this very month, a year ago.

Here is the shortest of Emily Dickinson's poems,

which I gave you last year also. It's called

A Word is Dead. A word is dead when it is said.

Some say. I say it just begins to live that day.

Since it's so short, I'm going to read it twice.

A word is dead when it is said. Some say. I say

it just begins to live that day. And what I suggest

to you last week is that that tends to be true

of most words, almost all words, significantly

powerful words, but then actually the odd thing

is that my own words seem to die in my own ears.

But my encouragement to us is to actually interact

with the living word. The real word as it comes

to us from God the Father the Lord Jesus Christ

and the Holy Spirit So think with me about the

scene that we have in Luke chapter 24 Think about

Luke 24 · chapter mention

the story what we have is we have this couple

walking back to their home in Emmaus It says

about seven miles away about seven and a half

miles. We know today some people think that this

is Cleopas actually Clopas is is the name given

to us in John chapter 19 and his wife Mary So

John 19 · chapter mention

Cleopas is mentioned here. It's very possibly

that it's Clopas and his wife Mary there in John

John 19 · chapter mention

chapter 19. But you can sort of feel just the

dread as they walk back, the slow plodding of

their feet as they make their way back home,

having celebrated the Passover, having spent

time with their Lord. And if it's true that that's

who they were, then they were actually at the

very cross of Christ when Jesus tells John, You

know, there is his mother in Mary and Mary, there

is your son to John, the disciple of John. You

can imagine their dismay and the failure of their

hopes. They had seen Jesus there on the cross.

And so they're talking about these things that

they had witnessed. And again, think with me

of this week. This week began with the triumphal

entry. Remember that we reenacted in a slight

way as we wandered around our building and up

through our stairs and into this sanctuary and

they had thought probably they probably thought

here's the king here's the new ruler who's going

to put the world to right and yet as that week

continued on their hopes were dashed the one

who would bring the kingdom of god crucified

You know, they had probably heard the stories

of the Last Supper at the very least. Maybe it's

very possible that they were actually there in

that upper room. We don't know that it was just

the disciples. We know it was at least the disciples.

But there they were. They had probably heard

the story of the disciples fleeing in the garden.

Maybe they'd heard of the 30 pieces of silver

that Judah, just 30 pieces of silver that he

betrayed his Lord with, how he had gone and hung

himself. Certainly what they were talking about,

they were probably talking about all these things,

but almost certainly what they were talking about

was the crucifixion of Christ. That was probably

the central thing that they were talking about.

That their Lord, their teacher, their would -be

King died on a Roman cross. And the odd thing

probably they were talking about is their own

religious leaders that instigated it. And it

was the very power that they at least hoped would

be overthrown in the Roman empire. that brought

it about with their evil cross. There was so

much to talk about, but here's what's certain

about this walk and this long walk home, this

slow walk home, that of all the things that they

were talking about, it was something that took

away all of their hope, all of their joy, and

only brought despair. Because they were headed

back to a world where sickness, just like our

world seems rampant, where Work seems to be more

life -taking than right life -giving Where you

know, they're worrying about how the kids gonna

grow up. Are they gonna follow Jesus to the end?

For people move in and out of their lives They

put all their eggs in the basket of Jesus and

it seems as though the cross was the Easter bunny

who sat on them if you will Life with our bodies

and our minds don't seem to work, where our relationships

so rarely have the kind of intimacy that we desire

and long for and were made for. Just say they're

going back to a life like our lives, right? One

that you and I know. But then they encounter

the word. And oddly enough, it seems as though

they're slow trotting to Emmaus. which turns

them around to run back to Jerusalem at the end.

They encountered the word. And I want us to just

look at how they encountered the word and then

encourage us to say, this is how actually we

are invited to be people of the word, okay? So

the first way that they encounter the word is

actually, I'm titling this the questioning word.

Okay, the questioning word. First they encounter

the questioning word. So please open your Bible,

grab that. Bible in the pew in front of you.

It's on page 1051. So here's the thing, for all

the times that I have preached this text, I have

never pointed out and I don't even know that

I have exactly noticed that in all of these verses

from Luke chapter 24, 13, all the way to Luke

Luke 24 · chapter mention Luke 24:35

chapter 24, verse 35, in all 22 verses, the only

times that we hear the actual words of Jesus

other than his rebuke are in questions. We're

never given what we kind of want, right? What

we want, well, we're gonna get to this in a second,

is the great details of the Bible study, right?

Instead, what we get is Jesus' questions. Verse

17, look down there with me. And he said to them,

what is this conversation you're holding with

each other as you walk? And I love this. And

they stood still looking sad. They're just, I

mean, they're just taking it in and just asking

us a question. But this is what questions do,

right? They invite contemplation actually. Maybe

that question was exactly what they needed to

hear to get them to pause for a moment and to

sit in the sadness of what had taken place and

to contemplate. So then the next verse, verse

18, then one of them named Cleopas answered him,

are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does

not know the things that have happened there

in these days? And verse 19, and he said to them,

what things? Now keep in mind, Y 'all, we are

talking about the risen Christ. The long -awaited

Messiah, He just conquered death. He paid the

debt of our sin. He conquered the powers of darkness.

Does Jesus know what conversation they are having?

Yes, I would bet on it. Does He know the things

that have just happened in Jerusalem? Yeah. He's

like at the center of it all, no doubt. I mean,

if indeed this is the Clopas and Mary who are

mentioned in John chapter 19, he had just seen

John 19 · chapter mention

them a few days earlier. They were one of the

last people he saw before he died. And yet Jesus

questions them. It seems as though this is his

desire for them to ask questions so that he's

not just stating, here's what you gotta do, here's

what you gotta believe. The truth is that a word

can often be dead in a way if it is just a statement.

But a question invites more life, more participation,

right? More dialogue and reflection and response.

A question brings forth life, whereas a statement

so often dies. Not one of my favorite playwrights,

I remember reading him years ago, the absurdist

Eugene Eugène Ionesco, his French playwright,

wrote, it's not the answer that enlightens, but

the question. And he's right. Jesus rarely gives

answers. Have you noticed this? Sometimes it's

almost annoying. Jesus just answered the question,

but He wants our participation. He wants our

life with Him. He asked questions. Think about

this. The very first thing that Jesus says in

the Gospel of John is a question. What are you

seeking? What a way for the Word who has made

flesh to first engage with others. What do you

desire? Would you say, what are your hopes? What

are you seeking? Jesus questioning us, not just

them long ago. And interestingly, I actually

read this week that if you count them all up

through the ministry of Jesus, there are nearly

300 questions that Jesus asks. Let me give you

just a few of them. Why do you worry about clothes?

If you love those who love you, What reward will

you get? Aren't those questions still pertinent

today? How we obsess over the things that we

have or how we just want to love those who think

like us and act like us and disdain those who

are different. Here's another question of Jesus.

Why are you so afraid? Another one, why do you

doubt? This great question that I hope you are

all wrestling with and inviting others to wrestle

with. Who do you say that I am? And genuinely.

We could go on and on and our whole sermon could

just be me asking questions that Jesus asks us.

But this shouldn't be any surprise for us because

what does God himself do after Adam and Eve first

sinned in the garden way back when in Genesis

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3? But he asks them a question. Where

are you? Where are you in relation to me? Friends,

for all the questions we may have about God,

what's most important actually is that he is

asking us questions. And I want us to be a people

who invite the questioning word. Because what

God is doing in Christ and asking these questions

is he's inviting us into actually dialogue with

him and life with him and an ongoing life with

him of dialogue. That's what questions do. And

let me say this, okay, the questioning word does

come to us through the scriptures. I just mentioned

that the gospel writers give us nearly 300 questions

from our Lord himself, but often actually the

questioning word comes through the body of Christ

living, the church, right? You together. So often

the questioning, Word comes to us over cups of

coffee with a friend, right? Or in our small

group settings or whatever, right? Questions

like this. What hopes have dashed your life today?

It's not just back then, but it's in the questioning

of our life together now. Where are you finding

joy? Which is another way of saying, what do

you desire? What are your hopes? I mean, ask

each other. Who do you say that Jesus is? Invite

dialogue through the body of Christ. It's the

application we can have, right? Invite thoughtful

questions. Because what we see actually, and

this is what happens, right? It's through these

questions, Jesus just says what things, and what

happens is that their initial, right? They stood

still looking sad. That's what happens after

their first question, and then Cleopas speaks

up. Well, after their second question, they begin

to recount. Right concerning the things of Jesus

of Nazareth the man prophet mighty indeed and

it keeps going on for a little while They actually

begin to open up as the question is posed to

them life Participating in life comes out of

these questioning words from God And yet there

is a moment here or sort of a movement to another

commitment that I hope we have with regards to

the word. So I want us to be a people that invite

the questioning word, but I also want us to be

a people who sort of investigate the given word,

okay? And that's sort of our next thing, the

given word. So Jesus asked this question in 19,

what things? And then, you know, Cleopas opens

up and he recounts what had happened in Jerusalem.

And then in verse 24, it ends like this. Some

of those who were with us went to the tomb and

found it just as the woman had said But him they

did not see which is why they're making their

way home, right and Jesus then says The one non

questioning statement he says in this in this

passage verse 25. He says this Oh foolish ones

which is how he treats his disciples sometimes,

right? You might remember a few weeks ago, he

said, oh, you little faiths, oh, foolish ones

and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets

have spoken. Which is to say that as a people,

we can't just be a people that are committed

to the questioning word, to dialoguing with scripture,

but we actually have to be a people who are open

to the given word, to receiving what God has

given us, right? I hope you see the difference

there. There's the invitation to a questioning

word, but then we're supposed to actually investigate

what is it that God has actually said? How has

he already communicated himself? So then Jesus

gives this Bible study that we all wish we could

have been a part of, that we get no details of

here. Jerusalem to Emmaus is mentioned, it's

nearly about seven miles. And I imagine sort

of a slow... plodding walk, if they're downtrodden,

talking about the suffering of their Messiah.

And so maybe it's three hours long. And in these

three hours, we're told in verse 26 that beginning

with Moses and the prophets he interpreted to

them in all the scriptures, the things concerning

himself. And we could go over these things together.

That might be profitable, but we could talk about

The suffering Christ through the lens of the

sacrificial system of the Old Testament. We could

talk about David and how he was the great King

who looked for the greater King like in Psalm

2. Or how his Psalms so often pointed to the

suffering reality of this life and how they're

to be offered up as prayers to God to be received.

And we could talk about the suffering of Israel

through the deportation and the exile and all

that. But part of the point that I want us to

see here is that Jesus is saying you need to

search the scriptures Be a people that are devoted

to the scriptures He says oh foolish ones Did

you not know that it was necessary and then he

opens to them the Bible Questions are good. I

hope we all learn to be good askers of questions

Bringing your questions to God is good. Letting

God ask you questions is deeply, deeply important.

But we must be a people of the word who are devoted

to the study, to the memorization, to the contemplation

of what God has revealed, what he has given to

us in the Holy Scriptures. Second Timothy tells

us all scriptures breathed out by God and profitable

for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and

for training in righteousness. That the man of

God may be complete, equipped for every good

work. What I'm telling you is I think one of

this resurrection narrative here is Jesus inviting

us into receiving the word through questions,

but he's also saying, do you study? Do you know

what it says? Do you understand? Have you given

yourself to contemplating the word that I have

already given to you? One of the things I think

you'll quickly notice if you've been around Second

City for a little while is that we are people

of the given word. If you just look through your

liturgy, most weeks we have about seven or eight

scripture passages and they are intentionally

from all over in the Bible. All scripture is

breathed out by God and profitable. I wanna encourage

you to devote yourself to the study of scriptures.

Maybe start by joining, there's some of us that

are reading through the Bible in two years, okay?

So it's just a couple of chapters a day. If you're

wondering kind of like, where do I start? Just

jump in where we are. If I would have said that

a month ago, you might have... stopped in a week

because it was a pretty tricky part. It's getting

a little bit easier. It's soon going to get a

little more easy. Jump in with us. Maybe take

on this challenge, okay? Every month we have

this scripture passage that we encourage the

children to put to memory. What if this year

you said, I'm going to memorize all of those.

I'm going to put them to memory. And you just

devoted yourself. I'm gonna memorize the word

with my kids or with my friends. We're gonna

devote ourselves to the given word of God. Maybe

ask a few other people to read the Bible with

you. Just get together and read. Talk about it

some, but mostly just read. Devote yourself to

the given word. What I'm saying is that we as

a church, if we look at this resurrection narrative,

what we should actually desire is to be people

of the word and to invite the questions of God

into a life with God, but to understand that

the given word of God is still effective. It's

still life -giving. Useful for correction and

reproof and for teaching and for training today.

All right. Finally, what I want to suggest to

you is that this text invites us into being a

people of the suffering word. Okay, the questioning

word. the given word and the suffering word.

Again, I think it's really interesting that what

we have from the words of Jesus we have in this

beautiful passage, there's three questions, and

then there's a statement. And the statement isn't

the one that we normally want to hear from Jesus

to his disciples. Here's these dejected disciples,

they're kicking the rocks on their way back to

town, just like wondering what's happened? All

their hopes are dashed. And you sort of want

Jesus to just come around and be like, guys,

look at me. It's me. Instead, verse 25, he says,

oh, foolish ones. It's not exactly the Jesus

that we all picture, but he says, oh, foolish

ones, slow of heart to believe all the prophets

have spoken. And he says, was it not necessary

that the Christ should suffer? It was not necessary

that Christ should suffer these things and enter

into his glory. Anyway, he gives them this great

Bible study and they draw near to the village.

And probably one of my favorite details of this

story, what I find very humorous, is it says

that he acted like he was gonna go further. And

I just want you to picture Jesus acting. I wonder

how slow he walked. He was like, all right, I'm

moving on. What are you gonna do? And then they

invite him in, but while he's at table with them,

right? They invite him to be at table with them.

And it says in verse 30, that he took bread and

blessed it and broke it and gave it to them.

Which is exactly what is said just two chapters

earlier when Jesus is in the upper room with

his disciples And he takes bread and he blesses

it and he breaks it and he gives it to his disciples

and it's and he says this is my body broken for

you and It's in that moment of reenacting the

reality that his body is broken for his disciples

That says that their eyes were opened Their eyes

were opened They realized, they recognized him

when he was taken, blessed, broken and given,

which is to say it is in the remembrance of the

suffering reality of the word made flesh that

they actually see properly Jesus and they understand

properly their place in the world. Look with

me for a moment at the image on the front of

your bulletin. This is a famous picture by Caravaggio.

I want to draw your attention to the man on the

right. There's a lot of wonderful things that

are happening in this story. This is called the

Supper at Emmaus. But the man on the right is

reaching his arms out. And what I read is he's

reaching his arms out in astonishment. But you

could also see that he's reaching his arms out

actually. in the shape of a cross. And imagine

if this man was Cleopas. He would be doing this

both in this wonderful way of saying, wait, what

has happened? But wait, I remember that you're

the one whose body was broken. He's saying you

are the one that was hanging out on the cross

just like this. And now you're alive right before

me. His whole being as it were, is receiving

Jesus as the suffering word. What I'm saying

is that you cannot just, and it's at this moment

that they actually understood and that their

lives were changed and that they run back to

tell others. Because you cannot just receive

Jesus as the questioning one. It's kind of fun

to dialogue with God maybe. Most people who are

interested in spirituality will maybe say, oh,

let's question who God is and allow him to talk

to me and I'll talk to him and let's have a dialogue.

That's good. Jesus invites us into that. And

it's not enough just to sort of know what the

Bible says, though we should devote ourselves

to it. But what Jesus says is you miss the whole

thing if you do not understand that God comes

and he suffers. And it's in his suffering. That

you have life So thanks to what I'm saying is

we must be this people that receive him not just

as the questioning word the given word But as

the suffering word made flesh for us Dietrich

Bonhoeffer that great German theologian who opposed

Nazi power was imprisoned for it and died in

prison for that opposition. You might know this,

that he studied in New York City at Union Theological

Seminary. Maybe you know this. I think it was

1931. He was there for about a year. And you

may know that while he was there, he worshiped

primarily at a Baptist church, Abyssinian Baptist

up in Harlem. And he spent a lot of his time

actually studying the history of the black church

in the United States. He actually wrote this.

If it had not been for the black church, There

would probably be no church in this country Why

did he say that He said that because he understood

that the suffering of Christ the center of the

church's life and If you do not experience if

you do not know the reality of the suffering

Christ you miss it all You don't get it at all

He said the black church had such a commitment

to the experiential religion and God's suffering

that it gave them life and through them gave

life to others. And what we so often see, frankly,

is that the church is all about power grabs,

all about coddling up to those with power. And

what these disciples saw before them and what

made them turn was the broken body of Christ

taken blessed, broken, given. And their eyes

are open and they know why their hearts were

burning and their lives are changed. Because

that is what will change us. Receiving the questions

of God, devoting ourselves to the given word

and the scriptures, but also understanding that

it is in the suffering of Christ that we have

life. is where life comes from all right this

sermon is long enough let me read again this

poem a word is dead when it is said some say

and why i began let me say this actually why

i began with telling you that I forgot what I

preached this week even though it was the same

last week last year even though it was the same

text is because sometimes that's true sometimes

words go out and they seem to die she says I

say it just begins to live that day and that

is what we have in Christ That's what we have

in Jesus. That's what we have in his questions.

He's inviting us into a further life with him

That's what we have in the scriptures all scriptures

breathed out by God and is useful meaning has

continual life and even in the suffering life

of Jesus is found true life and so second City

Church What will we be committed to? What do

we want to be known for? I'd say we want to be

known as the people of the word, the people of

the questioning word and the given word and the

suffering word. And if we devote ourselves to

those things, we will be a transformed life giving

people. Amen. Lord, thank you for your word.

God, thank you for the word made flesh in Christ.

who John says comes to us right from the beginning

asking us, what do we desire? And he's giving

us life. Lord, I pray that we would be a people

who devote ourselves to the word, to allowing

you to ask us questions and to searching out

your scriptures and finding in them a life and

reproof and correction and training. But most

of all, Lord, I pray that we would find our life

in the suffering word, Jesus on the cross, that

God himself comes into the midst of sorrow, into

the midst of religion gone wrong and political

grabbing after power and all of this that seems

so wrong, Lord, that God, you come and you suffer

for us. God, I pray that we would find our life

in the cross, that we would find our joy in the

empty tomb. God, that Second City Church would

be a people of the Word. We pray this in the

name of Jesus, the Word made flesh. Amen. Thank

you for listening to Second City Sermons podcast.

We hope this sermon has encouraged you to worship

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for listening. God bless.