INTROBUCTION

i+ \& for

You Know, I am certain, how impartant +e
Caseatorntesfepeme — an American Presbyterian vets b y

be in the birth-place of the religious tradition
unr
which nurtured me, which I love and gladly serve.

MM I am thrilled and humbled to be in this pulpit

this morning, Oud. Sana. You fur +e privilege.
mad

I bring greetings from the Session anc

Congregation of Fourth Presbyterian Churcn in

Chricago.

sanctuary of members, tourists and visitors.

Oi Made Oye be. medi + Lhe,

[TLoguared Walaa, ,

(41:00) Falling in Love with Jesus | my text is

PRE

_

John 21:17: "He said to him... 'Do you love me?’
Peter...said ‘Lord, you Know everything; you know
that I Tove you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my

sheep, '"

IN THE BREAICING OF BREAD
Apri] 2, 1989
8:30 a.m. Worship Service
John M. Buchanan
St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh

scripture
Like 24-14-41

“yinen Jesus was at table with them, he took the
bread and blessed, and broke 7t, and gave it to
them." ~Luke 24:30 (RSV)

of the year.
By way of introducing that proposal, jet me
—o recens\y
read a page out of 4 wonderful first novel, popular in ua Unckd Stak
ae :
_eeeiakioss,. by Southern journalist, Clive

Ann Burns. The title of the novel is Cold Sassy

a

iree. That's the name of the FictignatRicorsialy eee i —_ we

tagp which is the sett ing. he intriguing
Py

characters include: \ crandpa E. Rucker Blakeslee
ee

and his grandson, Will Tweedy. \ Grandpa Blakeslee

has scanda lized Cold Sassy Tree by marrying a

“Tek Wer ke apemeriage Te Cute

beautiful, young hatmaker, Miss Love Simpson, three
af rAany Yeers
weeks after his beloved wifefdied. a» &
Qoary “Tree wie he Abwe is

cbloacidca ge, Very ervbd cal,
Hommes = pty e\ Fk Garry

a

pres oe
me Rave church at home instead. ( Here ts how he ‘Wa toes 7

pare Jovy ab

describes it to Will Tweedy... A ey Wah.
[ie h fter which I tatkea = Owree tl ,,
sang Us some hymns, after which I talke Gramipr + Rew
to the Lord a while, tellin' Him about the week, Pride dud qo
and then I preached the sermon... WA Sum Mian

"T didn't have no words thought cut, you

po J

know, so I jest commenced sayin’ thangs I been a-
thinkin’ on lately - ‘bout the Virgin Birth and
Resurrection and at] dike thet. I said don't any

a-them thangs matter.”

Will Tweedy is stunned. \ cosh, Grandpa, you
mean you don’t think Jesus rose from the dead?"

cranchg_ ansyers, ("Tn a-sayin’ thet did He or
didn't He ain't important, son. | What's important
is thet when the spirit a-Jesus Christ come down on
them disciples Jater, they quit settin' round a-

meanin’ and a-trembtin', and got to work. \ They

warn't scairt no more, and the words they spoke had
fire in'im. Compared to a miracle like thet, Jesus
rollin’ back a dang rock and flyin’ off to Heaven
ain't nothin’.” | Cp. issl—
That's pretty good theology. \And that, it
aE
seems to me, is what those of us who come back to
eT, ae

church the Sunday_after Easter are left with.

It is my favorite day. \re is known in some
quarters as "Low Qw_ Sunday, a good day _1 for the

professional practitioners to take_off and rest our

ieee ein
(Mee
weary bodies and cool down our over-heated spirits. => ee “
oe » fl
It remains my favorite, however. Bus coy ~ oF Bae Tl chin’

Tleeahaichabeebions) , You see, isgilet when you

—e you dv, Dam smt~ wi

celebrate as exuberantly as we did last weekP you \ Euth clurcbe , qlostone
ee ohms Ww se, bear. we}

might come to the logical conclusion that Easter iS\ s\ywers,

about an event that happened two thousand years

ao. \Pernans more important than the Trojan ae or
or AN Ge { Renneke bum,
the assassination of Julius Caesar, but Tike ie =
EE SSE

———

history. \ The fact is that if we focus solely on

SSS
the event of resurrection, pondering the
Ee ae

historicity of the accounts \ sina happened, | where
SESS ‘
~ it happened and when it happened, and who said what

to whom =| we may have a lot of pondering to do.

One thing we will not have done is to hear the Good
fae

Tadxce | ——= graced nm
1a)

News -\or confront the theological
Christianity. Ws qewsus

What Easter is about is the stunning

[ee]
suggestion that Gog lives t\ that the Creator of all
that is, lives among us. \the Risen Christ is the
Bern Re ey ee

Power and love and jugpice and hegling of the
Creator god God is not closeted in some corner of

the universe, seated on a throne invisible above

the clouds, \or even in the complex formulas of
om Ape
philosophy and theology, but in the world, in the
kr eee ae

i stuff of ordinary life. \ That's what all the

Cy —_—_—_—__ SES
Si namy shouting was about last Sunday.
Now (in
“ \ There aren't many consistencies in the New

Testament resurrection accounts. \ Each Gospe] tells
Geer eae —

it differently. \ the one thing the accounts are
=a = Coe

Tn Fick Nlnere ts
a Vo v| Consusion,

punyic are Tuna
a,

consistent about is that the’ empty tomb didn't
SS

Sea
convince anybocy.\\ What convinced his friends that

aloseuce of AL body r a oat

Jwege4 nh
he was alive was not the aa but experiences | y, vunrserer,
—- undeniable experiences of power and love and Lule Us ur,

we a a a

forgiveness and rebirth.
For two of them it happened in the most
unlikely setting you could think of... on a road -
Ee oa
the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus.
=. =. ee?
The story is wonderfully human. \ Do you
aS SS See
remember how it was, after the funegal of someone
eS ==
you Joved very much? How incongruous it seemed

that life was still going on:\ buses were running,
Ey =o Sey

—_—

stores were open,| people were moving about \- as if
nothing _had_happened. \ pidn't they_know?
They_had been hiding. in that locked room for

two days and nights and now, on the third day after

Ea

the appalling disaster of Friday, two_of them could

stand it no longer. \as the two walked they were
ES =
joined by a third man. \newtold him about the
events of the prior two days. \ They didn’t know
Ey Sas

him, but they persuaded him to eat the evening meal
with them at Emmaus. \ Thene ~ at table, breaking
=— —E — —

bread, \in an act reminiscent of a supper they had

rr Sa

shared a few nights before — they recognized him.

On this day, the word is that the power and
=a,

—S—_—

relevance of Christianity is

Sa
mory of

an event that happened 2,000 years ago - regardless
ap SS | es,

of how | poecioys that memory is, or regardless of

the glory and power of the celebration. | The

essence_of it is not histopy. but experience. \ Not

then - but_now.

Did you notice how those two at Emmaus had to

Decree a Ge
see things differently in order to recognize him.
eile Po ccecreceineres |

A good working definition of religious conversion
a |
is learning to see things differentiy: \ Jearning to
=o
see the holy in the ordinary. \ vincayt vantoan
painted pictures full of spiritual power and

mystery. None of them are about "religious"

subjects, but olive trees and starry nights and

ey —"

sunflowers and iris... Sometimes to see something

Fcc = —eF

is to know it for the first time even though you've
——=

been thinking about it all your life. \ me Rass ion

and poignancy of Romeo and Juliet can be described,

told in words, \but when Juliet cavers the dead body

De

&
S$» A, Misecpler of her beloved and tries frantically to Place his

\ySelens
~ War w® see ee arms arqund her, people in the ballet audience
bar —_—«
ach Frat —_ weep.\ It is seeing truth. GO
utes hs
eal ‘es The essence of it is not memory or history,
xravsln Con¥ | _
Cine vs ¥ but experience,| The ultimate criteria for religion
sd \ks Tt) ~ for sermons, beliefs, rituals, gestures - is a
sears . _ a “ " + ng
ar = y 5° blunt question: ¢ So What?" | "Does it matter?
ly yer "Does it make a difference?" \ "Does it have
¥ - Ae — Sy all
a oe SES anything todo with the life we actually live_with
” wen ~ Seeree
sn oe y™ the secular as well as the réligio stf
ye oe! wre ** And on this day the word is yes, | God's love
e use lives among us.\ Death itself does not defeat it.
¥ oa In the world, in the stuff_of life, lin the_breaking
é ~~ oy aS aes

of bread, there is heart-filling beauty and soul-

sic stirring truth,
EES
It is no accident I think, that Luke sets the
see y [=
good news of God's love beside occasions when
ees Sa
people are eating and drinking together. \ 1 think
ES Prentiss
he has done that - preserved this story for us, in
m= [sore |
fact - to suggest. that the Risen Christ is present

in the ordipary, daily activities and rituals of

our vite.\ 1 think, in addition, he wanted to
suggest that Christ is present particularly when we
eS = Se
are hungry... physically and spiritually.
It is pgsgisely when we know our need for
truth, for clarity, for love, for acceptance, for
———s ey SSeS aa
encouragement — that the Risen Chri mes. (It
is, I think, only when we have been absolutely
= ar
devasted by grief. when we stand in the darkest

valley of the shadow of death that the familiar ‘
cht & YQ | te

Lam Torre

come alive. \It is, I think, only when we know our
t “et
guilt - that the power of forgiveness Bnedsebe.
=a

Ey

It is, I think, only when we know emptiness and

©
boredom and stajeness - that the resurrected Christ
Gwe S84 Bee MY Wolke “IM You es Gk TD will aivs Yu ns

appears..7 It is precisely when we are
ena ’ . —
painful ly aware of our hunger, that bread is broken
and our eyes are opened and we recognize him.
There are actually two different_ideas of
communion in the Christian ition. \ine first,

and by far the most fami] jar theology of the

sacrament focuses on the Last Supper.
k= ak

Canis is my body broken for you. Do this in
memory of me." | It is a memorial feast. \ me mood
ey
is somber.

There is another motif. \ equatiy ancient.
Equally important, theologically. \it has its boots
in this table at Emmaus, where | the Risen Christ was
present. \ When in the breaking of bread (their eyes
were opened and they recognized him.”

All year long, in our observances of

———= 2

==

communion we try to keep those ideas together. \But

mostly, and appropriately, we remember his death on
our behalf.
Today — first Sunday of Eastertide - the ood

is different. \ Christ is alive. \You and I live in
a new word.

God's love is there on the road to Emmaus and
tet

in the city streets and dirty alleys. \\God's
al

——————

passionate love for the world is there in the agony

and ecstacy, \the tragedy and the heroism of the

=a

human story.\\ God's love lives in the ambiguity of

the Middle East, and the tireless efforts of peace

——————

Kook » ype he:
where Yu sirvacic,
— dreaw, dost, low

makers. God's love is in Northern Ireland,
— eVorteur == ( P _ypor

Chicago slum, your city and mine. ®& 7 \Mneke “rola —
. ‘ — Your kle\
God's love Lives. \\ Expect it| Anticipate the —
pa a ae IR 8, do sicsaiaeer peli uw reek iy

healing, life-aciving love of God in the very stuff \rwr— + low
== ieee (ees = _
shoreh + ye

of your_life. ete a ,
That's what this Sunday is about. \ It is Cxlatceterket ..

be
\w os

easily missed, actually. (he two who walked to hi teoute
e\ecaare.

Emmaus with him almost didn't realize it. \ It was

at_table - to which he invites us - that she took
bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to

them. And their eyes were opened and they
recognized nim" |
Aen.

-_

ACN et
Ahm Cred

10