SERMON: Journeys of Faith
Gospel Reading: Luke 24:13-35
Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen
(Introduction for Nick ) Good Morning! Grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ. I bring you warm greetings from the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ in the USA and also from my home congregation, Elmwood Community Church, where I serve as Pastor. My wife, Mary Angela and I, are grateful to be able to share this special time with all of our friends in the Kyung-Ki Presbytery in Korea. Thank-you for inviting us to be your guests.
My congregation is just beginning to learn about the Korean Partnership. By coming here myself I will be able to teach them what a blessing it truly is.
I am a native of New England, born in Maine. Ever since I can remember, I have been a Boston Red Sox fan! I am excited that Byung Kim is a starting pitcher for the Red Sox this year!. Go Sox!
(Introduction for Mary Angela) Good Morning! Grace and peace to You from our Loving Creator God and our Savior Jesus Christ! I also bring your warm greetings of friendship from First Church in Windsor Connecticut USA. We continue to hold your entire congregation in our prayers every Sunday. Pastor Rick Huleatt especially sends you his love and best wishes. He has said repeatedly to me for five years, You have got to go and visit Ha San Woon! Youll love it! My husband Nick Davis, who is the Pastor of Elmwood Community Church, is also here in Korea, but he is preaching in another congregation in the Kyung-Ki Presbytery this morning. We are both so grateful to God to be with you. Thank you very much for inviting us to be with you!
Pastor HoJun Chang from the First Korean United Church of Christ of West Hartford mentioned to us that you are interested in knowing about the Presidential campaign, which is beginning to heat up in the USA. Since the length of the campaign is very long, the reports we read in the newspaper seem to change everyday. In our own congregations people hold many different points of view Democrats, Republicans and Independents. As one of our minister friends likes to say, Wherever two or three Congregationalists are gathered together, there are four or five opinions! One thing I would say is that only a few months ago it looked like President Bush would be difficult to defeat. I think this has changed with the strong campaign of John Kerry. Well see. As Christians, however, what is important is that we continue to work for peace and justice ; feed the hungry, promote unity and end war.
In a book for Christian Educators called Before and After Easter, the author Debbie Trafton ONeal brings up that the people of God have been a traveling people.
The Bible records many different travels by many different kinds of transportation, doesnt it? Gods people Israel wandered for 40 years in the wilderness traveling by foot. In Genesis we also have a story of when Joseph gained authority in Egypt, the Pharoah had him ride in his chariot. In the New Testament, we remember Mary and Joseph on the way to Bethlehem. Although poor Mary was in the heavy uncomfortable days of her pregnancy, she was forced to ride on a donkey. Oh dear! And of course, we also have the Biblical journeys of Saint Paul. In at least one of his missionary trips, he traveled by ship. The reason we know that is because he was shipwrecked!
When we think about the journeys of Gods people, we know that often the adventures began with a word from God.
Go , said God to Abraham. Go from your country to a land I will show you.
Go to Pharoah, God told Moses, and tell him to let my people go.
Go to Nineveh, God told Jonah, and cry out against it.
Get up, and angel of the Lord told Joseph, and take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt .
Follow me, called Jesus, and I will make you fishers of men and women .
Go and make disciples of all nations, proclaimed Jesus to his disciples.
These journeys all had one thing in common. They required faith on the part of the traveler that God would lead them and sustain them. And God did!
During this season of Easter, one of the Gospel narratives that means a lot to me is the story about what happened on the road to Emmaus. In this reading from the Gospel of Luke, two of the disciples are talking together about the horrible things that had happened on Good Friday- the betrayal, the bewilderment, the suffering and sorrow as well as the baffling discovery of the empty tomb. They still are feeling shell shocked. No wonder they are slow to believe! And what happens next?
As they are walking along the road, journeying to Emmaus, Jesus joins them. But they do not recognize our risen Lord. To them he is a stranger. And yet we know, and they eventually come to see that hes not a stranger at all. I wonder if it is the same with us?
Jesus journeys with us in our daily lives and we do not recognize his presence.
I believe the ultimate strength of our partnership has to do with this transformation from stranger to beloved friends in Christ. I have all ready experienced this transformation of God, this miracle of love, in meeting those who have traveled to New England where I live. But now, now that I am here on Korean soil, my awareness of this truth has deepened. We are from different countries; we live many thousands of miles away from each other; and our culture may seem strange to you. We speak different languages.
And yet, in Jesus Christ, the one who travels with us, we are able to transcend all of these barriers. As it says in the American spiritual, We shall overcome .
We thank God that we recognize the face of Christ in your faces. As it says in Ephesians 2:14 ff.: For Christ is our peace,. who has broken down the dividing wall between us.
.that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who are far off and you who are near.
Just as we discover in the Emmaus story, through Jesus Christ there are no strangers only friends! Thanks be to God who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
We have experienced first hand the power of God at work through the goodness of the Partnership we share with you in the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea. This partnership is valuable for strengthening the faith of all our people - we have so much to learn from one another. We wish to maintain the strong commitment to continue to build this relationship with one another, to learn about each others culture, and to grow in faith. In particular, we are excited about the Sacred Journey this summer and we welcome the opportunity to have some of your young people come to the USA and stay in our homes and be like sons and daughters to us. As it says in Psalm 133, How very good and pleasant it is when brothers and sister dwell in unity!
Amen!
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