Christ is risen!

Christ is risen, indeed!!

We who believe in freedom, as the group, “Sweet Honey in the Rock,” just told us in their powerful way, cannot wait. The song is called “Ella’s Song,” and is a tribute to Ms. Ella Baker, a major leader in the Civil Rights’ Movement of the 1950’s and beyond. Just like the resurrection, Easter morning, the moment when the day lasts longer than the night, the time is now.

Look at Luke’s text with me and how it moves. It is central to the truth and the power of the good news preached and proclaimed but mostly REVEALED at a deliberate pace. The movement is by walking, slowly and hopelessly from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and then hastily and hopefully from Emmaus to Jerusalem. It is not important that the geographic location of Emmaus has never been identified with certainty, that one of the two disciples is totally unknown to us, and that Cleopas is encountered nowhere else in Scripture. These uncertainties, natural questions for the historically curious, recede before the memorable and extreme impact of the story itself. On the lips of Cleopas, Luke gives a summary of the gospel beginning with the ministry of Jesus and concluding with the report but not the EXPERIENCE of the risen Christ. The summary is therefore incomplete until Christ adds the word of resurrection (v. 26) and then makes himself known – is REVEALED – to them. The meal itself begins with a simple act of hospitality, an invitation to a stranger by those who prepared the table (v. 29). It is the presence of Christ at a table opened to a stranger which transforms an ordinary supper into the sacrament. The meal opens up to healing and new life that which was so catastrophic and deadly only moments ago. It will soon allow the distraught, the lost, and the hopeless to move at a different pace, quickly, back into a city called Jerusalem that feels the deepest despair because those who believe in freedom cannot wait and will not dwell forever in hopelessness. Jesus’ presence at the table makes all believers, all of us, you and me (!), first-generation Christians and every meeting place Emmaus.

In his letter to the editor in a recent New York Times, a European diplomat wrote: “…the struggle against extremism is the defining issue of our time.” How often we have heard that statement or something very close to the same words. Now, I know the general context and intention of his remarks. The so-called “struggle against extremism” has been used to justify everything from squashing, so to speak, Adam and Eve’s quest for knowledge to the crucifixion to the crusades to the “war against terrorism.” But in the light of today’s scripture I want to ask a question: “What is more extremist than the resurrection?” “What is more extremist than inviting a stranger to a meal and having Christ revealed?” “What is more extremist than proclaiming that none of us dare judge any human being because Christ died for that human being?” “What is more extremist than confronting the catastrophic with hope, disaster with transformation?” “War with peace?” “Gay and Lesbian persons with embrace?” “The ‘different’ with love?” “The outsider with a seat at the table?” “Dialogue with every perceived adversary?” “Proclaiming in every possible situation the prophetic call to bring into God’s court the oppressors of human life and the violators of political and economic dignity?” What is more extremist than all of these questions? Nothing, yet the world, including the Godly church world, jumps in and offers its energies and talents in the struggle against extremism. Do you understand what the real defining issue of our time is, in my opinion? To get out of the way of extremism, to allow it to live as the resurrection, as people of the resurrection, as the good news people, as the body of Christ, the church.

Fear is the roadblock – grace is the open highway. The worst has already taken place. We who believe in freedom cannot wait, need not wait. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was murdered forty years ago last Friday, April 4th, on his way to dinner, what would have been a sacred meal. Instead something tragic and sacred took place on the balcony of the Lorraine Ave. Motel in Memphis. The day before, from his motel room, he called Dexter Ave. Baptist Church, to give the secretary the title of his sermon for the following Sunday which he never gave. The title of the sermon was: “WHY AMERICA MAY BE GOING TO HELL” I tell you because it is a matter of historical record but for a couple of other reasons: 1) he believed in freedom, non-violence, and equality and knew he could not wait; 2) I mention it because in the continuing so-called controversy surrounding Trinity UCC in Chicago, the Rev. King preached and spoke with even more audacity and courage and risk than much of what the Rev. Wright is accused of. The gospel is nothing if it is not a constant struggle to encourage and live extremism by offering the sacred meal to all of God’s children, by proclaiming and living the message that creates a believing and beloved community because to do so is to confirm, strengthen, encourage, and deepen our faith in the Christ who died but could not wait for the freedom beyond the stone. Christianity just may be the longest revolution in the history of humanity. It is in the breaking of the bread that the revolution says: You do not go home with Jesus, He goes home with you.

Amen.