“This Is No Time to Quit”
John 20:19-31
1 Kings 19:1-9
By: Rev. Kenneth Emerson Sauer,
Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
www.parkview-umc.org
We sure had a big crowd here for Easter last Sunday! It was, by far, the biggest crowd we’ve had since I’ve been here.
And, talking with some colleagues over the past week, I have learned that they too had unusually high attendance last Sunday as well.
Where did the huge crowd go?
On his way out the door last week, one person said to me: “See you at Christmas.”
That’s a long time from now.
So in the months to come, what will this person have to sustain him on the Christian journey?
Many of us here this morning are here every Sunday.
Some of us come to Sunday school each week, and Bible study, and Kid’s Zone, and choir rehearsal…
…some of us meet in small groups, some of us participate in The United Methodist Men’s Fellowship, some in The United Methodist Women…
…many of us worked hard, together, yesterday during the barbecue…
…and in doing these things we build relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we learn about the Bible, about God, about faith, and we are given nourishment for the Christian journey.
Yes, last week we celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is, the foundation of our faith…
…but the Resurrection is to be celebrated every day!!!
Easter is in no way a place to stop or quit!
In our Old Testament Lesson for this morning we see that Elijah, who had been God’s fearless prophet, was asking God to let him quit.
“I have had enough Lord,’ he said.”
Have you ever felt as if you had had enough?
Have you ever felt defeated and all alone?
Has the doom and gloom of depression ever caused you to ask the Lord, like Elijah asked the Lord: “Take my life…”?
Thankfully, God was not finished with Elijah…
…God is not finished with us…
…and God also knew what Elijah needed in order to continue his journey.
After Elijah, having decided it was time to quit, lay down and fell asleep under a tree…
… “All at once an angel touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat.’”
At that, Elijah looked around him “and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water.”
Elijah ate and drank…
…and lay back down…
…but God was persistent…
…so the angel of the Lord came back to him again and said to him: “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.”
Indeed the journey was too much for Elijah, and it is too much for us as well.
Therefore, we are in need of the grace which the Lord provides…
…and the Lord is more than happy to offer it to us…
…this grace…
…this food that we need for the journey!
In our Gospel Lesson we come in contact with two other folks whose faces are downcast…and perhaps they are about ready to quit as well…
…and then we see that there is another who comes and starts walking with them…
…and although this other is the Risen Christ, whom they had spent much time with, they don’t recognize Him.
There are times in all of our lives that God is with us and speaking to us, but we don’t even know it.
Perhaps we are just too wrapped up in our own thoughts.
Perhaps we are just too wrapped up in our thoughts of quitting.
Anyhow, Jesus asks these two disciples what they are talking about.
And amazed at the thought that this stranger has no idea of what has happened over the past three days, they tell Him.
They tell Him how their hopes have been dashed because Jesus of Nazareth has been crucified.
Maybe some of our hopes have been dashed as well…
…perhaps a marriage has ended in divorce…
…perhaps a serious dating relationship has come to an end…
…Maybe our children haven’t yet embraced our faith in Jesus…
Hope is bright and promising.
Full of potential, but it’s also fragile.
Something unexpected can happen and suddenly hope is shattered!!!
That’s how these two disciples felt on the road to Emmaus…
…their hope was shattered!!!
Then we see starting in verse 28 that “As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over. So he went in to stay with them.”
Notice that it doesn’t take much to get Jesus to stay with us.
All we have to do is invite Him in.
He’s more than happy to come and stay.
“When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him…”
And they ran back down that Emmaus Road toward Jerusalem…
…their hope no longer shattered…
…life was, again, full of possibilities!!!
They recognized the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the breaking of bread.
And this is what we believe happens when we come to the Table for Holy Communion.
We believe, that somehow, Christ is present when we receive Holy Communion.
But how this actually happens is a mystery.
“The Greek word used in the early church for sacrament is mysterion,” which is usually translated as mystery. (1)
A hymn by Charles Wesley: “O the Depth of Love Divine” expresses both the reality and the mystery of what happens at Holy Communion:
“O the depth of love divine,
the unfathomable grace!
Who shall say how bread and wine
God into us conveys!
How the bread his flesh imparts, how the wine transmits his blood,
fills his faithful people’s hearts
with all the life of God!
Sure and real is the grace,
the manner be unknown; only meet us in thy ways and perfect us in one.
Let us taste the heavenly powers,
Lord, we ask for nothing more.
Thine to bless, ‘tis only ours
to wonder and adore.”(2)
John and Charles Wesley knew the power of God that is available at Holy Communion and they urged the Methodists to draw on that power frequently…
…for the grace available in and through this Sacrament is active to convict us of our sin, to bring us to repentance, conversion, forgiveness, and sanctification.
John Wesley, himself, received Communion an average of four to five times a week!
In Holy Communion, we recognize the Real Presence of the Risen Christ, as “God discloses things” to us that are beyond anyone’s human capacity to fully understand.(3)
This is why children and even infants are encouraged to receive Communion—because none of us fully understand it!
It is a means of grace.
And grace is something that can only be given by God—it is not something we can “take”, nor is it something we can “earn.”
“We receive spiritual nourishment through Holy Communion.”
Let’s face it, “the Christian life is a journey, one that is challenging and” difficult.
And in order for us to “continue” to live faithfully and grow in holiness—we need God’s constant sustenance. (4)
Otherwise, we might just feel like Elijah felt…and cry out: “I have had enough, Lord”…we might just feel like quitting…but this is no time to quit!!!
Jesus is our Food for the journey that is ahead of us.
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert…
…but Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Are we spiritually hungry, spiritually thirsty?
Let us come to the Table.
Are we sinners in need of grace?
Let us come to the Table.
Jesus eats with sinners.
Remember Zacchaeus?
What did Jesus say to him?
He said: “Come out of that sycamore tree, Zacchaeus. I’m going to have dinner with you tonight.”
And that dinner changed Zacchaeus’ life!
When Jesus was walking along with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, He could see that they did not understand what He was about.
He had predicted His death and Resurrection…
The women had found that the tomb was empty…
“Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” Jesus asked them.
It was not until Jesus broke the bread that they recognized Him and understood.
“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”…
…it wasn’t because we understood…
…it was in order that we might understand by meeting Christ in the breaking of the bread!
This is part of the mystery of Communion.
God is with us always, and Jesus makes a home within our hearts when we believe and accept Him as Lord and Savior, but Jesus is also with us in a special way when we come to the Table, and we are present with one another and with all the Christians of all time, as we share this special meal.
The others are all here…the Communion of Saints we call it…
…and they join their hands with ours at the Table.
We are one body with them, with each other, with God.
This is who we are…the Body of Christ…one bread, one body.
When the disciples recognized Christ…
… “They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, ‘It is true! The Lord has risen and appeared to Simon.’
Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.”
As we come to the Table this morning, may we come with desire, expectation, with awe, humility, and with celebration and gratitude…
…because Jesus Christ has promised to meet us at the Table.
And by responding to Christ’s invitation, we affirm and deepen our personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ and our commitment to Christ’s mission for us to “go and make disciples of all nations….”
May it be so. Amen.
1,3,4 “This Holy Mystery: A United Methodist Understanding of Holy Communion.”
2 “The United Methodist Hymnal” pg. 627
