​Christ had not forced himself on them, but when invited, the guest becomes the host. The words are the familiar words of the Eucharistic celebration, but the meal is an “ordinary meal,” not a communion service. As in Acts, the boundary between “ordinary” meals and the Eucharist grows thin. Every meal can point to the risen Christ.
                                                                       - Fred Craddock

READING:

That same day two of them were walking to the village Emmaus, about seven miles out of Jerusalem. They were deep in conversation, going over all these things that had happened. In the middle of their talk and questions, Jesus came up and walked along with them. But they were not able to recognize who he was. He asked, “What’s this you’re discussing so intently as you walk along?” They just stood there, long-faced, like they had lost their best friend. Then one of them, his name was Cleopas, said, “Are you the only one in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard what’s happened during the last few days?”  He said, “What has happened?” They said, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene. He was a man of God, a prophet, dynamic in work and word, blessed by both God and all the people. Then our high priests and leaders betrayed him, got him sentenced to death, and crucified him. And we had our hopes up that he was the One, the One about to deliver Israel. And it is now the third day since it happened. But now some of our women have completely confused us. Early this morning they were at the tomb and couldn’t find his body. They came back with the story that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Some of our friends went off to the tomb to check and found it empty just as the women said, but they didn’t see Jesus.” Then he said to them, “So thick-headed! So slow-hearted! Why can’t you simply believe all that the prophets said? Don’t you see that these things had to happen, that the Messiah had to suffer and only then enter into his glory?” Then he started at the beginning, with the Books of Moses, and went on through all the Prophets, pointing out everything in the Scriptures that referred to him. They came to the edge of the village where they were headed. He acted as if he were going on but they pressed him: “Stay and have supper with us. It’s nearly evening; the day is done.” So he went in with them. And here is what happened: He sat down at the table with them. Taking the bread, he blessed and broke and gave it to them. At that moment, open-eyed, wide-eyed, they recognized him. And then he disappeared. Back and forth they talked. “Didn’t we feel on fire as he conversed with us on the road, as he opened up the Scriptures for us?”
​                                          Luke 24.13-32 (The Message)

REFLECTION: 
​Please allow me to get this out of the way. Easter has not always been at the top of my holy day list. As a kid I wasn’t too keen on being awakened before dawn to attend a sunrise Easter service. It reminded me too much of times on the river when my dad would roust me out before dawn to row for him while he fly-fished.
 
Also, on Easter we could be sure that lunch would be late; so late that we kids thought we would starve to death before sitting down to a feast. And not only that; we had to keep our Sunday go to meetin’ clothes on until the entire family had arrived, and photos taken in the front yard. Actually, I think was my aunt “Jack” (a.k.a. Maddie Lou) who insisted on this. She said seeing the kids of the family looking almost civilized gave her a modest hope for the future.
 
On the other hand, Easter was the season we got new dress up clothes (yes, I loved them; I just didn’t like to wear them all day.) about a week before Easter we would make our annual trek to Robert Hall Clothing, where I got a new suit, and to Buster Brown Shoes for, well, shoes. I was embarrassed by the shoes I wore, because by age 10, they were already too long for my body. In fact, my grand-dad “Papa” Hall used to tell me that if I didn’t have so much turned under for foot I would be downright tall.
 
I remember such stories from back in the day, because even after gaining a profound appreciation for Easter, I realize how much these stories from daily life mean to the Easter experience. You see, they are what Easter is about. Sure, the stories of the resurrection appearances in the New Testament are exciting and awe inspiring, and they witness to the continued presence of the Christ to the earliest disciples, blessing them with Abundant Life. But that was over 2,000 years ago. Is the resurrected Lord present to us as well? I would say yes, when in worship we celebrate at the communion table.
 
But here’s the deal. Stories like the experience of Cleopas and friend on the road to Emmaus show clearly that the risen Christ is present to us even in the middle of our daily lives; our frustrating, challenging, joyful, taxing, mundane lives far from the sanctity of church. They show that the resurrected Lord blesses our lies… period, end of story. In church, or in Robert Hall Clothing. at the table presided over by preachers in fancy garb, or fishin’ on the Black Warrior River. Jesus’ table of grace is enduring, and it reaches into every aspect of our lives. When we break bread together any place, any time, the Christ is in our midst. This should be enough to get us worked up and ready to shout, “Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed!”
 
I invite you to join us on the morning of the third day (but not too early; 8:30 and 10:30 are the options) to celebrate the risen Christ whose table of grace is enduring.
 
Bo 

​Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion. Sing aloud, Daughter Jerusalem. Look, your king will come to you. He is righteous and victorious. He is humble and riding on an ass, on a colt, the offspring of a donkey.
                                                             - Zachariah 9.9 (CEB)
READINGS:
                                      From Palm:
As Jesus came to Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he gave two disciples a task. He said, “Go into the village over there. When you enter it, you will find tied up there a colt that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.  If someone asks, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say, ‘Its master needs it.’” Those who had been sent found it exactly as he had said. As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They replied, “Its master needs it.” They brought it to Jesus, threw their clothes on the colt, and lifted Jesus onto it. As Jesus rode along, they spread their clothes on the road. As Jesus approached the road leading down from the Mount of Olives, the whole throng of his disciples began rejoicing. They praised God with a loud voice because of all the mighty things they had seen. They said, “Blessings on the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens.” Some of the Pharisees from the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, scold your disciples! Tell them to stop!” He answered, “I tell you, if they were silent, the stones would shout.”
​                                         - Luke 19:28-40 (CEB)

                                       To Passion:
Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.
                                           - Isaiah 53.1-4 (NRSV)

REFLECTION: 
When I was a kid, many churches in my neck of the woods considered Roman Catholics fair game for Christian witness and conversion. This confused me, because it seemed like they lived the Christian life much the way we did (which is to say, most of the time not very well), and it seemed like we should be friends. I didn’t have the last word though, and in our mission lessons in Sunday School we learned that the best place to locate a mission center was smack dab across the street from the local Catholic church. Or at least catawampus to it. That way you could reach the native heathens, as well as those who should know better.
 
In an effort to clear up this confusion, I asked my preacher why Catholics weren’t considered Christians. He (of course he!) said it was because they left Christ on the Cross. Huh? Look at any crucifix, he said, and you will see a dead Jesus hangin’ on the cross. They don’t believe in the Resurrection!
 
I reckon I should confess that I didn’t buy his argument; didn’t then, don’t now. In fact, one could argue that many of my church folks didn’t believe in the Cross. Sure, they loved to sing old hymns like The Old Rugged Cross and Washed in the Blood; but Holy Week for them included celebrations of Palm Sunday and Easter. That’s it; they skipped right over the passion of Jesus – the doubting, the agony, the suffering, and the dying – to the glory of the Risen Lord!
 
I humbly suggest that somewhere along the way, one should “get it”; that at some point the spiritual life leads to the realization that passion necessarily precedes glory; that without the Cross, there can be no Resurrection. The poet Ann Weems has expressed it in eloquent if disconcerting verse in a poem called simply Holy Week. “And on that darkest of days, each of us must stand beneath the tree and watch the dying if we are to be there when the stone is rolled away.”
 
Palm Sunday is upon us. And we will celebrate with joy the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. We will wave our palms and shout praises to our king! And this is as it should be, for Palm Sunday affords us a glimpse of how this week, that seems like the end, is actually the beginning. So let’s wave our palms and lay them at the feet of Jesus! Let’s revel in the hope that radiates from this day. Perhaps in this way we will be able to summon the courage to walk with Jesus into this holiest of weeks that begins with Palm and Passion, and concludes on the morning of the third day.
 
We would love to share this week with you at Overland Park Christian Church, starting with worship on Sunday at 8:30 and 10:30. 

Bo

​The end begins with a woman who poured perfume upon his head. She poured it lavishly, without counting the cost. The disciples were angry; the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor… What Jesus told the disciples and us is: an extravagance of the heart is a fine and beautiful thing.
                  - From Counting the Cost, by Ann Weems


READING
Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper. While he was eating dinner, a woman came up carrying a bottle of very expensive perfume. Opening the bottle, she poured it on his head. Some of the guests became furious among themselves. “That’s criminal! A sheer waste! This perfume could have been sold for well over a year’s wages and handed out to the poor.” They swelled up in anger, nearly bursting with indignation over her. But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why are you giving her a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me. You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives. Whenever you feel like it, you can do something for them. Not so with me. She did what she could when she could—she pre-anointed my body for burial. And you can be sure that wherever in the whole world the Message is preached, what she just did is going to be talked about admiringly.”
                                         - Mark 14.3-9 (The Message)

​REFLECTION
​You may have noticed that for the first time in our Lenten sermon series – The Compassionate Table of Jesus – we have strayed from the gospel of Luke. We have chosen instead Mark’s version of the anointing story. That’s okay, because there are versions of this story in all four gospels (Mark 14.3-9; Matthew 26.6-13; Luke 7.36-50; John 12.1-8). More precisely, we have chosen Mark’s version because of the central meaning around which the story is woven.
 
The story in Luke is woven around the nature of God’s forgiveness and the love it generates. The woman who is forgiven is a sinner with a greater debt than that of Simon the Pharisee (Pharisees were known for following Torah [a.k.a. Law by Christians] down to the most minute detail). And the greater forgiven debt generates more love.
 
In Mark, however, the story is woven around a woman who pre-anoints Jesus for his immanent passion. Unlike the disciples who don’t understand the passion even after Jesus tries three times to explain that he will suffer and die (8.31, 9.31, 10.33-34), the woman interrupts the dinner table to anoint Jesus precisely because she understands Jesus’ immanent passion.
 
Here’s the motivation behind our shift from Luke to Mark. The tables on which we have reflected to this point are tables of feasting that celebrate God’s boundless love, forgiveness, compassion, and grace. We of course love to dine at these tables. But at some point we must reflect on the price they require and the legs on which they stand; the passion of Jesus.
 
Our Lenten journey to Jerusalem is almost complete. We are rapidly approaching Holy Week. Thus, it is time to recognize that our feasting at the table of compassion must be interrupted by the chilling, agonizing awareness of Passion. We have reached that point.

I hope to see you on Sunday,

           Bo

“This broad picture of God’s grace cannot be presumed upon… Grace, to be grace, must always be amazing grace.”
               - Fred Craddock      

​

READING:
All the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to listen to him. The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Jesus said, “A certain man had two sons. The younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the inheritance.’ Then the father divided his estate between them. Soon afterward, the younger son gathered everything together and took a trip to a land far away. There, he wasted his wealth through extravagant living. “When he had used up his resources, a severe food shortage arose in that country and he began to be in need. He hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He longed to eat his fill from what the pigs ate, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have more than enough food, but I’m starving to death! I will get up and go to my father, and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son. Take me on as one of your hired hands.” ’ So he got up and went to his father. “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion. His father ran to him, hugged him, and kissed him. Then his son said, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Quickly, bring out the best robe and put it on him! Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet! Fetch the fattened calf and slaughter it. We must celebrate with feasting because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life! He was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate. “Now his older son was in the field.  Coming in from the field, he approached the house and heard music and dancing.  He called one of the servants and asked what was going on.  The servant replied, ‘Your brother has arrived, and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he received his son back safe and sound.’  Then the older son was furious and didn’t want to enter in, but his father came out and begged him.  He answered his father, ‘Look, I’ve served you all these years, and I never disobeyed your instruction.  Yet you’ve never given me as much as a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.  But when this son of yours returned, after gobbling up your estate on prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.’  Then his father said, ‘Son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.  But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive.  He was lost and is found.’”
                           - Luke 15.1-2, 11-32
​
REFLECTION:

​The parable of the Prodigal Son is one of those parables known by just about everybody. it’s the story of a rogue son who squanders his inheritance, living like Buzz Lightyear with a twist, “To the gutter and beyond.” But when his decadent lifestyle goes south, he decides to crawl home and beg daddy for forgiveness. As we all know, daddy forgives him, throws a welcome home bash, and everybody lives happily ever after. Right? 

​Wrong. There are two brothers in this parable, and the second, the older brother who stays close to home, is as important to the parable as the prodigal. That’s why many refer to this parable as the Parable of Two Brothers. But what does the presence of the older brother add to the story? He’s not nearly as exciting as the prodigal; in fact, he’s downright boring. Let’s put it this way, he illustrates that there is more than one way to respond to grace. While the younger brother approaches daddy all repentant and self deprecating, the older brother presumes that he deserves daddy’s good graces.
 
Do you see the difference? I hope so, because it’s huge. On one hand, the younger brother approaches his daddy in humility, never dreaming that he can or will be forgiven. Thus, for him grace comes purely as a gift; not because he deserves it, not because he’s earned it, but because his daddy is awesome, and his grace is amazing! On the other hand, the older brother presumes that he deserves grace because he’s cool. He’s never run away, he’s never fallen into the gutter, he’s never even disobeyed his daddy.
 
Grace a gift? No way! And because of this attitude he finds himself standing outside and alone, without a seat at the feasting table. He’s much like the uppity Pharisees in the parable of the Great Dinner in Luke 14. They presume the host’s invitation to the table, and when they see the host inviting ner-do-wells and lowlifes to the great dinner, they are insulted and, again, find themselves outside and alone. According to the host, there will never be a seat at the table for them, because they have rejected his invitation.
 
But this parable – the Parable of the Two Brothers - goes one step further. Because he presumes daddy’s good graces, it would seem the older brother has rejected his amazing grace. Look closely, however, and you will see that he still stands before a choice. There is still time to repent his decision, enter the tent of feasting, and taste his daddy’s amazing grace. In short, his story can end just like the younger brother’s, despite his being so boring. He must learn, as Fred Cradock has said, that for grace to be grace, it must be amazing grace. Now that’s a happy ending!
 
We hope to see you on Sunday at 8:30 or 10:30 am for worship. There’s always a seat at the table waiting for you.