“Seeing is Believing”

“Seeing is Believing”


Date: April 30, 2017

1
Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church
Asheville, North Carolina
30
April
2017
Sermon: Seeing is Believing”
Rev.
Samantha Gonzalez
Block
Psalm 116:1
4, 12
19
Luke 24:13
35
“How is this night different from other nights?”
Growing up in an interfaith home, with a Jewish father and Presbyterian mother, the Easter
season was always coupled with the cherished Jewish holiday of Passover.
As many of you know, Passover is a time to sit at table with loved ones and share an
eveni
ng meal where we ask questions and remember the Exodus story: when God freed the
Hebrew slaves from Egypt, where they had been held captive for nearly five hundred years.
It is a time to give thanks for the sweet gift of freedom today and declare our commi
tment
to helping bring about freedom for all people throughout the world.
During the Seder, there are a number of cherished rituals:
such as dipping bitter herbs into salt water to represent the bitterness of slavery,
dripping drops of wine on our plate
s
to acknowledge with broken hearts the ten plagues
the Egyptians endured, and retelling the story of how God appeared to Moses in the most
une
xpected form of a burning bush:
telling him to lead the Hebrew people out of bondage
and across the sea
to a
new beginning.
As is tradition, the Passover table always includes a place setting for the ancient prophet
Elijah (remember, he’s the one who never died, but was instead whisked away into
heaven). At the Seder, Elijah always gets his own chair, his own cu
p, and towards the end of
the evening, someone is sent to open the front door
to “welcome him in”.
Well, a few years back, my sister and I were given the honor of opening the door for Elijah.
We rushed out of our seats, turned the knob and swung it ope
n.
We then shrieked in
unison and jumped about five feet in the air.
Before us
was Elijah.
Standing tall, with a white cotton ball beard, wrapped in badge
bedsheets and holding a long curtain rod staff.
When our eyes regained focus and the laughter su
rrounding us died down a bit, we realized
that it was in fact our neighbor Ben playing a “harmless” trick on us.
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But the lesson of it all
felt more s
ignificant than meets the eye.
Every year, we had been open
ing the door for this prophet,
and every y
ear we never really expected him to show up.
Why would we?
~
We spend much of our life, arguably all of our time here in church, seeking out God.
Yearning for the Divine to show up
somehow, someway
;
m
yste
riously be revealed to us
in the midst of a
frustrating morning commute
,
or in the calm of that familiar church pew
,
in the whisper of the cool mountain breeze just after daybreak
,
Or in the creaking of the ol’ house late at night when all are asleep.
We spend much of our life, prac
ticing holding f
ast to the hope
that just down the road,
just past the next hill, the next hurdle
Jesus will really show up.
Yet as I look
around the room today, I wonder, e
ven in our most wholehearted, faithful
anticipatio
n,
are we really expe
cting to see Jesus at t
he door? And when he does appear, d
o
we have the capacity to recognize him, the trust to welcome him in,
the authentic faith to
permit him
to guide us down an unfamiliar
even treacherous path?
~
The two disciples had no idea what they were getting into
that day on the road to Emmaus.
We know for sure, they were in mourning
their hands and hearts still trembling from the
gruesome murder they had witnessed a few days earlier. Their friend, rabbi, holy prophet,
who they believed was the One sent by God
to bring redemption to
all of
Israel was gone
crucified. Certainly, their hope of liberation and renewal had died with him.
Sure, some of their friends had said “he is risen”, “he can’t be gone” “Look, he’s not in the
tomb”
but the two had not seen ‘Je
sus risen’ for themselves
and as much as they wanted
to keep up the faith
to believe in what he had promised them
they still couldn’t wrap
their minds around something so “impossible”.
And so, they left. Emmaus was no
t a very prominent destination.
It
was just a simple
village.
They were going home
the place we all go when we are feeling lost and defeated,
when we need time to recharge, and heal,
and figure out our next steps.
They probably
did
expect to bump into some familiar faces
along the w
ay.
Perhaps on this stretch of seven miles they anticipated running into some old cousins who
they hadn’t seen for years,
or
maybe they feared encountering Roman soldiers looking to
capture any remaining Christ followers.
They expected to see
anyone else
than the one they
longed most to see.
And so, when Jesus shows up
miraculously standing
before them in
his risen body
their
eyes
are kept from recognizing him.’

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