Kew Baptist Church
Sermon 23 May 2010
Scripture: Luke 24:13-36
Title: The Hidden Christ – or Where’s Jesus?
Last Sunday was the Brunswick Baptist Church 148th Anniversary. I think Kew Baptist Church was constituted six years earlier, so our two congregations are historical siblings. We had a wonderful time, many of our former members returned to wish us well with our major building program for which we have just received planning approval; we had the organ as the main instrument for the music; we showed photographs from the early part of the 20th Century; and we had a celebratory feast over lunch. We are blessed to have 94 year old Forbes Wright in the congregation. His father, Rev HF Wright was twice pastor of BBC, so Forbes has been in the church most of his life. We also have a 70 something lady in the congregation who was born into the church. These people are living treasures for us and irreplaceable repositories of knowledge about the history, the people and the changes in values and ethos of the church.
It was fascinating to hear stories from people of all ages of how this once large church had impacted their lives. The church has changed in many ways over the years, but the essential character and mission of reaching into the wider community with the Good News of Jesus still survives. Once, we had a thriving all age Sunday School as the focus of the church’s ministry. Now we have a focus on welcoming migrants, and particularly asylum seekers, into our midst. Many of the former members commented on the multiculturalism of the church. But most of their conversation was about the past, and as I listened, much of it was about people who were thought to have been significant or influential – prominent people – pastors, deacons, treasurers, secretaries. It was as if some people became icons of a particular era and represented the achievements, the struggles, even the failures of that era. We are very fortunate that one of the iconic figures – Forbes – is also one of our living treasures. Forbes was in most of the photographs from the 1920s till the present and we love him dearly. But as I looked at those photos and listened to the stories, I found myself wondering about the faces that no one could put a name to, about the stories of people who are now forgotten beyond recollection. Each one of those anonymous faces had experienced grace, and many had their own story of faith, whatever shape that faith took.
I know that Kew, like Brunswick, would have its iconic figures from the past and its living treasures in the present. But it would also have its share of anonymous saints who have in their own way contributed to who you are as a community of faith today. The past lives on in the present, even if we are not fully aware of all of the influences that have led the Kew Baptist Church to be what it is today. Sadly, we often recognise the ways in which God was working through people and through situations, only when we look in the rear vision mirror. And by then memory can play tricks on us and we can quite unconsciously reinvent history to protect our prejudices and bolster our theological persuasions.
Kew Baptist Church is entering a new phase in its journey. You are in the process of appointing a new pastor. You are a church with three significant congregations and lots of young people and children. You are a changing congregation; 50% of the respondents to the church profile questionnaire have been in the church less than four years. So with this dynamic , changing community, how do you together know the presence of the Hidden Christ in your midst? With the many voices, the diverse theological perspectives, the different cultural and generational expressions of faith, how do you together hear the voice of the Quiet Christ so that you make wise choices and sound decisions?
Let’s imagine the story about the two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus as a kind of model of church:
§ Cleopas and his friend are walking along the road, probably going home to Emmaus, three days after the crucifixion of Jesus, no doubt still in shock and bewildered by the apparent annihilation of their Lord and the one whom they believed to be the Messiah. Understandably they are talking about the violent and shocking event that had happened.
§ A stranger joins them – we know it’s Jesus but for some reason they don’t recognise him – and he asks them what they are talking about. They can’t believe he doesn’t know what’s happened – everyone else does. So they begin to tell the story, ‘The things about Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people …’ and the go on to tell what is virtually a creed about the death and resurrection of Jesus.
§ And then Jesus the risen, yet still Hidden Christ, explains to them how the Jewish Bible, what we know as the Old Testament, beginning with the books of Moses, predicted all of the events they were agonising over. He conducts a Bible study with them as they walk towards Emmaus, but still they don’t recognise him.
§ And so, finally they arrive at Emmaus and invite him to stay the night and they sit down to supper. Jesus takes the bread, blesses and breaks it, and gives it to them. Only then, in the breaking of bread – the symbol for the sacramental meal we call communion, does the Hidden Christ, become the risen Christ for them. And immediately he disappears, and is hidden once more.
Let’s translate that into this community – Kew Baptist Church:
1. We are journeying together, trying to know what it is that is happening in our life together. We are in transition from a loved and appreciated pastoral leader and for some of us that can be a bit like the experience of the post-Easter disciples. We’ve been having a great time together, the church is going well, but what does the future hold?
Let’s learn from Cleopas and his friend and talk about it. Talk about our hopes and dreams, talk about our faith and our, lack of faith, talk about our fears and our anxieties. But let’s talk about those issues of faith that lie deep within us. We do not have Jesus with us as a physical presence, but as surely as the hidden Christ was on that road to Emmaus, he is on our journey of seeking truth and seeking understanding.
2. Jesus then interprets to them the connection between the Jewish tradition – the scripture – and the life-shattering event they have just experienced. He helps them understand their devastating experience in the light of the truth of God revealed in the story of the people of God. They didn’t recognise Jesus, but afterwards they were able to say, ‘Didn’t our hearts burn within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’
Knowing what the Bible has to say about the salvation of God through the death and resurrection of his Son, is one of the keys to discovering the Hidden Christ in our midst. Frank Rees, Principal of Whitley College, has said that two decades of thematic preaching has left our churches biblically illiterate. We need to know the scriptures.
Part of the pastoral search process we are engaged in involves telling the recent story of this church. This is not just a history of the church. The interpretation of the story is about looking for the signs of the presence of the Hidden Christ in all eras of this church’s life, even the difficult times. There has been no time in the life of the church when Christ has not been right with us, it’s just that we haven’t always recognised him, he’s been hidden.
Of course we don’t just learn from the story of the Kew Baptist Church; that story draws us back to the story of our Baptist tradition. When I read of some of our Baptist forebears – people like John Smythe, Thomas Helwys, John Robinson – and particularly when I read Helwys’ ‘Mistery of Iniquity’ and his defence of the freedom of conscience in matters of faith, ‘my heart burns within me’.
Connecting my story, and our story, with the scripture and with the story of this church and the story of the universal church is all part of finding the Hidden Christ in the midst of the Christian community.
3. There are a lot of words involved in the first two steps – telling our stories and listening to each other, doing the hard work of interpreting our stories in the light of scripture and the tradition of the church. We can do all of this and yet the Hidden Christ can still remain invisible to us. It was in the hospitality extended to Jesus, and in the blessing and breaking of the bread, that he was finally known to Cleopas and his companion. We can’t possibly find the Hidden Christ in the midst of the congregation in a couple of hours on a Sunday and communion once a month. The invitation extended by the two disciples to stay with them, the image of a shared meal with a sacramental blessing and breaking of bread, speak of a shared journey, of a spiritual intimacy that opens our eyes to the presence of God with us.
Conclusion
Today is the day in the church calendar when we celebrate Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit on the church. I believe that the coming of the Spirit in power is not distinct from the pattern of church we find in the Emmaus story; telling and listening to our stories, searching the scripture and the story of the church, and sharing our lives so that hospitality becomes communion, this is how we discover the presence of the risen and hidden Jesus amongst us, and open ourselves to the Spirit that sends us into the world to live the Gospel.