Text: Luke 24:13-35
Richard Baxter, 17th century pastor/theologian, wrote, "It is
but just that our hearts should be on God when the heart of God is
so much on us."
It is the scriptures that constantly remind us that God’s heart
is set on us. Little wonder then that in this morning’s gospel
account of a resurrection appearance of Jesus, we are told that Jesus
"opened their minds to understand the scriptures," as he
had done with the two on the road of Emmaus, a story that immediately
preceded this morning’s text. And was not Jesus doing so to remind
the disciples that God’s heart was still indeed set on them,
and that there were wondrous implications to such loving, divine,
attention?
A rabbi, commenting on the passion with which he and his faith community
read the Torah, suggested that it was because they understood these
scriptures to be "love letters" from God. From the moment
I first read those words, I have approached my own reading of the
scriptures as a reading of love letters from God – God telling
us, in various and sundry, perplexing, confusing, and certainly mysterious
ways, "I love you." In Isaiah, God says to us, "you
are precious, honored, and loved with an everlasting love." "As
a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you." "Don’t
be afraid. I am with you."
It seems to me that Jesus, in opening up the scriptures to his disciples,
recounting what God had done, re-reading a number of God’s love
letters to them; was reminding them, not only how much God in truth
did love them (look what God had done), but that the love was of such
an intimate nature that it couldn’t be a private affair. It couldn’t
be contained within, it needed to be expressed and shared with others.
You shall be my witnesses. Yes, because God loves us, we love God.
But because God loves us, we are called to love others also.
A friend, Wendi Wright, suggests "the love of others is the love
of God experienced in this life. The love of God and the love of others
are inseparably intertwined. Not only are we called to serve others,
we are invited to be sustained, challenged, and loved into the images
and likeness of God by each other."
Oh, yes, the content of these letters is wondrous. However, this morning
I don’t want to speak of the content so much as to simply remind
us that these love letters from God exist; that these scriptures are
central to our understanding, growth, and experience of God’s
love; and to encourage us to begin reading them more. And to read
them not simply for information, or to prove our particular point
or opinion on any given subject is the correct one; my own experience
tells me that anyone can prove anything with the scriptures if that
is their intent: as some bumper stickers express – "The
Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it!" – and there
is no stretching of the hearts and minds to the deeper understandings
God has for us. Thomas Merton wrote, "We must not therefore open
the Bible with any set determination to reduce it to the limits of
a preconceived pattern of our own. And in reading it we must not succumb
to the temptation of short cuts and half-truths. All attempts to narrow
the Bible down until it fits conveniently into the slots prepared
for it by our prejudice will end with our misunderstanding the Bible
and even falsifying its truth." (Merton, Opening the Bible, pp.
66-68). What I suggest is that if we read these words as "love
letters," the words do far more than inform, they will transform
us. Ephraim of Syria, a 4th century church father, commented that,
"while fields and vineyards yield their harvest and then become
empty and withered, scripture provides endless bounty for those who
garner its fruits."
In our church’s Directory of Worship we read, "The church
confesses the Scriptures to be the Word of God written, witnessing
to God’s self-revelation. Where the word is read or proclaimed,
Jesus Christ the Living Word is present by the inward witness of the
Holy Spirit."
Scriptures are God’s love letters reminding us of God’s
deep and compassionate regard for us and for what happens to us. With
the advent of e-mail, the art and practice of writing handwritten
love letters perhaps has been lost, but I can’t help but believe
that there are some present in this sanctuary this morning who wrote
or received, at one time or more, a handwritten love letter that made
your day, lifted your spirit, and convinced you life was a special
gift, not to mention the glow it brought to your face and the energy
to your heart.
Well, Jesus in opening the scriptures to his disciples, was hoping
to do the same to them – so that God’s love would lift them
to new heights of confidence in God’s love and presence
and an ever deepening experience of life itself, in all its dimensions,
and empower them to be the bearers of life and love to others.
Time to dust off the book and begin again reading these extraordinary
love letters from God. Do you hear God enticing you into a love affair
with God and thus life? "Come then, my beloved, my lovely one,
come. For see, winter is past, the rains are over and gone. Flowers
are appearing on the earth. The season of glad songs has come.…"
"O taste and see that the Lord is good…." (Psalm 34:
8) Commenting on the medieval spiritual disciplines of Christendom,
Wright wrote, "And so they did, they ingested the Word, chewed
it, masticated it, savored its flavor, explored its texture, digested
it, and let it become the staple food that nourished their lives."
Oh, that somehow we might do the same with these love letters from
God, for through them God makes our lives songs to be sung, and that
no matter what our life experiences might be, as Peter of Celle wrote,
"The nourishment of holy books is so fruitful and abundant that
in them our every weakness will be countered by as many varieties
of reading as there are moments in our lives, however long we live."
We have been sent these love letters. Let us read them.
