FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Sermon by Dr. George Bryant Wirth
April 23, 2006
TRAVELING MERCIES
Scripture:
Luke 24:13-35
INTRODUCTION
I don’t know the origin of
the phrase, “Traveling Mercies,” but I have heard Rev. Charles Black pray those
words from this pulpit, usually around Christmas, New Years and Easter when our
church members are driving and flying
out from this city to visit their families and friends, or when those loved
ones are coming here for the holiday season… “O kind and loving God, we pray
for traveling mercies and a safe journey.”
Last summer at Chautauqua
Lake, as I was preparing the sermon titles and choosing the scripture texts for
this church year’s theme: “Christ at the Center: Our Journey of Faith,” I read
a book by the Christian author Anne (Annie) Lamott with those same words on the
cover – “Traveling Mercies” – a book which she dedicated to her congregation,
St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Marin City, California, and to her pastor
Veronica Goines, all of whom have walked beside Anne Lamott in her journey of
faith.
So while I was thinking and
reading about those things last July, the thought occurred to me then, and I
share it with you now, that when the two disciples in Luke’s Gospel were
walking the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus on that first Easter Day, what they
needed most were “traveling mercies” to show them the way. All these years later, so do we, my friends,
so do we.
I
Our text this past Sunday
from Luke 24 described Jesus’ resurrection from the grave, and the words most
of you heard said that
The women returned from the empty tomb and told all of
this to the eleven disciples and to all the rest…but these words seemed to them
an idle tale, and they did not believe them (Luke 24:9-11).
The story goes on, and
picking up where we left off last week, Luke reports that:
On that very day, two of them were going to a village
named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other
about all these things that had happened.
While they were talking…together, Jesus Himself drew near and walked
with them. But their eyes were kept
from recognizing Him (Luke 24:13-16).
Back in 1996, just before
Easter, a group of us from Atlanta and Princeton went to Israel, and as we
drove along that same Emmaus road in a bus, our Jewish tour guide told a story
about Mark Twain visiting the Holy Land many years ago.
Twain and his wife wanted to
take a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, so they went down to the pier and
inquired of a man sitting in a small sailing vessel how much he would charge to
take them out on the water. Seeing that
this American was dressed in a white suit with a large Texan hat, the sea
captain presumed him to be a wealthy oilman from America. So he answered “I guess it will cost you
about $50.00.” Mark Twain thanked him,
and as he turned away, he said to his wife, “Now I know why Jesus walked
everywhere He went.”
Well Twain was right about
Jesus walking everywhere, and on that first Easter Day, He suddenly appeared
and walked alongside those two disciples, one of whom was named Cleopas, but
they did not recognize Him. So it had
been for Mary Magdalene outside the tomb, who thought the risen Christ was the
caretaker (John 20:14-15)…and the same thing happened to Peter and the other
disciples when Jesus appeared to them on the beach of the Sea of Galilee (John
21:4) – at first sight, they did not know who He was.
None of the gospel writers
explain this mystery, so we have to assume that Jesus somehow concealed himself
from them, perhaps with a veil over His face and by wearing a different kind of
garment.
But in each case, in every
one of the post-resurrection appearances, when He revealed His identity and
made Himself known – to Mary in the garden by the empty tomb, to Peter and the
disciples in the Upper Room and on the shores of the Galilean Sea, and to those
fellow travelers walking along the Emmaus road – when those women and men
recognized Him, they were filled with joy and with His holy presence as the
word went out, The Lord is risen and we
have seen Him!
II
And that is one of the
traveling mercies He offers to all of us on our journey of faith – the presence
of His Holy Spirit which is still alive and at work in us, every step of the
way.
For those of us who are
struggling with loneliness, or feeling lost or left behind, that is the good
news of the gospel! Dr. Wade Huie,
retired professor at Columbia Seminary, describes what it’s like to be lonely
with these words:
“Loneliness is a six year old who
doesn’t know the name of any other first graders…loneliness is a mother whose
children are away at school…loneliness is an executive who lost his closest
friends on the way up the corporate ladder…loneliness is watching a TV
commercial with a fully stocked refrigerator when all you’ve got to feed your
children is peanut butter and jelly…loneliness is lying in a hospital bed,
looking at the ceiling and asking ‘How long?
How long?’…loneliness is saying ‘No’ when all the other girls are saying
‘Yes’…loneliness is a photograph on the living room piano, worn thin with the
ritual of remembering the way things used to be…loneliness is realizing that,
in some ways, you can never go home again.”
And Charles Schultz, rest his
soul, pictured loneliness in a Peanuts cartoon years ago with Charlie Brown
going up to Lucy, who is sitting inside a big cardboard moving box with a sign
labeled “Doctor – Psychiatric Help – 5 cents.”
Charlie Brown says to her “Can you cure loneliness doctor?” Lucy replied “For a nickel, I can cure
anything!” He asks “Can you cure
deep-down, bottom-of-the-well, no-hope, end-of-the-world, what’s-the-use
loneliness?” And in a loud voice, she
exclaims “For the same nickel?”
You see, loneliness is legion
in our world today, and no nickel prescriptions or easy answers will make it go
away. My guess is that those two
disciples on the road to Emmaus were feeling deep-down loneliness and grief in
their hearts as they described to the stranger who accompanied them the
traumatic events which had happened in Jerusalem.
But Luke says that when Jesus
revealed Himself as they broke bread together, those disciples said Did not our hearts burn within us while He
talked to us on the road and opened to us the scriptures? You see, His abiding presence was the
antidote to their loneliness and sorrow, and so it can be for all of us today.
Sometimes it happens through
prayer, when we are still before the Lord and filled with His peace which passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7). At other times, it comes to us in worship,
where our faint and fragile hearts feel the warmth and strength of God’s love,
and our souls are soothed and made whole by the healing power of His Holy
Spirit.
That’s what happened to Helen
Hayes, that grand old lady of screen and stage. I’ve told you before about her moment of conviction. She was sitting in a church in New York
City. Her daughter had died too early,
far too young, and this is what Helen Hayes had to say:
“I cut God out of my life the day my
daughter died, and I didn’t have the nerve to ask Him back into my life
again. And yet, I went to my church in
New York City, and watched the people come and go…solemn laborers with tired
looks on their faces and old women with gnarled hands. And then, one day, I discovered that it had
happened – restoration of my faith and a reunion with God. I had seen all those people whom life had
knocked around, coming in to the church to be refreshed, even for a brief
moment… and suddenly, I was one of them, and I experienced a flood of
compassion, a release from my emptiness, and I have never since felt separated
from the love of God.”
That happened in a worship
service! And there are often times when
the Lord reaches out with a gentle touch through a family member, friend or
fellow Christian, who cares enough to share their love and listen to us when we
are lonely. In all of those ways and
many more, we can receive from Him the gift of His traveling mercies, and know
beyond the shadow of a doubt that we do not walk this road alone.
III
And ultimately that leads us
in this journey of faith toward our final destination, where God’s traveling
mercies will show us the way home.
Jesus’ resurrection assures us of abundant life here on earth, but the
greatest promise of all is life eternal in heaven. How do we know?
He told us it would be
so. When Jesus walked the Emmaus road
with those disciples, He said to them Was
it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His
glory? (Luke 24:26). And He has
promised to all who follow Him that someday we will share that glory with Him
forever.
In my Father’s house are many mansions with many rooms…If it were not so, I would have told you. Now I go to prepare a place for you, so that where I am, you will be also. (John 14:2-3)
Anne Lamott believes that,
and her journey of faith has been a roller coaster ride through the suffering
and pain of loneliness, broken relationships and addiction, to the joy of life
here and now and the hope of heaven as her final destination.
So listen, please, to this
closing story from her book “Traveling Mercies,” about visiting her closest
friend from high school named Bee who lives in San Francisco and whose mother
Mimi is dying of cancer. Anne’s car
breaks down on the way, and detained in a Volkswagen repair shop, she remembers
a line from one of Eugene O’Neill’s plays: “Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue.”
And when she finally arrives
late that night, this is what happens:
“I walked into their house at nine,
into this wooden palace as familiar to me as my own childhood home, the walls
covered with framed photos I’ve been looking at for thirty-some years, Mimi’s
tiny framed oil painting of the flowers hung all over the house like flat
bouquets. Outside the windows were trees
and roses, the eastern shores of San Francisco Bay, blue waters, blue sky,
birds, life, motion, stillness.
Bee’s
eyes were red from crying, the brown irises clouded with sun damage from our
tennis years. We walked hand in hand
down the hallway to where Mimi lay asleep on her bed, breathing in the loud
labored way that means the end is near.
Bee and I talked for a moment, and then she sat in the chair beside the
big bed, holding her mother’s hand, and I lay down beside Mimi, because she was
the most gregarious woman I’ve ever known, flamboyant and loving as the
Broadway stars she loved, and she seemed a little lonely.
Bee held
Mimi’s hand to her face and her chest; I stroked Mimi’s shoulders and smoothed
her hair. We talked to her the way you
talk to a sleepy child too troubled to fall asleep. We whispered that we loved her.
We told her over and over that we would stay with her as long as she
needed but that when she was ready, we were also willing to let her go. And that she was safe, with God here now on
this side, and in a moment with God on the other. ‘Traveling mercies,’ I whispered into her ear.
We said
prayers softly… and we lit candles, and held Mimi lightly so she could take off
when she was ready. The space between
each new breath became longer and longer, until an hour later there was all
space, and she died.”
CONCLUSION
My friends - when we come to
the final destination of our journey, and we cross over to the other side, as
we are caught up in that glorious mystery, I think we may hear the angels
whispering “Traveling Mercies! Traveling Mercies!”
In the name of the Father,
and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.