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First Presbyterian Church of Inglewood

100 North Hillcrest Ave

Inglewood, California 90301

Telephone numbers: (310) 677-5133

Fax (310) 330-8342    Electronic mail: PRESBYTS@SBCGLOBAL.NET

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Rev. Dr. Harold E Kidd

PASSIONATE LIVING

"They asked each other, 'Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"

Luke 24: 32

To every man there openeth

A way, and ways, and a way,

And the high soul climbs the High Way,

And the low soul gropes the Low,

And in between on the misty flats,

The rest drift to and fro.

But to every man there openeth

A High Way and a Low,

And every man decideth

The way his soul should go."

-John Oxenham

As in this poem by John Oxenham, we come to discover that life has many ways or roads. As believers we have come to understand that we are merely sojourners, travelers if you will through this world. Like Abraham we are seeking a holy city, the New Jerusalem whose builder and maker is God. As a people of faith you and I are always reminded through our circumstances and experiences, that life is truly a Faith Journey. We walk by Faith and not by Sight. It is our faith that keeps us ever moving forward in spite of the challenges of life, and it is our faith that serves us like a spiritual compass, giving us direction ever looking unto Jesus as the author and finisher of our Faith.

And one of the significant questions it helps to ask ourselves from time to time is: Where am I going in my life? In what direction am I headed? Like the poem, its good to ask ourselves, Am I striving to be a high soul or a low soul? Am I on my way somewhere, or am I in the words of this poem, just wandering through the misty flats of life, expending energy but not really going anywhere. It doesn’t matter who we are, we do well from time to time to ask ourselves the question, where am I headed in life?

Ah, yes.. life is filled with many ways, or roads. The roads we take in life, will in time determine our reaching a certain destination point. There is the road of education which will eventually lead to the destination point of a college degree. There is the road of parenting which will eventually lead we pray to the healthy spiritual-emotional and physical development of our children.

There is the road of the spiritual disciplines which we must walk: prayer, scripture study, giving our service and finance to the Lord, worship and spending personal quite time with God; if we ever hope to reach the destination point of growth in spiritual maturity and a deeper fellowship with the Lord. Yes, every road we travel will lead us to an appointed destination. Every road leads to some destination.

Poet Robert Frost in The Road Less Traveled puts it this way;

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sign

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference in the world.

In his sermon on the Mount Jesus himself spoke about divergent ways that will eventually lead to appointed destinations, he taught them,

"Enter in at the straight gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in there: because strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it." He was speaking about the spiritual life and its two roads, one that leads to everlasting life, and one that leads to spiritual destruction.

It doesn't take much discipline to follow the crowd, but it takes a brave soul, a stout-hearted soul, a sturdy soul, a soul that has desire to climb the high road of life, who makes the decision to take The Road Less Traveled. The road that leads to God. So roads do have a way of speaking to us, of asking us questions. Where have you been in life? And where are you going? To every person there openeth A Way, and ways and a way: roads.

Now the our theme for this morning is Passionate Living, and I began with this introduction on roads, the directions we can take in life, because our text informs us that following the Resurrection of Jesus, two of his disciples were on their way to a village called Emmaus. As they traveled this road to Emmaus they encountered the risen Lord. The experience of this encounter left with them " burning hearts." But before we go any further in this text let me say a word about roads in Scripture.

There are some important roads mentioned in the New Testament that carry with them a significant reality in the believer's Journey of Faith. Can you name them? There is the Jericho road. The Jericho road was the place upon which a beaten man was befriended by the Good Samaritan. It was a road notorious for its danger and peril.

The Jericho road is the road of service to our fellow humanity. It stands for that portion of our journey in life in which we respond to the call of Christ to give service, and to show the compassion of Jesus to someone who has fallen in the midst of danger and peril. It could be reaching out to wayward youth, it could be offering ministry to someone wrestling with an addiction of some kind, it might be working with the incarcerated who have been stigmatized by the fact they've done time in prison.

We walk Jericho whenever we are willing to risk personal comfort and security in order to offer the love of Jesus through acts of compassion to those who have been beaten down in life. The Jericho road will reveal the true nature of our faith. For you will recall that the Levite and the Priest passed by this suffering man who had been beaten by robbers on that Jericho road. Their religion was a churchianity that is powerless to lift someone who has been beaten down or who has fallen. Churchianity is absent of compassion or risk. Although both Priest and Levite were religious persons, they demonstrated no love and compassion to reach out and help a suffering brother. Then came the Samaritan, hated by orthodox Jews. The Samaritan stopped on this road of danger and peril to give assistance to this mugged Jew. Yes, The Jericho road is the road of loving service.

Then there is the Damascus road. It is that road upon which Saul met the Lord in a way that literally turned his world upside down and turned his life 180 degrees around. The Damascus road comes to mean that road in life, which is God's appointment time for our spiritual conversion. It is the road known among Christians as the road of conversion. It is Christ's road of being "born from above".

One cannot become a new creation in Christ without traveling the Damascus road. The Damascus road experience will make one a changed person offering new purpose and new direction in life. Just as Saul of Tarsus encountered Christ on the Damascus road, so every sinner must turn from self-righteousness and believe that Jesus Christ is their personal Savior. Every Christian must travel the Damascus road.

There is the Jerusalem road. It is the road of personal suffering for Jesus' sake. It is the road walked by Jesus leading him to Gethsemane and ultimately to Calvary. It is the road of redemptive suffering. Jesus was crucified for standing on the side of right. He even told his disciples concerning this Jerusalem road, "Blessed are you, when people insult you, persecute you falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Anyone who dares to take a stand for Christ, for His truth, for the Kingdom's sake will experience opposition. Many throughout history have chosen to walk the Jerusalem road. It has been walked by the Apostle Paul, Mother Theresa, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , John Huss, Detrich Bonhoffer, Pope John Paul II to name a few. The Jerusalem road is the road of suffering for Christ and the kingdom.

But then there is the Emmaus road. It is the road of the burning and passionate heart for the things of God. In our text these two disciples were returning from Jerusalem from the village of Emmaus. They had been rehearsing the terrible scene of Good Friday, the day of our Lord's crucifixion. With heavy hearts and troubled souls they trudged down the road of Emmaus. Their joy and hope had been broken.

When a third man joined them while they were discussing the crucified Lord and the reports of his resurrection. It was Jesus but they did not recognize him. As he walked with them on that Emmaus road, the Lord

shared with them the scriptures and when they arrived home he broke bread with them in fellowship and suddenly, Luke says, "Their eyes were opened and the knew it was the Lord." Hallelujah! But suddenly he vanished from their midst. And their testimony was: "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way?"

We all need an Emmaus road experience. Emmaus is the road of encounter with Jesus that rekindles the burning heart and passionate living for the Lord after we have gone through some difficult and sorrowful experiences. Some life experiences do have a way of beating us down. We do have experiences causing us to take our eyes off of the Lord and to forget his promises unto us. We do have setbacks and disappointments that can take the wind out of our sails, the gleam out of our eyes, and the smile from our countenance. We do go through things that seek to steal our Joy.

But the Lord has an Emmaus waiting for us. Emmaus, is what Jesus does for us after we've gone through a tragedy, an illness or a setback. Emmaus is when the Lord shows up in your midnight hour and gives you a renewed joy for living. Emmaus will put a new song in your heart and new pep in your step. Emmaus is what John Wesley, described as he felt his heart "Strangely warmed." Church work had burned him out, his joy in the Lord had been reduced to a flickering flame of a candle but then Jesus showed up. Hallelujah! The zeal of Christ and his church now burned deeply once again in his heart.

It doesn't matter what Good Friday we've been through, Jesus will show up and he will reaffirm his promises to us and rekindle the burning heart, and our passion for living. To live life to the fullest. To live life as an adventure. To live life with expectancy and anticipation of what the Lord yet has waiting for us to experience. Passionate Living. Who said the Christian life has to be dull and dry? Who said the Christian life is without fun, excitement and adventure?

"Did not our hearts burn within." He brought Joy, Joy, Joy. This Joy I have the world didn't give it to me.

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