Reverend Ray Osborne, Senior Minister
Please Note That Most Messages Follow
The Revised Common Lectionary

I will never forget the day my family moved from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. Mom and Dad had asked me if I would be willing to drive the moving truck. Quite honestly the prospect of traveling ten hours in solitude was very appealing so I briskly accepted the job.

The morning arrived, the truck was loaded, and I was ready to pull out. I headed out the door only to meet Brian, the small son of my neighbors Dot and Bill. Brian stood there in jeans, shirt, baseball cap, and a brown grocery bag that appeared to be full. I was so touched that this little guy had come to say good-bye and that he had apparently brought me some sort of gift, that I was speechless. He spoke first,

“Raymond you ready to go?” “Why yes Brian we are.” “Got all my stuff right here in this bag.” “Your – stuff?” “What stuff?” “Oh not much, just my tape player, and my trucking songs, and enough clothes for a week.” “Okay Brian slow down little buddy I’m not exactly following you.” “I got all my stuff for the trip!” “What trip Brian?” “My mom asked your mom if I could ride along with you in the truck and she said yes! So here I am!”

Let me tell you ten hours of listening to “Mercy sake alive looks like we got us a convoy” with an 8 year old is NOT my idea of solitude!

We made a stop somewhere near the Wilkes County line and my Dad got in the truck with us. As we approached the foot of the mountain in Wilkes County I pointed to the power lines on top of the mountain. “Brian, see those power lines?” “Yeah?” “Well in a few minutes we are going to be driving under those power lines.” The next words out of that young man’s mouth ring in my ears to this day, “Lie like a lilac, Lie like a lilac! Liar, Liar pants on fire!” In a few minutes we drove under those power lines and I said, “See Brian? I was right wasn’t I?” “No!”

As we came to a stoplight in West Jefferson the sign said “Boone, left.” I asked my Dad, “Is that named after Daniel Boone?” My Dad told me it was and then he spoke to Brian, “Brian they say that Daniel Boone stared down a bear! Looked right in the bear’s eyes and the bear fell over dead!” “Now THAT I believe!” Brian said. In our Gospel lesson this morning Luke tells us that the Disciples were not all too certain about what or whom they were seeing. Verses 37-39 say, “But they were startled and frightened, and supposed that they saw a spirit. And he said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts?

See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

My wife is always my very best critic. She reminds me every once in a while to watch my grammar and vernacular. I would venture to say that she is about to make a mental notation over what I am going to say next.

Don’t you just want to walk up to the Disciples and say, “Duh?” When we drove under those power lines on the mountain and Brian STILL did not believe me, if “Duh” had been a popular word back then I probably would have said it.

There is something deep within me that makes me want to shout, “Okay Disciples wake up! Time for a reality check! Here is Jesus standing in your midst in bodily form, and you are still having a hard time understanding and accepting that Jesus has risen from the dead! When are you ever going to understand?”

Even while Jesus stood there we are told, “they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered.” I find myself asking, “What’s it going to take to make these guys believe?”

Confession time. It’s easy to ask the “When,” and “What,” questions standing on the outside looking in. I dare say that if you or I had been there that night we would have reacted in the very same way.

As we read on in the story, Jesus did not leave them with questions in their minds.

“Then he said to them, "These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled."

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

The words, “he opened their minds to understand the scriptures” leap from the Gospel at us this morning.

I would to God that He would open our minds to understand the Scriptures this morning. It's important to have our minds opened by Christ. Persons whose minds are closed, people who resist change, are like those "concrete" thinkers Webb Garrison calls-"all mixed up and permanently set.”

You see I think we are a lot like the Disciples this morning. Jesus is here in this place. He stands before us revealing to us His hands and His feet. We may not see His physical body, but that is not relevant to His presence.

Just after Jesus had told the Disciples that He was going to the Father, He explained to them about the coming of the Holy Spirit. In John 16 Jesus says to His Disciples and to you and I this morning,

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate (The Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me;

about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer;

about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.” (John 16:7-11 NRSV)

Again hear the words of Jesus as He says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, THERE I am in the midst.” (Mat. 18:20 NRSV)

Holly shared with us a beautiful song, “In the Presence of Jehovah,” we are in His presence this morning.

I think we often become blind to His presence by the world, by emotions, feelings, by sin.

You and I are in the presence of the risen Christ! When will we ever understand that?

There is yet another part of this Gospel lesson that we cannot ignore. It is on Easter night that Jesus commissions the Disciples and along with the Disciples He commissions us.

“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

We are to go forward into a lost and dying world sharing the Good News that Jesus has risen from the grave! To share with the world that because of the death and resurrection of Jesus we ought to REPENT from our sins and experience the grace and forgiveness that are available through Him!

But, it’s hard to be witness to something you aren’t experiencing isn’t it? If you can’t see Jesus, if you can’t experience His presence, if you haven’t claimed His resurrection as your own, how can you ever be one of His witnesses? Bottom line? You can’t.

Let me get a little bit hard and straight with you this morning, which as you know isn’t my usual style.

The world needs to experience a Great Spiritual Awakening. The world needs to be reminded of the presence of Jesus. Jesus is present in this world. He has promised that He will never leave nor forsake us and He hasn’t. But church hear me, before this world can ever experience a spiritual awakening, the church needs to experience a spiritual awakening.

Every person here, myself included needs to experience a spiritual awakening. The reason the world cannot see Jesus is because we don’t see Jesus, and the reason we don’t see Jesus is because we have allowed His light to grow dim in our lives. He is no longer important to us. We have taken things like power and control and made those things Lord and Savior of our lives.

We live to have power over people and programs and things. We live to control others. It’s high time we quit trying to control others and allow Jesus and His Holy Spirit to control us.

I had the privilege of hearing one of my former parishioners speak this past Sunday. He hasn’t been preaching very long, only a couple of months but Craig said something that will stick with me forever, “If we don’t move forward, God’s gonna pass us!”

People we are dead in the mud in our spiritual journey and it’s time to put it in four wheel drive and get out of the rut! When are we ever going to understand?

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