Wish I were There

Rev Lenita Tiong's Sermon today, Seeing the Lord, should have opened the heart's eyes of many Wesleyans (Members of Wesley Methodist Church, Sibu) or to the least, touched many hearts in ways best known to them.

For me, it meant more than that - wish I were there in the accounts recorded in Luke 23:13-35.!

Yes, there are many accounts in the Gospel in the Bible which made me long to be there. The account in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 23:13-35 is one that I never read without wishing I could have been there.

Join me in this walk again, as Wesleyans walked with Rev Lenita Tiong today through her strong and powerful sermon!

The passage in Luke tells of the story of an encounter which occurred on the day of the resurrection of our Lord, when two men were walking along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

The news had come that Jesus had risen, but no one would believe it. It was absolutely unacceptable to them! The hearts of these men were filled with sorrow as they contemplated the events of that week. The sun had been blotted out of their sky by the death of Jesus. They hardly knew which way to turn or what to do. Hopelessness. Devastation. Downcasted. They walked away from Jerusalem.

Luke tells us that while they walked they were discussing all the things that had happened. They could hardly speak of anything else, and were intent on their conversation. Their dreams gone. Their master gone. Their teacher gone.

Then a stranger drew near and accompanied them. As they walked along, this stranger asked them, "What is this you are talking about?"

They stopped and looked at him, and said, "Are you a stranger in Jerusalem, that you don't know what has been happening? Why, the whole city has been filled with the news about how Jesus of Nazareth, the prophet, Son of God, a mighty man who performed miracles, was delivered by our high priests into the hands of the Romans. He was taken out and crucified. We were so sure he was the one who had come to be the Redeemer of Israel. It is said that when the women went out to his tomb this morning they found that his body was gone! We absolutely don't know what to make of it."

When they had finished, the stranger said to them,

"O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!"

Then, Luke tells us, "beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself."

Later on, as they were thinking back over that wonderful incident, they said to each other,

"Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?"

That's it! What was it that caused that wonderful, strange heartburn, that divine glow of anticipation which lit again the smoldering fires of faith in their hearts and renewed their strength?

Do we desire an experience like that?

Rev Lenita called Wesleyans to make the Words of God the centre of their lives in the coming year and let that wonderful, strange heartburn to light the faith in our hearts whether you are contemplating turning away, or have turned away. Be Easter Christians where there is hope in resurrected Lord and not Good Friday Christians where there is no hope!

"Become men and women of the Book and renew our strength!"

The Holy Communion that followed Rev Lenita's sermon became an intimate communicaton with the Lord and communion with other Wesleyans that many Wesleyans could have not experienced for a long time!