Pastor Ralph Douglas West - A Long Night's Journey Into Day | Luke 24:13-35

0:00 This is the day the Lord has made. We rejoice and we are glad in it. What a joy. Thank you choir for reminding us something happens when we bless the name of the Lord. While you're standing, those of you who have a Bible, and I would encourage you to bring your Bible every Sunday. Maybe you want to bring a physical Bible. I know you have it on your phone, but you look at TikTok on your phone. I learned that from some of the young people at the school.

1:07 I said, well, you have a physical Bible. You are of a generation of tech savvy young people. And they said to me, oh, I don't read my scripture where I do my social media. And you thought you knew everything. Luke 24. Those of you who are visiting with us today, we're in the Easter season. Easter is more than a one day event. And like the early disciples you discover after the resurrection things return to normal. and Luke is the second Sunday after the resurrection following the lectionary and some of your friends are going to say to you tomorrow I thought you were Baptist I didn't know you were Episcopalian tell them say oh our pastor he just reads the bible and you have to read along with him so we're in the easter cycle of faith I want to tag this text this morning, a long night's journey into day.

3:00 Let me read this to you. Beginning at verse 13, I'm going to read this scene. It's lengthy, but some of us didn't read the Bible any last week, so this will catch up for seven days of Bible reading. I love this church, you so mean. But listen to it. Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem They were talking with each other about everything that had happened And as they talked and discussed these things with each other Jesus himself came up and walked along with them but they were kept from recognizing him Thank you.

4:03 He asked them, what are you discussing together as you walk? They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them named Cleopas asked him, are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? What things, Jesus asked. About Jesus of Nazareth, they replied. He was a prophet powerful in word and deed before God and all the people The chief priests and the rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death and they crucified him But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel And what's more, it's the third day since all this took place In addition, some of the women amazed us they went to the tomb early in the morning but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they didn't see Jesus. He said to them, how foolish are you and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Messiah you have to other these things and then enter his glory and beginning with Moses and all the prophets he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself as they approached the village to which they were going Jesus continued on as if he was going further but they urged him strongly stay with us stay with us for it's nearly evening the day is almost over so he went in to stay with them. When he sat at the table with them he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to him. Then their eyes were open and they recognized him

6:15 and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other. Were not our hearts burning within us As he talked with us on the road And opened the scriptures to us They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem There they found the eleven of those with them Assembled together and said it's true It's true, it's for real the Lord has risen as he appeared to Simon then to and told what had happened on the day and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread this is the word of God you may be seeing it I hope you enjoyed that story I did.

7:15 The novelist Eugene O'Neill wrote a book. Some of you picked it up immediately in the tag of the sermon. The Long Day's Journey Into Night.

7:39 It's the story of the Tyrone family. It's told in four acts and it moves from dark to dark to darker. It's from hope to hopelessness, from possibility to impossibility. And it's called the long day's journey into night. That might describe where some of you are now that you're moving from day to night, from joy to sadness. I've seen this. unfortunately we saw this and witnessed this with a lieutenant governor with a promising future that had been compromised and the only way that he saw a way out of it was to take the long day's journey into night Two people are on the road making their way to Emmaus.

8:47 Emmaus is on the seven miles northwest of Jerusalem. Have you ever been there? Sure you have. Frederick Buechner helped me with this Buechner is the son of a prominent Princeton graduate he himself would go to Princeton to follow in his father's footstep his dad was an entrepreneur, big businessman and when the stock market crashed during the Great Depression it is said in the memoirs of Bickner that he lacked the internal resources to contend with what had happened. not money, the interiority that you and I need.

9:46 Bignett said at 10 years old, he was invited to go with his dad to Princeton. His dad got up earlier, went into the garage, closed the door behind him, turned on the Chevrolet, sat on the running board, and he took a long journey to Emmaus. he would go on to say people would ask him how did your father die and he would say of heart trouble and then he would answer you see my father had a heart and it was troubled Emmaus you've been there I wish I could tell you that you're not going to go there but nobody gets through life without going to a mess. the death of a mother, father.

10:44 On the faces of some of you I know where we have stood together at the gaping hole of a grave to put your son or daughter in. Nobody's exempt, race, creed, or color. Gender, nationality, all of us would take a trip to Emmaus. Cleopas is this one person's name The other one's name, we don't know Is it his wife? Possibly It's in our witness accounts Or maybe it's the historian Luke, maybe If I'm preaching to a women's group It's Cleopas' wife That's all I'ma say. I'm glad the name is anonymous, primarily because it allows us to put our name in the story.

11:47 Like Rembrandt never painted a picture without squeezing his face into the frame. When you read this, this is not a document that's been written thousands of years ago, separate from your life. It is a living document. It is a living will, a testament where you read it and you say, Cleopas and, and you put and Ralph and Betty and Sam and Jane. It is all these names that we put in there. This is not their story. It is our story.

12:24 Journeying toward a man's. I can tell most of you haven't been to men's. I'm going to say it one more time because I can tell you think this is not for you. You keep on living. And you're going to remember them words that you don't get through life without getting to it, man.

12:50 On the way, on that journey, while they were walking, they were rehearsing what had happened in Jerusalem. The further they walk northwest, the distance of Jerusalem is in the backfield and they are now discussing everything that had happened. The trial Jesus being marched from one court to the next Accusers, betrayers, deniers Doubters and disbelievers They're discussing everything Have you noticed That in the face of Emmaus Death or dying is not a time of forgetting.

13:45 You remember more at death than any other time. Things that get away from you at the moment there's a death. You remember all of the things that you used to do. Yesterday, I buried my elementary friend.

14:10 We met in the sixth grade. it was all of us, but it was Gerald Cargwell, then Leonard Randall, that's who died. Len Rand, we called him. One of those friends that ain't never supposed to die, you know. You get the point. And Nathan Thomas. During that same period He met Lee Zachary Maxey In fact, Zach passes In North Chicago He's here in this service This morning I called him last night He wouldn't answer Because Ralph wanted to preach I said, Ralph, he's trying to duck preaching Yeah, if you ever get a break, you're trying to keep that break. And yesterday at the service, three of the witnesses kept talking about what they remembered.

15:26 those people couldn't get the image of Jesus on that cross out of their head nails and crown and cheering and laughter and spitting in his face and pulling his beard and brutal Roman soldiers hitting in the mouth his respiration staggered trying to lift himself up on his feet to catch a breath They talked about all of that Not these pretty European paintings With a trickle of blood Gas laid And they were talking, and the reason they were talking is that their theme was this. we had hoped that he had been the one to come and redeem us. and a stranger shows up you know who the stranger is because you read it but they're kept from recognizing him and that too becomes a point of exaggeration time doesn't permit is that how jesus keep on showing up for people who loves him Thank you.

16:53 I've been arguing in the Easter season of people who talk about, well, I've been praying and God didn't answer and I asked him this and he didn't do that and God didn't do that. Well, I've been asking him to show up. Well, just remember, he only make appearances to those that know him. Just because you acknowledge him doesn't mean that you know him. Just because you prayed for something, you might be a person that only talks to God when you want something from God. Every good parent know you respond to the child that says good morning when they're not asking you for anything. They're just saying good morning.

17:51 And periodically, you ought to pray without asking for nothing since he already promised that he'll give you daily bread. What are y'all talking about? Well, you must be new to these parts, as a Texan would say it. and they started rehearsing what they already, what they already had been talking about. They were crestfallen. They were preoccupied with their hurt and disappointment.

18:35 They were weighted down over this, and the strangers listening to them. And they had already missed a promise that had been made to them in Matthew 18 while they're discussing and this stranger pops up in the midst of them, they had missed it already, that Christ had already promised them that where two or three are gathered, I'll be in the midst of you. If they could have just looked beyond that pain, they could have recognized that the stranger was bringing a gift of presence to them. Let me say something else to you Stop borrowing other people's testimony I lived through the period where we were taught how to pray for an hour, pray this way, and pray that way. And it dawned on me, I said, well, that's how they pray.

19:42 That's not how I pray. What God wants is not your method. God's not interested in your platform of prayer. How about you just pray? And they're journeying, stranger comes up, what are you talking about? We're rehearsing this. And he says, he uses a word in this, you know, how foolish you are. He'd already told people don't be calling people out of their name like that. How foolish you are. And he tells them, you know, there are some things that have to happen along the way.

20:34 So Jesus decided, and let me give you this formula, because I spent too much time setting it up at 8 o'clock. That I didn't get a chance to really give him the formula. So I want you to get the formula. because I want to know how do I get out of this long night's journey leading today. Pastor Wesley, you just buried Leonard yesterday. You are preaching today. And I love the members of my church who feel like death doesn't affect me. I do.

21:08 You know, he just goes on. How you know I'm just going on? as if I don't live with the burden of bearing a sister and a sister and a mother and a mother. Like your grief is better than my grief. I ain't got no grief. It's not that I don't grieve. I just don't grieve as somebody that doesn't have no hope. I have hope in a resurrected Lord that helps me along the way. doesn't stop me from crying, doesn't stop me from being burdened. And look at this formula, see if you can pick it up. They are making this long night's journey in the day. the stranger, you know who he is, but they're kept from seeing him, says, would you look back with me to the scriptures?

22:11 And he started with Moses. You got your Bible with you? Go to the table of contents. It just hit me, I said, because at eight o'clock, they missed the whole point. But that's eight o'clock. You see the table of content?

22:34 They call these books the books of Moses. You ready? Let's just do the first five. They call these books the Torah, the Pentateuch. You want to get deep tomorrow, tell me, say, what do we do? Oh, we started from the Pentateuch. You ready? I'm trying to help you now. saying it in a humorous way hopefully that you can appreciate me trying to season it so you can enjoy it he started with Moses you ready let's just say the first book he started with Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy now what in the world would he have to say in those books? I'm glad you asked. I would think that he stopped at chapter three, verse 15, which is the first time the gospel is preached.

23:32 It is the first forecast of coming of your hope. And you might remember it in chapter three, verse 15, where he shall bruise his head and he shall strike his heel. That's a picture of Christ on Calvary. He probably said something about Genesis 22 when Abraham offered Isaac up. And at the last moment, the angel said, stay your hand. There's a ram that has been provided for you in the bush. And they called him Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide. And maybe in Exodus, he said a word about God sending an emancipator, a liberator, who was set the enslaved free. Maybe he looked over in Leviticus and started looking at the different holiness codes and the numbers.

24:31 He pointed to the serpent that's raised up in the wilderness. And in Deuteronomy, this is a book of love. The more they talked, the more they heard, the more excited they got. And said, boy, this stranger know the book. But he didn't stop that. What it says, he started with Moses and who else? He went to the prophets. Don't let me preach by myself. Stop relying on the preacher to be telling the truth. Look at the scripture so you can validate if they're telling you the truth. Moses and the prophets. What did the prophets have to say? I'm glad you asked since I got to preach it by myself. He said, let's start with Isaiah.

25:26 He is the prince of peace. How about we look over in Jeremiah. He's a bomb in Gilead. Look over in Daniel. He's a stone hewed out of the mountain tearing the wonders of Babylon down. Look at Ezekiel. He's a wheel in the willow of a wheel. Look at Micah. He's God's justice. These are not just nicknames for God. These are names and metaphors to remind you that when you need God, God can show up in your situation.

26:04 Well, when he got through with that, they said, Lord, that was good. Well, it's getting night now. But a strange thing is happening.

26:27 The long, the long day that turned into night for Eugene O'Neill's Tyler family is the reverse in Ephesus. This long, long, long night of disappointment and discouragement and despair is brightening up. It's becoming the light. They get close to the house and they say, do you have to go? Say, yeah, I got some other appearances I need to make. You know, I got some more visits I got to do because the stranger, you know who he is, have been making these cameos all day. In the morning, early morning, before the sun was up, he was talking to people like Mary Magdalene, Mary Solomay. At midday, he had been talking to people like Simon Peter.

27:23 And along the way, he had been on the mountain and other times by the lakeside. He had been indoor, outdoor. He had been up, down with common people. He had been around these men and different women. And now he's with these people who are not part of the 11. These are disciples outside of that group. and they said but could you stay longer now let me say this to you be careful and I mean this might want to put an asterisk be careful about inviting Jesus into your house I'm going to let you sit with that for a minute now I'm not trying to give you a cute preaching point be aware of inviting Jesus into your house because if you do, there is a likely possibility he will take over your living situation.

28:28 Oh, you think I'm making that up? Revelation 3.20, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man invites me in, I will come in and sup with him. Look at this, and he with me. He with me. It's your house. Invite him in as a guest, but once he crosses the threshold, he becomes the host of your own house, And that might be the reason why some of us haven't invited him into our home, our life, our marriage, our job, our career. Because when he gets on the inside, he knows how to turn your life situation upside down. Would you stay with us? Say, yeah, yeah, I'll stay.

29:29 I got speed on. I got six minutes, 55 seconds left. So he says, yeah, I'll stay. And he came in to the house. And he took the bread. I mean, these are these times, you don't have to go to seminary, to vintage school, Bible, just take your time and read. And it's kind of humorous to say, and they invited him to the house.

29:58 And he got the bread. Say it again. And he's breaking it and blessed. That is the act of the host. The host is supposed to break the bread. the host is supposed to bless with the guest there and now you got the point when you invite him in you become the guest of your own house and he becomes the lord of it he breaks it he breaks the bread blesses the bread and give it and I've seen that before what do you mean I know who that is. Now by the time they got to recognition, thank you, who yelled that?

30:51 There you go, he's gone. He's out of there. He's, whoo. And he's gone. And they said, oh my Lord, I know who that is. How you know? I remember one day, we had been traveling with Jesus all day long and we was hungry we didn't have nothing to eat he said to the disciples what do you have they said we only have two fish and five loaves of bread and Jesus said give it to me and one of them said what is that in the face of so many people And that man said put it in my hand And I can make the difference Some of y'all need to put your life And your career And your job And your hobby And your family And your health in the Lord's hand And let the Lord do something different Which I know who that is Yeah Now, now, now, now I'm disinformed my members at home the thousands of you no no no no no no because we know they here cuz they was here a couple of weeks ago they want no visitors There were people who were mad when you said it's good to see you.

32:24 And I know you think that you can get what you need at home, but you can't. Because church is designed to smell each other's cologne and perfume. It's designed to bump into each other trying to get out the door. is designed to say good morning in person. It's designed to get into a traffic jam on the parking lot. It's not for you once my voice changed, you say I'm gonna leave so I can get out of here. You ain't had church yet until you hug somebody. You ain't had church yet until you high five somebody.

33:19 You ain't had church until you ask how your son and how your daughter doing. You ain't had church until somebody just pulled you to the side and said, let me pray for you. The Lord told me to pray for you. That's when church gets good. It's called what a fellowship.

33:39 What a joy divine. Leaning on the everlasting life. It is when you're rubbing shoulders with one another and get on the parking lot and you say, what a blessedness. What a peace is mine. Lean on the everlasting arm. It's when you get out there and you stop to let somebody get ahead of you. Or you see somebody in the bistro and you say, oh, you know, the Lord just spoke to my heart. Let me buy your family dinner today. Let me do something nice for you. And then you leave, I say, I don't even know that lady. And that lady just reached in her pocket and blessed me. And that's when you say, oh, how sweet to walk. In this pilgrim way. Leaning on the everlasting arm.

34:35 Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day. leaning on the everlasting arm. I don't need no help today. I'm all by myself. You can do whatever you want now. I'm preaching for me now. Something happens when you go to fellowship. I don't go to church because I'm a preacher. I don't go to church because I got a responsibility. I'm here this morning because it's a water fellowship. And all I know is when I get in here, something's going to happen. In the fellowship. I'm going to see somebody. That I haven't seen. In the fellowship. Somebody going to pray for me. I'm standing down there this morning. I knew I had to get ready for the next service. One of my members walked up to me.

35:30 Said let me just pray for you. And I said she didn't know. I said that's why I got up to.