Soul Shaping

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16

You walk into a darkened room. Your vision is compromised to the point that you feel disoriented. Undeterred, you continue forward. Your foot bumps into something. Pain shoots up your leg. You let out a yelp. But you keep going. Bit by bit you are making progress without knowing exactly where you are going. You fear tripping and falling at any point.

After several minutes of this, you’ve had enough. You make your way out of the darkened room muttering under your breath about the audacity of the room for being dark. You take to social media ranting about dark rooms. Surely some politician is responsible for rooms like that. If only it could be like it used to be. Rooms didn’t use to be dark or at least that’s how you prefer to remember it. Your words are filled with biting sarcasm and open hostility. What’s wrong with this world that dark rooms like that are allowed to exist? Somebody ought to do something about it.

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:1-6

In my last post I shared my thoughts on the tragedy of congregational disunity in light of Jesus’ expressed desire that His followers be one. Now I want to address what creates unity among believers based on Paul’s strong admonition in Ephesians 4.

Here Paul reinforces this all important theme which is seen in many of his letters. Unless a church is together as one, it will fail. The greatest buildings, programs, and leadership cannot overcome a lack of unity. So Paul literally pleads with the Ephesian church to have oneness. Such a thing is a part of being committed to Christ. It reflects the unity in the Christian life as is demonstrated in the oneness of God. And because it’s so central to the will of God for a church, Paul lists for us the ingredients of true church unity.

Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one…. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. John 17:11b, 20-23

Several years ago, I ran across the story of Centerville, GA which at the time had a population of just over 5,000 people but a total of 48 Presbyterian Churches. The high number had to do with multiple splits that had taken place over the years.

Originally, in 1899, only one Presbyterian church existed, simply known as Centerville Presbyterian Church. By 1911 the church had grown to almost 150 members, a considerably large church at that time. But a dispute arose within the congregation over whether or not the offering should be taken before or after the sermon. Thus the first split took place, with the dissenting congregation forming the Centerville Reformed Presbyterian Church.

In 1915 a dispute arose among the members of that church over having flowers in the sanctuary. As a result, it split. As a result, Trinity Reformed Presbyterian Church of Centerville was organized with 25 members.

“It is enough for disciples to be like their teacher…” Matthew 10:25a CEV

It was Christmas night many years ago when I along with my wife and school age children were making our way to Tennessee to be with our families. Because of the distance and the time of our departure, we had made reservations at a motel off the Interstate in the western part of North Carolina. Unfortunately, we didn’t think about what we were going to eat. Most every place that we would have normally chosen was closed. In fact, everything was closed except a Waffle House and a restaurant attached to a motel not far from where we were staying.

Waffle House would have been acceptable. But it was Christmas night, and the thought of scattered, covered and smothered just didn’t seem to fit the occasion. So we chose the other option. After all, it was a real sit down restaurant which we thought would be a perfect ending to the day. We were wrong.

When we walked inside, we were quickly greeted and escorted to our table. So far so good. What didn’t know at the time was the fact that our host would also serve as our waiter, our cook and our cashier. As the evening progressed, we learned that everyone else had either called in sick (I bet) or couldn’t get out because of the weather (I’ll double the wager). So this guy was it.

The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:9, 16-17

“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” John 12:27-28

To support and care for His newly created humanity, God is described as having planted a garden. From that garden would come food to eat and a place to call home. In the middle of the garden was the tree of good and evil. This is more than simply a moral standard. It was a representation of God who alone knows what is truly good and truly evil. Any attempt to eat of this tree would have dire consequences. Why? Because to eat of the tree was in essence an attempt to usurp the rightful place of God in the center of all things. It would be a grasping for control.

When God is in the center, life goes as it should. God loves and provides. Men and women return that love in gratitude. Harmony comes. Life is good. Yet such a state is fragile indeed. That’s why the warning was given. There is something in the human soul that will forever be tempted to put something else in the center of life. Basically, it is a choice between allowing God to be in the center or taking over that place for ourselves.

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval. John 6:27

In celebration of our 25th wedding anniversary, my wife and I decided to take a seven day Caribbean cruise. We had never done anything like that before, and it was everything we had heard it was and more. If you’ve ever been on a cruise, you know that one of the highlights is the evening meal.

I think it was around our second night on the ship when we were seated at our table, and I was looking over the menu. Not being as sophisticated as some cruise veterans are, I was having a hard time even understanding what most of the main course items were. So to be safe I thought I’d just order a steak.

Now a steak is hardly something that you settle for. Hotdog maybe. But not a steak. Steaks are always good, and that’s what I wanted or at least I thought I did. When I told our waiter that I wanted a steak, he immediately told me in somewhat broken English, “Oh no. You do not want steak. I will bring you something else. You will like it. If not, then I bring you steak.”

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer 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 were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 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?”

They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread. Luke 24:25-35

As we continue to explore Luke’s account of the two men on the road to Emmaus, we have more to learn when we travel that same road.

The Emmaus road deepens our understanding of God’s truth.

As the two men poured out their hearts to this supposed stranger, Jesus just listened. And then after giving them a full opportunity to share their thoughts, He began to respond. On the surface His opening comments in verse 25 seem rather harsh. But the words translated “foolish” or “slow of heart” simply mean that they just weren’t getting the message.

And with that, Jesus began to explain some important biblical truth as He walked them through the Old Testament story from Moses to the prophets. Of course, much of this was old news to them. They had heard these stories their whole lives. But sadly, they didn’t fully understand them. And the lack of understanding was contributing to their struggle.

You see, a great deal of their problem centered around their distorted view of the role of the Messiah. In the first century Jewish mind, the Messiah would be a great military leader who would overthrow the Romans and restore the nation to the status it once held when David was king. Therefore, no true Messiah would allow himself to be killed much less by death on a cross.

But as Jesus pointed out to them in verse 26, that’s exactly what the Old Testament message had been saying all along – that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer these things. And He was right. That was the message, but their own limited understanding blocked their ability to perceive it.

C.S. Lewis discovered this very same thing as he worked through his own Emmaus road experience in the loss of his beloved wife to cancer. At one point he said that in desperation he would cry out to God, and the response felt like a door slammed in his face with God locking the doors of heaven from the inside leaving him in silence. But later he was able to come to a deeper and more informed understanding.

Here’s what he wrote: Was it my own frantic need that slammed [the door] in my face? The time when there is nothing at all in your soul except a cry for help may be just the time when God can’t give it: you are like the drowning man who can’t be helped, because he clutches and grabs. Perhaps your own reiterated cries deafen you to the voice you hoped to hear.

Can you relate with that? Most of us who’ve walked on the Emmaus road can. It’s not that we don’t have any understanding of God’s truth, it’s just that we have a distorted perhaps shallow understanding. Maybe we thought that if we just lived the right way, went to church, and tried to honor God that we would avoid the pain that other people go through. Or perhaps we convinced ourselves that if we had enough faith or prayed with enough conviction that God would simply step into our circumstances and change them.

But it didn’t happen that way. Despite all the prayers, verses claimed, and spiritual efforts we could muster, we still found ourselves like these two guys – full of profound sadness that life has turned out the way it has. That can be a devastating discovery as it was for them.

But once we’ve finished thrashing about trying to make our circumstances fit into our limited theological box, God can come to us with a deeper understanding of the truth – a deeper understanding that we desperately need and one that can open the door to the final thing I want to share with you in this post.

The Emmaus road leads us to new and transforming encounters with Christ.

As I said earlier, the two men in the story were followers of Jesus. They were a part of the early band of believers that would soon make up the nucleus of the New Testament church. So they knew Christ. And what they knew had made a huge impact on them.

But on the road to Emmaus they came to experience Him in ways they had never experienced Him before. Luke tells us that they shared a meal with Jesus that night, and as He broke the bread before them, they finally recognized that it was Him.

As a result, the scripture says that at that very hour they returned to Jerusalem, found the rest of the believers and told them that “the Lord has really risen.” The way they put it almost seems like they are trying to inform the group about what had happened as if they didn’t know it. But, of course, they did know it. Yet for these two guys it didn’t matter. They knew Him before, but now they knew Him in an even greater way. And they wanted others to know about it as well.

In reading this, you might be thinking to yourself that it sounds great, but does it work? Can you really have a transforming encounter with Christ when you’re right in the middle of an Emmaus road experience?

In response consider a statement by Corrie Ten Boom in her book The Hiding Place. The statement was made as she looked back on her time in a Nazi concentration camp and how she and others experienced the very thing we see in the Emmaus road story.

It grew harder and harder. Even within these four walls there was too much misery, too much seemingly pointless suffering. Everyday something else failed to make sense, something else grew too heavy.

But as the rest of the world grew stranger, one thing became increasingly clear… our Bible was the center of an ever widening circle of help and hope. Like [orphans] clustered around a blazing fire, we gathered about it, holding out our hearts to its warmth and light…

Life in Ravensbruck took place on two separate levels, mutually impossible. One, the observable, external life, grew everyday more horrible. The other, the life we lived with God, grew daily better, truth upon truth, glory upon glory.

So as awful as Emmaus road experiences may be, God uses these very experiences to help us come to know Him in ways that we otherwise never would. So learn to look for them. Look for those seemingly small yet significant signs of His presence. And allow them to lead you to know your Lord in new and transforming ways.

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. 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. Luke 24:13-16

We return again to the story in Luke’s gospel about two disillusioned travelers as we seek to learn more as we walk on our own Emmaus road.

The Emmaus road provides us a safe place to process our struggles.

As the story continues, Luke tells us that the two men were reviewing everything that had happened to them in the city. We aren’t told the exact words that they said, but it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to make a good guess. I can well imagine that the conversation may have been similar to what follows.

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. 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. Luke 24:13-16

There are some streets that are so well known that all you have to do is to mention their name, and certain images come to mind. For instance, when you read the name Rodeo Drive, you immediately envision high-end boutiques where the rich and famous shop. Madison Avenue symbolizes the consumer-driven advertising industry. And Boardwalk represents one of the most coveted addresses on the Monopoly Board. From Wall Street and Michigan Avenue to Beale Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, these are streets that represent something significant in most people’s minds.

In the Bible there are certain roadways that are also known for their significance. Take, for example, the Damascus Road. It was on this stretch of road that the Apostle Paul was confronted by the risen Christ, and the whole trajectory of his life changed. Then there’s the road to Calvary that Jesus walked that’s sometimes called the Way of Suffering. Added to that is the famous story of the Good Samaritan that took place on the road to Jericho.

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32

This passage from John 8 is set in the temple during the observance of the Feast of Tabernacles. He was attempting to help the crowds understand who He was and the nature of His relationship with the heavenly Father. The reactions were mixed. Most of the crowd and especially the religious leaders rejected His message. Some even wanted Him arrested. But according to John 8:30, many believed in Him.

On the surface we would assume that the positive response toward Jesus was a good thing. But Jesus realized that their so-called belief was not grounded in the truth. So Jesus wasted no time in exposing their false belief by telling them that only by continuing in His word would they experience spiritual freedom.

Their reaction was telling. They immediately began to appeal to their relationship with Abraham. Because of their biological connection with their founding patriarch, they assumed that they had no need to be made free. It was this very resistance that proved Jesus’ point. They weren’t as free as they thought they were.