The Fountain of Youth, Pristine Untouched Waterfalls, and Birds of ENORMOUS Size.

I'm really late "editing" this. Sorry.

These incredible pictures which David has posted are from our Sunday trip to Turgen with young pastors from all over the "-stans." Turgen is a mountainous area about an hours drive from Almaty by bus.









Our first stop was the spring called "The Fountain of Youth." How's that for marketing? Appearantly it's quite a tourist destination. Ancient legend claims that an old man and woman became young again after drinking water from this spring. Send me your credit card number and I'll ship you some.
Our second stop was the waterfall. After a climb that really separated our the trekkers from the city slickers we all enjoyed the water and posing for pictures.





Then it was on to the fish farm where you can catch your own fresh fish for $8/lb and have a picnic right there. We hiked away from the people to the back of the property and ate our lunch beside the river. We also took the opportunity to pose in some of the ancient monuments to transportation that were just sitting around.










Our last destination was an ostrich farm. It gets quite cold here and I really felt sorry for these African natives but they seem to have taken to their new environment just fine. I guess their eggs and meat bring in a good profit but charging tourists to see them is probably their biggest moneymaker. While we were there an ostrich laid an egg right in front of us. David and I took the opportunity to pose with the egg. Look mom! Our very first egg!



Finally, the very best part of the trip was spending time with our incredible brothers. On the bus trip back they began singing beautiful Russian hymns. They come from places like Uzbekistan and Tajikstan where all the believers in the whole country would not fill a small church and they live under constant threat of persecution. But there is religious freedom in Almaty, if they cared to sing about Jesus on a public bus they could, and they did. We English speakers could not help joining in when we knew the tune. It was a very blessed weekend.






















Hello Family and Friends. Gina will of course edit this in a few hours but for now I need to get the pictures from our latest journey onto the blog. Enjoy!!!

To our Mothers

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

You gave us life, clean diapers, food, love, and freedom
You saw potential in our ugliest and least promising moments
You taught us how to speak, walk, eat with a fork, and use a toilet.
You cheered for us at every rehearsal, school play, and game.
Thanks to you we don't put strange things in our mouths (very often)
You faithfully read every blog entry and think it's wonderful
Thank you for being our best teacher and most biased cheerleader.

You deserve a whole city full of flowers!



We Love You, Gina and David

Living in Exile--a sermon from 1 Peter

Living in Exile

He was probably around 12 years old when he lost his home his family and his freedom. He was taken as a slave and forced on a long march across the desert to a strange country. It was a nightmare. Foreign soldiers everywhere, dust, swords, horses, screaming women, dying men, fire, the smells and sounds of death. The city he grew up in was burned with fire. All his familiar playgrounds became piles of rubble. We know that he was a prince, a member of the royal family. Royal families do not fare well when wars are lost and he probably witnessed the death of his parents and older family members before being carried away in chains. He was taken to the palace of his peoples greatest enemy. The people that Hebrew mothers mentioned when they wanted their children to obey. “You better obey your mother and fetch some water or the Chaldeans will come and get you.” Now they had really come and got him. There was no home anymore, no mamma, no temple, no palace. The future looked as dark as it could be. Hot tears dried instantly on his 12 year old cheeks during that long long long walk through the hot desert. In one moment he had lost everything. When he arrived on the other side of the known world he was placed in the care of the king’s chief Eunuch. We do not know what physical terrors awaited him in the palace but the possibilities are not pleasant. The king knew how to ensure that all children born in the royal palace had been fathered by him alone. It is very possible that any budding dreams of a wife and family were also taken away from the young Daniel after his arrival in Babylon. To be quite blunt. His placement among the kings eunuchs suggests physical scars as well as emotional ones. All of this at the tender age of twelve.

Our Text today comes from 1 Peter. It is a text about suffering. Last week we talked about how Jesus’ victory over death means that we can live victorious lives today. Jesus’ exalted place in heaven means that we have access to his power. And most importantly, His Spirit with us means that we are with Him, and with His Father. Heaven is open to us. Heaven comes to us through Jesus and the Holy Spirit that he sends. This is all good news! But what about when we can’t hear the angels singing? What about when we feel all alone? What can we do, how can we keep believing when the past is a nightmare and the future is dark. When we, like Daniel, become victims of violence, hate, greed, and circumstances. If Jesus promised to send heaven to us, why do we sometimes feel like we’ve woken up in hell?

I know that there are some in this room who have buried children, parents, spouses, and best friends. I know that there are some who have battled with death themselves. Some of you have experienced rejection, betrayal, addictions, abuse, violence, depression. Maybe there was a time when tomorrow has looked so dark, the pain was so hard to bear, that you considered ending it all. Maybe you are carrying pain today that you don’t dare to let anyone see. I do not know all of your stories but I am sure that what I have told you about yourselves is true. I am sure because we live in a world where suffering is so common that it is unusual to meet someone who has not suffered. I have a professor who says that everything about our world is broken. It seems like a good description. When I started reading the text for this week and thinking about the topic of suffering in the Christian life I realized I am not qualified to preach this sermon. I have not lived long enough to have answers for all the difficult questions we ask when we are hurt. So I went to the Bible looking for role model who can teach us how to live successful, abundant, heavenly lives, right here on earth. Right in the middle of brokenness and suffering. What I found, was Daniel.

Daniel’s story starts out in tragedy. Ripped away from childhood at only twelve years old and forced into the service of an enemy king. It has all the elements of a tragedy. We expect to find Daniel afraid, depressed, and bitterly silently rebellious. But instead Daniel acts honorably and courageously. He refuses to be shaped by anger, revenge, or fear. He insists on honoring his God above the king and yet serves the Babylonian king better and more faithfully than any of his other subjects. Daniel is not only successful. He is powerful. His self-control and wisdom make him the most powerful man in the most powerful nation on earth. Surrounded by conspiracies, jealousies, false Gods, and the oh so human impulse to get even with those who have wronged him, Daniel is solid. Three kings rise and fall but Daniel is not moved. Daniel is not a subject of Judah, or Babylon, or Persia. Daniel is a subject of the kingdom of God. And he brings the kingdom of God wherever he goes, even into the royal courts of Babylon. Daniel’s life becomes a mirror through which three different kings are measured and revealed for what they truly are. Daniel’s story is a story of hope in hopeless circumstances. Success at the end of human resources. Power out of complete powerlessness. Daniel’s story is a story of victorious living, free living, abundant kingdom of God living—incredibly demonstrated in the most unlikely and unfriendly of cirucumstances, in Babylon. Daniel teaches us how to live in exile.

Now let’s consider another story… This is our story.

When everyone first heard about the fires they shook their heads. Soon the whispering began, “they say Nero ran out of land to build new cities so he decided to rebuild the old ones.” “I think he couldn’t stand the thought of not having his name on every building in Rome.” “of course he’ll put a huge mausoleum right where the skilled workers houses were.” “Did you hear how many people died in the fire. It was in the middle of the night wasn’t it.” The whispers began to get louder as the whisperers became bolder. In a few weeks people were speaking openly on the streets about how the crazy emperor had burned down Rome so that he would have a building project. Nero was not pleased with this. He needed someone to blame, a sectarian group strange enough that people would be inclined to believe rumors about them, small enough that they would not be too much trouble to destroy, and poor enough that their loss would not effect the Roman Economy. He chose Christians.

It’s not likely that the majority of people believed the emperor’s accusations but they were glad that the shows in the ampitheater had gotten more interesting. They went to watch Christian captives fight for their lives and eventually be torn apart by lions, wolves, and half starved dogs. They gladly directed all of their anger at the injustices of the emperor toward the strange Christians with their strange God and they felt better. If the emperor burns down Rome you can’t do anything about it. No one likes to feel helpless. But if you try to believe that Christians burned down Rome you can go to the ampitheater, see the villain, yell curses at him, watch him die, and then go home feeing powerful, like justice has been done. So Nero’s plan worked. Hating Christians became the popular thing to do. It was during this time that Paul was beheaded in Rome.

Persecution came as a shock to the Christian churches. They didn’t have long to mourn for their beloved leader Paul before they were fleeing for their own lives. Believers who had never even been to Rome were being drug into courts all over the Roman empire. It was absurd to implicate them in the Roman fire but nobody cared anymore about why. They were charged with being Christians and Christianity was illegal. Killing Christians had become national policy.

Most of the time when tragedy strikes it takes us by surprise. We weren’t expecting it. The first question we are likely to ask is “why me?” “What did I do to deserve this?” There is usually no answer to this question and the next question to follow is equally unanswerable “Why did God allow this to happen?” It is at this point, with too many questions and not enough answers, that we are most likely to give up. Some people give up on God and become atheists, or even worse, angry theist who believe in God but hate him. Some give up on themselves. Some commit suicide. Others act out a living death everyday. They get up in the morning, walk to work, eat, sleep, but inside they are already dead. There is nothing behind their eyes. There is no more hope left. But then there are others who manage to hang on to faith. They trust a God they can’t see, live without answers, walk on in the darkness, and miraculously transform their captivity into a tribute to freedom. How do they do it? How did Daniel do it? The same problems and questions present themselves to us. How can we live heavenly lives in the middle of hellish circumstances?

It was during the persecution under Nero that Peter wrote his first letter. It was addressed to the churches scattered around the area of modern day Turkey. His letter is a carefully composed instruction manual for Christians on how to live Daniel lives. The letter carries a very interesting postscript at the end 5:13 “ The church at Babylon, which was chosen together with you, greets you;” For seventy year the nation of Babylon held God’s people in captivity. During that period Daniel stood as an example of holy living in exile. Five hundred years later Peter addressed his letter of encouragement and hope to the persecuted Christian church “from Babylon.” And only a few years afterward, John wrote his “Revelation of Jesus Christ” from the prison Island of Patmos. It is in that book that we read the dramatic description of the final fall of Babylon. They all seem to be saying to us. Babylon is not a nice place to live. It is a place of pain. It is a place of suffering. But don’t worry. Don’t be afraid of Babylon. It is a place to practice kingdom of God living. Our exile will not last forever. Babylon will fall. We are citizens of an eternal kingdom, the kingdom of God. What can Babylon do to us?

Peter puts it this way…

3:13 Who will do you any harm if you keep your minds fixed on the One who is good? (many translations read “if you keep your minds fixed on good” but the One who is Good is a common name for God in the Bible and is a very legitimate possible reading of the original Greek.) Christians after all are not those who memorize rules for good behavior and constantly rehearse them but people who follow and constantly look up to a God who is good. Goodness in the Bible is never an abstract ideal. It’s not even a behavioral standard to strive for. It’s a person we can know. God is good.

14 But if you do suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed; this is a repetition of Jesus’ words “blessed are those who suffer for the sake of Righteousness for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.” It seems a very unlikely thing to say and we are not even sure at first if it is really helpful. Who likes to be told to be happy when they aren’t and there in nothing in their circumstances to suggest that they should be. But Jesus did say that there is a special blessing for those who suffer. In fact, he said that the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Greek verbs have many complicated tenses and he could have very easily said, “the kingdom of heaven will be yours (after you suffer faithfully)” but he used the present tense. “The kingdom of heaven is yours.” So there is something about the nature of suffering (if it is done for the sake of righteousness) that brings us into the kingdom of heaven today. If there is a reward to be had for those who respond to suffering with faith, how can we ensure that we respond correctly? have no part in their fear (do not fear what they fear) and do not be troubled; The words fear and worship are often used as synonyms in the Bible. There is a reason for this. All pagan religions are driven by fear. We try to appease the things we are afraid of through worship. If we fear poverty we will worship wealth. If we fear pain or death we will worship self-preservation. If we fear helplessness, we will worship power. There are many Gods in Babylon but if we want to learn how to live as citizen of heaven in exile, the first step is to not fear Babylon’s Gods. We serve one God. He is not the God of money or power or comfort, He is the king of the whole earth and he alone is worthy of our fear and worship. The God’s of Babylon are nothing. Not only are we told not to be afraid of them, we are told to not even be distracted or disturbed by them. Instead…

15 But give honour to Christ in your hearts as your Lord (lit: make Christ holy in your hearts) Of course Christ is already Holy. There is no way we can make him more or less holy. But our behavior can influence the way others see him. The way we live can reveal the Holiness of Christ or conceal it. When we worship God alone, and speak of the holiness of Christ those around us will notice. They will begin to ask us why we do not worship the Gods of money, power, or comfort that are so popular in Babylon. They will want to know what makes our God so Holy that we worship him with all our hearts. When Christ is honored in our hearts and lives people will notice; and be ready at any time when you are questioned about the hope which is in you, to give an answer in the fear of the Lord and without pride; When people ask us why we do not serve the God’s of Babylon it is not the time to preach a passionate sermon on the evils of idolatry. We are to answer with gentleness and humility about the hope that is in us. This is not a doctrinal dissertation. This is a personal testimony. We should be able to say, this is what God has done for me and this is why I serve Him. The remarkable thing about Babylon is how many times we find God there. It is often those who have spent many years in exile in spiritual Babylon who love God the most and speak most passionately about what He has done for them. Rather than weakening our faith, Babylon, often makes us stronger. It is there surrounded by the fears of loss and death pain and loneliness that we learn to not be afraid and to honor Christ in our hearts. It is there that we become powerful witnesses to the holiness of God.

When we find ourselves in Babylon we can know that we are in good company. Many heros of the faith have been here before us. Christ himself has been here. We read in verse 18 Because Christ once went through pain for sins, the upright one taking the place of sinners, so that through him we might come back to God; being put to death in the flesh, but given life in the Spirit;…

22 who has gone into Heaven and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him.

It was through suffering, innocent suffering that Jesus opened up heaven to us. Therefore, Peter says. We should not be surprised if as followers of Jesus we find that life sometimes leads through very dark valleys. Jesus has been here before us. He knows this road. He can lead us. The path leads through death itself but we should not be afraid because we know that resurrection and eternal life wait on the other side.

Finally 1 Peter ends with this advice..

19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

Chapter 5

6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

11 To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

In this passage Peter makes a number of incredible claims.

Firstly that suffering may actually be “according to the will of God.”

That we should therefore submit to unexplainable tragedies and dark Babylon moments in our lives and part of God’s will for us.

That we should continue to trust God to lift us up and fulfill his promises to us in His time.

That in the meantime, that means, in the very moment of pain, we can drop all of our burdens and throw all of our worries on God because he cares about us.

That faith is the weapon we must use to resist the temptations of the devil (temptations to run away, temptations to become angry, temptations to stop trusting, temptations to give up.)

That we are not alone in our sufferings but that suffering is an experience familiar to all of God’s people.

And that finally we can be assured that after our trials are over we will find that God has made us more complete, more established, and stronger than we were before.

The story of Daniel shows us that it is possible to serve God in enemy territory with the odds stacked against us and the pain of fresh wounds sitting like a ball in the back of our throat. The first letter of Peter gives us some practical advice and reminds us that Babylon is not a permanent state. Suffering will not last forever. Of course we do not have the time here to mine the deep resources of 1 Peter. There is more gold there than you can carry away at one time. It is a place to continue coming and digging with years and years of riches waiting to be discovered. That is what I hope you will do. That is what I intend to do. When bad things happen to good people for no reason let us remember that we are not home yet. We are still in Babylon, and these things happen in Babylon. But let us not live like beaten slaves. Let us take our lessons from Daniel and Peter. Let us live as free citizens of the kingdom of heaven trusting that our lives will bring Glory to the God who has made us free and that anything he permits to come to us will only leave us stronger.

Nauruz, Turkish, and Cream of Wheat Pie

This is a long story with a point, cream of wheat pie. The story begins on our second weekend in Almaty. One of the English students, Marjan, tipped me off that Saturday was Nauruz, an important Kazakh holiday celebrating Spring and the new year. We were eager to see some Kazakh culture and she agreed to meet us early Saturday morning and take us to the square. English church begins at 2 in the afternoon on Saturday, so morning was a good time for us. We met her at the bus stop, pushed our way onboard, and almost an hour later we there, wandering through crowds of people selling balloons and icecream, taking pictures next to displays, and having a great time.

Marjan had promised me that we would get a chance to taste nauruz kuji, a traditional soup eaten on Nauruz. We were glad to find a woman selling a vegetarian variety. The soup was dished up cold and had a very shocking sour, and tingly flavor, as if it had soda water in it. It turns out the secret ingredient is kurut, dried salted yogurt. I laughed and laughed as I watched David consider his large bowl full of kurut soup. He is not a fan of the stuff.
In the end it all disappeared and there were no ill effects. We verified a number of times that it did not contain alcohol. It would have been scandal if I had arrived to preach that afternoon drunk on Nauruz Kuji.


After our exciting cultural experience
we joined the crowds gathering to watch the show. There was dancing and singing. As you can see from the pictures, we weren't in the front of the crowd but David still managed to get few shots. A couple joining the crowd recognized Marjan and stopped to talk. They weren't using Russian and I began to recognize a few words. Soon Marjan introduced us to her Turkish teacher and his wife. While Marjan and her teacher talked I began trying to communicate with his wife and to our delight we were able to understand each other enough to determine that we were both fine and neither of us had children, etc. Before they left, David and I had an invitation to come to their apartment for dinner the next Saturday evening. That is how it all began.



On Saturday evening Marjan met us at the center where we have church and we went together to her teacher's apartment. They had been warned that we are vegetarians so there was a lovely bean dish waiting for us, carrot salad, dolmas, cake, etc. it was a wonderful meal! Between Kazakh, Uighur, Turkish, and English we all managed to communicate and there was lots of laughter. I found out that the wife teaches Turkish to some women in her home and I was asked if I wouldn't like to learn some Turkish (it's a very useful language after all). I said I would and it was agreed that once a week on Tuesdays I would come and learn Turkish and help my teacher with her English. So that's how I happened to be in the home of a conservative Muslim family from Turkey two weeks later when she served me Cream of Wheat Pie and how I got this recipe which I am now sharing with you. The pictures are from my own interpretation of the recipe which David and I happily enjoyed for breakfast.



CREAM OF WHEAT PIE

boil milk and sugar to taste (sorry, I don't do measurements. Just make it sweet)
a pinch of salt is optional
Vanilla, cinnamon, raisins and walnuts, etc. are also optional.

Slowly add Cream of Wheat and stir with a wisk until the milk is the consistency of pudding.

crush some graham crackers, vanilla wafers, or English biscuits, into the bottom of a round casserole dish and pour half of the cream of wheat over them. Layer whole biscuits on top and add the rest of the cream of wheat. Finish off with more biscuits on top.

Refrigerate until cool then slice and enjoy with vanilla ice cream.

Notes on this week's gospel reading

Some of the best and most helpful preaching advice I ever received was to use the lectionary. The Lectionary is a collection of texts to be read each Sunday as part of a liturgical church service. It is, unfortunately, an unfamiliar thing to most Adventists but it is an immensely powerful tool. I used to waste most of the week agonizing over what I was going to preach about and the end result while perhaps theologically correct, was not always biblical in the purest sense of the word. I was afraid that I would not be able to preach "canned" texts that had not somehow "spoken to me" but I decided in India that I should discpline myself to try it. The first sermon was very hard because the text demanded facts not just feelings and impressions. I struggled long over the text. In the end, the results were very rewarding and I was hooked. Now, instead of agonizing over a topic, I simply look up the texts for the week on Monday and have the rest of the week to read the texts and meditate on them. The texts become my guide so that the sermon that rises from them is truely birthed in scripture. With the lectionary to guide me sermon preparation is exiting, challenging, surprising, but not agonizing. I really wish every young preacher could discover what a rich resource is available in the many versions of the Christian lectionary.


This last week the gospel reading was the story of the two men who meet Jesus on the road to Emmaus. It was a fitting text that tied in nicely to the first lesson of the new Adventist Sabbath School Quarterly. I thought I would post my notes for anyone who might be interested. Some of my notes have come from the wonderful lectionary commentary at montreal.anglican.org



Our lessons this quarter are about Jesus, a fitting theme for Christians. The first lesson opens with the question “Who is Jesus” and offers a number of different modern and ancient answers to this question. I was very pleased to discover that on this third week of Easter the Christian community will be pondering a story from the gospel of Luke about two men who were asking that very same question. “Who is Jesus?” We will be paying special attention to how the answer to their question comes.

Our story is found in Luke chapter 24. Jesus is dead, or so everyone thinks. The believers are together partially because of their shared grief and partially out of fear that now that their leader is dead those who killed Jesus will come looking for them. To complicate things even more some women who have been so helpful in the past by providing food and domestic comforts seem to have been mentally affected by the grief. They are claiming to have seen angels. Everyone is disappointed, afraid, guilty for deserting Jesus or denying him, and concerned about the mental health of the women. Two believers, Cleopas and a friend, decide that it is time to go home.

13 And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.
Two of them, probably followers of Jesus but not apostles. Eusubius the Christian historian tells us that Cleopas was a relative of Jesus. His companion is unnamed. Seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus

14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15 And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. 16 But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
Why if they are followers of Jesus do they not recognize him? His appearance seems to have changed after his resurrection. John tells us that Mary did not recognize Jesus when she met him at the tomb. She thinks that he is the gardener until he calls her by name. Later the disciples go fishing and Jesus begins talking to them from the shore. They do not recognize him until he tells them where to find the fish. Sometimes God does not appear the way we expect him. In fact, I suspect that this is often the case. He is the mighty lion and the gentle lamb. He is the conquering king of Daniel and the suffering servant of Isaiah. He is patient but demands immediate obedience. He is forgiving and avenging. He is humble and jealous. He is unpredictable and yet completely trustworthy. He will break every definition you pin to him and yet he is always good.

17 And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?

Why are you speaking so sadly? It is the greatest day of victory the universe has ever known. It is resurrection day. Goodness has conquered finally and completely, the kingdom of God has come in power. Small battles may continue on the outer frontiers of the realm but the battle has been won. Jesus, the conquering general, the hero of all the universe, the darling of heaven should be celebrating his brilliant victory with his admiring angels and loving father. You know what it feels like when you do something really well. You can’t wait to share the moment with the people you love. There will be hugs and kisses and tears and precious words like “good job,” and “I’m so proud of you.” Instead, Jesus has chosen to walk down a dusty road with two sad men who have completely misinterpreted the score.


18 And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? 19 And he said unto them, What things?
Jesus knows better than they what has happened in Jerusalem but he waits to hear how they have understood it.

And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:

Jesus the risen Lord stands before them but they only know Jesus the man and prophet. They do not know who Jesus is so they cannot recognize him. They do not know Jesus the risen Lord.


20 And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. 21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel:

There was certainly a time perhaps when they would have said Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah that the prophets spoke about, maybe even a divine being. But that time is past. The Messiah would not have been killed outside the city like a thief. Surely God would not have allowed that. The Messiah is to restore everything and sit on the throne of David. Maybe they are afraid of what this stranger will think of them putting their faith in a man who was so easily killed like a common criminal. We hoped he would at least save Israel from Roman oppression they mumble sheepishly.

and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.

And there is one other thing… There is one cause for hope but it’s too farfetched to be true. It’s a crazy story and the only witnesses are women.


22 Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; 23 And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.

They do not believe the women. Everyone knows that women are emotional and therefore untrustworthy. Maybe they are afraid of looking like fools again.


24 And certain of them which were with us (i.e. men) went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.

The men did not see anything.


25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:

a flattering way to be addressed. Jesus has such a knack for beginning conversations. If this stranger laughed at them for pouring out their hearts to him they expected it to be for their belief, not their unbelief.


26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
They did not say Christ or Messiah. They said the one who would save Israel, given the political mileu at that time the one who would save Israel was most likely meant to be understood as the one who would save Israel from Rome rather than the one who would save Israel from their sins. Jesus cuts right to the chase and starts telling them about the Christ.


27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

The Scriptures are about Jesus. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees “you search the scriptures thinking that you will find eternal life in them but they point to me and you will not come to me to receive life.” If we read the Bible we will find Jesus on every page the hope of salvation, the teachings of wisdom, the example of humble living, the victory over sin and evil, self sacrificing redemption, the hope of final restoration. It’s all there and it’s all about Jesus. If we want to know who Jesus the first step is to read the Bible and understand it.


28 And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. 29 But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry (MenO) with them.
Rev 3:20 Jesus does not invite himself over, he waits for an invitation. The second step to knowing Jesus is to invite him in.


30 And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
It is only after we spend intimate MenO abiding time with Jesus, after we have had the inner intimate experience with him that we can know and recognize him. We may know all the stories, we may listen to people talk about him, we may know all of the Bible verses about him but to know him for ourselves we must abide with him. How do you explain the mingling and intimacy of two souls? It is an experience too big for words and so it is best described through symbols. It is the vine and branches experience Jesus speaks about in the Gospel of John. It is the bread and wine experience of Jesus and his disciples in the upper room. It is in the quiet place of the heart, alone with the Divine that we learn to call Jesus Lord. We learn to recognize his voice so that like Mary at the tomb we know who it is when he calls our name. This is the third step that leads us into a true knowledge of Jesus, intimate relationship

32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?

To know Jesus we must understand the Scriptures, we must take the step of faith and invite Jesus into our private places, and then we must spend time with him. Once we know who Jesus is there is one more step, it's more of a natural consequence. We share.

33 And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem,
When they finally see and recognize Jesus for who he is they are so excited about knowing the Risen Lord that they risk walking the dangerous 7 miles between Jerusalem and Emmaus in the dark just to share their new knowledge with others. There are theives on that road but they can’t even wait till morning.

and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, 34 Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.
None of the Gospels record this meeting. I wish they did. It must have been something. I want to ask Peter about it someday. We don’t know if Jesus appeared to Peter alone or to others who were with him. What we do know is that while the disciples had not believed the report of the women, they do believe Peter.


35 And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.

The fourth step in meeting Jesus is sharing. When we really see Jesus we find that knowing him is such good news we have to share it. We are in love and when someone is in love, everybody knows.


36 ¶ And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

The story goes on and on so that it is difficult to find a place to stop but this is as far as we will go together today. It’s the neverending story of Jesus that John confessed would fill the whole world with books if it were written down. We are all a part of that story, everyone who has ever met Jesus and invited him into their home knows their part in the story and loves to tell it. There are many others who have also met Jesus but let him walk on and so never knew. On that great story telling day when Jesus said the hidden things would be revealed they may hear their own story and be surprised to learn who they were walking with.