The Clarity We Don't Need - Sermon Transcript

Will you please join me in an attitude of prayer?

Oh Lord, may the words of my mouth and all the meditations of our hearts, may they be acceptable in your sight.

Oh Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

Amen.

Amen.

 There's an old film some of you may remember, The Sixth Sense.

It follows a psychologist who's trying to help a child make sense of things that only he can see, no one else.

And as you watch, everything feels coherent.

 The conversations make sense.

The ways he's interpreting the events, it all seems reasonable.

And you trust the psychologist.

And you trust the story.

And then, as you get to the very end of the movie, you realize we were wrong.

 The psychologist was not aware of everything that was happening.

But not just him, you, the viewer.

You had been watching the entire story through a lens that made sense to you at the time.

And only at the end do you realize

 there was a deeper reality that was present the whole time that you never saw.

And then, by the time that you realize it, it's too late.

It's too late to go back.

 You don't ever get to rewatch it for the first time with that new understanding.

You only understand it afterward.

And I wonder, I wonder if you've ever had that experience

 in your own life where you were moving forward doing the very best that you could making sense of things as faithfully as you knew how and only later realized

 You never fully understood everything that was happening.

It doesn't just happen in the movies.

That is in our scripture for today too.

Two disciples walking along on the road to Emmaus.

 They're talking, they're processing, they're trying to make sense of the tragic and miraculous aspects of this Easter story they're experiencing.

Jesus had been crucified.

Then they're hearing these wild stories.

 about him coming back.

And they say in the midst of this, we had hoped.

We had hoped.

They had hoped that he was the one.

 They had hoped that now things were going to be different.

They had hoped that their understanding of what God was doing was right.

They're sincere.

They're thoughtful.

 And they are desperately trying to make sense of their own faith.

As they're walking, we heard, as they're walking, Jesus is walking right alongside of them.

And as he does, they don't even recognize him.

 It's not because they're careless.

It's not because they lack faith.

And definitely not because they're rebellious.

They simply do not see what is right in front of them.

They're walking with Jesus.

And misunderstanding

 what is happening as they walk Jesus listens listens to their story listens to what they're saying listens to the wide variety of emotions that are stirring within them and then the conversation shifts and he starts

 reinterpreting their story.

He opens up the scriptures for them and reframes everything that they thought that they knew.

And still, they do not recognize him.

It's only later in the scripture

 at the table, in the breaking of the bread, that their eyes are opened.

Then they see, and in that moment, in that moment, right when they recognize Jesus, he disappears.

And in that space, they don't get to

 mentally, emotionally, they don't get to go back and to walk that road all over again with clarity.

They only realize afterward, we're not our hearts burning within us.

They were sincere.

 They were walking faithfully.

And they did not or could not understand what was happening.

And they didn't even know that at the time.

That might be an essential part of the journey.

 Consider for yourself.

What happens when you already know the ending of a story?

When someone tells you how a movie ends before you've gotten to see it?

Or perhaps worse, when someone tells you the score of a game you were just about to watch.

 You can still watch it, of course, but you don't experience it in the same way, do you?

Something changes.

There's less tension, less uncertainty, less wondering what's going to happen next.

 And in some ways, it feels safer.

It feels more controlled, less chaotic.

But something is lost in that, isn't it?

And I wonder how many of us

 are trying to live our lives just in that way.

Trying to know how it's all going to turn out.

Trying to understand everything before we move forward.

And I would be included in that.

 It's happening to myself recently.

As many of you know, I'm in the middle of a transition.

I've been here at First Church Dallas coming up on a full three years, and I'm moving from Texas to Connecticut.

There's a lot of decisions, a lot of unknowns,

 a lot that is not settled in my life.

And I have also been praying a lot.

Praying and praying and praying.

And if I'm honest, I have not been praying for adventure.

 I think I've been praying for certainty.

I've been asking God to make everything clear, to show me exactly what to do, to remove the ambiguity before me.

And if I'm even more honest,

 I have not been asking for clarity because I want to follow God better.

I've been asking for clarity because I do not like the discomfort and anxiety that I've been feeling.

And I'm still in that.

 In our scripture, the disciples, they too do not get clarity first.

They get presence.

They do not get explanations first.

They get companionship.

 They're already walking with Christ before they understand what's happening.

And this is where the text meets us.

Because right now, there are people here, perhaps like me, trying to make a decision.

 trying to understand something that has happened.

Trying to figure out where God is in a situation that does not make sense.

And the instinct is, if I could just understand what God is doing, then I would know what to do.

 If I could just get clarity, then I could move forward.

But what if clarity is not what comes first?

What if you are already walking with Christ and you do not recognize it?

 Now, instead of our tradition of posting our reflection questions after the sermon, I'd like to share them with you before we're done and to take some time for reflection.

Could we get the first question?

So, where am I waiting for clarity before I act?

 The second question is, where am I trying to force meaning so I can feel more certain?

 And our third question is, what story have I already decided is true that might not be the whole story?

Let's take another minute and sit with these.

 So now, what would it mean if Christ is already present with us in the tension of our answers to these questions, and we don't see it yet?

You know, we often think of theology

 theology as a way to make everything make sense.

But what if it's something else?

What if theology is what we do when we're trying to make sense of where we have been while we are still walking forward into the unknown

 without fully knowing where it's all going.

The disciples do not get everything explained.

They do not get to go back.

They do not get certainty about what comes next.

But they do realize something.

 they realize Christ was with them, even when they did not recognize him.

And somehow, that is enough for them to turn around and to keep going.

 And so maybe the question is not, do I understand everything that God is doing?

Maybe the question is, can I keep walking even when I don't?

 Can I trust that Christ may be present even when I don't recognize it?

Can I live faithfully without needing the whole story to make sense first?

 Because it may be that clarity does come, but not usually in time to make things easier.

Only in time to help us keep walking forward.