Attraction, not promotion

Luke 24:13-35, 1 Peter 1:17-23

The Rev. Sara Fischer

Now that very same day, two of them were on their way to a little town named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem.

Two disciples were on their way, and Jesus appeared. The beginning of this wonderful Easter story reminds us that the earliest Christians were always on their way somewhere, and they usually met Jesus on the road. I love this story. These two guys, only one of whom is given a name, are talking about what everyone is talking about: the miracle prophet who acted a lot like the promised Messiah, was crucified, and may or may not have been raised from the dead; they didn’t know for sure. One wonders how much Jesus may have felt like Tom Sawyer watching his own funeral, as these travelers described their experience of the one who was to redeem Israel. Unlike Tom Sawyer, however, he does not pop up and say “Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” Rather he listens to them and walks with them as they tell their story, complete with all the ups and downs of faith. The reality of who he is, is revealed to the disciples not through anything he says, but through their own act of hospitality. Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is nearly over. It is only after the travelers invite a stranger to share their table that they recognize him. He becomes known to them in the breaking of the bread. In this moment, we might say the church is born.

Many people consider the day of Pentecost, which we’ll celebrate a month from now, is birthday of the church, and in many respects it is. It is during “the Pentecost event” that Peter makes a very long speech, the tail end of which is our reading today from Acts: “So all who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand were added.” This is the first in a long line of “mass baptisms” documented over the centuries. In the ancient church, when the head of a household became a Christian, his whole family and all of his servants followed suit. After Christianity became the state religion, if a king or queen was baptized, so was the whole country. In the 4th century, the Frankish King Clovis was converted and on the day he was baptized, so were 3,000 of his staff, army, and loyal subjects. These mass baptisms took place in large octagonal pools; whole churches were built around them.

This is in contrast to baptism in our church today. Each year around this time we submit a parochial report—that is, a bunch of statistics about our parish life—to the national church. The national church compiles all of these reports, parish by parish, diocese by diocese. Don’t quote me on this, but I believe that in 2006, all the churches in the Diocese of Oregon combined baptized about 600 children and adults. That’s an average of about seven baptisms, per year, per parish. (Some years St. John’s is above the diocesan average, and some year we’re below it.) That’s a far cry from the 3,000 baptisms in one day that we heard about this morning.

What were they doing that we aren’t doing? I can tell you that they weren’t doing rock bands or projection screens or comfortable chairs or mass mailings. There’s a wonderful little book called Worship and Evangelism in Pre-Christendom. By “pre-Christendom” the author means the three hundred years leading up to the conversion of Constantine and the transformation of Christianity into the accepted state religion. It is an ironic title, because in pre-Christendom there was no worship, as we know it. Worship consisted of Christians gathering in house-churches to give thanks, to break bread together, and to pray. There was no evangelism. The Christian life was dangerous and underground; it would never occur to an early follower of what was called “the Way” to ask someone to join them. And yet the movement grew and grew.

This was because early Christianity was a program of attraction rather than promotion. People saw followers of the Way caring for one another, collecting money and food for the poor, praying for the sick, and praying for their enemies. This was something they had never seen before. The Letter of Peter which we heard today talks about genuine mutual love, that we may love one another deeply from the heart. Genuine mutual love. People who saw this behavior in their neighbors or friends said “I want what you have; where do I learn more?”

The Christian faith as attraction, rather than promotion. The concept is of course perfect for Episcopalians, right? So some of you might hear this and think: “Oh, good, she’s not going to be harping about growth all the time any more.” No such luck.

Why is it important for our church to grow? Some people think growth is all about paying the bills. We have to grow to stay afloat. You know who you are. And believe you me, there are times when I’m right there with you. But growth is not about paying the bills.

Growth happens when Christians do what Christians have done from the beginning: love one another deeply from the heart, using all of the expressions of love and all of the definitions of neighbor that Jesus taught us. Growth is the outward and visible sign that we practice gospel hospitality, and that when people worship with us for the first time, they can feel at home, or at least imagine themselves feeling at home before too long. Growth happens when someone walks through our doors and says: “I want what they have.” Growth happens when your neighbor watches the way you forgive your enemies, and says “I want what you have. Where do you learn how to do that?” Growth happens when you tell someone a story about how what your faith community has meant in your life, and they say: “I want that.”

So what does this have to do with our wonderful Easter gospel story? Everything! Jesus appears along the road, to “two nobodies on their way to nowhere,” as one writer puts it. Two nobodies on their way to nowhere. He listens to their stories, he accepts their invitation, and he is revealed to them in the breaking of the bread. I said earlier that this is the moment when the church is born. If this is the moment that the church is born, it is also how we grow as a faith community and as individuals along the road: invitation, hospitality, sharing the ups and downs of faith, and being present with one another in the sharing of a holy meal.

When we celebrate the feast of Jesus’ resurrection at this table, as we do every Sunday, we also celebrate Jesus’ meeting us along the road. Let us pray that we will know him in the breaking of the bread, and that we might reveal the risen Christ to others in how we live our lives along the way.