Sermon by Stephen Ricketts
Damascus United Methodist Church
Acts 3:12-19; Psalm 4; I John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48
Third Sunday of Easter - April 26, 2009
The title for today’s sermon may sound somewhat familiar - in fact it should sound familiar because The United Methodist Church has been using this phrase, “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors,” as part of our advertising campaign for the past several years. I have seen several television commercials that use this line and I believe it has also appeared in print and radio ads. I forget exactly when the church introduced this phrase, but from the beginning, I have always heard this as “descriptive” of United Methodists - I have heard this phrase as describing us as people who have open hearts, as people who have open minds, and describing our church as having open doors. But, as I was reading the gospel for today, I came upon this phrase, Jesus “opened their minds” and I realized that the words “Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors” do much more than describe how we would like to be seen in the world - these words can be heard (probably should be heard) as words from Christ calling us to open our hearts, calling us to open our minds, calling us to open our doors. And these words can also be our prayer asking God to open our hearts, our minds and our doors so we can understand Christ’s mission in the world and also understand how we must respond to God.
So, today, I want to look at these words and see how they apply to us when we hear them as coming from Christ; and also what happens when we allow these words to be our prayer to God.
I want to begin with the phrase, “Open Minds” because today’s gospel lesson describes how Jesus opened the minds of his disciples and also because I believe that for many of us today, our journey to Christ begins when our minds are opened to see God’s new possibilities in the world. In today’s gospel, it looks like Jesus had two things in mind when he appeared to the disciples. First, he came to calm their fears and assure them that he had indeed been physically raised from the dead. He did this with reassuring words, and then he allowed them to see and touch his hands and feet because a ghost cannot be touched. He goes on to ask for something to eat - not because he was hungry - but to demonstrate that he had a physical body that could eat with them. Then “Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures” so they could comprehend both Jesus’ resurrection and their mission in the world. We sometimes forget just how radical it is to say that Jesus was raised from the dead - maybe it is because we have heard it all our lives - but this is earth shattering news and it is something the disciples were (understandably) slow to comprehend. Even though they had seen Jesus raise several people from the dead, they were not prepared for Jesus’ resurrected appearance and power. So, Jesus had to open their minds so they could understand that his suffering and resurrection can be seen in the scriptures from the beginning. Today, I would guess that we are just as skeptical as Jesus’ first disciples - I suspect we too need for Jesus to open our minds so we can understand the scriptures and find in them the words that convince us that Christ is truly alive, but the proof is there if let Christ open our minds.
Then Jesus opened their minds so they could understand their mission in the world - understand that they were witnesses to the Good News that in Christ God had defeated death. And, as witnesses, Jesus called them to go out and tell the world - it was their task to share this good news with everyone beginning in Jerusalem but continuing until everyone had heard the Easter gospel. Now, even though they gave themselves completely to this task, they were not able to complete it in their lifetime, so they commissioned others to carry on in their place - they passed the task of spreading the Gospel of Jesus on to us - today we have inherited the Good News of Jesus Christ and we have inherited the task of sharing it with everyone we encounter. Jesus comes to us and opens our minds to understand that he is truly alive and Jesus comes to us to open our minds to understand that it is our task to carry this news to all the world.
Today, we take Christ’s words to “open our minds” and make it our prayer: “Lord Jesus, open my mind so I may understand the reality of your resurrection. Open my mind so I may understand my task as a witness and evangelist to the world. Amen.”
Once the disciples’ minds were opened, they began to preach and tell everyone what God had accomplished in Jesus Christ. The book of Acts begins with Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost and how thousands were convicted by his words and became disciples. But, the disciples’ ministry was not confined to preaching - their ministry was also a ministry of compassion and service - Jesus “opened their hearts” so they could see pain and suffering in the world. Jesus “opened their hearts” to act - to minister to those in need - to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. There are many stories from the early church describing the disciples’ acts of love and compassion. The verses that precede today New Testament lesson from Acts recount a miraculous healing - a healing where Peter reached out in compassion and “in the name of Jesus” gave a lame man the ability to walk. The apostle Paul reminds us that our words are but a sounding gong or clashing cymbals if we do not have love for those around us. The apostle James calls us to put our faith and love into action by ministering to the needs of those around us. Today, Christ comes to us and opens our hearts so we can see the pain and suffering, and when we see the suffering, Christ opens our hearts so we take action - so that we do something to heal our broken world. We are called to be doers of the word and not just proclaimers of word.
Today, we take Christ’s words to “open our hearts” and make it our prayer: “Lord Jesus, open my heart so I may see the pain and suffering in your world. Open my heart so I may serve you by serving my neighbor who is in need. Amen.”
Finally, once the disciples began to preach the Good News and to serve the world around them, Christ called them to “open the doors” so all might come in. Jesus’ very first disciples were all Jews, but it quickly became apparent that the Gospel must be shared with gentiles as well. God gave Peter a dream where he was shown a sheet filled with non-kosher or un-clean animals and he was commanded to “kill and eat.” When he refused, a voice told his that he was not to call “unclean” that which God calls “clean” - in other words Peter was not to restrict his preaching to those he thought worthy, but he was to carry the Gospel to everyone God loves - the entire world. The apostle Paul did not ignore the Jews, but he focused his missionary activities on the non-Jews and brought many to Christ. Now, in the early church there were some questions about “how” to welcome Gentiles into the church. Some wanted to require that people become Jews before they became Christians. Others wanted as few restrictions as possible. So, while there was disagreements on how to join the church, everyone agreed that the doors of the church should not be closed. Everyone believed that Jesus had called them to “open the doors” of the church to all who would come. Today Christ calls us to throw open the doors of the church - calls us to remove all barriers that prevent any from coming. This means removing barriers of accessibility, barriers of language, and barriers of prejudice. If we are honest with ourselves, we are more comfortable in a church where everyone looks, acts, and believes the same way we do. But the church is not a club of people who look like me - the church is the body of Christ sent to redeem and embrace everyone. If the first Christians had not been willing to leave their comfort zone and open the doors to people who were different, we would never have heard the Good News of Jesus Christ - we are here today because they opened the doors and let all come in.
Today, we take Christ’s words to “open our doors” and make it our prayer: “Lord Jesus, open the doors of your church so all may come in. Open the doors of your church so we go out into the world. Amen.”
I am not sure the people who created the “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors” campaign ever intended their words to become commands to the church, but they are that when we heard them as words from Christ.
Jesus Christ came to the disciples and opened their minds to understand the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus Christ opened their minds to understand the ministry he was entrusting to them. Jesus Christ opened their hearts to see and respond to the misery in the world with love and compassion. Jesus Christ came into the world to open the doors of paradise by his death and resurrection. Jesus Christ calls us open the doors of his church so all may experience God’s saving grace.
Lord Jesus, Open our Hearts so we may serve a broken world, Open our Minds so we may understand and preach your Good News to everyone, Open our Doors so we may receive everyone into the Body of Christ. Amen.
