St. Andrew’s Pictou, April 10^th 2005

 

Red Flags

 

Acts 2:14a, 36-41

Luke 24:13-35

 

A man once told me that he had been offered what he considered to be his “dream job:” the very job he had longed for, and thought he would never get. There was only one “catch” that his new employer asked: he must star work immediately with his new job and would not be able to give his former employer two week’s notice. He would have to quit his job that day, on a Friday and start his new job on Monday.

 

Although he didn’t want to do it, since it was his dream come true, he quit his job that very day, and started his new job on Monday. His complaint came from the fact that on Tuesday morning, his second day on the job, he was called into his boss’s office and was fired from his new job. He was now without any job.

 

I asked him why he quit his old job without notice. Did he not see that his new employer in asking him to do something unethical as some kind of warning sign or “red flag” about his new employer’s lack of ethics? Did he not see the new employer’s demand that he treat his former employer badly as a red flag indicating how the new boss functioned?

 

He did see it as wrong, but he overrode his feelings. He ignored the red flag about the lack of scruples, because it was his “dream job.”

 

How often in life, do we override our own God-given early warning system, ignore the red flags and forge on to predictable, painful, avoidable, consequences? Do we do it because it feels good, or because the invitations have been sent out? Do we continue because we worry about what people will think, we hope that the problems will fade away, or that our concerns and objections are not valid?

 

One man told me that he was standing at the front of the church with the minister waiting for the bride to come down the aisle, turned to the minister and said, “Is there any way of getting out of this?”

 

The minister said, “Are you out of your mind?” and so continued the wedding service for a marriage that lasted for six weeks: the groom took off and left the bride with a huge deficit that took her years to pay.

 

Why could that minister not hear the groom? It is highly unusual for the groom to ask how to stop his wedding. The service had not started, the vows had not been taken, nor had the documents been signed. Why did the wedding need to proceed and by whose agenda?

 

Many times I have heard people tell me about ignoring the red flags and going against their best interests, their intuition, their common sense, the advice of people they trust, and plowing full steam ahead into a mistake.

 

My own theory about why people override their own radar system (why they don’t listen to themselves) is because at some level they don’t trust themselves. They don’t think that their opinion is valid and legitimate enough to act on. They defer to someone else’s opinion, they think things they don’t like will go away, the other person will change, or they just disconnect from themselves. “Oh well!” and on they go with life altering consequences.

 

“Now on that same day (the day the women had told them about Jesus’ resurrection) two of them (of the disciples) were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.”

 

We have heard this post resurrection story about Jesus many times. Two of his followers were walking along talking about Jesus; he walks up with them and asks them what they are talking about.

 

One of the men, called Cleopas couldn’t believe that there was someone in the area that didn’t know about Jesus of Nazareth, how the religious leaders had turned him over to be crucified, and the events around his death. They had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel, this being the third day since it happened. They also confirmed that some of the women had been to the tomb and the body was gone.

 

The text tells us that in frustration Jesus explained who he was in terms of the Biblical story through from Moses and the prophets; “that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory.”

 

It appears that they still didn’t recognize him, but being that they were at the place where they were going, they begged him to stay with them, which he did.

 

Then this amazing event happened, “When he was at table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.”

 

These two followers of Jesus knew him, had Jesus walk up to them on the road and talked to them, but they didn’t recognize him.

 

He walked and talked with them and explained who he was in terms of the scriptures from Moses and the prophets onwards, and they didn’t recognize him.

 

Something in them made them beg him to stay for the night, and in the breaking of the bread, their eyes were opened, they recognized him… and he was gone!

 

Given the circumstances and what we know, it is difficult for us to discern how they could not have read the signs and knew that they had Jesus with them. In this case the words we have for those red flags are “burning hearts.”

 

“They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning inside of us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’”

 

Eventually reality does and will confront us.

Eventually denial will break down.

Eventually we will respond to the Spirit.

Eventually the blindness will be lifted from our eyes.

Eventually we are confronted with the realities in life; like the consequences of Jesus’ resurrection.

 

In our lives, we need to be aware of ourselves, how we feel, and what we perceive, in exactly the same way that the children are.

 

The reason that children shock us is because they have not yet been taught to ignore reality. They haven’t been taught to deny their own perceptions, and their agendas are not yet clouded by false perceptions of reality, like we grown adults are.

 

The central issue here is that if the Bible says that you are born in the image and likeness of God, then why don’t you trust yourself?

 

If Almighty God gave you a brain and the ability to feel, why don’t you let them work together in sympathetic dialogue and inform your awareness of how to proceed down life’s path?

 

The passage in Acts is good because it articulates the realities of Jesus’ identity, his death and resurrection, and how the church began: the same Jesus that the leaders had killed, was the same Jesus that God made both Lord and Messiah, and that in baptism and faith we are to follow Christ in prayer, praise and friendship.

 

Two thousand years ago the religious and political leaders, and people killed what was good and sent from God in Jesus for their own best interest.

 

Think of the irony: they destroyed what was salvific. In denial and blindness, they destroyed what God sent to help and save them.

 

Now we could say that this was all supposed to happen, the scriptures and Jesus himself say that it was all to happen anyway.

 

Does that mean that we are to be fatalistic, or do we have the scriptures so that we might learn something?

 

I believe that “the Jesus principle” requires that we be aware; each to be aware of our own lovability by God; that we and everybody else is sacred and worthy of respect.

 

If we had the mind and attitude of Jesus:

-we would end any relationship that was violent on the first occurrence of violence, no matter what,

-we would value our children’s spiritual and emotional development ahead of their sports conquests, instead of the reverse,

-we would really listen to the children, (85% of children are not believed when they tell of their abuse to an adult, usually a non-parent. We need to affirm and welcome their courage at disclosure.)

 

If we had the mind and attitude of Jesus:

-our personal priorities would be clear of false agendas.

 

On the road to Emmaus, they were not aware of who Jesus was until the breaking of the bread. It was not until the intimacy of table fellowship that they were to realize why their hearts had been burning inside of them.

 

It was not until they were intimate with Jesus that they were able to recognize the risen Lord and then that experience of intimate awareness then changed their lives.

 

Is your heart ever burning inside of you? What, where, when, and with whom? What voice is trying to flag you down and why? Who is waving those red flags trying to prevent you from entering danger and help you go towards your own best place?

 

Maybe some of you remember the old railway crossings that used to have three such wonderful words: “Stop, Look, & Listen!” In spite of flashing red lights and clanging bells, some people just keep going and prematurely end their journey.

 

Watch for those red flags waving warning you of danger, and listen to the inner voice of Jesus long since known to us in the breaking of bread, calling you with love to dine with him at the table of life.

 

AMEN                            Rev. Alan Stewart

 

       alanstewart@ns.sympatico.ca