5.7.24 | “Were not our hearts burning?”

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Tuesday Prayer Room – 9am 

30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” – Luke 24:30-32

PRAYER GUIDE

Resurrected hope. That is the need of the hour among God’s people…for those of us who have watched with sadness in the West as the Christian church has dwindled. For those of us who have watched as generations of Americans and New Englanders have increasingly turned away from the Lord. For those of us who have watched our attempts to remedy the situation fail. All our attempts have failed, whether we were those who tried work harder to exegete the culture, or those who fought back to try to regain the political power and cache of Christianity in a past era, or whether we were those who appeased the spirit of the age, or cloistered ourselves in the hopes of becoming a holy remnant. We who have been through tragedy, despair, disillusionment, and deconstruction…we who have lost hope…what we need most in 2024 is resurrected hope.

We do not need our old hopes back…not the ones that have died. They died for a reason. We do need our old hope that by our own efforts we can rescue and save a dying church in the West. We do not need our old hope that if we find a silver bullet strategy, fancy graphics and branding, the right location and space, the right sound mix on Sunday morning, the right sneakers and clothes on the pastor, that the church will turn the corner. We don’t need our old hopes that if we play our PR game right, if we appeal to the coastal elites and the intelligentsia, if we quote the right secular thinkers enough, that people will come back to the church. We don’t need the hope that if we separate ourselves from a decadent culture, if we homeschool our kids, if we avoid all social media and cell phones (not a bad idea though), that somehow the church will be rescued. The problem with all these old and dead hopes, the reason they need to die, is that they were all based on us. On things we can do, in our own strength, in our own flesh. None of them required Jesus to rise from the dead and show up among us. 

In the same way Jesus needed to die and rise again…in the same way he was the same, but different after his resurrection…the hope of God’s people needs to be crucified and resurrected. Resurrected hope is a hope that comes after death, after despair, after disillusionment. After the worst, the unthinkable has happened. It is the hope that comes after you had hoped. It is the hope that sneaks up on you and surprises you on the road to Emmaus…when you thought you were done. It is a hope you almost don’t recognize at first. Until you discover it is giving you holy heartburn. 

The Emmaus Road disciples’ hopes died with Jesus. But now, after he showed up, studied the scriptures, and ate with them, their hopes have been resurrected. But like Jesus’ own body, they have changed. They are no longer based in what they can do on their own. They are based in God. In God’s promises. In God’s faithfulness. And ultimately, in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. They are based in the same Spirit that spoke the universe into existence just raised Jesus from the dead. They are based on the experience of walking and talking with the risen Jesus. But in order for resurrected hope to burn in our hearts, we have to allow the old hopes to die. 

The only hope for the church is the actual resurrected Jesus, walking with us, opening the scriptures to us, and fellowshipping with us at the table. Once we allow our other hopes to die, we are ready and open for this, our ultimate hope. 

PRAYER PROMPTS:

  • Pray for the church to renounce our other hopes, whether they be political power, safety and retreat from the world, the ability to be relevant or social acceptable, or hard work and the right strategies and tools and tactics and resourcing. 
  • Pray for us to come to the end of ourselves, our own wise and persuasive words, our own flesh, our own abilities, our own ideas, our own talents…and to throw ourselves on the mercy of God.
  • Pray for revelation of the Risen Jesus, to those in the church and to all those refugees of post-Christian culture who wash up on the shores of despair.
  • Pray for burning hearts, for the revelation by the Spirit to human hearts that the Gospel is actually true and actually good news worth running to tell others.