Wayne Reece - Easter in a Texas Roadhouse

 

 

Travel with me, if you will, to a space called the Panhandle in North Texas. Travel with me, if you will, to a time in the year 1960, 50 years ago, specifically the Saturday before Easter. I was in my last year in seminary at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, but I was also pastoring four churches that I had just gone to two months before in January. 

 

On that Saturday, I was agonizing to finish my sermon that I had worked on all week long, trying to get it down to the perfection that Christian preachers try to do on Easter. I had put in some of my own experiences and my reflections, I had also dropped in some wonderful quotations from the theologians of the day. I was ready to preach that day, but I had to wait another day. 

 

Now, that Saturday in the evening, 14 of the kids from the four churches that I was serving, Sadler, Gordon, Phil, Gunter, and Tioga, they came over to a special time that would prepare them for Easter. At 9 o'clock, they all left, and one guy was left. His friend had left him behind and had forgotten him. Brian asked me if I could take him home to Tioga, and I said, "Sure." I told my wife where I was going and what I was doing. And so, Brian and I jumped into my station wagon and we headed off. But for me, this was virgin territory, uncharted. I had driven these roads in the last two months, during the day on the major thoroughfares, but I had not traveled those country roads in the dark. 

 

I got Brian to his home, dropped him, and headed back. It was about 10 o'clock at night and I was needing to get home and get to bed, so I could be prepared for the four messages the next morning. And then, it happened. I had forgotten to fill up my gas tank that day. [audience reaction] My car started to sputter and spit, and then it died. What do I do? I'm out here in the middle of nowhere. I can't see anything. And so, I wondered, "Where do I go? Who can I find?" There was no house around, there were no gas stations around, and so, I apprehensively but knowingly got out of my car, locked it up and started going someplace, not knowing where I was going or when I was going to get there and what I would find when I got there. 

 

So, I'd walked almost two hours, or at least it seemed two hours. But actually, I found out when I got to the place, I'd only been gone 35 minutes. [audience chuckles] But I saw in the distance a gleaming light. Like a moth being drawn to the flame, I went to that glow. As I neared it, I heard twanging, blaring music, and I found myself at a country roadhouse surrounded by pickup trucks and motorcycles. Now, I had never been in one of these and I didn't know what to expect, [audience chuckles] but I knew that I had to have somebody try to help me, and I wondered if I would find anybody like that here.

 

So, I apprehensively went into the roadhouse. And over on the side, there was a little room, and there were three guys in there playing pool, and so I thought, “Well, maybe they could help me, or at least they could tell someone who could help me.” So, I went in there. And just as I walked in, one guy came up to me and he said, "Hey, I'm Eric, and do you want to play pool?" I thought maybe they thought I could be hustled, because I had-- Well, I looked like I had money. But anyhow, I said, "Well, I used to play pool when I was in high school." And then, I thought to myself, “And I had done pretty well, but I hadn't played for six years.” He said, "Well, would you break on a game of stripes and solids?" And I said, "Sure." 

 

So, I racked them up, went to get the cue stick, chalked it up, put talc on my hands, and stroked and cracked the rack. Meaning, they broke. [audience chuckles] One ball went in. I did it again. Two balls had gone in, three balls went in. And by now, I realized that I had amazingly gotten back my youthful talent of pool. Well, to make a long story short, I put in four more balls. There was only one ball left, the 8 ball. This is the pièce de résistance in 8 ball. [audience chuckles] I called it for the left corner pocket. I stroked, hit, and it went in. And immediately, Eric said, "Oh, we've got a pool shark in our midst." He was kinder than another guy who said, "Okay, are you a pool hustler in the neighborhood?" Well, I thought to myself, "What do I say?" 

 

And Eric said, "Okay, come and sit down." We sat down, and a couple of other guys joined us at the table, and he said, "I want you to tell us why you are in our neighborhood." Oh, man, what did I say to these guys? I said, "Okay, I'm the new preacher at the Tioga Methodist Church. [audience laughter] I'm on my way back to Sadler”, which was about 30 miles away. “I ran out of gas. I've got to get home, because I'm preaching at four churches in the morning and because it's Easter." [audience chuckles] Roy said, "What's Easter?" Two of the guys chided Roy because of what he had said, but he said, "Honestly, I've never been to church before, and I want to know the story about Easter."

 

So, I thought to myself, "What do I tell Roy? Do I give him the sermon that I had prepared that was filled with illustrations from Paul Tillich's The New Being? [audience chuckles] Or, do I try to find new ways to tell the story, the old, old story, to the new ears of Roy?” So, I thought for a moment, and then I swallowed and started in. "Now, there was this guy named Jesus, and He gathered around him 12 guys, his friends, and they were His gang. They roamed the countryside together, [audience chuckles] and they talked about peace and justice and love and God, and they did great things. But the authorities wanted to get Him, and so they tried to find ways of either capturing Him or killing Him." 

 

Well, I told a little bit more of the story until I came down to the end, and I said, "One night, one of the gang ratted on Him to the authorities. [audience chuckles] And so, they caught Jesus. And the next day they hanged Him on a tree and they killed Him. Two days later, some of the gang went to try to find Him in the tomb where they had laid Him, and He wasn't there. They searched around and asked around, and finally someone said, 'God has raised Jesus from the dead and has given him new life.' Now, Roy, that's the story of Jesus, and that's the story of Easter." And Roy blurted out, "Man, that's an awesome story." [audience chuckles] And I said, "You know, I believe in an awesome God."

 

After a brief period of silence, Eric seemed to be the leader, and he got up and he said, "Let's go get the shark some gas." [audience laughter] Hey, I had a new name, The Shark. [audience chuckles] And I had a bunch of new guys as my friends. Well, anyhow, we went outside, and they siphoned some gas from someplace, I don't know where. [audience laughter] They put it in a can. Eric gave me the can and said, "Hey, sit on the back with me." And so, I got on the motorcycle with him. And this was another new first. I'd never been on a motorcycle before. [audience chuckles] So, we traveled three miles down the dusty road. I got off, poured the gas in the can, gave the can back to Eric, and they took off without saying a word. And I was sorry to see my new friends go. 

 

Well, I finally got home about 12:30, and my wife was frantic because she didn't know what had happened to me. You see, that was BC, before cell phones. [audience chuckles] And she said, "Why don't you come to bed?" And I said, "I can't come to bed. I had a great experience tonight. I got stranded, I got friends, I played pool, I told the story of Easter to new people. I have got to rewrite my sermon, because the intellectual sermon that I have prepared for my people tomorrow is not their story." And so, she went up to bed, and I hurriedly wrote down the new message that had come to me as I was driving back on that awesome travel from the roadhouse. 

 

I went to bed. I felt great and spent and excited. This was going to be a chance to tell the story of the faith that had meant so much to me and had called me into ministry. So, I woke up the next morning. I headed off to the first three churches on the circuit. After each church, I felt more confident and more expectant, and I realized that if at all possible, I would never preach sermons the old way. So, I got to Tioga at 1 o'clock. And I walked in, and there the people were, 80 wonderful people dressed in their finery. As we were beginning to sing the first hymn, what did I hear outside but a roar of motorcycles coming up. [audience chuckles] And in walked seven guys dressed in their black leather jackets and their black leather pants, their uniform that they had on last night. The usher looked at me and wondered what he was supposed to stay. And on his own, he said, "Could I help you?" And Eric, in his great basso voice, said, "Hey, we're here to hear the Shark tell the story of Easter [audience laughter] again."