Being near the right Son opens doors, theologian preaches_71204

Posted: 7/09/04

Being near the right Son opens doors, theologian preaches

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP)– Being near the right Son can open doors for you, Virginia theologian John Kinney told participants at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's general assembly.

Speaking during the opening session of the moderate Baptist group's annual meeting in Birmingham, Kinney noted that his son, Erron, is a tight end for the NFL's Tennessee Titans. When visiting his son in Nashville, Kinney said, he often gets into places or gets the sort of treatment not available to most people.

That's taught him something: “Some of the promise and possibility in your life is not because of who you are, but because you're connected with the right Son,” Kinney said, making the application to Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

Kinney is dean of the school of theology at Virginia Union University, a historically African-American Baptist school in Richmond. Addressing the meeting's theme of “Being the Presence of Christ: Today … Tomorrow … Together,” he drew from Luke's account of the encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus to note that being Christ's presence in the world first requires Christians to recognize Christ's presence among them.

That was difficult for the two people in Luke 24:30-34, whose world had just been upended by the death of their leader, Kinney said.

“Could that day be much of the character of today?” he asked, citing “wars and rumors of wars, trouble at every hand.”

But, Kinney said, despite the disciples' dejected condition and inability at first to recognize their Lord in his resurrected state, “he still drew near.”

And as soon the pair realized Christ was sitting with them, he disappeared, Kinney said.

That caused them to realize their hearts had been “burning within” them when Jesus was walking with them along the road, explaining the prophecies about his coming and resurrection, he continued.

“What was something I didn't know and could only hear facts about is now burning as a part of who I am,” Kinney said.

Once believers are in close contact with Christ and feel in that relationship a burning passion, they can be that presence in the world, Kinney said.

He noted the people in Emmaus immediately got up and returned to Jerusalem to tell the others of their experience.

“They do not respond with a doctrine or a formula. They do not come at you with a form to follow. They come at you with a life that has been transformed, and invite you to be transformed,” he said.

“They tell you, 'There's something that has gotten a hold of me, and my life has been changed!'”