The Road to Emmaus

 Luke 24:13-35 Common English Bible (CEB) 

13 On that same day, two disciples were traveling to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking to each other about everything that had happened. 15 While they were discussing these things, Jesus himself arrived and joined them on their journey. 16 They were prevented from recognizing him.

17 He said to them, “What are you talking about as you walk along?” They stopped, their faces downcast.

18 The one named Cleopas replied, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who is unaware of the things that have taken place there over the last few days?”

19 He said to them, “What things?”

They said to him, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth. Because of his powerful deeds and words, he was recognized by God and all the people as a prophet. 20 But our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. 21 We had hoped he was the one who would redeem Israel. All these things happened three days ago. 22 But there’s more: Some women from our group have left us stunned. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 and didn’t find his body. They came to us saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who told them he is alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women said. They didn’t see him.”

25 Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! Your dull minds keep you from believing all that the prophets talked about. 26 Wasn’t it necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27 Then he interpreted for them the things written about himself in all the scriptures, starting with Moses and going through all the Prophets.

28 When they came to Emmaus, he acted as if he was going on ahead. 29 But they urged him, saying, “Stay with us. It’s nearly evening, and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 After he took his seat at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts on fire when he spoke to us along the road and when he explained the scriptures for us?”

33 They got up right then and returned to Jerusalem. They found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying to each other, “The Lord really has risen! He appeared to Simon!” 35 Then the two disciples described what had happened along the road and how Jesus was made known to them as he broke the bread.  

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Good morning.  I just want to say . . . I really miss seeing you all.  You are in my prayers, as I hope I am in yours.  When I find myself wanting to break out of my house I think of all of you, and how important it is to stay home and keep us all healthy.  It is also important to keep ourselves spiritually healthy.  In March I began posting a daily Bible Study titled 30 New Days.  At the end of 30 days, we reached the end of that Bible study.  So this past Monday I began a practice of writing a Daily Journal entry in my blog “Everyday Thinking”, the link to which is posted on Facebook, or if you don’t do Facebook, can be found on our website.  I find writing a daily meditation on a scripture verse has been very helpful in my own spiritual journey.  Perhaps you will also find it to be so.   

So.  The Road to Emmaus.  I’ve always found this passage a bit confusing.  I mean, I kind of understand Mary at first not recognizing Jesus, thinking he was the gardener.  After all, who expects to see someone that you watched die and be entombed to be walking around talking a few days later?  It might have been like the time I ran into my hairdresser at the laundromat.  Not only was she in the wrong place, but she didn’t look the same.  She was in shorts, with her hair in pigtails and no makeup - a very different look than I was used to, so it took a minute to place her.   Plus, Mary  was upset and had been crying and, I don’t know about you, but when I cry my vision gets pretty blurry.  But she knew him as soon as she heard his voice.  

Here we have two of Jesus’ followers walking along the road discussing the recent events in Jerusalem when they were joined by a stranger.  We know it was Jesus, but Luke tells us they were prevented from knowing him.  This stranger wanted to know what they were talking about so they told him about Jesus and how he was a prophet, whom how they thought was the Promised One, but that he had been killed so maybe not.  But then his tomb was discovered to be empty and now they were all confused and astounded.  I can just see Jesus walking alongside them, shaking his head as they expressed their uncertainty, so he used the rest of the journey to set them straight. Mind you, this was roughly a 2 1/2 hour walk, so he had plenty of time to school them.  I wonder if this was the first “Come to Jesus” moment?   Anyway . . . two and a half hours on the road, listening to Jesus talk about the prophets and their prophecies about the Christ . . . and they didn’t know him.  Yes, I know we are told they were prevented from knowing who he was, but I mean really.  Mary recognized him as soon as he spoke, but Cleopas and his friend had no idea who their companion on the way was until . . . they were together at the Table and he broke the bread.  

The Road to Emmaus.  The Upper Room offers a program called the Emmaus Walk.  It begins with a 3 day short course in Christianity, and continues as small groups of participants meet regularly to support each other in their ongoing walk with Christ.  The object of the Emmaus Walk  is “to provide an opportunity to meet Jesus Christ in a new way as God’s grace and love is revealed to each participant through other believers”.   I know a few people who have participated in this Walk, and each of them has told me what a huge difference it made in their spiritual lives.   Perhaps the most important thing they shared with me is that this is not intended to be a “me looking for Jesus” sort of journey, but a “me and you and that other person over there looking for Jesus in each other” sort of journey, holding each other accountable as they continue their walk together.  

We talk about that sometimes, about how important it is to see Jesus in the face of other people.  We work hard to encourage seeing Jesus in the other - the grumpy person in the checkout line, the homeless woman, the immigrant, the politician we don’t like.  And admittedly that can be really hard.  We might have to break through our own prejudices and preconceptions about that other before we can begin to see Jesus in them.  Some of you may have seen images of the bronze sculptures known as The Homeless Jesus by the artist Timothy P. Schmalz, which is a man huddled on a park bench, wrapped in a blanket.  The only way you can tell this is Jesus is by the wounds in his bare feet sticking out from the end of the blanket. There are now many copies of the Homeless Jesus around the world, in front of churches and on university campuses.  It has been described as a "visual translation" of the Gospel of Matthew passage in which Jesus tells his disciples, "as you did it to one of the least of my brothers, you did it to me”. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeless_Jesus ) Everywhere it has received both blessings as a sharp reminder of these words of Jesus and criticisms as “an insulting depiction of Jesus.”  It can be hard to see Jesus in the other.    

A greeting common in India is namaste, which said while holding ones hands together as in prayer and bowing to the other person. It means “the divine in me respectfully recognizes the divine in you” or “I bow to the divine in you.”  While we might not say namaste or bow, the practice of respectfully looking for the divine, for Christ, in the other, no matter who that other is, will help us to recognize them as our neighbor, and as such, someone we are to love as we love ourselves.  

Sometimes it can be difficult to see Jesus in the faces of people we know well, our families and loved ones, for instance.  Especially if we are suddenly forced into being together 24/7.  I live alone, which has its own difficulties.  But I do live with four cats who are suddenly needier than they have ever been.  They can be annoying, actually, making it hard to get anything accomplished.  Just try typing around a 14 pound lap cat.  But they are cats, not people. They sleep for 12 - 16 hours a day.  They are not family members or roommates.  I don’t have to homeschool them or keep them entertained or put up with hearing the same joke for the zillionth time or pick up their socks.  Even people who dearly love one another and usually get along perfectly can start being snarly when they don’t get any time away from each other.  For most persons and families, however, recognizing Jesus in each other’s faces will not be terribly difficult.  You might need a time out, a few minutes to yourself.  It could be a time of prayer or coloring or reading or playing a game on your phone or screaming into a pillow - whatever works to help you to stop focusing on the thing that is irritating and remember what you love about the others in your household.  

It will be so much harder, however, for those who have difficult family lives.  Some are living in situations where verbal and emotional abuse is constant, where every moment is fraught with emotional pain.  Others are dealing with physical abuse and are stuck, quarantined, sheltering in place with their abuser.  Not surprisingly, calls reporting incidents of domestic violence have increased since the shelter in place orders went into effect. The pain of emotional and physical abuse may prevent us from seeing Jesus in the other.  As a survivor of domestic violence myself, I am not sure I could have done it while living with my abuser or for a number of years afterwards.   We do know that the disciples were able to recognize Jesus only when the time was right.  Perhaps this will also be the case for those who cannot get away from their abuser while sheltering in place.  Although if you can get away to a place of safety, please try to do so.  Stay safe.   And Know that although you may not be able to see Jesus in that other, Jesus is walking alongside you even as he walked with the disciples on that long ago Easter evening.  

These two travelers had set out on the road to Emmaus uncertain, confused by the events of the  last few days in Jerusalem.   They had been so hopeful that Jesus was going to set everything straight, that he would be the savior of Israel they had been waiting for.  And then he died, a terrible death, crucified like a criminal, and when he died on the cross, so too had died their hope.  Then came the news that he wasn’t in the tomb.  They didn’t know what to think.  They were stunned.  

We also are stunned.  We are living in a time when everything changed in a flash, just as it did for the disciples.  Just as they were unprepared for Jesus’ arrest and trial and death, so too we were unprepared for a pandemic.  We looked to our leaders, to the experts, for answers, and there were none.  The disciples had no one to ask.   They had to sort of figure it out as they went along, as do we.   They met a stranger who walked with them and explained all the prophecies to them.   They invited him to dinner. 

“After he took his seat at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.”  And suddenly the two travelers were able to recognize him.  And as soon as they recognized him, he disappeared from their sight.  And they immediately went back out on the road and made another two and a half hour journey to tell the other disciples that they had seen the risen Christ.  A new thing had happened, Christ had risen.  So they immediately went out to spread the Good News, to share with the others the teachings that Jesus had shared with them along the road to Emmaus - the words that had set their hearts on fire.  

And then . . . they waited for the next new thing to happen.  They waited in a new world where they knew not what would come next.   As do we.  But unlike those two disciples, we know that Christ is risen.  We know that he walks along side of us every step of the way on this new journey we are taking.   We know that he is always with us in the breaking of the bread.

Trust issues

Scripture 1 Peter 1:3-9 CEB

3 May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! On account of his vast mercy, he has given us new birth. You have been born anew into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 4 You have a pure and enduring inheritance that cannot perish—an inheritance that is presently kept safe in heaven for you. 5 Through his faithfulness, you are guarded by God’s power so that you can receive the salvation he is ready to reveal in the last time.

6 You now rejoice in this hope, even if it’s necessary for you to be distressed for a short time by various trials. 7 This is necessary so that your faith may be found genuine. (Your faith is more valuable than gold, which will be destroyed even though it is itself tested by fire.) Your genuine faith will result in praise, glory, and honor for you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Although you’ve never seen him, you love him. Even though you don’t see him now, you trust him and so rejoice with a glorious joy that is too much for words. 9 You are receiving the goal of your faith: your salvation.

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Before I begin, I need to tell y’all something. It is really hard to preach to my phone.  It is hard not to have you all here in front of me, not to see your facial expressions, not to hear your chuckles when something that I hope is funny actually works, not to feel your energy as I move through the message, and see your heads nodding . . . or not.  The cats have decided this isn’t terribly interesting, so they’re off sleeping someplace.  So it’s just me and my iPhone in my living room.  Comedian Henny Youngman used to say,  “I know you’re out there, I can hear you breathing.”  Well - I can’t even say that.  Because in fact, you’re not out there.  Not yet anyway.  I’m preaching to my phone on Saturday morning and you won’t be watching until Sunday.   I would like for this not to continue for very much longer, but I very much fear it will be a while before we can move back to the sanctuary, and even longer before we can consider gathering in the way we are used to gathering.

If you heard Disciples General Minister and President, Teri Hord Owens, preach on Easter, you heard her say, “It is unlikely that things will ever be the same.”  She called on us to prepare for a ministry of imagination, to let our imaginations take flight as we consider how we will go forward as church, how we will shape a new world.  She reminded us that it was in the midst of disruption that the church was born.

The disciples faced a time of disruption and change in the days and weeks after the resurrection.  They were confused and uncertain about what was coming next, about what they were supposed to do and how to do it.  They were in hiding and fearful.  They would figure it out in time.  They would find new ways to move forward that didn’t look at all the way they had expected their lives to look.   Thirty years later, Peter could look back upon those early days and write this letter drawing upon his experience to comfort Christians who were undergoing severe persecution.  Like the early disciples, Christians in around 65 AD quite frankly, did not know if they would survive from one day to the next.  They were hunkered down in their homes, unable to meet in large groups, uncertain of the future.   Peter knew first hand how easy it is to let fear rule your heart.  He remembered that Jesus had said  “I assure you that, before the rooster crows tonight, you will deny me three times.”  And so it happened.  Peter, fearing for his life, did indeed deny knowing Jesus three times and when the rooster crowed remembered Jesus’ words, realized he had fulfilled that prophecy, and went out and cried uncontrollably.  Peter totally knew how that fear felt, and he knew that it was possible to move beyond it if they grabbed on to hope.  So he reminded them of whose they were. “[God] has given us new birth. You have been born anew into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” . . . "You now rejoice in this hope, even if it’s necessary for you to be distressed for a short time by various trials. This is necessary so that your faith may be found genuine.”  

Peter wrote these words to the Christians of his time that they might be emboldened by hope to go forth in faith.  They did the things that Christians do - caring for the sick in their communities, praying with the lonely, helping the poor and hungry - but they did them differently than when they were free to meet openly.  They met in even smaller groups than the house churches they were accustomed to.  They heard Peter when he said, “rejoice in this hope, even if it’s necessary for you to be distressed for a short time.”  And note that Peter said, Even if it is necessary for you to be distressed.  Not even though it is necessary.  It might happen, or it might not.  Whether it does or not, your hope and your faith will bring you through.

I do not believe that this plague we are facing today happened in order that our faith might be tested.  But I do believe that how we face this particular threat is a result of our faith.  Like pretty much everyone else, I would love to go out to lunch, chat with the servers, hug my friends, work in my office where all my files and books are, worship together.  I would love to see everything go back to the way it was this time last year, when the Spiritual Growth team could say about any upcoming event, “What we usually do is. . . “  But that is not our new reality.  From here on out we will have to look at completely new ways of being church, of worshipping together.   And this change we are facing may be a very good thing for the church - our congregation and the Church universal.   I have seen a multitude of persons say, “I have participated in more worship services this week than I have in probably the last 5 years . . .or 10 years.”  People who do not attend church or claim any particular tradition as their own are listening to sermons, praying along with our pray-ers, asking questions, seeking answers rooted in faith.  I am certain this would not have happened to the extent it is has we not had to move all of our worship services out of buildings and on to the Internet.   

We must also recognize, however, that there are many who do not have access to the internet to see our service live-streamed, who don’t have smart phones that will let them watch YouTube.  Under shelter in place orders, these are already feeling isolated.  We must not let them believe the church has forgotten them.  Even though we cannot be with them in person, we can and should call and write notes.   We can mail copies of prayers and sermons.  We can reach beyond our comfort zones to bring hope, as Peter’s letter brought hope to the Christians of his day.  

The Rev. Teresa Hord Owens called upon us to “prepare for a ministry of imagination.”  She asked us to imagine a new world, to pray for the courage to change and help shape a new world.  She encouraged us to let the things of the past go, to let our prophetic imagination take flight so that we might envision new ways to be Church, new ways to connect, new opportunities to carry the Good News of Jesus Christ far outside our doors.   

The trial that lies ahead of us is, as has been said before, unprecedented,  even unimaginable in scope.  But so are the solutions.  So are the opportunities to share our own hope and faith.   Each and every one of us has been forced to find  ways of being and living that we couldn’t imagine in the before time.   Our home life has changed.  Our shopping habits have changed.  Our work life has changed, or disappeared altogether.  How we do school has changed.  How we have meetings has changed. Our devotional practices may have changed, now that we have more time to pursue devotional practices - prayer, meditation, reading and writing, sewing, coloring . . .   On Facebook I have seen many more recommendations of books and spiritual practices, more prayers, more poems, more encouraging memes, more groups that focus on spiritual life than ever before.  Yes, there is still ugliness there.  There is still anger and name calling and divisiveness.  But these other things, these new and increased spiritual things, are a good thing, another way we are sharing our faith, spreading the Good News, being church.  Because Church is a community of like minded people gathering to worship God - and there is no rule that says that the members of a church community have to all be in one place.  The closest thing to a rule is found in Matthew 18:20, where Jesus said, “Where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them.”  And we - this online community of faith - are definitely gathered in Jesus’ name.  For, as Peter said, “Although you’ve never seen him, you love him. Even though you don’t see him now, you trust him and so rejoice with a glorious joy that is too much for words.”  We do not see him now.  We may not even see each other right now.  But we know we are together, and that he is with us.  We trust in him, and we rejoice in his love.  

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