Luke 24: 13
Living God, you speak to us in sacred story, through friendship and
conversation, in bread broken and wine poured out. Send us your Holy
Spirit as the Scriptures are read. May our hearts burn within us as we
encounter your truth, through Christ, our Risen Lord. Amen
At the start of today’s gospel lesson Cleopas and another believer were walking on
the Emmaus Road
They were talking about “all these things that had happened”
In the context of this passage, the things they are talking about are the arrest of
Jesus, his trial and crucifixion
We don’t know why they were going to Emmaus
We do know that they weren’t wandering aimlessly
They had a destination because they come to a house and go in for the evening
meal
While they are walking along, they are joined by another person
The readers know that it is Jesus who has joined them
We read, “While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and
went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.”
We aren’t told why the two followers of Jesus didn’t recognize him, only that
“their eyes were kept from recognizing him”
Sometimes we go on at length about this failure to recognize Jesus
Some sermonizers have faulted the two in the story
Some have gone on at great length to draw parallels between the lack of
recognition in the gospel story and the ways that we fail to recognize Jesus today
The writer of Luke doesn’t do that
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He tells us that Jesus asks about what they are discussing
And the two stop in their tracks
They say
“Are you the only one in Jerusalem who doesn’t know these things?”
Then they go on to tell about Jesus
“But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” they say
But we had hoped
What despairing words
These words are filled with anguish as the disciples talk about what had happened
to Jesus
They go one to say that some of the women had seen a vision of angels who said
he was alive
They even say that some who were with them went to the tomb to check, but all
they saw was the empty tomb
Jesus then calls them foolish and goes on to explain all that must happen to the
Messiah using the teachings of the scriptures
Still the two on the Emmaus Road do not understand who Jesus is
They reach their destination
And Jesus is invited to join them
In fact they urge him strongly to stay with them as the hour is late
Jesus, who is still a stranger to the disciples, enters the house with them
Jesus, who has spent time interpreting the scriptures to them still is not recognized
Then they sit at table
Jesus takes bread, blesses it and breaks it
He blesses and breaks the bread in an act reminiscent of the Last Supper
In that sacramental act the disciples recognize Jesus
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At this point Jesus disappears
They agree that when Jesus was opening the scriptures to them, that their hearts
were burning within them
Knowing now that the testimony of the women was true
Knowing that they had seen Jesus
They rushed back to Jerusalem, in spite of the lateness of the hour and the distance
to be covered
They rush back to tell the elven apostles and their companions
“The Lord has risen indeed!”
They met Jesus who took time to be with them
They recognized Jesus in an act of fellowship and worship
They ran off to tell
They were proving that “The resurrection is not a fact to be believed, but an
experience to be shared.”[2] (Alan Brehm)
It takes a village, a community to sustain faith
When the disciples knew their faith had been affirmed
They rushed off to share that information with the rest of the believers
Resurrection in theological terms is as much an attitude as it is a happening
Are we resurrection people?
Do we really believe that Jesus has conquered sin and death?
We expect to hear that at a funeral service
We all say that we believe this
But when it comes to day to day living
When it comes to meeting the challenges of life
How much hope do we bring to face the day?
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Victor Frankl, a psychologist who was imprisoned during the Second World War
made reflections on what he observed in a concentration camp
Those who survived were those who had hope
Those who survived were those who believed in something beyond themselves
Those who had faith
If faith could be what got men and women through the tortuous experience of a
concentration camp
Then faith will surely be enough to equip us with the challenges of living faithful
lives in the 21 st century
Note that faith equips us to not be overcome by challenges
Faith does not always bring about the results for which we hope
As believers we may feel somewhat like the travelers on the Emmaus Road
We have followed Jesus, but we are not seeing our hopes realized
They said “We had hoped that he would be the one to restore Israel”
And Jesus instead walked with them, taught them, helped them to see the risen
Lord and called them into service
Our hopes are often for people to come and worship with us and help us build a
bigger congregation
Jesus doesn’t seem to be helping us with that hope in the way we would choose
Instead, we are given the opportunity to share God’s love with the people who are
frail and afraid
Douglas John Hall who is a professor emeritus at McGill University has this to say
about the place that the church of Jesus Christ finds itself in our day
He reminds us that the desire to be big and strong comes from our own ambitions
not from God
He reminds us that Jesus used metaphors like salt, light and yeast
Small items that have an impact on the surroundings
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A pinch of salt flavours the food
A candle can light the way
A small amount of yeast is used for a batch of bread
Jesus never said build a mega church
At a meeting with Douglas John Hall, there was an insightful comment made about
the way churches seemed to keep building huge buildings over and over
We have left ourselves with huge buildings to be maintained, as if we didn’t learn
the first time that this would be a tough thing to do
It was almost as if we thought that we only needed to raise money to build the
thing and that maintenance would be a breeze
Churches with the best of intentions thought that building bigger somehow was a
way of showing that we had hope for the future
Today, as we find ourselves trying to discern what path God is calling us to follow
we need to think carefully about how to best use the assets we have so that we can
continue to be salt and light
We may be small, but we are still true
To quote Douglas John Hall again, small can be beautiful
And as we look to see what God is asking of us in our smallness
We are sharers of the resurrection hope that came to Cleopas and friend
Resurrection hope will keep us going forward
Resurrection hope will enable us to keep from getting bogged down in despair
Despair is the place our resources will take us
Hope is the place of resurrection truth
As people we worry about power and we worry about numbers
One of the great servants of the church, Mother Theresa said
Never worry about numbers
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Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you
That’s what Jesus did that day on the Emmaus Road
He could have made an appearance in the courtyard of the temple and addressed a
huge crowd
Instead, he walked on the road with two confused disciples who needed hours of
discussion and a sacramental action to understand who Jesus was
If Jesus could walk and teach in this intimate setting how much more can we
What might it have been like for Cleopas and friend to be walking on the Emmaus
Road?
In some ways we can understand that feeling
We have been mostly taught to be fair, to work hard, to value education and then
we would see the positive results of our work
So we did
We went to school
We worked at occupations whether paid, home-making or volunteer jobs
We tried to be fair and to help with projects that would make the world a better
place
But somehow we are not seeing the results we had hoped to see
Like Job we can say
Why do the wicked prosper?
We were raised to believe that hard work would pay off
That the church was an institution that would receive respect and protection from
the community
And the story has been changing on us
We know that we who are believers are those with good intentions
We love God and serve God
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We are respectable and helpful
We have been led to believe that there would be thanks and respect shown to the
church and her members for simply being who and what they were
We came to expect that we would be respected and admired
And we started to forget that our job is to help those who are on the edges of
respectability
Jesus called people to follow him
To take up their cross
To drink the same cup that Jesus drank and to be baptized with the same baptism as
he was
In other words, to share in his challenges and suffering
To follow the road less travelled./
This is one part of the equation.
The other part of the equation is the reality that when we walk with Jesus we are
given glimpses of God
These glimpses remind us that our first calling is to be God’s people, not to be
successful
Let’s go back to the Emmaus Road
The disciples were walking along and talking about what had happened
Jesus had died, and it seems their hope had died with him
We had touched last week on Thomas and the confusion and upset he must have
been feeling after Jesus died
It would have been similar for these two on the Emmaus Rd
They had hoped that Jesus would be the one to redeem Israel
And now Jesus was gone
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Nothing was going the way they had hoped
And then Jesus was walking with them
And then they knew he was alive
They were in the place where they were going to have to take the things that Jesus
had taught, and learn how to apply those teachings to their life story
This is as true for us as it was for Cleopas
We need to accomplish what Jesus has told us
We are living in the age of the church of Christ
We are applying what has been given to us
We are discovering what God wants us to do with what has been given
Since each situation has some things that are unique
Doing what God wants is more than just applying a direct example from a
generation before
This is both hard and exciting
It is hard because many of us were taught that faith is a series of definite truths
God is good and all powerful
Jesus is our saviour
The Bible is the word of God
We should love one another as Jesus loved us
Clear and straight-forward
It can seem that the application was more straight – forward for the early followers
of Jesus that it is for us
They lived in a culture that did not support their faith
They didn’t expect that when they talked about Jesus that most in the town square
would share their point of view
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They knew they would stand out
But they came to support one another
We read this about the early believers in the book of Acts
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking
of bread and the prayers
As we are working on how we can take the gospel to our world
We will need the strength we gain from gathering together
We need the prayers of other believers
We need to gather together for support and friendship
We need to discover the beauty in being a small congregation and take that beauty
to our world
We need resurrection hope to be the people God has called us to be
Prayers of the people
God of all people, we thank you for the light of Christ’s resurrection in which we
live.
We thank you for the times you have brought and bring us into new life.
We pray for those suffering from any kind of illness, and for those paralyzed
by grief or sorrow. We hold them in the light of your love.
God of peace, we pray for those living in places of conflict and in deprivation.
May we discern and respond to your call on our time,
your call on our resources, your call on our outlook.
GOD OF NEW BEGINNINGS, we give you thanks that you travel with us, that you meet us in
people, in places, and in the scriptures.
You surprise us by moments of unexpected revelation.
Grant us the courage and the humility to turn back or away from paths that we
know deep down are not life-giving.
Increase our trust in you, our faith in your word, and our faithfulness in
following. We pray for the church and for communities of faith in this and in
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all places, especially those facing a crisis of any kind.
We pray for your wisdom as we work on how to best be a witness to you in the
community where we live.
Help us to see the strengths we have and how to use them to your glory
Help us to want to work together and to do so in a way that brings credit to you O
God
We pray that our love for one another may be genuine and deep and extended to
all we meet, especially those who do not know of your life and your love. We
also bring before you those we find difficult to love or like. We hold up to the
light of your love all those who feel that their lives are without purpose and
meaning.
We give thanks for those who have helped us on our journeys, for those who have
walked alongside us and shown us your love. We pray for those who have gone
before us and those with whom we share this part of our journey.
We give thanks that we may pray to you in the confidence that you will receive our prayers, as we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen