The Road to Emmaus
There are times I really miss my parents, the reasons oh,
any number of them, sometimes I just want to call and share the wonderful
things that have happened with my family, in my life, in my community, but I
can’t call, they’ve been dead for over thirty years. But that desire to hear
the voices of loved ones, to see them once again brings back so many good
memories of favorite uncles and aunts, moms and dads, brothers and sisters,
what wonderful gifts these memories. Isn’t that how it goes with
families?
These special gifts sometimes come with smells, faint echoes
of voices and feather touches from our past. When I remember my mom and dad, I
mean really remember, I can smell her and him from those special times, usually
just before bed, when I would snuggle with mom. She smelled of cinnamon and
roses, I can still smell dad’s breath when he would tuck me in, faint hints of
the meatloaf he so loved, a whispered good night, I can feel his whiskers on my
cheek when he kissed me, even now. Isn’t that how it goes; you don’t have
to be a child to remember like a child.
When we remember those who we love we
remember their habits, their idiosyncrasies and the funny family stories about
them. We had a fairly large lawn out in front of the house; at least it seemed
large when I had to mow it. One time when my cousins came over on a hot summer
day, we kids were jumping over the sprinklers; aunts, uncles, mom and dad were
all out front watching us. Lots of giggling and yelling by us kids, lots of laughing
by the grownups as we kids slipped and slid on the wet grass jumping over the
sprinkler. I can clearly hear my mother saying that sure looks like a great
way to stay cool! Well you see the direction of this story; my mom took up
dad’s challenge, kicked off her shoes and gave it a try. I remember she did ok
the first few jumps but…… her feet finally slipped and she butt planted on the
wet grass, it was a great jump just a lousy landing. Oh we kids rolled on the
grass in abandoned laughter and the grownups laughed pretty hard too. My mom
didn’t like to be laughed at and as she stomped to the front door, wet bottom
swinging side to side we all laughed even harder. Yet just before she walked in
to the house she turned and smiled the most brilliant, dazzling smile I have
ever seen to this day and I swear that her smile was just for me.
When I remember, like this, I know I am
once again with her in a way I could never be with her when she was alive. The
way I’m with my mother is very real, even though my physical senses tell me no
one is with me, I know she is here with me because my spirit tells me we are
together and this happens when
I
REMEMBER HER!
Isn’t that how it goes when we remember those we love?
Two men walking on a dusty road deep in thought and sorrow,
a stranger joins them, notes how despondent they are and asks why. Cleopas’
world is very small right now; he’s surprised that someone doesn’t know what
happened three days ago in a comparatively backwater speck of a city in the
wide Mediterranean world, a city called Jerusalem.
He tells this stranger about Jesus of Nazareth, a “Prophet powerful in
action and speech before God and all the people”, and how their chief
priests and leaders handed Him over to the Romans to be sentenced to death by
crucifixion. And it has been three day since He was crucified, died and was
buried. They tell the stranger of their hope that this man was the anointed one
whom God would send to redeem Israel,
a hope that was now just a corpse of a memory. And it seems this memory of
dashed hopes was the only corpse because friends of this man Jesus went to the
burial cave to prepare the body where they found the stone over the cave mouth
rolled aside and there was no body.
I think these men were not really walking
toward Emmaus; they were walking away from Jerusalem, away from pain, loss, dashed
hopes, and sorrow.
Listen closely to how these men refer to “the
things about Jesus of Nazareth”.
These men see Jesus as a “Prophet” yes, powerful in word and deed but just a
man. After all, wasn’t the Messiah a leader of men? Yes, these men saw the
messiah through their preconceptions supported by their hearing only those
parts of Scripture they were comfortable with, that harmonized with their
world-view, not truly hearing what God was telling His people through His
Prophets.
This was not acceptable to Jesus so He chided them and
opened their ears as He taught them what God has said through the prophets
about the Messiah, about the “Living Word, the creation Word who was God,
who was to be rejected, who was to suffer and die”, and their hearts were
ablaze. Isn’t that how it goes for Disciples of Christ, Jesus, the
Living Word of God, opens our ears to God’s Word in Scriptures and our hearts
are ABLAZE!
These men, Cleopas as named in this Gospel and Simon as
Christian tradition names, both of them said to part of the group of disciples
whom Jesus sent out to towns and villages where Jesus would soon be going,
these men once again have HOPE. In this hope these men now can see a much larger
world. Where once they were encased in a bubble of sorrow, fear and hatred for
their own leaders and the Romans, they now are free to embrace God’s purpose in
this wide world. In this freedom these men, Cleopas and Simon opened their
hearts to this stranger and offered him hospitality, they invited him to take a
meal with them.
This week another stranger has come into
our lives and has opened our hearts in a different way. I’m talking about the Umpqua Community
College shooting, where nine people and the
shooter are now dead and seven others are wounded, three of these seven are
still in critical condition. This tragic violence for some has opened their
hearts to hate and fear. Because of this tragedy the families of those killed
and those wounded and the family of the one who had visited this violence on
others have had their hearts opened to devastating sorrow. All are in a bubble
of sorrow, fear and hatred. How can hope be embraced where no hope is now
present, how can they be released from a prison of fear when a life of fear is
all that can be seen; how can forgiveness be given when there is no room for
forgiveness in their sorrow, how can love once more grow where it has been
killed. How can we be the face and hands of Jesus to these hurting sorrow filled
people? We start with opening our hearts to all these strangers offering them
hospitality. In our hearts we invite them to share a meal, a very special
sacred meal.
Isn’t that how it goes for Disciples of
Christ, in grateful thankfulness for the gifts Jesus gives us, we open our
hearts to Jesus and invite Him into our hearts.
When we remember those who we love we remember their habits.
As Jesus “reclined at the table with them He took the bread, blessed and
broke it and gave it to them, then their eyes were opened”. Cleopas
and Simon spent three years living with Jesus, they know Jesus, they know His
gestures, His habits, they recognized the way he took the bread, blessed it and
broke it. They remembered the way He handed the pieces of bread to each of
them. They saw Jesus. The New Revised Standard Version Bible translation says “and
He vanished from their sight”, but not from their Spirit. That very hour
they got up and returned to Jerusalem
to share the Good News.
The
Road to Emmaus sets the tone for this new Kingdom age, this age of Christ.
- We feel the loss of Jesus’ physical presence and for some of us we can’t name this feeling, we just feel empty.
- Then a stranger, someone outside of our lives, opens up a new reality, a new way of looking at life. God’s Word comes alive for us.
- We respond to this gift with a gift of our own, we open up our hearts to this new thing, this new way of seeing, and this stranger.
- When we open our hearts we recognize and can name the stranger, we remember Jesus, we see Jesus.
- With our recognition and embracing of Jesus we now belong to God, we are now the beloved; we now have hope, freedom, forgiveness and purpose all because Jesus has reached out to us.
The
scriptures can and do bring the real presence of Jesus into our lives and we
celebrate this real presence in a very special way.
This special celebration, this special sacred
remembering of Jesus is the “Lord’s Supper”. This sacred remembering is
foreshadowed in this part of the Gospel; the disciples remembered Jesus when He
broke the Bread and we remember Jesus when we take the bread and wine.
Now I want to share with you something my
youngest daughter recently taught me, I know she doesn’t realize what she
taught me, yet God did God’s work through her, I just learned that sacred
remembering is not intended only for Jesus and those we personally love,
yes this sacred remembering is Jesus centered but not only of Jesus. We can
remember families who we do not personally know, we can remember families in
their sorrow, in sacred and caring love just as we remember Jesus, we can share
this sacred meal with these families today, share in our hearts and in God’s
Spirit.
There where two disciples and Jesus was
there with them, when we gather in community for the “Lord’s Supper” Jesus and
all who are in need are here with us. I know we are with Jesus and all of God’s
family in a way we could never be with Jesus if we were alive when He walked
this earth and I Know we can be with all those in need in a very special way
even if they are not here physically. The way we are with Jesus is very real,
even though our physical senses tell us no one is with us, we know Jesus and
the world are present with us because our spirit tells us we are together when WE
REMEMBER JESUS as we celebrate the “Lord’s Supper”. We and the world are
the BELOVED; we, the world, can now have hope, freedom, forgiveness and
purpose. Isn’t that how it SHOULD
go FOR THE WORLD AN US when we remember Him who LOVED US FIRST, WHEN we RETURN
hIS love IN OUR REMEMBERING?
AMEN
