Wednesday, May 03, 2017

Hiking with the Emmaus Disciples

I.N.I.

a sermon to be preached on the 3rd Sunday of Easter, that is, 30 April 2017 at Christ Episcopal Church, Accokeek, Maryland and based on the Holy Gospel for the day: St. Luke 24:13-35

Grace, mercy, and peace be yours in Christ Jesus the Lord.

Dear Friends in Christ,

When Father Brian and I agreed on me preaching here this morning, I told him something like, "Good, because that Gospel is basically a hiking story." What I meant, really, is that much of the text takes place on the trail.

At some point on Easter day these two disciples were hiking out of Jerusalem, headed for their home in Emmaus, 7 miles away. It was late enough in the day that the early visits to the empty tomb had been made and reported on (and, I suppose, probably also some time passed while they started to digest the news). But they needed to get back home, so they left their friends and started walking. They likely would have allowed themselves between 2 and 3 hours to get home. I'm guessing that they weren't in any great hurry because they were deep in discussion as they walked, so involved that at first they didn't notice this other man out walking in the same direction until he was right with them.

Then the one disciple -- Cleopas was his name and, while the other isn't identified here it's possible that it was one of the Marys in John 19:25 at the foot of the cross described as "Mary the wife of Clopas." There is that slight difference between Cleopas and Clopas to deal with, and the fact that Luke doesn't make any suggestions about disciple #2's identity, so they could have been brothers, or father and son maybe, but this morning let's just assume that it was Mary his wife. Anyway, Cleopas rather incredulously explains to the man they met on the trail just what they had been discussing. "Are you the only one in Jerusalem who doesn't know what happened just now?" (Imagine someone in New York City 2 or 3 days after the World Trade Center attacks professing never to have heard about them.) The disciples did a good job of summarizing the crucifixion and resurrection. But they cast it in slightly doubtful terms: as far as Cleopas and Mary seemed to have known, the tomb was indeed empty, but up to then nobody had seen the body anywhere.

So, like each of us from time to time, one day more often, one day less so, but like us all these years after the events, they had doubts. They were sad about the execution of Jesus; Luke tells us that "their faces [were] downcast" (24:17). They tell this stranger by the side of the road that they had really had hopes that this Jesus was going to be the One to redeem Israel, but that, well, their own rulers had handed Him over to be killed. So it looked pretty much like that even though He was a prophet and one powerful in word and deed, it looked pretty much like no He wasn't the One. . . . Except there were these reports about the tomb now being empty. And some angels saying He was alive. It just didn't all add up for Cleopas and Mary.

They were deeply sad about the whole thing. They had their doubts about the reports from the women and men who had been to the tomb in the morning. From Thursday night on, they had been simmering pots of fear and disbelief and confusion and doubt. Sort of like we so often are. That's the way it is in this life for those of us who are sinners. No, we don't have perfect faith. No perfect peace. No perfect confidence or clarity. Often at best, we're usually like these two Emmaus disciples hiking out of Jerusalem late that first Easter Sunday: at best we want to believe, but we just can't put the pieces together by ourselves.

Well this was their lucky day! I've thought for years that if I had a chance to record one conversation in history, this would be the one. (Of course, I'd need help with the translation, but still!) Here were two immediate disciples of Jesus laying out all their doubts and questions, and here was a Man who walked them through the entire Scriptures showing them point by point how it all pointed to Jesus as the promised Messiah, the Savior of the world, the One who had to die, but Who would live. How utterly amazing that would have been!

Another aspect of this that I find wonderful is the way this Gospel story paints us a picture of the Christian life. All that Cleopas and Mary can focus on at first is their doubt and confusion. They can't see any way out. All they've got by themselves is more of the same, having gone over and over the same ground talking themselves in circles. Until this Man came and "walked along with them" (24:15). On their own, nothing. But this Man opened up the Scriptures to them, and the Word of God spoke to their hearts. That's what they said to each other after, remember: "Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"

They had, as faithful Jews, been exposed to the Scriptures since childhood. Much of the teaching would have been historical, about how the Lord had dealt with their people through the years. Much of it would have been concerning holy living, about how to keep themselves ceremonially clean, separating themselves from the unbelievers crowding around them. And much of the teaching would have been about the promised Messiah Who was constantly calling to them, inviting them back into faith, right living, and relationship, and Who probably seemed perpetually just around the bend in the road, just out of sight.
When God calls people today, He still does it through his Word. While we don't have that recording of exactly what Jesus told them while they hiked their way to Emmaus, we do have the New Testament, in addition to what the Emmaus disciples had. And we probably have several editions of the Bible; even pocket-sized or digital copies of it that we can carry anywhere. We have a couple thousand more years of accumulated study and commentary than they did. And we regularly hear the Word read to us, preached to us, and sung to us. Rest assured that God still comes to us in the Word, whatever form we have it. So we have that to rely on.

But there's more.

When it had gotten evening and the three of them got near Emmaus Jesus acted as if He was continuing on. I think He really wanted these two disciples to invite Him in, and He gave them this opportunity, with the motivation, the incentive, the actual power to ask Him to "stay with them." (24:29) So He entered their home. There may have followed some hustle and bustle, at least getting cleaned up before they sat down to eat; maybe they had to introduce children or other family members; maybe there was a servant there preparing a meal. Eventually, though, they gathered at the table.

And when He was there -- still unrecognized at this point, remember -- Jesus knew what all would follow, so I'd bet that He let the meal go on a ways. (They'd just walked 7 miles from Jerusalem and He wanted them to be refreshed, as He knew they were only at the mid-point of the day's hike.) And then Jesus, Luke says, "took bread, and blessed and broke it and gave it to them." (24:30) Saint Luke wasn't just grabbing for random vocabulary at this point. Just two (very full) chapters before this, he had written the same words. Luke 22: 19: Jesus "took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them." These very same words that Father Brian will speak in a few minutes at the altar.

When Jesus celebrated this meal with Cleopas and Mary, "their eyes were opened and they recognized Him" (24:31). This is important. Pay attention to what is going on here: Jesus is recognized in the giving of the bread that is His body. Jesus is recognized as they share the now sacred meal. Jesus is recognized in the Sacrament.

First, He opened the Word to them and they saw Christ in the Scripture. Then He came to them in the Sacrament and their eyes were opened.

And then He disappeared.

This is one of those really fun scenes to imagine. What were they thinking now? "Whoa! What just happened here?! Did you... Did He.... "Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" (24:32) Get me my sandals, I've got to go back to Jerusalem!" And out the door they went!

Now, by the time they hiked or jogged the 7 miles back to Jerusalem, Simon Peter had met the risen Lord and shared that with the rest of the disciples ... not just the other 10 but also "those who were with them" (24:34). That's the first thing Cleopas and Mary heard when they got together with them. Then Cleopas and Mary told all the others about how they'd met Jesus on the road, how He had opened the Scriptures, how they recognized Him in the breaking of the bread. There was a mutual sharing of the Good News about Jesus, an exchange of Gospel messages. That's one of the things that the Church still does: shares the Good News.

The sadness they had all felt was now in the past. They were almost giddy with excitement, with joy. And when it seemed like it couldn't be any better than that ... "Jesus himself stood among them and said to them 'Peace be with you'." (24:36)

Where does this leave us here in Accokeek? Well, it leaves us forgiven, which is great. Forgiveness from God allows us to feel happy instead of downcast. Forgiveness brings clarity to our lives instead of confusion. Forgiveness fosters confidence to replace fear.

In other words, all those things that had overwhelmed Cleopas and Mary between Maundy Thursday and Easter afternoon -- the same things that overwhelm us from time to time -- all those things stemming from the sin in the world around us and in our hearts -- all those things are are turned right side up by God's forgiveness washing over us when Jesus opens the Scriptures to us and when He comes to us in the Sacrament.

Our eyes are opened to this reality when we recognize Jesus in our midst, just as the eyes of these two Emmaus disciples were opened at that moment. This action takes place in our hearts as we experience the same spiritual heartburn that Cleopas and Mary felt. This word "heart" in Biblespeak is the seat of everything that makes us human. It "is the center of the inner life" (TDNT). Your heart is the junction of feelings, emotions, passions, desires -- the reason we associate the heart with being in love -- but, in the Bible, the heart is also the crossroads of thought, reflection, and the will.

In today's first lesson we have another real-world example of this: the Pentecost crowd listened to Peter's message and it says "they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?'" His answer is to "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven." (Acts 2:37-38) Then some years later this same Peter wrote the letter that is today's epistle, and in it he tells believers "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth, so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart." (1 Peter 1:22)

So our hearts are the crossroads of thought and the will and desire and passion. And it's out of our hearts that we begin to love the Lord and our neighbors. Jesus told us, you remember, to love God with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and spirit. But notice here that the heart is the one different thing in that list; a heart is the one of those love sources that is physical. The mind ... where is it? The spirit ... who can touch it? Soul ... who has seen it? But heart ... heart is the beating center in which the religious life is rooted. Jesus Christ took on human flesh in order to be able to relate to us heart-to-heart.

As we continue to let Jesus open the Scripture for us, may our hearts burn within us. As we come to the altar to eat the bread that is His body and drink the wine that is His blood, and may our eyes be opened that we recognize Him. For it is in these things that God's people still gain forgiveness of sins, life, and peace. Amen.

And may the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
S.D.G.