On the road

Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?!! 

This story of the road to Emmaus is a favorite of many people. It’s a story of how Jesus meets us where we’re at, wandering along the way and not sure of what we believe. It’s a story of resurrection hope happening in the midst of deep disappointment and grief. And it’s a profound story of what can happen when we come to church.

No, really! Think about what happens: Jesus meets the two disciples on the road. As they walk along, he opens up the scriptures, helping them to make sense of recent events, and of all scripture – and everything else besides – in light of what God has done on the cross. And then they share a meal, where Jesus blesses the bread, breaks it and gives it to them. And then, finally, they recognize him. They hear scripture interpreted and taught, they eat and drink, and then their eyes are opened – there in their midst is the risen Christ himself. And then Jesus disappears, and the disciples immediately get on the road again, to go back to Jerusalem by night and tell the others what they have seen.

In worship together every Sunday, we follow this same pattern: we gather, we hear and talk about scripture, we share the meal, and we are sent back into the world. And what we hope is that what happens to these disciples on the road happens here as well: that in what we do together, we meet the risen Christ, our hearts burn within us, and we hurry out to share the good news of God’s work in the world. Right?

I think Luke the gospel writer was more than a little trying to draw this same connection. This is the only resurrection appearance that isn’t to the inner circle, the eleven and the women who were at the center of everything. These two are unknown followers, somehow connected to the core group but not part of it. We have no idea who Cleopas was – maybe he’s Clopas, whose wife Mary is named at the crucifixion, but the other one isn’t even given a name. And no one can agree on where Emmaus was. So even more than the other resurrection stories, this one seems to be told more as something symbolic – no less true, but true on a deeper level. And I think this is Luke telling us what our faith community is for: all of you who gather together, centuries from these events, you too will see and recognize Jesus in your midst, in the breaking of the bread.

In our church and in most Episcopal churches every Sunday morning we celebrate the Eucharist. The word Eucharist means to give thanks – it’s a service where that’s the central thing we’re doing, in other words, celebrating in gratitude together the gift of love that God makes us in Jesus. Our worship has two main parts: the liturgy of the word, with scripture and prayers, and the liturgy of the table, Holy Communion. The first part leads into the second. Every time we gather together on Sunday we break bread and are fed, as Jesus taught us to. It echoes the Last Supper, when Jesus ate with his disciples for the last time and told them, this is my body, this is my blood. It echoes the feeding of the 5000, the miracle of abundance that is foundational to all the actions Jesus does. And it echoes the ways God has always fed his people, with the manna in the wilderness and the yearly ritual of the Passover, remembering how God brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt. So our prayers at the Eucharist tell those stories of God’s creation and the story of God’s saving act of redemption in Jesus. We repeat them and rehearse them every week because they’re such important stories.

And when we remember these stories as part of us and our faith, we make them present again to us here as we do so. Not just as old stories from the past, but present truths about who God is and how God works. Jesus says, do this to remember me (the Greek word is anamnesis) – meaning, do this to make me present here, with you, all of us members of the Body of Christ, all of us part of Jesus alive in the world today. In other words, the Eucharistic prayer is more than just a prayer and more than just a story. All of us together, and the words spoken by the priest and the people, make it real here and now.

So then when we share the bread and wine, it’s not just that we’re receiving the Body of Christ – we’re being the Body of Christ. We’re more than just a bunch of individuals having private spiritual experiences. It’s both a real and a symbolic moment of being God’s people in the world: real, because it’s something profound and powerful in its own right; and symbolic, because it’s meant to show how we are to act and be in the world always.

So worship isn’t just something we each do to find solace and peace in our own lives. Worship isn’t just something tired and ritualistic. God is present here in worship, showing up in God’s own way, not according to our script. But if we aren’t present, if we aren’t fully here in the midst of the people around us and ready for the Spirit to act, we might not notice. We might miss what is happening here and now in our worship, in our community together. We might miss Jesus, fail to recognize him in our midst – and so we will fail altogether to hear his call as we go back into the world at the end.

Because after we’ve received the bread and wine, and after we’ve prayed our thanks and heard the blessing and sung the last hymn, the final thing we hear is the dismissal. Our worship ends with a call for us to go out as Christ’s servants in the world. It reminds us that the purpose of worship isn’t just to encourage and build ourselves up, but to empower us and send us forth as ministers of Christ. To get us on the road like those disciples in Emmaus, even if it’s nighttime and it’s risky and we’ve been traveling all day, because there is news to share about God at work in the world. That’s what the encounter with the risen Christ did to those two disciples; that’s what it’s meant to do with us as well. The Spirit isn’t interested in just filling us up for our own benefit alone – but in pouring through us and out to others, a flowing stream of living water.

So is your heart burning within you? Are your eyes opening to see Jesus? There is good news on offer here today, right here in our church. God has been present throughout time and eternity; God is present to us today. God feeds us what we need when we stretch out of hands. And God calls us to share that good news with others. So keep your eyes open. Listen with your heart, be present in your body here today, as you exchange the Peace, as you pray, as you sing, as you come to the table. Jesus makes himself known to us here in the breaking of the bread. Take and eat, and go to love and serve the world. Amen.