SETTING THE CONTEXT

Let us go back to Easter morning already two weeks ago. We sang “Christ the Lord is Risen Today”. We heard the story of Jesus’ resurrection from Luke’s Gospel. We left the women running back to the disciples and other followers with the news that Jesus had risen. They didn’t believe them and I’m not convinced it was because they were women, who would believe that someone is raised from the dead no matter who told them. Peter went to investigate himself and came home amazed. This is where we left our now very confused disciples and this is where we pick up their story.

Read Luke 24:13-35

THE SERMON

There is three times in which we know an event, scholar Fred Craddock tells us. We know it in the rehearsal, at the time of the event, and in the remembrance of the event.^[i] Our understanding of the event is hindered at the rehearsal by our inability to fully comprehend it and maybe even believe it will really happen. Our understanding is hindered during the event itself because we are usually so caught up in the moment that everything seems a blur. It is in the remembrance of the event that we have the opportunity for recognition, realization and understanding. George and I as you know celebrated our wedding anniversary this past week. As I read Craddock’s ideas I was immediately reminded of our wedding. During the rehearsal we went through the ceremony but it really did not feel like the wedding. There was a lot of joking and goofing around and I was in my baggy shorts instead of my dress. The day of our wedding was a blur. I was so full of emotion and wanting to take in every moment I think I was just an emotional sponge. Every year we have a tradition on our anniversary, we take out our wedding memory book and look through it and remember. Those pictures and our memories take us back to that day even as we carry all the years we’ve had together on that journey through time.

The disciples of Jesus were trying to make sense of an event that had just happened to them. Jesus had tried to prepare them by predicting his own death and resurrection three times, but it was just too hard for the disciples to comprehend. During the days of Jesus’ death and resurrection everything must have seemed like a blur. Emotions were raw from the violence and disappointment. Could this possibly be happening? Now two of the followers were walking to Emmaus trying to remember and make sense of what they had just experienced. And a stranger started walking with them. I wonder how many times we miss the risen Christ because we just don’t recognize him. There was a TV show on for a while that I really liked called Joan of Arcadia. God would appear to a teenager named Joan as different people all the time. Jesus is not just confined to this space in the church; he is out moving among us beyond these walls. However and there is a big however, what helped Cleopas and the other person recognize Jesus? It was the word or the opening of the Scripture for their understanding and the sacrament or the breaking of the bread which we call Holy Communion. In and amongst the community of faith we prepare the soil for the risen Christ to reveal himself to us. Then if we are to follow the example of the first “experiencers” we need to get up and witness to what we have seen, heard and experienced. I know many people are nervous about sharing how Christ has touched their lives but it is so worth the effort for it is immensely powerful. We just need to tell our story, as John Newton did in his famous hymn “I once was lost but now I’m found.”

We have the opportunity to experience the word and sacrament every week here amongst this community of faith. Sometimes it is helpful to participate in other opportunities such as retreats, small groups, camps, mission experiences or other church experiences. We are having such an opportunity here this summer with a three day retreat called the Walk to Emmaus. You don’t have to walk any where on this retreat. People who’ve gone said it should be named the Sit to Emmaus, but we journey with Christ through talks on the Christian life, through shared meals and worship, through numerous acts of love and self-giving. On the Walk to Emmaus people are given the opportunity to experience the risen Christ. George and I went on Walks 24 and 25 and the Walks here will be 183 and 184! Over the years of my ministry many people from my churches have gone on this spiritual retreat weekend. A few had negative experiences, but the vast majority were deeply touched and moved by the experience. I know many people whose lives (including my own) were changed by something that happened during the Walk. These encounters with the risen Christ make all believers first generation Christians and every meeting place Emmaus^[ii] where our hearts can be fanned into flame and our feet set into motion.

I have asked one of our members, Sam Downing, to share his Walk to Emmaus experience.

>Testimony of Sam Downing (see taped message)

Sermon delived by Rev. Nancy Cushman on April 6, 2008.