“The New Journey: Emmaus”

Luke 24:13-49

A Sermon Preached by The Rev. Douglas M. Donley

April 3, 2005

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

 

            We come here to this service awash in music.

            We come to this service mystically connected with the people that have graced this church for the past 155 years.

            We come to this service, some of us for the first time—wondering, what the heck is this all about?

            We come to this service at a time when Catholics around the world are morning the death of Pope John Paul II, one of the longest-serving popes, the first from Poland who was known both for his social conservatism and his opposition to war. 

It will be interesting to see if his war opposition is lifted up as a legacy of his papacy.

            Many of us will remember his courageous presence at Easter Mass just one week ago, trying but failing to make a sound, and yet giving a blessing to the faithful that gathered for what proved to be one last look at the Pontiff.

            We come to this service on the Sunday after Terri Shiavo died.

            We come to this service on the Sunday after the Minnesota House of Representatives passed house bill 006 which would have Minnesotans vote on a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage and its equivalents. 

I will be going to the State Capital on Thursday for the Outfront Lobby Day, with our UBC statement supporting same-sex marriage in hand.  I’ll hand it out to as many as I can.

            A lot has happened this week.

            The Scriptures tell us of two friends leaving Jerusalem after a similarly intense week.   They walked toward Emmaus, talking about the events of the week.  Wondering what will happen next.  Wondering what they should do.  We are a lot like them.

            When so much happens in our world, we’re tempted to go on a long walk to try and figure it out.

            As the weather gets nicer, we end up walking around the streets of these fair cities.  We see people we haven’t seen in a while.  We get caught up.  We find out what’s happening in their lives. 

            When the friends on the road to Emmaus met the stranger, the stranger implored them to make sense of what was happening in their world.  “Tell me about your week,” the stranger asked.   They recounted all that had happened.  But that wasn’t all.  The stranger pushed them a bit and asked them to explain what it all meant.

            Sisters and brothers, when we are on the road to Emmaus after our ordeals, our task is to figure out what it all means.  That’s the new journey we are to take.  Luke ends his gospel with this story.  The Emmaus travelers go back to Jerusalem and start to tell the story to anyone who will listen.

            It is not meaningless that death happens.  It is not meaningless that poverty and despair and resurrection and hope happen.  Our task as people of faith is to make meaning out of the holes in our lives.

            “What does it all mean?” is the yawning question of faith.  It is our task in this post-Easter time, at the end of a week when all hell seems to have broken loose, to make sense of it all.  In the midst of all that too often goes wrong, Here is what I get as the meaning of the Christian message:

            We need to remember that God is here.  The resurrected Jesus has promised not to leave us comfortless.  God is not a god of violence.  The resurrected church ought to live as Jesus did.  This will often lead to persecution.  We need to be prepared for that.  We need to remember that this is a central part of what our faith means.  We need to live life like we mean it so that the meaning of our lives is evident and focused. 

            How do you do that, you might ask?

            If we take a queue from today’s Gospel lesson, we need to do three things:  Speak, Eat and Implement. 

            First, we need to speak.  We need to tell our story to someone who will listen.  Remember, the Bible alone is not the word of God.  The Bible becomes the word of God when it is read with the Holy Spirit as the guide and the community as a sounding board.  We need to argue and discuss and reflect upon our lives.  When we do that, then we start to see things clearer.

            The disciples didn’t see things very clearly until they sat down and had a meal together.  That’s the second thing we need to do.  Eat.  Dr. Luke always has miraculous things happening over tables.  We know that happens, too.  From bountiful pot-lucks to family meals to communion here at church, our meals are places where we gain sustenance in body and in spirit.

            But we have to get up from the meal and do something.   We need to implement some action.  Once we have become clearer about what our life and our faith and what this moment means, and we have received sustenance, we are ready to take the next step.  Act on what has been revealed to us.  How are you going to do that? 

            As we take the next steps as a community in the coming weeks, even the coming days, how will we be different?  How can we articulate the meaning of what we have seen and heard and been inspired by?

            That’s the challenge and the joy of this new portion of our journey of faith. 

When we have seen our way clear, we can sing with more gusto. 

We can give with more joy. 

We can be not conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of our minds. 

We can live and be the resurrection.  Jesus’ life would have meant little id people didn’t start changing their lives and living like him. 

            That’s ultimately what Jesus wants from us.  It’s ultimately what the world needs from us: a little resurrection, a little meaning, a little hope we see on the road to Emmaus.