Worship for Sunday, May 8, 2011
Easter 2
Luke 24:13-35
Call to Worship
L: Where shattered hearts are made whole,
where wounded souls are healed,
where life is stronger than death:
P: there, the stone has been rolled away.
L: Where the lonely become our friends,
where a stranger is welcomed home,
where hope is stronger than despair,
P: there, we find Jesus walking.
L: Where closed wallets are opened,
where the anxious find serenity,
where love is stronger than hate:
P: there, Jesus is opening our eyes.
L: The stone has been rolled away!
Jesus is our companion on the journey!
Our eyes are opened to the needs of others!
P: Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Alleluia! Christ is with us!
God of the ever-living Christ Jesus, our words of thanksgiving are indeed not enough. The poverty of our best sentences, and the inadequacy of our sacred music, frustrates our attempts to worship you as you deserve. We say we extol you, we praise you, we glorify you. Gladly we sing out our love and adoration for you. Yet we have not expressed even a fraction of the wonder that throbs in our hearts. O God of Jesus and our God, you are that holy Beauty that will always leave us gasping, yet never leave us unloved. All glory be to you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen!
Morning Prayers
A Litany for Mothers
On this day when we remember our mothers, let us offer our prayers to Jesus, the son of Mary.
Because on this earth we are all sons and daughters of Eve, let us pray for the whole world and the church universal, that we might behold each other as brothers and sisters. Lord in your mercy.
Hear our Prayer.
As Rebecca gave birth to Jacob, and in so doing she gave birth to a whole nation, let us pray for our own nation, and for all in authority. Lord in your mercy.
Hear our Prayer.
As Rachel’s son Joseph was mistreated, beaten, and wrongly jailed, we pray for all in this world who are in trouble of any kind. We pray for the poor, the hungry, the imprisoned, and the victims of war and all who live in terror’s wake. Lord in your mercy.
Hear our Prayer.
As Hannah, the mother of Samuel, went to the House of the Lord to pray with earnest integrity, we earnestly pray for those in this community. . . Lord in your mercy.
Hear our Prayer.
As Naomi took Ruth into her home, we pray for those who act as surrogate, spiritual mothers. We pray with gratitude for all those who give the gift of love and nurturing. Lord in your mercy.
Hear our Prayer.
As Elizabeth gave birth in old age, and as she saw her son John the Baptist carried off to persecution, we pray for all those who are sick, those who are suffering, and those with any need, especially. . . Lord in your mercy.
Hear our Prayer.
And, as Mary stood by the cross and watched her son die, we pray for the dead and the dying. Lord in your mercy.
Hear our Prayer.
Lord Jesus, who wishes to gather your people as a mother hen gathers together her brood, we offer to you our prayers. Accept our gratitude for all who mother, bless all who mother, and give all mothers your comfort and strength. And help all of us, brothers and sisters, to be your family on earth, as we shall be in Heaven. Amen. (R.C. Morley)
Luke 24:13-49
13Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14and talking with each other about all these things that had happened.
15While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them,16but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17
And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?”
They stood still, looking sad.
18Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?”
19He asked them, “What things?”
They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning,23and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.
24Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.”
25Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?”27Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
28As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on.
29But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.”
So he went in to stay with them.
30When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.
31Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.32They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”
33That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
A passenger in a taxi leaned over to ask the driver a question and tapped him on the shoulder.
The driver screamed, lost control of the cab, nearly hit a bus, drove up over the curb, and stopped just inches from a large plate glass window.
For a few moments, everything was silent in the cab, and then the still shaking driver said, "I'm sorry, but that scared the daylights out of me."
The frightened passenger apologized to the driver and said he didn't realize a mere tap on the shoulder could frighten him so much.
"No, no, I'm sorry," said the driver. "It's entirely my fault. Today is my first day driving a cab. For the last 25 years, I've been driving a hearse."
For the two Disciples walking down the road to Emmaus on that Sunday evening, it was, unfortunately a dull and ordinary first day of the week. They walked along with no particular expectations. Any expectations they had for something grand had ended on Friday on a hill outside Jerusalem. Crucifixion, however else you want to look at it, was pretty much final. No one they’d ever heard of had survived one, and so it was with Jesus.
And, so they walked. As prepared for an encounter with the Risen Lord as, well, say a hearse driver who’s taken up taxi driving. And then, when Jesus does appear, he really doesn’t, because they don’t recognize him.
They were, in the words of T.S. Eliot, “maintain[ing] themselves by the common routine, Learn[ing] to avoid excessive expectations.
And that, is the Human Condition.
The maintenance of the common, ordinary routine. Trying not to get too excited--not to soar too high, lest you are disappointed by the inevitable slam to the earth which is certainly coming.
A few years back, a movie was made about the real-life kidnapping of Frank Sinatra, Jr.
At one point in the story, the ringleader of the kidnappers is sitting on the sofa with his mother, watching television. Out of the blue, he asks her, “momma, what do you do when you realize that all your dreams have passed you by?”
She answers, “Oh, honey, you just get used to it.”
You just get used to it.
Thoreau wrote that most of us lead lives of quiet desperation.
And Cleopas and her companion (it is widely held that Cleopas was likely woman’s name) are doing just that. It’s all over--the movement that would change the world had ended on a cross on Calvary. There would be no freedom, no ousting of the Romans. No reform of the Temple excesses, no…nothing.
Quiet desperation, indeed.
But, something happened as they made their way along the road to Emmaus. The Human Condition was altered. Interrupted. Revised.
A stranger suddenly joined them on the road, and asked what was up.
Luke tells us they stood still, looking sad. Not only would they have to endure the loss of the great hope for Israel--even the great hope for all humankind--but they were going to have to spell it out for this nosy stranger.
But, they only have to hit the highlights and this stranger begins to fill in all the gaps and before you know it--they had arrived at their destination. They invited him in to eat, and when he broke the bread, their eyes were opened--and they knew it was him--a true companion, a word which means at it’s root, “someone with whom to share bread on a journey.”
These sullen and forlorn disciples have gone from the depths of despair to the height of emotion. They have moved from a dead Savior and a dead movement to the height of joy in the space of an afternoon.
There’s only one problem. There is no Emmaus.
There’s no record of a town being in the place where it should be. No archeological record of the village. It simply doesn’t exist.
. But, it seems that this is like the way that the Nez Perce tribe in the west begin a story. They always start with this sentence, “I do not know if this is exactly the way it happened, but I know it to be true.”
The lack of a location for Emmaus--among other things-- has led one of the premier Jesus experts of our time--John Dominic Crossan--to write, “Emmaus never happened.”
But, before you get too bent out of shape about it, he follows that statement with this one, “Emmaus always happens.”
Emmaus never happened. Emmaus always happens.
What we know of Emmaus is this story. What we know of Cleopas and her companion is this story. Nowhere else to be found
And yet, I believe it with all my heart. I’m just not going to let the facts get in my way.
Look at the verbs in verse 30: “took, blessed, broke, and gave.” Sound familiar?
I don’t know exactly how it happened, but I know it to be true.
Frederick Buechner, in his treatment of "the Road to Emmaus," asserts that Emmaus was not so much a place as a state of mind. “The state of mind is escape-escape from pain, loneliness, longing, sorrow, bewilderment, grief. It is the place where we spend much of our lives, the place in our lives where we are likely to say, ‘Let the whole thing go to hell, it makes no difference anyway.’ The road to Emmaus is that place where we go to escape whatever it is we need to escape-whether it is our job, our ornery friends, a demanding, ungrateful family, or that horrible gnawing grief over life and love lost.
The road to Emmaus is the way. That was the first name for the church, "The Way." The church when it is half true to its promise, is a group of people on a road where, wonder of wonders, the risen Christ meets us.
He will meet us when we are down and out--at our lowest point--when all hope seems lost.
He will meet us when we study the scriptures--which Jesus unpacked for Cleopas and her friend on the road.
And, he will meet us when we gather around his table when we stop our lives with bread in front of us--which we take, bless, break, and give to feed our weary souls.
Again, I don’t know what happened on that road and at that table so long ago. But I know this to be true: Emmaus always happens. Jesus is made known to us in the breaking of the bread. Thanks be to God, he is our com-pan-ion.
Offertory Prayer
God of our life journeys, you can turn our despair into joy, our sorrow into recognition of your living presence. Thank you for your love that conquers even death! As Jesus did with the bread, we pray that you will take our lives, bless them, break them open, and use them as gifts to others to convey your transforming life. Use these gifts that we bring for your gracious purposes in this, your world. Amen.
Benediction
Go out into the world in peace--
May you find Christ in every companion you meet,
And may all your meals and travels be sacramental--
May you recognize Christ in the breaking of bread--
No matter at what table it is you find yourselves.
Amen
