April 26, 2020: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.
Ah, the road to Emmaus story… I have to say that these past several weeks have given us such timely scriptures for our life today. Truth be told though…they always do. Now, as I did last time I preached on this gospel story, before we get to what happened, we need to break free from some of our preconceived notions of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in that time, because that in itself holds some good news for us.
So, how many of you just assume that these are two men walking on this road? You wouldn’t be alone, that’s for sure. In fact, if you just look at the children’s bulletins that are located at the back of the one you are using this morning, you see two guys in beards with Jesus. That, my friends, is a reflection of our society, not the scriptures.
The text says that two disciples were walking from Jerusalem along the road on the way to a village called Emmaus. Nowhere does it say these were two men! I checked the Greek, and even there it is gender neutral. Given that the bible is rife with examples of women going unnamed, and given that the bible authors have no problem usually telling you the names of every man in the story, suffice it to say, and biblical scholarship will argue – that this was a woman walking with Cleopas. So, Cleopas and his wife, sister, girlfriend, or female best bud (I think on Facebook he listed the relationship as “complicated”), were walking along the road to Emmaus. I say this a lot, but see – bible study can be so much fun! Don’t you all just want to study Greek now? Okay, maybe not so much.
Anyway, at Christ Church, we put on the front of every bulletin a full color picture that is tied to one of the lectionary readings, in this case – the gospel, so that you might take it home and use it for visio divina – divine seeing – a way of meditating on the scriptures. Did you notice anything? Take a really good look. Pretty awesome, right? Who is there walking and dining with Jesus? A man and a woman!
So, now that we have cleared up that misconception, let’s see what happens. I’ll do a revised telling of the story, you know, as I do. So, Cleopas and….let’s give her a name…last time I called her Theodora – Greek for “gift of God” so, let’s stick with that name. I think it might also help to set this in our current context, so that we can really understand it as a gospel for our time.
So, here we go… Two disciples, Cleo and Thea, are out taking a walk to get the heck out of the house during this quarantine, and maybe do a much needed grocery run. As they were walking back from the store, a stranger comes alongside them and says “What’s up, and why are you carrying so much toilet paper with you?” Cleo looks at him like he’s a mad hatter. “What’s up? What rock have you been hiding under? And, could you just move about 6’ back for crying out loud?” Thea added “Sir, you really should be wearing a face mask, I mean what in the world are you thinking?” Still, there was something about this stranger that eased their sense of apprehension, so they continued to walk down the road with him…albeit at the needed 6’ distance – they weren’t crazy you know.
As they continued on, they explain to Jesus their sadness and loss of hope – so many are dying, their national leader has failed them, and they are tired of not being able to be with those they love. They are isolated, and afraid. They are feeling frustrated, worried about their jobs, concerned for loved ones, and losing hope a little each day. They can’t even go to church to pray on Sundays, to feel close to God, not only because of the quarantine, but because their beloved priest has died from the disease. Thea & Cleo lament that God seems so far away in the midst of this calamity, and they don’t know where to turn. Jesus listens to them, and then begins to walk them through the scriptures – the story of God’s relationship with us, and they begin to hear the Word in a new way – to understand a bit more about how God works in the world.
As they walked along, it grew darker. Jesus started to walk further down the road, but Thea and Cleo say “Hey, why don’t you come and stay with us. We have extra masks in the house and we just made a run for supplies. Besides, you are going to be thankful that we have toilet paper.” So he goes with them. They sit down for dinner, and as Jesus breaks his bread, they recognize him, and he disappears.
They say to each other “were not our hearts burning while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” And, because of the quarantine, rather than running back to Jerusalem, they immediately got on a Zoom call with the other disciples to share the good news. While on the Zoom disciples meet up, they learn that the others had also encountered Jesus. They all agreed that he likely didn’t need a face mask, given that he is, you know… Jesus, and they rejoiced in the good news.
Okay, that may seem absurd to place the gospel narrative in our current context, but the thing is, there is much we can learn by doing exactly that. I think sometimes we get lost in the distance from the historical root of our sacred texts that we think they have no relation to our lives. So, it can help to remember that for the people first hearing them…these were things happening in their lifetime, and to remember as well that they are also things happening in ours. Just look closer at this gospel, and you will see our own story being told, most particularly in what is absent.
One of the things that may have jumped out at you in this story this year is that these two are doing things that are denied us now, right? – travel, talking to a stranger and inviting him into a home to share a meal. Those elements are missing in this time of pandemic. We are not to bring people into our 6’ of social distancing space that were not a part of that physical circle prior to the quarantine, and we certainly would not be eating bread or anything else touched by that person’s hands.
But perhaps the most striking thing that should resonate with us this year as we hear this gospel is that, as I pointed out a few years ago, Emmaus doesn’t seem to exist. It isn’t on any map, and even ancient texts give various accounts of where it might be. There have been no archeological findings to give us a clue. And that, I believe, is important for us to know, because it means that this proverbial road isn’t tied to a time or place, and I can assure you, it is a road we all travel.
You know, when I was praying on this scripture in preparation for this sermon I began to hear in my heart Robert Frost’s famous poem “The Road Not Taken.” I couldn’t see how it connected at first, but I have learned that if the Holy Spirit wants me to consider something, there is no use arguing, so I pulled out a book with the poem, and re-read it.
As you all likely know, it is a poem about a man traveling along a path in the wood, when he comes to a fork. He chooses which path to travel. Now we often hear this as being about him choosing the road less traveled by, and that making a difference in this man’s life, but that is not really what happened.
Listen again to what he said about those two paths that lay before him: “Then took the other, as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim, because it was grassy and wanted wear. Though as for that the passing there, had worn them really about the same.”
The two paths were equally traveled – worn about the same. Now listen to the final part of the poem with that in mind: “I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference.”
Frost is rather sneaky here, because he is talking not about the reality of the two paths, but about what he will tell others about them – what he himself will make of his choice in later years. Because, as he makes clear, both paths were about the same, but the triumph for Frost’s man in the woods is in what one makes of the road one is on. The traveler made his choice the right one, not because it was or wasn’t, but because he was on that road, and did with it what he could.
That path he took, and did not take – both are the road to Emmaus. And that, my friends, is the same road we all find ourselves now, and why it is very much a story for our time. Because that road is very real – regardless of whether it is on a map. That road, the one to Emmaus, is the one we walk every day – it is our life’s journey – and yes, sometimes we will wistfully wonder about how the journey might have been had we made other choices along our path, and yes, we likely will tell it differently in the end than reality would show, either because we remember it that way, or we choose to remember it that way. But nevertheless, the road to Emmaus is the road we are all on, and it is where Jesus will meet us no matter what path we choose, where scripture will inform us, where being Christ will heal us, most especially when we are in pain, are feeling isolated, are fleeing what we fear, where we once “had hoped,” and now have none, where we wonder if we made the right choices, or wonder how God could have abandoned us along the way. What will make all the difference to us and to the world is if we can open our hearts to him, see him, and then do something with what we have experienced.
And as much as it is a road we travel, we are also Cleo and Thea in this story. They have fled Jerusalem because the Roman Empire has crushed the one they thought to be the savior of the world, and they are fearful, angry, hurt, and feeling hopeless. They had thought he was the one to deliver them and others out of bondage and into a life of freedom, but instead saw him brutally executed like a common criminal. After their encounter with Jesus, they come to know the truth – that love cannot die, that God cannot be defeated by hate, and they return to Jerusalem, joining the others to continue the work that they began, to be the body of Christ alive in the world.
The thing is, we often want to flee our own Jerusalem’s too – the place where Jesus is crucified today – because it can be overwhelming to anyone with a heart. For we see him crucified in the persecution of immigrants and refugees, people of color, LGBT people, women, and those who are trafficked in our modern day slavery. We see his crucified body in the poor, the addicted, the mentally and spiritually wounded. We see this, and we see too that those in power do nothing, or worse, are the ones who nail them to the cross. We walk in despair at what is happening in the world. Where is the good news in that? Where is the resurrection of Easter?
Yet, like those two in the gospel, it is when our hearts are despairing that he comes to us, that he opens the scriptures to us, when we experience him in the breaking of the bread, even if not sacramentally, but spiritually. Then our eyes are opened and we see the Jesus in our midst. Then we will know the Jesus in us. Then we will turn toward Jerusalem to begin the work we are called to do – to change the story from hopelessness to hope, from cross to empty tomb, from death to life for all of God’s children. That is when our “road not taken” becomes a story about the “road less traveled by.” That is where we change the path we are on to one that is filled with choices we can retell and not hide from.
The story of these disciples on the road to Emmaus is our story – your story. It is the path we chose in our baptism and confirmation, it is the one we walk every day in our lives. The road to Emmaus is a spiritual path, and while difficult times will always happen in our lives, it is where God will come to meet us – every time – to lead us home – to lead us to resurrection – for ourselves, and for the world. And it is a road we will travel to find others – to share the good news with them – that in us, they may encounter the risen Christ.
So, as you live out each day in this time of quarantine, look for the signs of Christ’s presence with you as you walk this road to Emmaus, for they are there. You will find him in your daily scripture reading or prayers. You will find him as you break bread with others in your home. You will find him in the scarred faces of healthcare workers marred by their protective equipment. You will find him in the people you serve as you call on others, make masks, or donate to food banks and shelters. You will find him in the eyes that you see behind the face masks. You will find him in the mirror too.
He is risen, and he is walking with us. With you.
Listen to him.
Invite him in.
For he will then lead you to where you need to be.
And that truly will make all the difference, ages to ages hence.
Amen.
For the audio from the 10:30am service, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here:
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
April 26, 2020 – In A Time of Separation
The Third Sunday of Easter – Year A
1st Reading – Acts 2:14a,36-41
Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17</a
2nd Reading – 1 Peter 1:17-23
Gospel – Luke 24:13-35
