Walking

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

April 26, 2020

3 Easter A

          Don’s father celebrated his 88th birthday back in February so Don decided this was the year to throw a bit of a surprise party for him. Don’s dad is Fred, or Papa to his grandchildren. Fred knew that Don’s brother and sister-in-law would be in town that weekend and that we would all have dinner together for his birthday on Sunday evening. What Fred did not know was that our two sons and their families would be there along with a group of very close friends who have celebrated Fred’s birthday with us for the last 12 or so years.

          Fred showed up at the restaurant expecting a small family gathering. What he found was a room full of people who love him, shared stories, Happy Birthday sung in glorious harmony, a chance to hold his great-granddaughter, lots of wonderful food, and an evening for the memory book. The rest of us experienced all of that plus the opportunity to connect with dear friends we rarely get to see but with whom we have a deep and rich shared story.

          The Road to Emmaus story in Luke’s gospel always reminds me of the way I experience the Risen Christ in the midst of community gathered around a meal and shared story.  From the time I was a child and could not put into words what I experienced, gathering people together around a table has been a sacred event. Whether at a dining room table, a restaurant, tables in the Parish Hall, a meal at a homeless shelter, or around the altar, those gatherings are places where I experience the love of God. On the road to Emmaus, Jesus appeared to the two weary and shaken disciples. Jesus walked along with them, talked and taught with them, explained a shared story, and yet the disciples were unaware of who was in their midst.  But when Jesus broke bread with them at supper time, the disciples’ eyes were opened and they recognized the risen Christ in their midst at the dinner table.

          I suspect that many of us are missing our gatherings around tables these days, whether this table, the tables in the parish hall, our own dining room tables, or any table for that matter. This reading from Luke’s gospel, which I have always loved, makes me a bit melancholy this year. Add to that the admonition in the reading from Acts to repent and be baptized, something else we cannot do at the moment-at least not the baptism part-, and the call of the psalm to lift up the cup of salvation, and today’s scripture passages seem, quite frankly, to be taunting us.  We would love to take, bless, break, and give bread together as Jesus did with the disciples, and lift the cup of salvation. We have two babies just waiting to be baptized. We long for the time when we can do those things together again.

          However, current circumstances force me to look at the gospel reading a little more closely and through a new lens. Because table fellowship is so important to me in so many ways, I have always focused on the scene at the end of the passage where Jesus’ identity is revealed to the disciples in the breaking of the bread. But the reality is that my favorite part of the passage is just a couple of lines. For most of the story, Jesus is walking with the two disciples, who do not know who he is. Jesus chats with them and gets them to explain the reasons they are so sad. Jesus listens to their hopes and dreams which are now dashed. They tell Jesus about the women who found the tomb empty.  And Jesus teaches them all that Moses and the prophets taught about the coming Messiah.

          Only after walking with the disciples for who knows how long and how many miles, and only after being offered hospitality, does Jesus break bread with the weary disciples. Then they recognize Jesus and he vanishes from their midst. In hindsight, they realize that their hearts had burned within them when Jesus was talking with them as they walked along.

          Most of this story is about Jesus walking along with us when we are sad, weary, when life is not going the way we thought it would, when we are disappointed, and hopes have been dashed. Most of this story is a reminder that we don’t always recognize Jesus when he is in our midst.  Most of this story is about hindsight and realizing Jesus was with us all along.

          Today, the Road to Emmaus story reminds me that we gather around this altar to break bread together not to get Jesus to walk with us, but because Jesus walks with us. We lift the cup of salvation, not to get God to do something for us, but in gratitude for all that God has done for us.  We baptize not to get Jesus to be part of the life of the person being baptized, but because Jesus is part of that life. We will break bread, raise the cup, and baptize again, but right now, as the writer of I Peter puts it, we are in exile. We are in exile from each other and from our comforting ways of worship. But I Peter also reminds us that will we learn to trust more deeply in God through this experience, and learn more than ever what it means to believe that Jesus walks with us in difficult times, even when we are unaware of his identity.  Throughout scripture, times of exile call God’s people to claim the presence of God with them-whether 40 years in the wilderness, decades in exile in Babylon, 40 days in the wilderness tempted by the devil, times of exile and persecution in the church of I Peter, or an exile of undetermined length caused by a virus.  When we can claim God’s presence with us in those times, claiming God’s presence with us in the breaking of the bread, the raising of the cup, and the water of baptism will be even more sweet when that time finally comes.

                                                                   Amen.