Followers of the Way

Here's the reflection I shared in today's lunchtime Eucharist for St Martin-in-the-Fields:

‘When this story (Luke 24. 13 – 35) begins, two people are walking along a road, a stranger meets them, he claims he has no knowledge of Jesus’ death, and as they expose their grief this apparent stranger unfurls his insights into scripture and tradition. They persuade him to stay, wanting to prolong the encounter and wanting to welcome him. The food is prepared. The two hosts welcome their guest. And the guest blesses, makes himself known as Host, and disappears leaving them to tell their friends the good news of their encounter.’ (Ayla Lepine - 'Inspired to Follow')

The Emmaus Road story breaks open ways in which we may encounter God.

When Jesus encountered the two disciples on the Emmaus Road on the evening of the first Easter day he met them where they were. Jesus’ incarnation and ministry, above all else, was ‘about being with us, in pain and glory, in sorrow and in joy, in quiet and in conflict, in death and in life.’ Now, he came to be with these two disciples. Coming to be with them meant that he joined them on their journey although they were going in the wrong direction, in other words away from Jerusalem. He didn’t berate, however, or try to re-direct them. He simply joined them and walked with them. All who are beginning to explore the Christian faith are travellers because they are on the way. They may not yet be coming to church, but are committed to taking the next step. One of the earliest names for the people called Christians was followers of the Way, so, ‘right at the beginning of the journey, people need to experience what it means to be part of a pilgrim church.’ ‘Before people can become pilgrims themselves they need to feel happy to travel with us and be open to experiencing life from a Christian perspective.’ (Stephen Cottrell)

Jesus also joins in with their conversation, listening to them first before he speaks. Similarly, our welcome of others must involve an attitude which seeks to get inside the shoes of the other person so that they can be welcomed and accompanied at every point of their journey. Jesus’ first question to the disciples was then one of open vulnerability to their agenda: ‘What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?’ Our practice of offering wonderings to others in response to hearing their experiences is similar. In response to their questions and accounts of what has happened he then breaks open the scriptures, explaining to them ‘the things about himself.’ By this stage Jesus had created a helpful context in which to explore faith. We, too, need to create safe places, where people are at ease, where they can bring their questions, and where they will feel challenged, but not pressured; a space that enables people to question and discover for themselves the significance of Jesus Christ.

Arriving at Emmaus, they invited him in, and as he broke bread their eyes were opened. ‘When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.’’ They had not seen: suddenly they did see. A gesture – a reminder of what Christ did at the Last Supper – has alerted them to his identity. As the etymology of the word suggests, recognition involves an awareness which harks back to something previous. It is a re-knowing of something which therefore requires a pre-knowing. It involves a kind of memory. At Emmaus, their memory is of the Last Supper.’ For us, ‘Our memory of God’ is that ‘bit of human nature which seeks to be in right relation to God, and which means that we can be redeemed.’ (Chloe Reddaway - 'Inspired to Follow')

‘The disciples saw Jesus’ scars as he broke the bread. They remembered his story and realized it was their story. They discerned his body as it became their body. They left the table with hearts on fire. They who before had stood alone were united with the believers. They looked forward to every future meal as a moment of encounter with the risen Christ. They had become what they had eaten, the body of Christ.’ (Sam Wells)

So, at the centre of the Emmaus story is a very simple and ordinary action; breaking bread. Although a simple and ordinary thing to do, it becomes a very important act when Jesus does it because that is the moment of recognition and realisation. Something very simple and ordinary suddenly becomes full of meaning and significance. Their experience was an epiphany, a moment to which our being with, travelling with, and discussion with will often lead. ‘Following Christ’s sudden departure, as a new quality of knowledge fills the room where moments before he broke the bread, the two people who’d been on the road confer and ask each other in bewilderment: ‘Did our hearts not burn within us?’ God invites light into the darkest of corners.’ (Ayla Lepine) A space had been created which enabled these people to question and then discover for themselves the significance of Jesus Christ. They then rushed back to Jerusalem as they couldn’t wait to share with others the good news they have received.

Luke’s account provides us with a rich and challenging story about exploring faith which is hugely relevant for the situation we face today because: ‘our own culture here in … London is not so dis-similar to the ones the first apostles encountered outside the comfort zone of the Jewish faith: a smorgasbord of beliefs, a general interest in things spiritual, a lack of confidence in the meta-narratives that had previously been trusted so much. In this sort of world becoming a Christian will be like a journey, and much of our work will be helping people to make the journey; and much of that will be removing obstacles from the path.’ (Stephen Cottrell)

This story reveals ways to help others experience what it means to be part of a pilgrim church so that right at the beginning of their journey people feel happy to travel with us and are open to experiencing life from a Christian perspective.

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The Call - What's Happened To You?

The importance of how we travel

Think about this question. What is the most important part of a journey? The beginning, middle or end? Why we travel, where we travel or how we travel?

At Epiphany we focus on the journey made by the Magi in order to be able to kneel and worship the baby king Jesus. In the ancient world, Jupiter was the ‘king star’, and at the time of the birth of Jesus, Jupiter appeared in the night sky very close to Saturn, which represented Israel. If you were reading the sky you’d see ‘new king in Israel’.

That was the starting point for their journey but it didn’t give them exact directions. They didn’t know exactly where they were going on their journey. They knew they were going to find the new king in Israel but they had to trust as they travelled that they would be guided and led to find him. They clearly travelled a great distance and, obviously, didn’t have cars, trains or planes, so they would have probably travelled on camels. But the distance and effort didn’t stop them because meeting the child was so important.

When they arrived, they gave extravagantly to welcome Jesus with gifts, time, effort, the risk of danger, and humility. But their gifts pale next to Jesus coming to earth to show God’s love for us; Jesus came from heaven, eternity and majesty to earth, time and humanity. He went on an even more incredible journey to show us God’s love. After they had found Jesus the journey of the Magi began again as they were guided by God to return home by another route and, as T. S. Eliot makes clear at the end of his great poem about their journey, their lives were forever changed by the experience.

So, their starting point was important but it didn’t tell them how to find their way and when they did finally arrive, their arrival actually meant the beginning of a new journey. All of which means that how we travel may be as important as why or where we travel. That at least is what our Text for 2013 at St John's Seven Kings, taken from Matthew 6. 34, seems to say:
 

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”

Simon Small writes in ‘From the Bottom of the Pond’ that: “Our minds find paying full attention to now very difficult. This is because our minds live in time. Our thoughts are preoccupied with past and future, and the present moment is missed.”

But, he says, “Contemplative prayer is the art of paying attention to what is”: “To pay profound attention to reality is prayer, because to enter the depths of this moment is to encounter God. There is always only now. It is the only place that God can be found.”

This is very much what Jesus seems to be saying to us in Matthew 6. 34 and in his teaching on worry and anxiety found in Matthew 6. 24 – 34. 

When we are preoccupied with what might happen in the future, we are not living fully in the present and may well misunderstand or misinterpret what is actually going on. Jesus encourages us to live fully in the present because, as Simon Small says, that is where we encounter God.

When we genuinely encounter God in the here and now we know that his love and forgiveness surround us and that his Spirit fills us. As Jesus prayed in John 17, he is in us and we are in him. When we know this in our hearts in the here and now, we can relax because whatever happens to us we are accepted, forgiven, loved and gifted by the God who created all things and who will bring all things to their rightful end. We are held in the palm of his hands and, as Julian of Norwich put it, “all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well”.

Even in the difficult times, we can still know that this is true because, as our Text for 2013 puts it, God will help us deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

Jesus is saying that the more we live in the present and the more we encounter God’s love in the here and now, the less we will be anxious or worried. Prayer is able to help us do both things and therefore helps us to reduce our sense of anxiety or worry. Not because we have listed all our worries to God and believe that he will solve them all for us, but instead because, through prayer, we have encountered more of God’s love and, as a result, trust that he will be with us whatever comes our way. 

 

This is important because so much of our sense of dissatisfaction with our lives and the complaining we do about other people stems from our own worries and anxieties rather than what may or may not have happened or what others may or may not have done. Instead of focusing on other people and what we think they should or should not do or have done, we need to begin with ourselves and our relationship with God by giving our entire attention to what God is doing right now, and not getting worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. Then God is able to help us deal with whatever comes up, whether hard things or blessings, when the time comes.

We don’t know what 2013 will bring. Some predict an upturn in the economy, others a worsening. We can’t be sure and, of course, the future will be different for each of us. But, as Brian Davison reminds us in the current edition of the ‘Ilford Recorder’, “if the prospect of what lies ahead seems dark or threatening, remember the words with which King George VI reflected on the closing year in his 1939 Christmas broadcast. “I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied: ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.” (Minnie Louise Haskins).

Like the Magi, we can only travel in hope that we will be guided by God. So, “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”

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Julie Miller - By Way Of Sorrow.

Expanded conversation about Dale Farm

Having moved into his new role of Diocesan Advisor for Faith in the Public Square, Paul Trathen has resumed blogging and has, as a result of earlier ministry and his chairing of the Basildon Forum of Faiths, had the opportunity to offer support to those under threat of eviction from Dale Farm. His posts on the current situation and the underlying issues can be read and should be read by clicking here. Also well worth reading in this context is Sam Norton's 'Joking about the end of the world' article.

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The Clash - Should I Stay Or Should I Go?