13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but 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. 18 Then 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?” 19 He 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, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But 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. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and 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. 24 Some 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.” 25 Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But 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. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 They 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?” 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been
A few days ago I thought about my baseball
glove. I hadn’t seen it in a while. Not since moving here!
I asked my wife about it. She suggested I probably threw it away or
gave it to Goodwill.
No – that would not be possible.
I started looking for it in the
garage. It wasn’t there.
My wife said, “why would you keep it?”
Are you kidding – a man doesn’t throw away
his baseball glove.
Thursday, 2 am, I sent my son a text
message.
“Do you know where my baseball glove is?”
He texted back – “Yes, I took it. I have it.
Go to sleep.”
I can’t tell you what a relief it was to
know that my glove was safe.
I think I have had this same glove since
1964 – what was that? Ten years ago? Wait.
That was 50 years ago!!!!
I remember playing baseball in the
neighborhood where I grew up. One of my
buddies hit the ball and I reached out with my glove and missed it! That ball went right toward a car that
happened to be at the intersection nearby.
Thankfully, this was in the day before
all cars were air conditioned and that ball went sailing right through the open
windows. It’s a good thing it went
through the back windows and not the front!
I remember that like it was yesterday.
I remember on another occasion playing
baseball at the YMCA. I loved that place
as a kid. I was in the outfield and the
other team hit a homerun – or it looked like a home run. I ran all the way to the fence and caught
that ball – barely had a hold of it. But
we won that game that day.
I remember it like it was yesterday.
Mostly I remember after supper my Dad would
sometimes ask if I wanted to go outside and toss the ball for a while, and we
would. We would just stand there and
throw it back and forth and have the most marvelous conversations. Sometimes he would use those times to quiz me
on my multiplication table, or my spelling words. And sometimes we would talk about space
travel, which was new back then. Or we
would talk about what I wanted to be when I grew up.
I remember it like it was yesterday.
Years later, I would often ask my son if he
wanted to go outside and toss the ball around for a while. And we would have the best conversations – or
we would be silent, but we’d be together.
When my Dad died, I found that tossing the
ball with my son caused all these wonderful memories about my Dad to flood into
my mind, almost to the point of bringing tears to my eyes.
When I tossed that ball with my son, it was
a way of remembering the way I had tossed another ball with my Dad.
In a little while we will participate in
the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Holy
Communion. The Eucharist.
But --- why?
Why is this
such an important part of who we are as Christians?
What is
this meal all about?
We do it, in
part, to remember.
Earlier in Luke’s Gospel, in a section that
comes just before this morning’s reading from Luke, there is a familiar
story. Luke talks about how on the night
in which Christ was betrayed, he met with his disciples for a meal. After the meal, he took the bread and broke
it and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body given for you, do
this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:9)
Remember.
How do we remember people and
events in our lives?
If you want to remember
something or someone, what do you do?
You might take photographs and
put them in an album. From time to time,
you take the photo album out of the cabinet and open it and look at the
photographs – and you remember.
Or you might keep a lock of
hair from your child’s first haircut.
Or you might buy a souvenir and
whenever you see it you remember that wonderful day you had in Paris.
Or you might do it through a
tradition of some sort. A simple
activity.
Tossing the ball with my son
helps me to remember my Dad.
Jesus didn’t have baseball back
then, but what he did was take a ceremony that was already an important part of
Jewish culture.
He and his disciples were not
just having a meal on the night in which he was betrayed. They were having the Passover meal. That’s a big deal.
In our culture, we have our
Thanksgiving dinner – or Christmas dinner.
But in Jewish culture it was the Passover meal that was so
important. It was a great feast. It was a time to be with family and
friends. And it was a time to
remember. For Jews, they were
remembering how they had been in Egypt. The Lord passed over the homes of the
Israelites and struck down the Egyptians, allowing the Israelite slaves to
escape their slavery (Exod 12:24-27)
But on the night Jesus was
betrayed, while he was still with his disciples, he gave this meal a new
meaning for Christians. He called on
us to celebrate this meal and to remember how we were able to escape the
spiritual slavery of sin, and how the bread is for us the body of Christ broken
for us and for our salvation, and how the wine is to be for us the blood of
Christ poured out for our redemption.
But the problem with memories
is that you get stuck in the past.
A wife grieves over the death
of her husband, and day after day she sits in her chair remembering.
Just remembering.
A high school graduate goes off
to college and finds it to be a lonely place.
He sits in the dining hall day after day, alone, not making new friends,
but remembering the buddies who are at other colleges far away.
Just remembering.
On the other hand, some
memories motivate.
“Remember the Alamo!” It was the motivational cry to Texas patriots over a
century ago.
A couple of weeks ago, the
Boston Marathon was held. One of our own
members, Scott Porter was there as a participant. Watching the marathon from afar it was clear
that many were remembering the tragic marathon of last year. Remembering helped their grieving process,
but it also became a rallying motivator that the criminal acts of a few would
not destroy the tremendous goodness of a whole city.
We are not made to live in the
past, and when Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance,” he is not saying, sit
there and just remember, just vegetate and live in the past.
In the reading from Luke, Jesus
has communion with the disciples he meets on the road to Emmaus. And then, reflecting on this after Jesus
leaves them, the disciples say, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he
talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” And what happens then? Luke says, “They got up and returned to Jerusalem at once!”
They didn’t sit there and say,
“Ah memories, wonderful memories.” They
got and got moving and they went out and changed the world.
This Sacrament is
not just a way of living in the past and remembering what happened long
ago. It is also a means of being
nurtured by the past for the present and the future.
Our reading from Luke’s Gospel is an interesting scene. It is, on the surface, a story of two
disciples walking along the way. They
encounter the risen Lord, but they do not recognize him until, in the words of
the Gospel “When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks,
broke it and began to give it to them.
Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him.”
There
is something about this meal that has the power to open the eyes and to give
passion to the hearts of those who receive it.
I can’t explain it. I simply know
that it is true.
Years
ago, I was in a nursing home to give the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper to one
of the shut-ins of the church. The poor
woman had no grasp of reality at all.
She thought I was her son. She
thought the elder with me was her husband.
I
took the bread and the wine out of the small kit that I carried and began to
prepare the nightstand next to her bed as a sort of Lord’s Table. As I began the service, we had prayer. When I began to recite the familiar words of
institution, her eyes became very sharp.
The
elder read a portion of Scripture and when he finished, said, “This is the word
of the Lord.”
Without
hesitation, the old woman replied, “Thanks be to God.”
When
we prayed the Lord’s Prayer, her voice was clear and every word rolled off her
tongue with ease.
I
took the bread and gave it to her, and then the wine.
For
one brief moment, her eyes were opened.
Her heart was on fire for the Lord.
The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper served in a small nursing home had
the power to break through.
When
the service was over, her mind was once again gone to whatever place it had
been. I was no longer her minister, but
her son, and the elder was her husband, and she had no clue where she was or
even what her name was.
But
every time we went to the Nursing Home, until she died, the serving of the
Sacrament had the power to open her mind to the clear presence of Christ.
It
doesn’t always happen that way, but at every Communion, SOMETHING powerful
happens. It happened on the road to
Emmaus, and it can happen today.
Copyright 2014, The Rev. Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights
reserved.
