St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes, Vicar
Third Sunday of Easter/Year A: Luke 24:13-35
April 23, 2023
Lord, take our minds and think through them; take our lips and speak through them; take our hearts and set them on fire—Amen.
“Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is past; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in Scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake of your love.” Amen.
Many of you may recognize the Collect for the Presence of Christ used in Evening Prayer.[1] Is this collect not the synopsis of our gospel passage in the 24th chapter of Luke today? This passage is about inviting Jesus, even when we, as faithful people can’t recognize him in our presence, to stay with us, to companion us, to reveal himself anew so that our faith may be fueled, not just on Sunday, but absorbed in our hearts.
The Walk to Emmaus takes place with two grief-laden disciples of Jesus traveling from Jerusalem to the village Emmaus, on the day of resurrection, and after having heard the testimony of the women who were told by angels, at the empty tomb, that Jesus was alive. As we would expect, the two were talking with each other trying to process all that happened with Jesus’ crucifixion, death and claims of his resurrection. At that time, there had been no eye-witnesses to a Jesus who was alive.
Jesus himself, came near to the sad disciples, but their human eyes were kept from recognizing him. Jesus played the role of the clueless stranger and asked questions about the things that had taken place. With only a few words, the disciples told the “stranger” what they knew of Jesus, the tragedy of his death, their sense of lost hope for the one who would redeem Israel (the Messiah), and their wondering about the angels’ divine revelation as reported by the women.
When the “stranger” had been all caught up, he turned the tables on them, calling them fools who were slow of heart to believe what they had learned from the prophets. With their full attention, Jesus used that time to connect the dots for the disciples about himself in all the scriptures.
It is interesting that Jesus did not use that time to reveal his identity. Perhaps Jesus was showing the disciples how they might connect the dots for others, as he had for them, in order to validate their future eye-witness testimony. Their testimony would need the backing of the truths found in the Law of Moses and the prophets.
When the three were close to reaching Emmaus, Jesus continued to walk ahead, without assuming that the two would want him to continue on with them. But they invited him to stay with them. Had the two neglected to invite the yet-to-be revealed “stranger” to stay with them, and neglected to show him hospitality—a man who had no food with the evening close at hand—Jesus would have parted ways with them and kept walking ahead into the sunset.
Had that scenario played out, the disciples would have denied themselves of the risen Christ’s divine revelation to them. But, Jesus accepted their invitation and stayed with them, remaining unrecognizable to the two.
Now, Cleopas and his companion didn’t have the tools that we have today like the ever-evolving artificial intelligence of face recognition used to unlock our i-Phones or voice recognition to awaken the Amazon Alexa device to identify Jesus. But when Jesus broke bread with them, they had something which transcended all of our human devices and any human understanding—there was face recognition and voice recognition. They saw the Lord!
In the breaking of the bread, the in-breaking of God’s reign, which changed, and changes, everything for humankind was amongst them. In the breaking of the bread, Jesus gave the disciples access to the kingdom of God which had come near to them, the risen Christ himself, and they recognized him. The hospitality of the heart shown for the stranger amongst them created the optimal opportunity for Christ to be revealed in that very moment and in reflection, as they recalled their journey asking, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking and while he was opening the scriptures to us?” (v. 32).
Such hospitality of the heart gives each of us the opportunity to experience the risen Christ, revealing himself anew. This passage reminds me of my 2012 pilgrimage to Haiti where food for survival was not guaranteed for many. Yet, the hospitality shown by our hosts in the sharing of their food—revealed Jesus anew in the breaking of the bread. This passage reminds me, also, of my time as a weary traveler along my vocational journey toward the priesthood. Bishop Dabney Smith, saw this stranger in his diocese and welcomed me to “Stay here with us; rest and be nurtured,” and Jesus was revealed anew in Bishop Smith’s invitation.
And though it may be obvious, this gospel passage today should speak loudly to the people of St. Paul’s. In this gathered body of worship, we help each other, and visitors to our faith community, to experience the risen Christ. In the singing of hymns dripping with scripture, and in listening to the scripture readings, Jesus reveals himself anew in deeply personal ways and deeply communal ways as we share the holy food and drink at the holy table.
Using the scriptures, Jesus’ faithful can reflect upon those times when they recognized when Jesus has walked with them, and has had holy conversations with them, throughout the many roads of their own life’s journey. It is in reflection, like the two travelers, that you can tap into, and nurture, an awareness, which causes you to pause and ask, “Was not my heart burning within when that painful thing happened or when that joyful thing happened, or when I felt like an outsider—alone and lost.”
A strong faith is one that helps you to recognize the abiding presence of Jesus in your life, and to create the expectation that his presence, within the depths of your soul, will not vanish. Cleopas and his companion’s eye-witness account, as shared with the eleven and the other disciples upon their return, strengthened the faith for those who had not seen the risen Lord, and yet would come to believe.
Let us not forget that we are amongst those who have not seen the risen Lord, and yet have come to belief, by the eyewitness accounts captured in the scriptures. Our responsibility, as Easter people, is to use the newly-kindled fire in our own hearts to testify to each other, and to a world, just outside these doors, that either does not know Jesus or rejects Jesus, of our faith in the extraordinary narrative of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and his abiding presence today.
Wherever you are in your spiritual journey, you must speak of your own life in Christ, so that God may use you to speak the source of all life, who is Jesus Christ, into the spiritually walking dead. In doing so, you might help those who know not the risen Lord, come to believe.
“Lord Jesus, stay with us…be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in Scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake of your love. Amen.”[2]
[1] Evening Prayer Rite II, The Book of Common Prayer 1979, p. 124.
[2] Evening Prayer Rite II, The Book of Common Prayer 1979, p. 124.
