Some years ago
a group of folks from St. James
visited one of the 3 rude little Arab Towns in Israel
which claim to be Emmaus.

Each is 6 or 7 miles from Jerusalem.
Each has a church marking the spot
of the dwelling
in this lovely biblical story.

And, we broke Bread
and made Eucharist at one of them;

But, the question always arises,
"Is this the real site of the Emmaus
of this New Testament Story?
Or, is it one of the other two?"

And I always answer, "Yes,"
to both questions.

I answer, "Yes", because Emmaus is not
a single historical site
so much as it is a statement -
of the power of the Resurrected Christ
available in all times, places, and circumstances.

Emmaus happens.
This is a great story.

Two followers of Jesus
have been stunned by the events
of that awful week,

and, having no earthly idea
what else to do,
they slowly head home
to a village called Emmaus.

Seven miles does not sound like much to us
but they were on foot
I'm not even sure they wore sandals.
and every step
took them further from the holy community
God was forming in Jerusalem.

They had plenty of time on their hands
so the conversation turned
to that which was heavy on their minds;

They began to speak of the events of Holy Week,
and of their hopes and dreams
now shattered.

They talked of the death of Jesus
and even of the empty grave reported
that very morning,
That, of course made no sense at all.
Who would take a body?

A man joined them
along the road,
- the road, essentially, to nowhere ­
but they did not recognize the man.

Jesus was not resuscitated, you see,
he was made into an entirely new being
by Godıs Easter.
Even Mary Magdaline did not recognize him.

And this new Jesus
talked with the two men,
- telling them great truths
- of scripture
- and of God,
- and their hearts were on fire.

The afternoon wore on toward evening,
and they came to their home village

Jesus began to take his leave to move on,
but the 2 men,
captivated by the words and presence
of this stranger,
insisted that he stay with them,

after all,
evening was at hand,
darkness was falling,
and the roads were becoming very dangerous.

So, Jesus joined them in the house,
sat at table with them,
and, evidently, shifting into the role of host -
and master of the house,
took Bread, and broke it,
and passed the Cup of wine.

Then they knew
that it was the Lord.

And, he vanished from their eyes.

These two men looked at one another,
sprang up
and, in spite of the darkness
and miles of dangerous night road,
set out for Jerusalem
to rejoin the community of followers,
where they witnessed to them
the great truth
that, "Christ is Risen,
The Lord is Risen, Indeed."

"He became known to us," they said,
"in the Breaking of the Bread."

Emmaus happens.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Emmaus happened
to the Early Church,
whose people loved this story,
for it told of the fear
of a people who terribly missed
the presence of Jesus
in Galilee and Jerusalem
in Bethsaida and Jericho
in Bethlehem and Nazareth
or wherever...

and yet it was a community
which discovered him in powerful ways
in every day places
and times
of darkness as well as light;

It was a people who discovered the Risen Lord
in the gathering of the Holy People
in the telling of stories,
in the Breaking of the Bread,
and the sharing of the Cup.

a people who themselves became the evidence,
the proof
of the truth of God's Easter victory.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

There is no evidence
supporting one of the three villages
north of Jerusalem over the other two
as the actual site of the Emmaus
of this story,
and that is good.

In fact,
there is no other record whatever
of a village of that name
in those days.
and that is fine, as well;

For, Emmaus is that no-where
of the human spirit,
during that every-time
of life

when darkness threatens
and, somehow,
the Christ of God becomes present.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

A speaker named Tom Long
whom I do not know,
was once told a story
while traveling on an airplane.

The stranger in the seat beside him
dared to make conversation
of a spiritual nature, with him;

and started off with the startling statement,
"We had stopped loving our son."

Long began to listen
and was drawn into the manıs story.

"Our son was 30 at the time,
he said,
He had been confined in a nursing home
for 4 years
after having suffered severe brain injury
in an automobile accident.

He was in a coma.

We went to see him every day
for awhile,
then, fewer and fewer times
until we stopped calling him by name.

We never spoke to him,
after all, he couldn't hear anything
- could he?

We visited for a few minutes
every week or so
or so
There was no hope,
so we stopped loving our son.

Love is reciprocal, we told each other;
Since he couldn't return our love
it didn't work for us anymore.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Then, one day
we went by to visit
out of our sense of duty
or, perhaps, to keep the nurses
from thinking hard of us,

and we were surprised to see
a stranger in the room.

The visitor was a priest
and he was talking to our son,
actually carrying on a conversation
though one sided.

How silly that seemed to us at the time.
Our son can hear nothing,
at least we don't think so,
for he cannot tell us.

And, then, the priest got out a Bible
and read a story from the Gospel of John;
- a story about 2 men on a lonely road
- walking into the gathering darkness
and listening to a stranger.

That made no sense whatever.
Why read to the patient in 14-B?
He can't process a story
in his shattered brain.

Then, the priest took out
his communion kit
and carefully spooned a drop of wine
on the lips of 14-B.

"Why bother?"
we whispered to one another
from our hidden place
in the hallway.

And then, when we looked back,
the door was all the way open.
The stranger was gone.
We left too;
and on the long drive home
we began to talk about the incident.
Why was that stranger/Priest in that room
Why would he waste time in that way
He must not have much to do.

Doesn''t he know that our son can't hear?
and, just who does he think he is, anyhow?

We talked about the incident
along the lonely road,
until a silence fell over us.

In a few moments
my wife, who was driving,
pulled over and stopped the car
by the side of the road.

We were quiet for awhile
sort of stunned,
and then I said,
"Of course he knows -
our son's condition,
but he sat there -
and did all that, anyhow."
"He knows,
but it makes no difference to him.
He hasn't let the darkness prevail.
He still sees our son, Jim,
as a human being
and as a child of God.

And we turned around
and drove back to visit Jim
and tell him that we love him.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Emmaus happens.
It is part of God's Eternal Truth
that God came to a battered corpse of humanity
and told us stories
in spite of our inability to respond.

He came,
and loved us into being human again.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Emmaus happens.
It happens here
in the Breaking of the Bread.

It happens here in this wonderful
community of Faith
we call Saint James.

Emmaus happens
in the midst of our own journeys
and in the falling darkness

Emmaus happens,
and we become ­ ourselves-
the evidence
that
"Christ is Risen.
The Lord is risen, Indeed."

story adapted from Wm. Willimon "Pulpit Resource", Logos Productions, 1999