Sermon Easter 3: The Road to Emmaus

Text: Luke 24:13-35

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who Gathers, Proclaims, Feeds, and Sends us.

            A primary part of our Lutheran Heritage is that our worship is Liturgical, which as many think, does not mean chanting and sung with an organ, Liturgical comes from the Greek word, Litourgia, meaning work of the people. And it refers not to saying the same things every Sunday and singing the exact same songs each week, but to the order in which we do them. Despite the differences between different services in various Lutheran churches, some with more praise band worships, others with a mix of both like us, or those with only organ, they all follow the same order. We Gather, we listen to the Word, we share the Meal, and we are then Sent back into the world.

            We Gather together by confessing our sins, welcoming each other in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the greeting,  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all, singing our praise to God in song, The Gathering Song and Kyrie, and praying together, the prayer of the day.

            We listen to the Word through hearing the words of Scripture, and hearing the Proclaimed word of God through the Holy Spirits actions in both my speaking and your listening.

            We share a Meal with each other and give thanks for the presence of Christ in our midst in Communion.

            And finally in the blessing and the dismissal we are Sent back into the world to continue Christ’s work of spreading the Good News, feeding the hungry, helping the poor, and healing the sick.

            At first read this text does not seem to have much to do with the pattern of Worship, but in many ways it follows it completely.

            Our story begins as Jesus meets two travelers on the road, in a way he Gathers with them as they travel, and after listening to them, he interprets and proclaims the Word to them by opening the scripture to them. Then they eat around a Meal where Christ's true presence is made known to them in the breaking of the bread. And then, their hearts burning, they are sent back into the world to proclaim what they have just seen and heard.

            It follows our order of worship, and in the midst of it, defines why we worship.

            We often skip through this text, jumping straight to Jesus breaking the bread and the two travelers eyes being open to see him as their Risen Lord. But, as Jesus meets them, he asks them what they are discussing. They talk about who Jesus was, saying that he was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him.

            And then there are four little words that speak so much about how they currently feel. Condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.

            There is so much in those four little words. They are walking back home, not in the joy of the resurrection, but in the emptiness of Good Friday. The future that lay before them was suddenly taken away from them. The rug is pulled out from beneath them, the calendar is erased, what was to be is no more.

            It connects in each and every one of our lives. “But we had hoped” are the words the echo in ICU units as people pack up belongings, they fill empty spaces where people used to be, they mark endings that feel like they shouldn’t be.

            Our lives are filled with “But we had hoped” moments. People die, events aren’t attended like we would want, people fail us, we fail others, relationships are strained or broken, futures we strive towards are taken away, life is not what we want.

            And it’s there that Jesus meets us, Gathers us in, Tells us the Good news that he is Risen, Eats with us, and Sends us out to tell the world the same.

            Our lives are filled with broken hearts, places of emptiness, and it is to us in our brokenness, our emptiness that the Risen Christ has entered.

            A quote from Theologian Fredrick Buechner, "I believe that although the two disciples did not recognize Jesus on the road to Emmaus, Jesus recognized them, that he saw them as if they were the only two people in the world. And I believe that the reason why the resurrection is more than just an extraordinary event that took place some two thousand years ago and then was over and done with is that, even as I speak these words and you listen to them, he also sees each of us like that."

          In our moments of emptiness and brokenness, to God we are the only people that matter. And that is why we come here to worship, because God has met us on our roads, and filled our hearts, and so we come, our hearts burning, back to give praise and thanksgiving to God. And then we are sent, back into this world, into the lives of our neighbors around us, who also find themselves in moments of emptiness and brokenness, and we enter into those moments with them, declaring to them that the Risen Christ Gathers them in, proclaims to them the Good News that they are loved, nourishes them in the Bread and Wine, and Sends them out to tell the same.

Beloved People of God, you are not alone, empty, or broken, the Risen Lord has Gathered you, given you the Words of life, nourished you with his body and blood, and now sends you out filled and loved.

Amen.