Did not our hearts burn within us

It was a much easier day today with only one visit to Emmaus, but nonetheless a powerful day...

After the wise men had left, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him." So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet:

I called my son out of Egypt.

Herod was furious when he realised that he had been outwitted by the wise men, and in Bethlehem and its surrounding district he had all the male children killed who were two years old or under, reckoning by the date he had been careful to ask the wise men. It was then that the words spoken through the prophet Jeremiah were fulfilled:

A voice was heard in Ramah,
sobbing and loudly lamenting:
it was Rachel weeping for her children,
refusing to be comforted
because they were no more.

- Matthew 2:13-18

The reading for morning prayer this morning is firstly, because of it being the Solemnity of St Joseph... 

But also I want it to set the scene for our visit to Emmaus. Here were Mary and Joseph doing the will of God but now the child is in real danger and they were having to flee into Egypt. The Son of God was became a refugee... One wonders what was going through the minds of Mary and Joseph as the fled away from death.

In the same way the two disciples walking to Emmaus were walking away from death, from the cross and the shattering of their hopes.

But more of that later... There is another connection as well. Remember Joseph of the the Old Testament, how his brothers sold him into slavery but then he was the one who saved his family as an official in Pharaoh's court when famine hit before the family moved to Egypt? And this connects us to the beginning of our Hikoi when we started journeying with Moses and the people of Israel... The whole pattern of the Christian life is dying to self and rising again to new life with Christ and this is the account we will meet in Emmaus today.

BUT...

There is a problem. What is the real Emmaus?

Scholars continue to debate as to where Emmaus is... Luke's Gospel tells us Emmaus was 60 stadia away from Jerusalem... that is about, 9.5 km. Where we visited was about 29km by the current roads which is closer to 160 stadia. Apparently some early translations have the 160 stadia so it maybe the there has been a transcribing error. Certainly most archaelogical and historical evidence points to the Nicopolis site we visited.

The site has the remains of a Byzantine church from the 6th century and Nicopolis is attested as being the site of Emmaus by a number of ancient historians

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ.
Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ,
to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence,
determining that we should become his adopted children, 
through Jesus Christ,
for his own kind purposes, to make us praise the glory of his grace,
his free gift to us in the Beloved, in whom, 
through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins.
Such is the richness of the grace which he has showered on us in all wisdom and insight.
He has let us know the mystery of his purpose,
the hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ from the beginning
to act upon when the times had run their course to the end:
that he would bring everything together under Christ, as head,
everything in the heavens and everything on earth.
- Ephesians 1:3-10

Two of the disciples of Jesus were on their way to a village called Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking together about all that had happened. Now as they talked this over, Jesus himself came up and walked by their side; but something prevented them from recognising him. He said to them, 'What matters are you discussing as you walk along?' They stopped short, their faces downcast. 

Then one of them, called Cleopas, answered him, 'You must be the only person staying in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have been happening there these last few days.' 'What things?' he asked. 'All about Jesus of Nazareth' they answered 'who proved he was a great prophet by the things he said and did in the sight of God and of the whole people; and how our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and had him crucified. Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free. And this is not all: two whole days have gone by since it all happened; and some women from our group have astounded us; they went to the tomb in the early morning, and when they did not find the body, they came back to tell us they had seen a vision of angels who declared he was alive. Some of our friends went to the tomb and found everything exactly as the women had reported, but of him they saw nothing.'

Then he said to them, 'You fools! So slow to believe the full message of the prophets! Was it not ordained that the Christ should suffer and so enter into his glory?' Then, starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, he explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about himself.

When they drew near to the village to which they were going, he made as if to go on; but they pressed him to stay with them. 'It is nearly evening' they said 'and the day is almost over.' So he went in to stay with them. Now while he was with them at table, he took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognised him; but he had vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, 'Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?'

They set out that instant and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven assembled together with their companions, who said to them, 'Yes, it is true. The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.' Then they told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognised him at the breaking of bread.
- Luke 24:13-35

The Emmaus account is one of my favourite passages of Scripture... Jesus becomes present to Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus... I believe this is Mary, wife of Clopas who is named at the foot of the cross. It makes sense.

Look how humbly Jesus became present to them... something stopped them from recognising him as the walked away from the cross and in particular the failure of the cross and he walks with them in a similar way to the heart of the Father in the parable prodigal son...  even though he was walking away from his father, the father's hart still went out and with the son.

Having come present to them, Jesus listens to them... What were you talking about on the road... He doesn't interrupt or try to correct them. He gives them the courtesy and respect of listening to them and how their hopes and dreams had been shattered. There own hope was that he was going to make Israel great again... They hoped for someone that embodied a recent American president's rhetoric.

"You, fools" Jesus said. So slow to understand... and slowly he takes the time to help them see... this is the art of accompaniment, a word that means to "share bread" - Jesus is explaining the bigger picture, and opening to them the bigger picture.

When, after a day's journey, another reason Nicopolis seems the right location, Jesus makes to carry on,  but they invite him to stay with him and there, as he breaks bread, they recognise him and he disappears from sight. This is one of those encounters from God that we get at times... and as they reflected on it they recognised the burning hearts with in them... 

And even though it is dark they feel compelled to share the Good News.

The parable is a great metaphor of our prayer...

So easily we don't recognise the Lord with us, but he never loses sight of us or abandons us

The disciples show us the importance of being honest in our prayer... Like them we tell the Lord how we are feeling. Honest prayer is the best prayer!

And then we are silent and we allow the Lord time to seek, knowing that his response might not be immediate...

...but at some point we will have our encounter moment when our eyes are opened. If you're anything like me you might wonder if you are imagining things but the more we reflect the more right it seems... Yes, I might feel like a fool for not seeing it, but the Lord is not interested in that, he is just interested in opening our hearts and setting them on fire.

And it is that that impels us onwards and outwards in the living of our faith often in the midst of the darkness of our daily lives.

And this can happen to us everyday as we learn the language of God and how he touches us in our lives.

An early 1st century tomb at Emmaus.

The afternoon was largely free and then we had a Jewish mother and a Muslim Palestinian mother come to speak to our group and an Australian group. They have both lost children in the conflict here but they refuse to be enemies and instead are great friends and companions in the work for peace in the Holy Land. Talk about setting our hearts on fire. At the end the New Zealand group sang Ka Waiata, that sings of Mary a handsome woman, a strong woman, a woman of peace, a Jewish woman who watched her Son being killed but was herself an instrument of peace

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.