April 10, 2005

God's Seeds

by Julianne Stokstad

Frederick Buechner says something to the effect that Emmaus is the place we go when it all gets to be too much for us. I didn't go to Emmaus last week; I went to up to Calistoga for a little R and R after Easter. I want to relate an interesting experience I had there. We had just finished our dinner. It was one of those great meals, not too expensive but everything wonderfully delicious with marvelous attentive service. Afterwards as we returned to our motel, a man ran across the street in front of us to stand near the stop sign on the right side of the car. He looked young; maybe he was in his thirties. He had tousled red hair, tied back and was quite disheveled in his appearance,. I took him to be homeless. He held up a crudely lettered piece of cardboard that said: Hungry, Broke, Need $4.21. It was a dark deserted corner and since we were two women alone, I intentionally didn't stop long enough to respond to him. We were silent until I'd made the left turn when I said, "I have a friend who always gives when someone asks, no matter what." Right then, we decided to go back and give him some money. I hung a left turn, and went around the block. All this took less than a couple of minutes, yet when we got back to the stop sign, there was no sign of him. He had simply vanished.

Then my friend told me how this brief encounter was for her. As I had pulled up to the stop sign, she was on the side of the car closest to him. At first she didn't want to even acknowledge him, so she just read the sign, but then she looked up and their eyes met just for a moment. Yet in this single moment she was profoundly affected. She said she felt compassion for him and in his eyes she saw great gentleness and a depth of kindness that deeply touched her heart. It was a feeling of unconditional understanding and love he gave her.

In this season after Easter, our gospel tells us yet another story of how the Risen Christ was experienced in those tumultuous days around the first Easter. The women had experienced him at the tomb, though the men didn't fully believe them. Then he appeared to them in the locked upper room, bringing them his unconditional love and peace, his shalom and they believed. And now we hear about his appearance to a couple of depressed people walking away to Emmaus. In many ways, this is a parable for what was going on in the early church, as ordinary folk were encountering the Risen Christ in many different ways.

Cleopas and his unnamed companion were nobody special. They had been followers of Jesus but now were walking the dusty road home to put their lives back together. Their hopes dashed and their faith crushed by what they had seen and experienced. You know, they could be one of us. A stranger falls into step with them, we are told it is Jesus himself (the scripture is very clear about it really being Jesus) yet they didn't recognize him. Even with their broken hearts and blind sight, they are polite and respond to the stranger with kindness and hospitality "We had hoped" they tell him, "we had hoped."

We also know what it is to have our dreams crushed: none of us ever expect dire illness to come to us or to our loved ones. We don't expect our children to ever suffer; we so want to protect them from all harm. None of us expect to have our relationships become hurtful and broken. We ache for the horrible violence in Iraq and Darfur or for that matter right here in San Rafael. We can relate to these sad people walking away from Jerusalem.

And as they walked along, this stranger interpreted the scriptures and the meaning of Jesus' life and death to them. He explained to them what God was doing because they surely couldn't see it in the events they had experienced. As he did this, I imagine them, like us, numbly listening. Were they so in shock they couldn't understand what was right in front of them? I guess so. And when evening came, only after their urging did this stranger agree to stay with them. And at the table, as they shared their meal, they finally recognized him in the breaking of the bread and he vanished from their sight.

This story reveals to us a number of things about God. First, any encounter with Jesus always brings us closer to God. Second, we learn of the sacredness and preciousness of each and every ordinary life to God. How slow of heart we are to understand that God loves everyone, the homeless, those who've lost faith or those who've never had any. God loves those we don't even know or like. We learn that God comes to us in unexpected and surprising ways, ways we often don't recognize. And finally we learn these encounters can restore our hopes and transform our lives in ways we cannot yet imagine.

I am struck by the fact that they only recognized him after they reached out to the stranger and invited him in to their house. How many opportunities have we missed? The challenge for us then is to look more deeply into all that is happening in our lives.

There is so much more happening all around us than meets the eye. Things are not always as they seem: mirages are not wet; the earth is not flat; the moon really isn't bigger on the horizon than it is high in the sky. We have to admit there is much more to each of us than others know. In each human person, I believe there is goodness. Like I told the children, I like to think of this goodness as seeds planted in each of us by God.

So the question is, with so much temptation to sinfulness, how are we to nurture these God seeds so they grow and flower into maturity?

One way to practice this developed from this very Emmaus story is to go on a pilgrimage, a little journey with openness of heart, right in the middle of your own life. You don't have to drop everything and actually leave. It is a journey of intention and awareness and it might be the biggest adventure of your life!

Here are some brief instructions. First, remember it is the journey, not the destination that matters, so look around right where you are in your own life. Second, you look for Christ in every person and every situation on your path. Keep your eyes and heart open and you'll be surprised what you discover. Along the way, you will find that some parts of your journey are difficult while others are easy. Look for the suffering Christ in the difficult parts and see Christ's resurrection in the easy parts. What you will likely find is that as you become more aware, you will find Christ in new and unexpected places. I hope you come to church expecting to find the Risen Christ here in the hearing of the Word and the breaking of the bread, and in each other. Let me tell you, you can find him in the supermarket or in the courtroom or hospital. This story about the walk to Emmaus helps us to see that in our little gestures of kindness to strangers can be profound places of connection to the risen Christ.

And when my friend and I went back to find the stranger, he had vanished. How slow of heart we were, yet we were changed.