Luke 24:13-35
“Walk This Way”
April 26, 2020
Everybody look down and take a good look at your feet. (Pause)
What do you see? Given that y’all are in your homes I would hazard to guess that some of you are wearing slippers, maybe just socks or you might even be barefoot.
And where have your feet taken you so far today? Or better yet, yesterday which was such a gorgeous spring day. Maybe you took a walk around the outside of your home or out on a dirt road or neighborhood street, admiring the stunning Vermont view that we may be appreciating even more this year spending so much time separated from other humans. All this consideration of walking pushed me to get outside and do something about it, reinforced by the sunshine yesterday and mild temperatures as well as something Karen Underhill said at Friday’s Bible Study to Marie Davies who often can be found walking on River Road. What Karen said, in obvious awe of Marie’s healthy habit was “I think of you every time I don’t walk.” My Saturday walk began alone but I soon found myself sandwiched, at a safe distance, between an older couple who are devoted walkers who take it slow in the neighborhood and a mom walking briskly with a smiling baby in a stroller. We, in this strangest of times were together apart on our respective paths.
Let’s envision ourselves as those two disciples on a dusty road in a town a couple of hours walk from Jerusalem, heading toward a place called Emmaus which archaeologists today can’t agree on its exact location. Jesus is discovered to have risen from the dead earlier that morning andand here is his first post-resurrection appearance in Luke’s account and it doesn’t happen at the tomb or the temple or Herod’s palace or the headquarters of Pilate or even at the home of one of the chief priests.
No, Jesus’ reappearance is to very ordinary people in an unremarkable location. But then think back to his birth in Luke’s account – born in a stable, with his first visitors being a few modest shepherds. Jesus’ appearances are as humble as the people and places with whom he spent his ministry. It is Cleopas and his anonymous companion to whom he first appears. And they don’t recognize him.We can wonder if his ordeal of the last few days changed Jesus’ appearance. Maybe it was the tears they were shedding which kept them from seeing him. When trauma happens and despair takes over, we tend to get lost in our own heads, turning inward.
And what Jesus ends up reminding them, through an account of their history as found in scripture that brings them right to this long walk and ultimately in the breaking of the bread, is that we are to look outward, seeking Jesus and his message of love and compassion in the other.
And so, we keep on looking for Jesus and how will we know when we’ve found him? It will not be just in the seeing but in the way our hearts are moved, becoming ever bigger, with room for an even more expansive love. These two realized who and what Jesus was about after the bread was taken and blessed and broken and given – the ultimate act of love – that something had been going on within them. “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road?” they asked each other.
There is a Latin phrase that many believe comes from St. Augustine. That phrase is “Solvitur ambulando” which translates to “It is solved by walking.” This walk right now, through fear and despair and worry and stress and isolation will find relief through the continuing journey, seeking Jesus in the generosity and kindnesses and hospitality of each other and the stranger even when we can’t be together in person.
What we have to offer is what Jesus showed those fellow walkers on that dusty road – he listened, he was honest and direct and he helped make connections between where they came from and where they were going.
As Ram Dass famously said, “We are all just walking each other home.” That home is God and our feet and our heads and, most especially our hearts burning within us, will take us there.
Look down at your feet again. God is in the journey. Amen.