22nd April 2020 - On the Road to Emmaus part 1

APC Wednesday 22nd April 2020
Midweek Reflection – The Emmaus Road (Part 1)
 
Welcome and Introduction
Good morning everybody and welcome to our midweek time of prayer and reflection.  Thank you for all the encouraging feedback you’ve given me over the last few weeks.  I do put a lot of work into these recordings, so it’s just brilliant to know that they’ve been a help and inspiration to so many of you.
Like many of us I have found the last week particularly difficult.  Initially when our lives changed and we entered a period of lockdown it was a relief to feel like we were safer at home.  The novelty of having time to do different jobs or to spend quality time with our families kept us motivated for a few weeks.  But as the lockdown continues, the novelty is beginning to wear off.  I know that many of us are beginning to feel our anxiety increase over what exactly the future is going to look like or when life will ever return to some sort of normality.  Like you I’ve found that difficult and stressful.  So where can we find practical help to keep our heads?
Well one of the things that has re-emerged in recent years has been the value of the practice of meditation in helping people to manage stress and anxiety and to maintain our emotional health. The current buzz word for this is ‘mindfulness’.  But interestingly, it’s an ancient discipline that has been practiced by Christians for centuries.
Over the last couple of days I have been reading the story of Jesus’ conversation with two of his followers on the Road to Emmaus.  Inside I’ve been praying the whole time, ‘Lord what can I share with people from this passage that’s really going to help them at this time, when there are no easy answers and no promise of a change in the immediate future?’ 
As I was reading this story, I was struck by how in order to try and help these despondent travellers, Jesus reminded them of all that was written in the Old Testament scriptures about his death and resurrection.  It was there in the opening up of the scriptures and as they talked with Jesus that they felt their hearts strangely warmed and encouraged.  It was only later that the pilgrims realised who they’d been chatting to when he broke bread at the dinner table.  When I read this, it was a light-bulb moment.  It was as if God was saying to me – remind everyone that as they read and meditate on scripture that my presence will be with them to warm their hearts and sustain them.
So that’s what I want to do this morning.  I want to use this story in Luke’s gospel to teach you how to engage in one of the oldest Christian spiritual practices.  I believe that if you make time regularly to do this, it will go a very long way to sustaining your emotional health in the Covid Days that lie ahead…It’s called ‘Lectio Divina’ which simply means ‘Divine reading’.
Lectio Divina is a contemplative way of reading the Bible. It dates back to the early centuries of the Christian Church and was established as a monastic practice by Benedict in the 6th century. It is a way of praying the scriptures that leads us deeper into God’s word. We slow down. We read a short passage more than once. We chew it over slowly and carefully. We savour it. Scripture begins to speak to us in a new way. It speaks to us personally, and aids that union we have with God through Christ who is himself the Living Word.  So, lectio divina is not Bible study or even an alternative to Bible study but something radically different. Like the disciples on the Emmaus Road, the practice understands Scripture as a meeting place for a personal encounter with the Living God. It is a practice we come to with the desire to be changed at all sorts of levels. It operates very much on the emotional rather than the purely cerebral level. It is perhaps hearty rather than heady. Through it we allow ourselves to be formed in the likeness of Christ; it is about formation rather than instruction.
Elizabeth Manneh is a freelance writer who has written for many publications including the Huffington Post, Readers Digest and the Good Men Project.  In describing how this ancient spiritual discipline has helped her in finding ways of bringing God into her everyday life she says this.. “I’ve always wanted to be a good Christian.  I’ve read stacks of books about God and the Christian life, but I only ever occasionally felt closer to Him.  That all changed when I read Trappist Monk Father Tom Keating’s “Open Mind, Open heart” and learned about the practice of “Lectio Divina”.
There are a variety of ways you can enter into Lectio Divina but this morning I’m going to show you one very simple one.  I’m going to explain it to you first and then I will lead you through a short time of Lectio Divina using the Road to Emmaus story as our bible reading.  So how do you do, Lectio Divina?
 
1      Ask God to speak to you and sit in silence
First, make sure you are sitting comfortably. Breathe slowly and deeply. Some people find it helpful to light a candle, not because it is necessary but because the flame and fragrance help to calm the mind and collect our thoughts. Ask God to speak to you through the passage that you are about to read. You might like to pray something like, “God let me hear from you.”  Then spend a few moments in silence so our mind is open to hearing from God.
This is a way of praying that starts with our silence. We often make the mistake of thinking prayer is about what we say to God. It is actually the other way round. God wants to speak to us. He will do this through the Scriptures. So don’t worry about what to say. Don’t worry if nothing jumps out at you at first. God is patient. He will wait for the opportunity to get in. He will give you a word and lead you to understand its meaning for you today.
 
2      Read the bible passage and Listen
Next read the passage slowly and thoughtfully.  Try to imagine yourself into the story, use all your senses.  As you do so, listen for thoughts or phrases that attract you or seem to jump out at you. For example, when I read the story of the Emmaus Rd yesterday the bit where Jesus opened the scriptures to the travelers seemed to jump out at me, as did the phrase “Didn’t our hearts warm within us when he opened the scriptures to us?” Allow the particular thoughts or phrases to arise naturally from the passage as if it is God’s word for you today. Sit in silence repeating the thoughts or phrases in your head. Then say the thoughts or phrases aloud.
 
3      Read the passage and Ponder
Read the passage for a second time.  Ponder As you read the passage again.  Ask yourself, how the thoughts or phrases speak to your life and why it has connected with you. Ponder it carefully. Don’t worry if you get distracted – it may be part of your response to offer it to God. Sit in silence and then frame a single sentence that begins to say aloud what the thoughts or phrase says to you. When I pondered yesterday, I really felt God was saying to me “as you reflect on scripture I will make my presence felt and that will encourage you.  Share that with your people this week!”  
 
4      Read the passage and Respond
Now read the passage for a third time.  As you read the passage for the last time ask yourself- what is Christ asking from me? What is it that you need to do or consider or relinquish or take on as a result of what God is saying to you in your thoughts or the phrases that have jumped out? You might like to write these thoughts down in a journal so you don’t forget what you’ve learned or what God is saying.  You can also respond by praying for the grace of the Holy Spirit to plant this word in your heart.
 
5      Read the passage and be silent
Finally read the passage one last time.  Then end with the same silence before God with which you began.  When your mind starts to wander just bring it gently back to stillness again and allow God to work.
 
Now that I’ve explained the process of Lectio Divina let me lead you through the practice using the Emmaus Rd story as our bible passage.
1      Ask God to speak to you and sit in silence
Let’s begin with a prayer and a few moments of silence… “Lord we love you.  We come to you at this stressful time and ask that you will speak to us and meet with us as we read your word together…”
PAUSE FOR SILENCE
 
2      Read the bible passage and Listen
Now let’s read the passage.  As I do so listen carefully for thoughts and phrases that seem to stand out for you.
Luke 24 v 13-35     ‘On the Road to Emmaus’
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles[a] from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
 
3      Read the passage and Ponder
Now let me read the passage for a second time.  Again, listen for thoughts and phrases that are beginning to feel drawn towards.  Begin to ask yourself how that might be connected to you in your life.
 
4      Read the passage and Respond
As I read the passage for a third time, listen carefully and ask yourself if there is something God might be asking you to do or is there something he is trying to say to encourage you?  You might find that there is something you want to say to Him, go ahead…You might like to jot something down and think about it more during the rest of the week.
5      Read the passage and be silent
As I read the passage for the last time, continue to listen for God and then just take a few moments to sit in silence.
 
Let me conclude our time by leading us in a short prayer…
 
Prayer
Lord thank you that in their time of crisis and deep discouragement you walked alongside these two disciples in the story.  Thank you that it’s the same for us.  Thank you that as you explained the scriptures to them their hearts were strangely encouraged.  Teach us to love and read scripture.  Help us to hear you.  May we find our hearts encouraged and our minds kept emotionally strong as we do that.  Please come and walk alongside everyone who is finding the way particularly difficult and discouraging at the moment.  For it’s in your name that we pray.  Amen.
 
Closing Words
Thanks for tuning in again today.  I hope if Lectio Dvina is new to you that you give it a try.  Above all I pray that as you open Scripture you will find Christ to be with you.  We’ll be back again on Sunday morning when I will share a few more thoughts about the Emmaus Road and we hope to have some more special music from our growing church choir!  In the meantime, don’t forget to look at our church website or on our Facebook page for latest information.  If you’d like to record a little message of encouragement or a fun clip of something you’ve been doing, please don’t hesitate to send it on to Dave Hendry or myself.  Do keep everyone in your prayers and look out for anyone you can help.  So let me close with a benediction after which, as always, I invite you to join me in saying the grace together…
 
Benediction
Go now as witnesses of God’s eternal presence.
The risen Christ has made himself known to you
in the reading of scripture and in the breaking of bread,
so set your faith and hope on God,
fulfilling your promises and living in genuine mutual love.

And may God hear and respond whenever you call;
may Christ Jesus make himself known to you in all things;
and may the Holy Spirit open your eyes and set your hearts on fire with love.
So may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all now and forever more.  Amen
 

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