2. If you are one of those people who feel as though you must constantly pull others back in order to get yourself ahead, today’s Gospel is for you. This Gospel is your call to repentance; it is God’s demand that you change the way you treat the other, supposedly “lesser” people in your life. Learn today from the Road to Emmaus that your Lord Jesus might possibly prefer to walk and to talk with the very sort of people you feel compelled to push aside, to marginalize, or to use as a stepladder for your own advancement.
1. If you are one of those people who gets pushed aside, marginalized, or used as a stepladder, today’s Gospel is for you. If you feel as though the events of your life have flattened you, or forgotten you, look at Cleopas and look at his friend. Maybe that friend was left unnamed so you would have a place to write your name: “Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.” · Jesus, put to death on a cross, whose dying now gives you forgiveness and life; · Jesus, whose bitter suffering ran more deeply than your suffering could ever possibly run, precisely so that He could understand and empathize with your suffering · Jesus, who wants you to know that the shadows disappear when the Sun rises in the morning. Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) If the darkness would not, could not remain for Christ, then the darkness shall not and dares not to remain for you. 3. Maybe you don’t feel so marginalized as all that, and maybe you don’t step on other people to get ahead. Good for you on both counts. Today’s Gospel is still for you, and here is how you can see its connection to your life: go visit the cemetery today after worship. Do not go to the graves those whom you know, but go find those graves that have been there a very long time. Look at the names on the headstones of the forgotten dead, if there names even can still be read. That is your future. That is my future. A handful of people may remember me and they may remember you for a few decades after we have died—but the memory will end eventually. You and I both will enter that faceless tide of humanity gone past. We will not even be a memory. We will each be a name on a headstone, and further details will require extensive research. That is what makes today’s Gospel also for you, as well as for everyone you know. “That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus” and we know that one of the two was named Cleopas. That is all that will be remembered about either one of these faithful disciples of our Lord, but that is also enough. When you meet these men in eternity, they will not talk about the careers that they built or the houses in which they lived or the fine families they managed to raise or the memories they left behind. When you meet these men in eternity, Cleopas and his friend will talk about how Jesus used the Scriptures to give these men the miracle of faith; they will talk about how Jesus Himself nourished them “in the breaking of the bread,” which is just Luke’s way of talking about Holy Communion (Acts 2:42). You will be able to say the same thing! Big or small, strong or weak, prominent or behind-the-scenes—here is the one and only claim to fame that will do you any good: the risen Lord Jesus gives you His miracle of faith by the power of the Scriptures, and the risen Lord Jesus nourishes you with “the breaking of the bread.” Nothing else really matters because Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!). ___________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author (as long as no charge is made for the work and it is not made part of a compilation), as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. Note: This list's default reply is to the *poster*, NOT the list. Do *not* reply to the list with your comments, but to the poster. Subscribe? Send ANY note to: sermons...@cat41.org Unsubscribe? Send ANY note to: sermons-...@cat41.org Archive? <http://www.mail-archive.com/sermons@cat41.org/> For more information on this or other lists offered by Confess And Teach For Unity, you can contact the CAT 41 list administrator at: Rev. Fr. Eric J. Stefanski <MoM [at] lists (dot) cat41 <dot> org>
