Monday Meditation - May 3, 2010

Submitted by Rector on Mon, 05/03/2010 - 05:33

Then the two disciples told what had happened on the road, and how Jesus had been known to them in the breaking of the bread. Luke 24:35
 
So ends one of the favorite resurrection stories---the Road to Emmaus. Cleopus and another follower of Jesus were walking along the road—in shock and saddened by the events of the previous days. Their teacher Jesus had died violently at the hands of the state. Their fellow followers were in hiding, afraid for their lives. The two travelers were trying to reconstruct how it all happened. What went so very wrong? Jesus appears to them…but as in the other resurrection appearance, they are unable to recognize him for a good long time.  They cannot recognize him because they believe that they have to carry the loss, the grief, the work  alone. They cannot see that Jesus is right there with them on the road.
 
It is always so easy to believe that we are on the road alone. Eastertide at Memorial always reminds me that we are never alone. The worship life of Memorial in Lent, Holy Week and Eastertide remind me that I am part of the beloved community of Jesus. Our Memorial musical is evidence of the strength of community working together. This past Sunday Erv+ spoke about the central commandment which Jesus spent his life teaching: Love One Another. I feel that commandment’s shimmering witness in Eastertide each year.
 
During Eastertide each year, I make it a point to read Henri Nouwen’s book With Burning Hearts: A Meditation on the Eucharistic Life. Using the Road to Emmaus story (Luke 24: 13-35), Nouwen speaks to the Eucharistic life together as a way to community and ministry. He writes:
 
Forming a community with family and friends, building a body of love, shaping a new people of the resurrection: all of this is not just so that we can live a life protected from the dark forces that dominate our world; it is, rather, to enable us to proclaim together to all people, young and old, white and black, poor and rich, that death does not have the last word, that hope is real and God is alive…..I am deeply aware of my own tendency to want to go from communion to ministry without forming community. My individualism and desire for personal success ever and again tempt me to do it alone and to claim the task of ministry for myself. But Jesus himself didn’t preach and heal alone. Luke, the Evangelist, tells us how he spent the night in communion with God, the morning to form community with the twelve apostles, and the afternoon to go out with them ministering to the crowds. Jesus calls us to the same sequence: from communion to community to ministry. He does not want us to go out alone. He sends us out together, two by two, never by ourselves. And so we can witness as people who belong to a body of faith. We are sent out to teach, to heal, to inspire, and to offer hope to the world---not as an exercise of our unique skill, but as the expression of our faith that all we have to give comes from him who brought us together. Life lived Eucharistically is always a life of mission. (pp. 111, 113)
 
We don’t have to do it all alone. Come to the table for communion on Sunday and then look for the ways that you can work in community. They are abundant. If you need help on the way, many at Memorial are ready to assist you. Call me. Call a fellow parishioner. We find our ministry together. We never have to do it alone. This is indeed Good News. Alleluia!