Where do you go to get away? What do you do to escape the pressures of everyday living?

Surrounded by so much personal stress and global strain most of us recognize the need for some type of diversion or distraction. Coping with the ongoing challenges of our work and home lives, living in these months with the tragic and ongoing effects of terrorism and war, our tendency to seek retreat and relaxation is quite natural. Some of us may be sports fanatics, the thrill of the game an elixir that calms our minds and warms our hearts, particularly when it's the Red Sox beating the Yankees two games in a row. Others may seek escape through the more harmful effects of alcohol or drug use, the numbers of people reported using illicit drugs up 20% in recent years according to DEA reports. Still others - some visiting among us this very day - may choose to lace up a pair of Nike Air TR9000's or Saucony Grid Hurricane's and hit the pavement, literally running for miles in order to achieve a sense of rest and relief. Like the commercials so frequently suggest, we "Just Do It" in a wide variety of public as well as private ways, seeking to create balance, peace and hope in what might otherwise feel like an unbearably sad and destructive world.

According to twentieth century pastor and theologian, Fredrick Buechner, that is just what the two characters in this morning's Scripture reading were doing. Walking together that post-crucifixion day they were trying to get away from it all, in search of a moment's pause from the tragic strain of Good Friday. Heartbroken by the death of their teacher and Lord, confused by reports of the tomb found empty, these men were looking for a time of solace and retreat. And so they hit the road for Emmaus. Buechner describes it this way:

[Emmaus is] the place we go in order to escape - a bar, a movie, wherever it is we throw up our hands and say, "Let the whole damned thing go hang. It makes no difference anyway"…Emmaus is whatever we do or wherever we go to make ourselves forget that the world holds nothing sacred: that even the wisest and bravest and loveliest decay and die; that even the noblest ideas that men have had - ideas about love and freedom and justice - have always in time been twisted out of shape by selfish men for selfish ends.

This is where we find our characters headed this morning. They are entering Emmaus, a time of escape from the tragic circumstances surrounding them.

And what happens? How far down do they get on this road of disillusionment and despair?

They don't get very far. Having just heard Phil Grefe read the passage we know how their fears and frustrations are fairly quickly resolved. We've watched them recognize Christ, heard them talk with excitement about their hearts burning from within. This beautiful story (a resurrection appearance account that occurs so completely only in the Gospel of Luke) is one that has brought hope to generations of faithful disciples as they've struggled with the realities of disappointment, despair and even intense communal disagreement. Moving the characters from seeking escape to finding hope and meaning, this is a text demonstrating belief in a compassionate, patient and ever-present God, inspiring biblical interpreter, William Barclay, to call it "one of the immortal stories of the world."

Written in a time when early Christians were waiting desperately for the second coming this kind of immortal power was essential. There in the mid-eighties of that first century these second and third generation Christians sought reassurance that the God they had come to believe in was still a present and guiding force in the world. And so, as usual, the author of Luke thoughtfully shares an account that gives witness to the true nature of God as revealed through Jesus Christ. Writing to that community predominantly made up of Gentile converts like himself Luke lays out the path of Christian hope and truth, showing these people that yes, Christ is risen; that yes, Christ seeks to raise us all as well.

Luke shares this Easter theology in a number of ways. The first lies at the foundation of the story, as this is an encounter that occurs to two unknown and anonymous figures. These men don't belong to the hailed band of twelve, you see. They aren't even any of the healed or repentant converts we've met before, even though a sense of familiarity is inferred with the naming of Cleopas. Unlike the experience of Thomas in the Upper Room this scene takes place out in the ordinary world with average, ordinary people, people like you and like me, illustrating the extraordinary nature of God's benevolent grace. Luke uses this foundational detail to share the essential truth that all are welcomed in this new faith tradition.

A second important lesson articulated through this resurrection story is how God breaks into our lives in unexpected ways and in unexpected places. Here are two men after all, seeking refuge and escape as Fred Buechner described. Wrestling with doubt and despair they've thrown their hands up in the air and hit the road. The implication? God witnesses our anguish and our attempts to escape. These men choose to talk amongst themselves instead of getting down on their knees to seek guidance, peace and direction from above. The insinuation? Christ follows us patiently even when our backs are turned. In this unplanned and unexpected encounter Luke gives a vision of Jesus as the ever-present, compassionate guide. Christ walks with these travelers. He talks with them. And only when invited, only when asked to stay awhile does he fully enter their midst. Through this account Luke illustrates the fact that no matter how distant we may feel from God's grace at times Christ is mysteriously and miraculously close at hand, waiting to be welcomed into our hearts and homes. Luke shows us the graciousness of God that exists alongside of our God-given free will.

It's that incredible and often unexpected graciousness that leads us to recognize a third compelling characteristic of this lectionary passage: the natural desire to evangelize. As these ordinary men are so unexpectedly transformed we see them share the news with others with uncontained excitement and joy. They can't wait to tell the disciples. They rush back those seven miles to Jerusalem. "Jesus is alive!" they must have hollered. "We saw him, talked with him! Christ is risen!" Theirs is an incredible story and they eagerly share the miraculous news with the world, bringing a new answer to the question we hear at the beginning of this passage: "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?" Now these two answer their own question emphatically: "Christ is risen indeed!"

Sir Winston Churchill once said, "Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing has happened." Certainly that's not the situation before us this morning. Today we witness two lives that are radically altered in a manner that helps pave the way for generations to follow. That walk to Emmaus, the humble dinner gathering that mirrors the feeding of the five thousand as much as it does the Lord's Supper, is a scene offering hope to the hopeless and strength to the worn and weary. It's as though those men have met their teacher and Lord, Jesus, all over again for the very first time, leading others to do the same.

Marcus Borg, Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University and a leading participant in the historical Jesus studies, often talks about the need for such fresh and inspiring encounter. Describing his personal conviction that mature faith begins when it compels one to travel into deeper union with God he writes in his book, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, "I no longer see the Christian life as being primarily about believing…Rather, the Christian life is about entering into a relationship with that to which the Christian tradition points, which may be spoken of as God, the risen living Christ." Defining what he calls the "post-Easter Jesus" as "not just the product of early Christian belief and thought, but an element of experience," he goes on later in the book to talk about how such encounters unfold in Judeo-Christian experiences of exile: "God is not simply the destination," he writes, "but one who is known on the journey. It is a journeying toward God that is also with God."

"I have seen many things in my travels, and I understand more than I can express" (Sirach 34: 12). The wisdom and words of Sirach could easily be the wisdom of Cleopas and his friend as they walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus grief-stricken and confused and then from Emmaus back to Jerusalem with hearts overflowing with new life and joy. The wisdom of Sirach could be easily be the wisdom we claim ourselves as we travel from doubt to belief to rich, abundant relationship with the living God. Learning from the men before us today we realize that God is with us on this journey, waiting to be recognized, eager to be seen, patiently wondering if our eyes will open long enough to understand that the risen Christ is here, waiting to change our lives. "It is the road less traveled," writes Marcus Borg, "yet discipleship involves being in a community that remembers and celebrates Jesus." Can we recognize this? Can we unveil our eyes from our own fears and turn away from our many self-selected distractions long enough to experience the risen Christ that we may be raised ourselves?

Surrounded by the realities of mutilation and disaster, the front pages of our newspapers filled with images of shattered cities and lives, we know how easy it can be to question the decency of humanity and the power of God's love. Caught up in our personal experiences of crisis, doubt and even despair we understand how effortless it is to turn our backs on a dynamic and devoted relationship with God. But as a people living with the vision of the empty tomb this Easter season we also know that there's another way to journey.

We don't have to seek escape. We don't need to numb ourselves with perennial distraction. We can recognize the presence of Christ in this world, the living God who waits to lead us into a life of peace, reconciliation and transforming power together. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu said from this pulpit just yesterday, "There is a different road that can be followed. Peace is possible. There is reason for hope."

Let us pray.
Merciful and loving God, we crave your presence in our lives. We need your Spirit of truth and love. Break into our hearts, break through our days, that we may see you that we may speak with you, that we may live with you, in Christ. Amen.

Scripture Reading
Luke 24: 13 - 20; 28 - 35

Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?" He asked them, "What things?" They replied, "The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him…"

As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?" That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!" Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.