Words by David Burrow
Pause and be still. Breathe slowly and focus upon the presence of God.
Prayer: Lord God you are my ‘ever present help in time of trouble’ (Psalm 46:1).
I am here to meet with you Lord. I am here to worship you, to pray and sing your praises. I am sometimes uncertain living with lockdown, sometimes afraid; but I am here.I choose to rejoice in your amazing grace and join with all of God’s people in the words of Psalm 103:
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. 9Â He will not always accuse, nor will he harbour his anger for ever; 10Â he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 11Â For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12Â as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. - Psalm 103
MP 30 Alleluia, alleluia, give thanks to the risen Lord
Read: Luke 24:13-27
Prayer: Come, Lord, and walk with me, share with me life’s journey.
And let me share my life with you, let me confide in you all that lies deepest in my heart. Be my friend always, Lord. Whatever my faults or failings be my companion on the way.
If I am downcast, as the disciples were, may your friendship keep me going.
When I experience life’s disappointments, when life gets the better of me and it all seems too much to handle, help me to keep walking on.
Yes Lord, walk with us! Teach us your ways, for you are the Way;
Speak to our hearts, for you are the Truth;
Open to us your words of life, for you are the Life.
May the joy of your presence sustain us and help us to keep on to our journey’s end.
Amen.
MP 51 Be thou my vision
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQNczm45GyY by Rend Collective
STF 308 On the journey to Emmaus
Photo by Patrick Fore via Unsplash
A journey: from Jerusalem to Emmaus – but it is more than that, it is a journey from ignorance to understanding and from hopelessness to joy.
Ponder: How do you think Cleopas and his friend were feeling as they left Jerusalem to walk the seven miles to Emmaus?
On the road they were joined by a stranger. He appeared to have no idea of the events of the past three days in Jerusalem! So, they told him and explained how Jesus had been the one in whom his followers had placed all their hopes for the future. It must have surprised them to be called ‘foolish’ and to be accused of being ‘slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken’. Was Jesus saying they should have known that ‘the Messiah had to suffer’ before entering ‘his glory’? Still, Jesus then delivered what must have been the greatest ever teaching session on how the Scriptures, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, pointed to himself. Wouldn’t you have loved to be there? Their hearts ‘burned within them’ as Jesus ‘opened the Scriptures’ to them but still they didn't recognise him!
Question: Have we ever failed to recognise Jesus’ presence when we have had our minds fixed on our worries and problems?
Have we shut God out by not listening, praying, reading the Bible and worshipping?
Cleopas and his companion hadn’t understood the idea of a suffering Messiah and how God would deal with the powers of sin and death so how could they hope to understand the cross and the empty tomb?
Read: Luke 24:28-29
Arriving in Emmaus Jesus made as if to carry on, but they were good hosts, and invited him to stay and eat. It was the best decision they had ever made!
Pause and Pray: Lord, Stay with Us
Come, Lord, and stay with me, whatever stage I’m at on life’s journey.
Whether the day is still young, or it’s the middle of the day, or the eventide of my life, or whatever life’s opportunities missed, it is never too soon or too late to invite you into my life, into my heart.
Stay with me always, Lord, to share my life, my joys and sorrows, my failures and celebrations.
Let me never close you out, never close the door of my heart to you. May I always make you welcome.
Yes, Lord, stay with us!
May we always enjoy your company. You said that where two or three are gathered in your name you are there in the midst of them, and that if anyone loves you, you will make your home with them.
Lord, help us all so to love you that you stay with us always, and we can make our home in you. Amen
Read: Luke 24:30-31 Lord, Share with Us
Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them! The penny dropped, the light came on and realisation dawned - it was Jesus! From ignorance to understanding and from hopelessness to joy. Their hopes were realised in a way that they could never have imagined. Renewed and energised they immediately returned to Jerusalem to share their good news with their friends.
Photo by James Coleman via Unsplash
Read: Luke 24: 32-35
This story encourages us as we ponder what it means to be Jesus’ disciples today.
in his grief Cleopas said, ‘we had hoped that he was the one’.
‘We had hoped’. Do these words summarise how lockdown and the Coronavirus have affected us?
Perhaps we have already lost loved ones to the virus, and ‘had hoped’ for so much more; for longer with them, to be with them at the end, to be able to attend their funeral and give thanks for their lives. This is the grief of ‘we had hoped’.
Perhaps we had plans for the summer: holidays and visits to family and friends, a festival maybe? Plans now cancelled or still up in the air. We had hoped for so much more.
We know the pain of the grieving disciples. And then, Jesus comes into their midst.
This is the great joy and hope of the resurrection. We are a people of hope. We cannot always be happy, we may need to grieve, but we do not grieve as a people without hope. Rather, we look for the risen Jesus, even in our pain and anguish and amongst broken dreams and lost hopes we look for the risen Jesus who joins us on life’s journey.
And he is with us, beside us. Telling stories, breaking bread, sharing love and grace.
Wherever you are on your journey, however you feel about the ‘hopes’ you have lost, Jesus wants to come and sit and eat with you. Jesus is not only our host in church; he longs to be the host at every meal, to be present with us in every situation, so today, and every day, welcome his presence at your table. And after you have eaten give a friend a ring and share your experience of the hope we share in our risen Lord, Saviour and friend.
MP 302 I want to walk with Jesus Christ
Ask: Offer your own prayers of intercession followed by the Lord’s Prayer
Yield to the presence of the resurrected Jesus; make him welcome and be filled with his peace.
MP 647 The head that once was crowned with thorns https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33wI9m5WN_8
Photo by Frank Mckenna via Unsplash