September 5, 2004
Linda Fernandes-Bailey
Companions on the Journey
This may seem like an unusual scripture lesson for this time of year after all it is an Easter story (post Easter) but then again we are an Easter people. However for me it is also a story about two friends on the journey who along the way experience the living Christ and that is what I want to focus on this morning… Companions on the journey. The story begins with the two friends walking on the road to Emmaus sharing their disappointment and sadness because Jesus has died and at this point they do not understand the meaning of his death. For them it feels like the end. So they do what most friends would do…they share their experience. Jesus appears as a stranger at first and asks what is wrong. The friends explain and then Jesus beginning with Moses and on through the Prophets interprets scripture and helps them to see in a different way. They invite Jesus…still a stranger in their eyes at this point to stay with them and as Jesus takes bread and blesses it and breaks it …their eyes are opened and the living Christ is revealed. Their eyes are opened….their hearts are burning…they have experienced the living Christ. Jesus is not dead he is indeed alive!
But I wonder would any of this have happened had it been one person on the road? I really don’t think it would have. I believe we are meant to experience God together as a community of believers. I also believe this means more than coming to church every Sunday. I mean coming to church is a great way to worship as a community and I know the spirit is alive right here in
We live in a very individualistic world. We delude ourselves thinking we can do everything alone. We value independence and loathe dependence. This secular value has seeped into our faith communities. I hear people say all the time “my faith is a private thing.” I can practice being a Christian without connecting to a community. I pray all the time…isn’t that enough? Now at one time I might have agreed. But, like I said my own life experience has taught me otherwise. During the ordination process you get pretty sick of telling people what your faith journey has been believe me. But it is only in speaking it out loud and sharing and exploring with others that I began to really experience how God was working in my life. It doesn’t mean it will always be comfortable but growth never is!
We are created to be in relationship! It didn’t take Adam very long to realize he needed a partner to share his life with. It didn’t take Jesus long to figure out he needed a group of people namely the disciples to help him and he proceeded to send out the disciples two by two not alone. It didn’t take Mary long to go to her cousin Elizabeth to share the joy of both their pregnancies. Moses begged for help in his mission. We are created to be in relationship. But when it comes to our faith we sometimes feel it is a private thing and we are afraid to share with others how we experience God in the world. Afraid to be wrong…afraid to be vulnerable…afraid for people to see who we really are…afraid of rejection. But what if in our sharing the living Christ is revealed to someone else? What if in our taking a risk we inspire others to take risks? What if by being who we really are we experience a great sense of relief because we become who we were created to be and start to live into God’s purpose for us?
I feel very blessed because I have a very dear friend who I share pretty much everything with…including my faith journey. I share my joys and sorrows…doubts and convictions. Believe me the past few years she has gotten an earful!!! Well she began leading and participating in a class called Companions in Christ and of course shared her excitement and encouraged me to look into it. ( Now if we were friends afraid to talk about our faith this would never have happened.) SO as many of you know I brought the program here and continue to be amazed at how this experience did indeed transform lives! WHY? Because it was a place in which people shared their experience of God in their lives, scripture was revealed, people learned to really listen to others and we learned many different ways to pray…we broke bread together. We committed ourselves to daily prayer and scripture reading and weekly meetings in which we would share our learning…and explore deeper. Strangers became friends….friends became companions on a faith journey together. I mean the transformation was amazing.
Now I know we live in a very busy world and people are so hesitant to sign up for bible study and programs at church because they don’t have time and they feel overwhelmed. But friends we need to start looking at nurturing our faith as something that feeds us. It doesn’t drain us it strengthens us for all the other commitments in our lives. If we live our lives by putting God first it really works. If we walk with others on the road and share our stories and explore scripture together…our eyes are opened…our hearts are on fire. I learned this in a very personal way. I was in my last year of seminary and I took on leading the Companions in Christ program…now leading means participating too. It means I had the same “homework” as everyone else. To my surprise this is what I found…This was my best year in seminary…MY faithfulness to prayer and scripture and sharing my life with others made me calmer…more centered and I looked forward to every class…I felt surrounded by the love and support of companions…no kidding…even in the midst of papers, midterms and finals! In fact everyone looked forward to it. Every person found it enriching, enlightening and rewarding. Every person began to experience God in new ways. Every person began to explore where God might be calling them. From these two small groups people agreed to lead more groups…went on mission trips…got to really know the people in their faith community. You see these experiences don’t happen just by coming to church. Look around you…do you know anything about how the person next to you experiences God in their lives? The one thing that has long bugged me about some people in the church is I realized I could sit next to the same person for years and know nothing about their faith journey! We need to stretch ourselves a little further…we need to take a risk….Sign up for a class you think you don’t have time for…go on a mission trip…work at habitat. Commit to really knowing the people in your faith community….Commit to growing in faith through prayer and reading scripture together as a faith community. It is then that we will experience the living Christ …when we dare to seek out companions on the journey…When we dare to allow strangers to become friends…when we dare to share our story…Amazing things happen! Our eyes are opened and our heart are on fire….We find out Jesus is indeed ALIVE! Amen.