Thursday, January 31, 2008

Which road did you meet Jesus on the one to Damascus or the one to Emmaus?

Nick at Sharpening Iron with Iron has asked a very good question about people's experience of God in their lives.
From what I have witnessed, and even in my own situation, much of today's younger generations (Gen-X and later) go through a time of spiritual rebellion. I know in my situation I loved to argue against Christ. Not that I didn't believe, but because I just didn't really care. I was wrapped up in my own little world thinking only about what I was in control of. Then, it seems like it was just overnight, God got my attention and led me back to Christ....
So what about you, what is your road to Damascus story?
.
There's another story in Luke-Acts story that describes an experience of God--that is not as confrontational as the story from Damascus, but that speaks for many of us cradle Christians who have prayed the Jesus prayer not just one time and who haven't been born again once but are being born anew each day: the road to Emmaus. Two of Jesus friends had seen all the events of his death and 3 days later were on the road to a town called Emmaus looking for a safe place to hide out. On the way they met Jesus without realizing it. Only in the breaking of the bread did the recognize him.
I grew up as a Catholic in an inner city church near the University of Minnesota. I never doubted Jesus but I had serious doubts about THE CHURCH. Service and justice in God's name mattered. That's what my parents taught me, that's what my teachers taught me. Then I went to a Catholic College (St. Mary's in Winona, MN). It was the first time that I'd been fully exposed to the rules that made up so many Catholics' religious lives. I'd grown up knowing that the rules weren't the thing that saved us eternally or transformed us in the here and now; but many of my class-mates were focussed on the rules looking for an easy path to heaven rather than the cross. I found myself wrestling at a Catholic college with a balance between the rules and the faith that lead to the cross. The rules are easy ways to tell who is in and who is out; but The Way is a lot harder to live out than just skipping steak on a Friday in Lent. I wanted to lead my own way. It was in the search for my own path that I realized that Jesus was always present. He'd been obscured and even downright hidden by the rules; but the Word and one behind it were very real. Paul was blinded before he believed; but for others it is the Word of God that warms our hearts and the broken bread that helps us see Jesus.

===

on a personal note. It's been a week. Two funerals in two days, one more on the way next week. A member found a tenant dead in one of his apartments. Lent is surely just around the corner. The best part of the Emmaus story is that Jesus has been here all along even when we don't see him walking with us just wait until you meet him in the bread and wine.

No comments: