In Genesis in the Hebrew Scriptures, there is the story of Jacob.
Here is this guy - this cheat - running for his life – and he’s in the middle of absolute nowhere – and it is here that God comes and speaks to him.
Jacob was on the run from his brother Esau, whom he had outwitted and cheated, and Esau was older, bigger and stronger than him. So he was moving as fast as he could to get away from that brother. He didn’t stop till he was completely exhausted.
He comes to a rocky place – where he rests and he falls asleep.
(He is so tired he uses a stone for a pillow and he still falls asleep!)
What happens next is the subject of many a Sunday School lesson.
Jacob has a dream and he sees a stairway (or a ladder) reaching to heaven, and God speaks to him, promising to be with him, and promising that one day he will return home.
So when Jacob wakes up, he looks around this unpromising, barren, rocky place and he says:
“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven”.
And Jacob reckons this place must be a holy place. He marks the spot and calls it Bethel – that name means “the house of God”.
Jacob was right to realise that this spot is where God is.
Jacob was wrong to imagine that there could be another place where God isn’t.
Because the truth is, that God is wherever we are.
It’s the beginning of an understanding that develops throughout the Bible that God is with us wherever we are, and whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.
Even at the worst times, and in the middle of nowhere - God is with us.
And this is the theme of today’s Gospel reading too.
Two people were walking down the road towards a village called Emmaus. Who were they?
No one knows.
One them is called Cleopas. That’s a guy’s name.
In history (and in art) people have often assumed it was two men.
Now some historians think the other person may have been his wife. So it could have been a couple.
But it doesn’t really matter in a way who exactly they were - because these two people in this incident stand for all of us.
These friends of Jesus are at their lowest ebb.
Things are bleak and confusing.
Jesus couldn’t be further away.
Jesus is dead – finished for good.
Their hopes are dead too – it’s all over.
Things could not be worse.
And then, they discover, in the middle of their pain, that Jesus is there all along, and that things are not what they have seemed.
God is with them after all –
to bring sense out of their dilemma,
to give hope to their dreams,
and to give them strength for the journey.
God was with them, even when they were not aware of God and everything seemed wrong.
Their lives were upside down – but God was with them.
They were filled with confusion – but God was with them.
Their hopes seemed to have come to an end – but God was with them.
They felt alone and abandoned – but God was with them.
They didn’t feel in any way close to God – but God was with them.
Jesus was with them – walking with them the whole time.
And that’s what we need to remember.
The story of the road to Emmaus is not in our Bibles to tell us simply of an event from long ago.
It’s not just to remind us of what was true years ago.
It’s there to remind us of something that is true now and for all time.
God is here for us – always.
There will be rocky times in your life when you will seem on your own (like Cleopas and his friend), and you will imagine that God has deserted you, but that will not be true.
There will be unfortunate times in your life, when you (like Jacob), have acted badly towards someone, and suspect that God will want nothing to do with you. But that will not be true.
God will be there in the rocky place.
God will be there in the difficult time.
God will be with you in your aloneness and confusion.
Because the commitment of God to us is total. God is present with us in every place and situation. Sometimes we may be aware of his presence. Most often we won’t have that awareness.
But don’t be misled by feelings.
Feelings can be very unreliable and treacherous things - not good as a measure of God’s presence.
Jesus promises to be with us always, and where Christ is there is God. This is a promise we can rely on.
No matter how hard the territory you are in,
no matter how alone you may feel,
no matter how much guilt you experience,
or how much anguish and grief you suffer – God will be with you in that place.
Now I think when anyone hears this story there is a question that occurs to them.
How come it took so long for these two people to know they were with Jesus?
How come it took so long for them to know that Jesus was the stranger walking beside them?
Seems like Jesus looked a bit different after Easter- people didn’t always recognise him at first.
If he looked exactly the same, then what would be the excuse for failing to see it was him?
But maybe there’s a better question for us to ask.
How come we have such a job in realising that Jesus goes with us through life?
We know the Easter story.
We know that Jesus is alive.
How come we are not always aware of God’s presence with us day by day?
God goes with us through life. God is with us on our journey. But often we are unaware of God. How is it that we can be unaware of such a great thing?
Why are we so unable to be aware of God with us?
Maybe it’s down to that thing about “not seeing the wood for the trees”.
When something is with us all the time we can end up not noticing it at all.
Have you ever tried to meditate, and been asked to quieten yourself and to focus on your breathing?
Or have you ever done one of these relaxation tapes where you are asked to think about the various parts of your body at rest and then you are encouraged to become aware of your breathing?
If you are like me, these experiences are unusual.
We breathe in and out every minute of every day, but when we are asked to tune into our breathing it is strange. Why?
Because we are so used to it we just take it for granted and we are no longer aware of it.
The breath that keeps us alive is a wonderful reality - but because we are constantly breathing we just ignore it and end up almost unaware of it.
The risen Christ is with us always. He walks with us on every road. He is with us at the heights of joy and celebration and he is with us in the pits of terror and despair. His Spirit is in the very air that we breathe. His presence is the glue that holds the cosmos together. If God’s Spirit was withdrawn, everything that is would disintegrate back into dust and chaos. There is absolutely nowhere you can go and nothing you can do without being in the living presence of the risen Christ.
But that’s the problem isn’t it. That which is always and everywhere present quickly slips beyond our awareness and just becomes the taken-for-granted background that we ignore as we live our lives. And so Christ walks with us on the road or sits with us at the table and we fail to recognise him.
Now obviously God can break through to us in all kinds of ways.
And in Jacob’s case, God spoke to him through a dream.
But we can choose to put ourselves in a place where we are more likely to be receptive to God and be aware of God in our lives.
What do I mean?
Just as if we choose to believe in God and look out for God we are more likely to be aware of God than if we decide to live as atheists and not pay any attention to God, in the same way, there are some things we can do that will help us be more aware of God.
For example, if we never take the time to stop, to think, to be quiet, to have reflection - then we are less likely to hear God’s voice.
And in our incident today we see that there were two things that started to have a big effect on these disciples, and these two things have continued to be useful throughout the years.
Paying attention to scripture and gathering together in the breaking of bread.
As Jesus described the message of the Bible to them, their hearts were warmed. And then as he sat and broke bread at the table they knew by that action who it was in front of them.
That’s why the disciplines of worship –
of reading and listening to the Bible –
of gathering together for communion are so important.
They are primary ways that God uses to communicate God’s presence to us.
That’s why being part of church fellowship, and regularly coming together for worship are so vital for us.
I said to the children earlier that this story is a story that always happens.
It seems like a very good description of how we all encounter God.
We experience Jesus through Scripture,
we experience Jesus through the Lord’s Supper,
and we experience Jesus as we come to realise that he is walking with us on the road.
In other words, we become aware that Christ accompanies us throughout our lives. We are not aware of this all the time but we get glimpses of Jesus supporting us on our journey.
Of course the key for the disciples was realising that God was with them.
That’s what had the power to change them and turn their lives around.
And initially it was a literal turning around. They had just walked 7 miles down the road from Jerusalem, but now they ran 7 miles back up the road to Jerusalem to share their realisation with the other friends.
If I tell you that “God will be with you no matter what”, that may be a statement of fact.
It is a statement of fact.
But it’s only as your realise that for yourself, that it has the power to change your life.
So let’s today (and each day) as we gather together, ask God to open our eyes to the presence of Jesus among us - caring for us, tending to us and leading us, on the challenge and the adventure of following him.