Map

Map

23rd April 2023

Luke 24:13-35              

I’ve found it helpful to describe my experience of faith as a journey.

Perhaps you can relate to this.

I know my relationship with God is full of purpose and direction, and is also ever-changing; it’s dynamic – as I guess is true of all relationships.

Change is the constant.

And I hope, like me, you recognise this change as a very positive thing.

It would be artificial to have a static experience of faith. Like a stuffed creature on display, or a statue that is hard and cold.

The metaphor of journey is one many of us can relate to, in describing our faith.

For many there is a recognisable starting point of our journey – or at least an awareness of coming to know God more fully; perhaps marked by Baptism or confirmation – or some other remembered and meaningful moment.

‘Journey’ expresses both the steady progress and growth,

as well as the variation of experiences we have.

We know good times and bad times,

‘ups’ and ‘downs’,

times of plenty and times of hardship,

moments that replenish our souls and dry desert moments.

And sometimes it’s only when we look back at our journey over time that we can see the progress;

only with hindsight that we recognise we have grown in our faith. 

For some of us, we may feel there have been many years when we’ve had no growth in our faith – we’ve just ‘hung in there’ – perhaps that’s been all we can manage. 

If this is real for you, please know that these are all very normal for what faith is.

This is the story of scripture.

Ordinary people having varying dynamic experiences – moments of wonder close to God, and moments of loneliness, anxiety and uncertainty.

The metaphor of journey for faith is recognisable right at the start of the Big Story of the Bible.

When God calls Abraham to go on a journey.

This was a physical journey to a new place, but more significantly, it is a journey of relationship.

God promises to be with Abraham and to work in his life;

to lead him and his family into a new future that God desires for humanity.

This was a journey of progress and growth.

And (importantly for us) this wasn’t always easy for Abraham.

His journey had its ups and downs – just like ours.

This is the way God works in our lives.

The glorious promise is that God wants to lead us all on a journey.

This is the expansive and inclusive promise of Easter –

·      Jesus makes a way for us to God the Father.

·      Jesus brings us into full relationship with God, through his costly love on the cross.

The journey of faith has been expressed for centuries in the spiritual practice of pilgrimage.

It’s less of a common practice these days, but Christians still find this to be a meaningful way of combining physical journey with spiritual journey.

1.    Some of us here have been on pilgrimages that are walks that take weeks.

2.    Some of us have that same sense of pilgrimage when we walk up a hill or in the bush – an awareness that God is close.

3.    Some of us have been on a holiday and had a moment of ‘pilgrimage’ by intentionally visiting a special place, or taking a moment to become aware of God’s presence.

·      visiting a church,

·      a place where something historically important happened.

·      I once made a pilgrimage when I was in Oxford England to walk to the house of author C S Lewis.

[tracking down where the house was, following pedestrian paths overgrown with weeds, coming to the house – very ordinary and no one else around. Marvellous and ordinary]

And I would encourage us to see these ‘pilgrimage’ moments in our daily lives – as our experience of our journey of faith.

Some of us can recall specific special moments of encountering God’s love in our lives.

I’ve had overwhelming moments of God’s Spirit flooding my being –

·      sometimes in prayer,

·      a few of times in group conversation,

·      sometimes when walking alone

Sometimes these moments can be quite dramatic.

If these have happened to you, they are moments to be grateful for.

But it is not the experience of all Christians.

Some of the most loving and gracious Christians I’ve known have not had ‘specific dramatic’ encounters with God.

For many the journey is a steady journey, walking humbly with God.

It seems that on the whole, God most often approaches in gentle, quiet, ordinary ways – in the places we find ourselves, with other ordinary people around us.

This service today may seem like an ordinary event.

There are likely other services happening that are more dramatic – plenty of them on-line!

But if you think God is ‘less present’ in this moment, you don’t have orthodox theology backing up that presumption.

And it can be that those who only recognise God in the dramatic encounters are sadly insensitive to God at work in the world, …AND the full revelation of God in scripture…

Today’s reading is about people on a journey who did not recognise the stranger who walked with them for a while.

Just another ordinary human being, at the centre of the most extraordinary event.

I love this passage.

It’s one of my favourite passages – and I think it’s because we are given a picture here of how our faith is a daily experience.

The presence of the risen Jesus in the ordinary walking and talking of ordinary people.

I hope you can see how this is a picture of the journey of faith, and touches on what I’ve been exploring this morning.

If we had much more time, we could unpack this rich passage more.

  …But for today there are just a couple of points I want to make about how scripture is a map for our journey of faith.

As they journey together, Jesus carefully “interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.”

Jesus didn’t just say ‘Hi, it’s me!’

But took so much time to contextualise, and even legitimise, his own resurrection in the Big Story of God.

The ultimate miracle wasn’t enough.

Even after the resurrection, the Bible was still Jesus’ supreme source of authority.

Jesus helps them understand the things about himself in all the scriptures.

Jesus says, “This Big story of God is about me.”

Theologians call this the Christological hermeneutic.

The Children’s Storybook Bible, by Sally Lloyd Jones, says that in the Bible: “Every story whispers His name.”

Jesus is at the centre of God's great story of salvation—and at the centre of our story too.

If you are more impressed by the dramatic;

looking for God in specific miraculous moments,

you might ask “Have I lost my delight in God’s Word?”

Do I need its authoritative guidance, even when it flies in the face of my cultural preferences and expectations?

Do I need to ask this same Jesus to ignite in me again the wonder of His word?

I want to allow some time of silent person reflection.

What is God saying to you today?