I Know This Road

“The Road to Emmaus is the road of deep disappointment,
and walking it is the living definition of sad. 
It is the road you walk when you lose a big game, 
or your candidate for office loses, or you lose your job, 
or you lose your loved one to death. 
It is the long road of loss. 
It is the long road back to an empty house, 
an empty seat at the table, 
an empty place in bed next to you, 
piles of unopened mail, 
calls on your answering machine from creditors demanding you call them back instead of friends or family offering you a cup of water in your misery. 
The Road to Emmaus is real. 
(Drawn from Barbara Brown Taylor, Gospel Medicine, Cowley Publications, Boston, Mass, p. 20).


One thing you should know about preachers. While it is true that we want desperately to speak in a way that God might use to turn people's hearts to Jesus - in the doing of that - in the thrashing about during the construction of what many call "the sermon" - it is often the preacher himself (or herself) that gets preached to.  


Tomorrow I will speak before the congregation I love about the Road to Emmaus.


I know this road.


It is real to me. It is real to people I love and care deeply for. And I suspect it is real to many of you too.


So will you pray with me that we might have our eyes opened - have our hearts burn within us - that we might meet Jesus together... tomorrow?