For the disciples on the road to Emmaus, it was not just an issue of understanding that Jesus was not dead, but had risen, it was also a question of understanding what that meant.
Jesus has spoken about dying and rising again on many occasions in his last months, but they had been so fixated in his entering into Jerusalem as King and conquering Messiah, that they could not grasp what that might really mean. Now, Jesus was telling them why he had to “suffer these things and enter into his glory”
- Hebrews 11:8–16 He was looking forward to the city, whose designer and builder is God
What does it all mean?
This is not just a speculative historical question; it is real for us too. We must grapple with the reality that Jesus is alive and reject purely spiritual and metaphorical explanations – he is alive. But we must also grapple with what this means for us today.
The disciples had misunderstood what Jesus had been teaching them, because they had made him part of their own imagined story. Theirs was story of a conquering king, enthroned and ruling in Jerusalem with places of honour for his disciples. As they would come to discover, his was a story of conquering through suffering, and they would indeed have places of honour as they suffered with him.
I wonder what story we have put Jesus into in our lives. I suspect the we, too, are missing something of what he is telling us, because it does not fit with our story. Perhaps he is drawing alongside us – even as we wander of in the wrong direction – to say “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!”
We had hoped that he was the one to …
And now we have an extraordinary opportunity given to us by God. Like those first disciples our world has fallen apart. A way of life that seems so solid has been brought to nothing. A way of being Christians, of being Church, has been closed down. Who know when normality will return and what it will look like when it does?
We are in Transition
And, in our particular context, this is magnified. It seems likely that church services will not have started before I retire at the end of June. Our churches are facing a period of real transition. I do not expect that I will be replaced by another Rector any time soon. It seems likely to me that, when someone is appointed to replace me, it will not simply be to look after the existing six churches.
Transition does not simply mean drafting a profile and advert for what you all want in terms of church and potential leader. It means grappling with what is possible and what is not. It means grappling with what God is calling you all to be, and become, and with whom. It means facing deep financial challenges, and deep spiritual and life choices.
Are we willing to consider that “what we had hoped” may not be what Jesus is about?
Museum or Mission
After Jesus had died the disciples had not entirely given up. Some were wandering off home (to Emmaus and elsewhere), but others continued to stay together. You can imagine that they might have become a group who gathered from time to time to reminisce and remember.
Even after that realised Jesus was alive and saw him taken into heaven – with a promise to return in glory – they could have continued as a waiting group, keeping alive the memory and the hope. In their communion meals they would remember. And they would keep alive the hope, keep the faith.
But Jesus, being alive, also called them to live and gave them something to live for, a mission and purpose. And it would need Jesus living in them, for them to accomplish this calling, so he told them to wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit. We will get to that in a few weeks, but today we see something of what a difference he would make in our reading from Acts – as Peter stands and proclaims Jesus “Lord and Christ”, and calls the crowds to faith and repentance.
Every generation the church faces the same choice. Are we going to be a museum of faith or a memorial society – reminiscing and keeping the faith and hope alive. Or are we going to live. Are we going to pursue the mission and purpose that Jesus has given us; making every attempt to live as citizens and heralds of the kingdom in this world as we await its coming with Jesus. If we do, we know it will not be easy or comfortable. We still live in a world that is fundamentally opposed to this kingdom. Like Jesus it will welcome us up to a point, but like Jesus we will also suffer when our hope does not fit, or our faith treads on the wrong toes.
Museum or Mission, do we have a choice?
At some stage, the present lockdown is going to begin to be relaxed. I suspect that churches will first be allowed to be opened for private prayer, and eventually for church services. However, we are being told that those over 70 may need to keep self-isolating for some time beyond this. Thinking about our churches, what would they look like if over 70’s were asked to self-isolate; who would lead, who would come?
End of Life Care or Nappies
This reminds us who we are; who we have become. There are churches with younger people and families where there is a real sense of all ages pursuing church together. But we are not there, and it is hard for young people and families to join us in ones or twos, without feeling apart as if they don’t belong. And some of our older member may rightly feel that they don’t want to cope with a more ‘family’ orientated church. That is where we are. We might want to be a more family church, but you might even question whether it is a choice that we can make?
God will always build his church. He will always pursue his mission. But I have wondered whether some parts of his church may be more like end of life care, whilst something different grows elsewhere or alongside it. It’s a serious question, and one that we should be praying about earnestly.
The alternative, if we can achieve it, will radically shape what we know of as Church. When we welcome new life into our families, it is always messy and chaotic. The needs of that new life demand to be met and that we bear the cost – of putting up with nappies, of living tired, and of living in new ways that mean learning on the job.
Not many of us have experience of true multi-generational households. They are possible, but everyone has to give way and give up some comfort, and everyone has to learn to treasure one another young and old, for what they are. Having granny move in with you, or having the children move back home, are both metaphors that demonstrate the costliness of living in a multi-generational church
Nostalgia is not what it was
And part of recognising our reality, must acknowledge that nostalgia is not what it was. Our villages and communities have deep roots. More than many places we have large numbers who have lived here for years – some born and bred. It is natural that many may look back at what church used to be like, when many more of our neighbours regularly gathered with us and wonder whether it could be like that again.
I often speak to people who tell me that they used to be in the choir, or that they used to come when they were younger. And, it is natural for those who do still come to look back at a time when church was a bigger thing. But we should be careful about such nostalgia. However, we remember it, that church was the one that failed to keep all those people who do not come now. However big it was, it was not deep and real enough to sustain real worshiping faith in significant numbers of its congregation.
Nostalgia is not what it was, and we should be wary of trying to build that church again.
Church, but not as we know it
So, where do we go? How do we pursue the meaning of Jesus being alive – and calling us to life – in our context? I am not sure I know. It is easier to see where the answers do not lie – like going back to what church used to be like – than to see where they do.
I do believe that the church that Jesus is building in this generation is going to look messy. And, we need to see what our part is in the church’s transformation: we need to be honest in recognising our situation (who we are, and where we are); and we need to see where God is moving, willing to let go of structures that are getting in the way, and to form new relationships and partnerships.
- At the heart of this church is going to be people who don’t just go to church because its normal, but who have come to know Jesus and love him; whose hearts and minds and whole lives are captured by all that he is and what he is doing. But, together, those people are going to look messy.
- And it needs to be a church that is not defined by the way it worships (high, low, or whatever), but by the one it worships and by the Spirit and Truth in which it worships.
- It needs to be a church in which every human barrier is broken down (race, age, class, ethnicity …), but that is not merely inclusive. It must seek to include all in Christ, to be shaped and defined by his truth and love – open to all but utterly costly to be part of.
- It will need to bear with messiness. When new life comes into our lives it brings sleepless nights, nappies, enormous amounts of bearing-with. It is going to bring tensions, and disagreements that must be overcome. And it must have a place for everybody that God brings to faith and adds to its number; the young treasuring the old, and the old making space for the young to grow.
- And, it will need to really discover how to journey together. In the Exodus, the whole company journeyed together; young and old, those with faith and those struggling with doubts. Some died on the way and others entered in to ‘the promised land’. But they did not split off into different camps, they journeyed together.
Do we have a choice? Can we do this?
That is a hard question to answer. In one sense we always have a choice in Christ – God is the God of the Impossible. And, in a sense we do not have a choice’ God is going to work his purposes out and build his church, whatever we chose. Perhaps out true choice is to hear what he is saying and play our part in what he is doing.
I do wonder, sometimes, whether the Church of England as an institution is capable of responding to what God is doing with his church in our time. But, while it is stiff and over-structured, it also has a spirit of working together built into its DNA. Growth and change has often come best when, at a local level, people are willing to forget some of the structural stiffness and rules, and simply get on working with those around them in who they see God working.
So, I believe that we (or I should say, You) do have a choice. But the one choice we do not have is to do nothing, or to simply try and carry on as we have always done.
Crisis is Opportunity
It may be that the coronavirus is an extraordinary God-given opportunity for us to become more like the Church that God wants us to be. That our churches are facing a period of Transition at the same time is a real challenge, but may also be a blessing.
There is an old Irish tale of a traveller asking directions from a local and being told “you can’t get there from here”. In God, at least this side of Jesus’ return, that is never the case. The way may be hard, but if he has set where we are going to in our heart – if we are not willing to settle for anything less, even if it is hard to describe what we are looking for – God will bring us to journey’s end in Jesus. We are, after all a Pilgrim People. Christians were first called (before they were called Christians) the Followers of the Way.
Let Abraham be our example
- By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.
- And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
- By faith he went … living in tents … for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
- By faith they died, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
- they are seeking a homeland.
- They could have gone back or settled down, but as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.
- Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.