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They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’“ Luke 24:32
Anyone on our staff can tell you that I am a planner. I am often the one urging that it’s time to plan out our calendar far in advance, giving detailed instructions for upcoming events, and purchasing supplies long before we will use them. Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way. We always have several projects and programs happening at once, which makes it difficult to prepare everything equally in advance. Also, we recently had a pandemic which made it hard to plan even a few weeks ahead, as conditions were constantly changing which meant that the format of our events was constantly changing. For me, this was a particularly stressful effect of the pandemic. And, sometimes I’m just absent-minded (which frustrates me as much as anyone else).
I chose the verse above from the story of the Road to Emmaus, because I can relate to how Cleopas and his friend were feeling. Two of Jesus’ disciples are walking home from Jerusalem after the crucifixion, moping. Their plans and expectations for what kind of savior Jesus was going to be had all been dashed. They were going home because they thought it was all over; they had no one to follow anymore. But then Jesus comes to them, not as a leader to follow but as a fellow traveler alongside them on the road. He listens to their feelings of disappointment, and then patiently explains to them why they were disappointed about the wrong things. The promises of scripture might not look the way they first expected, but God’s promises were still at work; death was not the end of the story!
Lutheran theologian Christian Scharen has a theory of ministry he calls place-sharing: that when any two people come alongside each other and truly work to understand and support each other, Christ becomes vitally present in the space between us. Place-sharing requires us to be on equal footing with an openness to learning from each other, listening actively with compassion and humility. Jesus gave an example of this when he appeared on the Road to Emmaus, but his original act of place-sharing was appearing in the flesh: coming alongside us in a human body as a vulnerable infant.
I have felt the deep truth of this theory anytime I have served alongside others. Whether I was learning someone’s story while spreading endless piles of mulch on the church grounds, laughing with someone while making endless pans of jello for hurricane victims in a disaster-relief kitchen (the kind with little orange slices in it, BTW), discussing vocation with a young adult while we hammered shingles to a roof in Appalachia, or learning about a different culture while preparing a meal with someone teaching me a beloved recipe, those are moments Christ has vitally appeared to me as a fellow traveler, a fellow servant, a fellow human experiencing the beauty and chaos of the world for which we were created.
Gracious God,
In Jesus, you set us a perfect example of place-sharing. Draw us alongside each other with openness, humility, and curiosity that as we walk together through this life, we invite your presence in our midst.
Amen.
Deacon Mary Houck
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