Sermon: Walking in the Light

Preacher:

Date:

Sunday 4th May 2014

Service:

Cathedral Eucharist

Listen:

Download Recording (MP3, 13.4M)

According to the BBC website May is National Walking Month in the UK. It’s one of those times when we are encouraged to do something we don’t normally do, or do more of something we already do. The website extolls the benefits of walking: good for creative thinking; physical health; a good time to think and ponder alone or in company. Well, perhaps we can claim Eastertide, and actually all of our lives, as the walking into God’s life. As we say to the newly baptised when we give them a lighted candle:

You have received the light of Christ;

walk in this light all the days of your life. Common Worship: Initiation Services p. 77.

This draws on the first letter of St John who says, ‘if we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another (1 John 1.6, 7a). And it is profoundly Eastertide stuff, as St Paul writes, ‘Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life’ (Romans 6.4). So what do we, as Christians, have to say about walking; and what difference does it make to us when we walk out of this place into the new week?

Walking is integral to the ministry of Jesus. In the gospels he walks between and around the villages of Galilee. From the town of Caesarea Philippi in Galilee he set his face towards Jerusalem and begins his walk to his arrest, trial and death. As he walked around the Holy Land, a land we call holy because his sacred feet have walked it, he gathered others around him. Some walked with him, and some, for a whole host of reasons, didn’t walk with him. Walking with him were the Twelve, and many other men and women.

As he walked; he talked and taught, he healed and forgave. His most famous walk, perhaps, is the walk of the Way of the Cross, the Via Dolorosa, when bearing the burden of the wood of the cross he carries with him the sin, death and darkness of the world that we walk in day by day. Some walked with him - Simon of Cyrene walked, even carrying the very cross itself and the women walked to the foot of the cross and waited – but some of those who had walked with him simply walked away.

The Day of Resurrection sees a change of pace. The walkers become runners: Mary Magdalene who found the tomb empty ran to tell the disciples; Peter and John ran to the tomb to verify Mary’s account. So now Mary is known as the Apostle to the Apostles.

It was on that same day of Resurrection, the first day of the week, that two disciples were going towards Emmaus, Cleopas and his companion. But they didn’t know the resurrection news yet, just rumours. So perhaps they trudged. And as they trudged along, disappointed, the Risen Jesus Christ, is walking, walking with them, and yet they didn’t even know it.

What they did know was that their hearts were burning within them as they walked that road with him; what they did know was that their despondency, ‘we had hoped…’ was being transformed; what they did know was that when bread was broken he was penetratingly present in their lives.

Did Cleopas and his companion walk back to Jerusalem? No. I suspect they ran. In that they were just like Mary, the Mother of the Lord, making haste to tell her cousin Elizabeth that she was bearing the Word made Flesh. Perhaps the point isn’t whether or not we physically walk or run, but that the pace of our heart beat changes. Hearts warmed and beating: that was the impact of Jesus on Cleopas and his companion. As the letter to the Ephesians puts it, ‘See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise’ (Ephesians 5.1).

Every time we celebrate Eucharist we walk the Emmaus Road, we walk with Jesus in Galilee, we walk the way of the cross and we walk in newness of life. The narrative of the Emmaus Road mirrors the structure of the Eucharist: gathering, word, sacrament, sending out and away.

In Gathering we recall that Cleopas and his companion trudged along, disappointed, not a little bewildered and confused. The one on whom they had set their hopes was dead. They are shuffling disciples, they know the Good News, but it has cooled for them. They are us when we make our way through the week often not fully conscious of Jesus’ promise that he is with us. So as we gather we confess our lack of love and hope in God, asking that we may walk with him anew.

In the Liturgy of the Word, we recall that Cleopas and his companion start talking about the scriptures and Jesus interprets them, and says, in effect, all that you read, read in the light of all that you know of me. I rather suspect this is when they stopped trudging and started to walk more uprightly. So we invite the Holy Spirit of the Risen Christ to illuminate the words of scripture that they become, in the words of the psalm, ‘A lantern to my feet and a light to my path’ (Psalm 119.105). As Peter says, ‘Lord to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life’ (John 6.68) This is heart-warming stuff indeed.

In the Liturgy of the Sacrament we recall that Cleopas and his companion invite Jesus in to eat and he breaks bread for them. Their eyes are opened. Everything is at once so big and so intimate, vibrant and colourful; the narrative moves from monochrome to glorious colour. Like the man born blind who can now see and says, ‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking’ (John 8.24) It is that moment of recognition that both intensifies everything and enlarges everything. The promise of our faith is of a banquet at which we are beloved guests who share in the life of Christ our host.

At the dismissal, the sending out, we recall that Cleopas and his companion ran back to Jerusalem to share their experience. They do this encourage the fellow disciples, and in turn go on to tell the world.

So yes, Christians have something to offer to National Walking Month, and yes, faith informs the walking of our daily lives. It was not by accident that before being known as Christians we were known as ‘followers in the Way’; in other words walkers with Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, who draws us to the great feast of life in all its abundance.

You have received the light of Christ;

walk in this light all the days of your life. Common Worship: Initiation Services p. 77.

Alleluia, Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!