A heart strangely warmed

‘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) 

Luke 24:13-35 (Year A: Third Sunday of Easter 30^th April 2017)

It was about 8.45pm on the evening of 24th May 1738 when John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had an ‘experience’ in Aldersgate while someone read from Luther’s Preface to the Letter to the Romans.  Wesley wrote of the experience, afterwards, that, "while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."

We all know, from experience, that particular events, conversations and moments are special and stand out in our lives. These are moments of lived experience, insight and, sometimes (though not always) strong feelings. Perhaps, we sometimes distrust feelings as unworthy of consideration.  Indeed, any pattern of life or belief based mainly or exclusively on feelings will give way to some storm or shift in circumstances. However, feelings must be allowed to work in tandem with understanding, will and memories.  Feelings are, after all, part of the lived human experience and it is impossible to rationalise matters without bringing feeling into the picture.  Too often, our religion is rendered devoid of feeling as we go along with some pattern of words or thought. Indeed, our very idea of God may be tainted by notions of a passionless God (very much at variance with the God who reveals himself to us across the scriptures).

God speaks to us today no less than he did in the Person of Jesus Christ on the Road to Emmaus a few kilometres out from Jerusalem where two downcast disciples of Jesus were joined by what seemed like a stranger.

Jesus entered into a dialogue that was already underway on the way to Emmaus. The disciples were discussing those enormous events of recent days in Jerusalem. Having joined the conversation Jesus began to explain the scriptures to the disciples. We might assume that this was a two-way dialogue consisting of questions, answers, puzzlement, insight, surprise, joy and concern. We might also assume that the conversation lasted quite some time – maybe a few hours as the party neared Emmaus. At this time of the year, in Palestine, it might be around 6 or 7 pm when dusk begins to settle in.  Jesus was, in a certain sense, testing the two disciples who for some reason had not recognised him as the same Jesus who was at large in Jerusalem only a few days previously. Luke gives us a crucial clue about Jesus’ approach to his disciples:

Jesus himself came near and went with them (verse 15).

Jesus drew near to them and ‘went with them’. On this occasion, he did not stop them and say ‘you must stop going this way and come another way’.  Indeed the disciples would go another way. But, for now, Jesus accompanied them wherever they were going – like as if Jesus didn’t know the way and was a stranger to these parts.  Likewise, we, too, need to accompany others recognising where others are at and how their understanding has evolved.  For our part, we ourselves do not have all the answers. Our Teacher walks among us even if we do not readily see him or recognise him at first.

But feelings can trick us. Moreover, they do not or ought not to define us. In the Irish (Gaelic) language we do not say ‘I am sorrowful’ or ‘I am fearful’ etc. We say, rather, ‘there is sorrow upon me’ (tá brón orm) and ‘there is fear upon me’ (Tá eagla orm).

We may not ‘feel’ the presence of God. We might not ‘feel’ that God is there at all or that there is an ‘afterlife’.  Moreover, we may not ‘feel’ particularly positive about who we are and how we stand before God and others. We may even feel a loss of purpose, faith, reputation, respect and hope.  In these moments it is important to ‘keep going’ and ‘as if’ we had faith (‘I believe; help my unbelief!’ in Mark 9:24). The other side of this coin is, however, the reality that subjective feelings of ‘being saved’, ‘feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit’, etc. can also trick us.  One is not suggesting that these feelings are necessarily misleading or without truth. Perhaps, on occasions, we may need to ‘feel the absence of God’ in order to experience – in our feelings – the saving presence of God after ‘a dark night of the soul’.  Feelings remain important and any wise disciple will check in on his or her own feelings (the body and, with it, one’s own emotions are important messengers). Significantly, the wise disciple will know how and when to share these feelings with a trusted person and be open to a process of honest self-disclosure and discernment.

And so we should not travel alone. Where two or three are gathered – as on the road to Emmaus, there stands a loving presence – Jesus in the midst of us (Matt. 18:20) even if there is only two persons or three persons on the way of life. Church (‘gathering’) is everywhere if only we could open our eyes. The surest sign of God’s holy spirit is the joy that is placed in our hearts. It is like a burning fire that lights one step ahead and protects from the steps behind. However, discernment, care and spiritual companionship are essential to test every fire. Not every fire leads to God or comes from God.  The resurrection stories nearly all involve an encounter between the Risen Lord and a group of disciples. The Risen Christ is revealed in the new communion called and blessed by his Name.

We should never spiritually walk alone. We walk onwards with others and for others just as others do for us. That is the surest way that God’s holy fire enters into our human hearts and lightens the way forward – one step after another until we reach Emmaus. There we will be nourished and renewed with the Bread of Life. Have we had that strangely warmed heart experience yet? Don’t miss it for anything.