Who Would Hate Emmaus City Church in Worcester, Mass.?

Would Hitler hate what Emmaus City Church is doing? 

Funny question, right? Who cares what Hitler hates? It's not like we want to be associated with anything he likes. Sure, he probably wouldn't like us because we enjoy celebrating all the different kinds of people who represent all the diversity of languages, nations, and ethnicities in our city. He also wasn't a fan of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life and writings. And we love Bonhoeffer and Life Together. 

There's also the fact that it's OK to be weak in Emmaus City. Why? Because God's grace is sufficient in weakness. We believe in a God who made Himself a servant even unto death for the sake of men, women, and children from every tribe, tongue, and nation. In Jesus, God's power is made perfect in weakness because His grace, not His force, is sufficient to transform us (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

But according to a video from almost a decade ago that I recently rediscovered, there may be another reason why Hitler would hate Emmaus City Groups. The title of the video is "Why Hitler Hates Sentralized," made for the Sentralized Conference that occurred back in 2014, but in many ways would still be just as relevant to what we are working to do in 2023. Sentralized was hosted by Forge who our friends with Renaissance in the greater Boston area are connected with, and was started by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost, two voices (and Aussie voices at that) in Jesus' Church I continue to be thankful I can listen to and learn from. 

Check out the video link. It humorously captures the fun and the seriousness of the calling Jesus has given His Church. Some of my favorite quotes from the video include:

"There will be actual practitioners, not just scribes."

"They share about doing the stuff, not just thinking the stuff."

"The people will get crazy ideas of living out the Kingdom and
opening their homes up!"

"Next up they will think THEY are the church instead of focusing on going to church!"

"They'll become friends of sinners! 

Do you want them to become like Jesus? 

That Shiner Bock drinking, 

barbecue eating glutton that believed 

everyday people could be everyday missionaries?" 

"They will seek the welfare of their cities! 

They will learn to make their communities livable!"

"They will enter the ethos and ethics of the Kingdom of God!"

"They will hear 'can do' stories and will start trying it at home ... here, there, everywhere!"

"Their lives can't be given away, 

they must hold onto comfort, safety, security. 

They'll lose the American Dream!"

"They will get on the same page and be on the road to missional.
Sent for God."

When Jesus' Kingdom Breaks Through, All Hell Breaks Loose

I'd love for all of the above quotes to continue to be associated with Emmaus City Groups. We continue to learn how to give away comfort, safety, and security while embracing how to love enemies, strangers, and friends. We're still grasping to understand the culture of our city and how we can benefit its welfare and the welfare of people who have been ignored or marginalized. And we continue to be sent, not to be served, but to serve. Jesus has given us abundant life to give away. His good news is that people can be redeemed from idolatry, shame, and death, and communities and creation will be renewed.

Walking with Jesus together and becoming more like Him is fun, dangerous, and transformative. 

Want to join us?

After all, Hitler hates all that stuff. :)

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

Saturday, June 18 | Learn How to Fight Sex Trafficking w/ Rt. 1

Infographic from the University of New England

Trafficking 101: A Christian Response to Sex Trafficking in Worcester, Mass. with Route One and Bonnie Gatchell this Saturday, June 18 at 4 p.m. 

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime describes human trafficking as "the acquisition of people by improper means such as force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them.” This doesn't require a movement from one place to another. A person merely needs to be exploited through force, manipulation, or coercion to be considered trafficked. This type of abuse does not happen for those just overseas. It happens right here in Worcester. In order to learn more, Emmaus City has: 

+ hosted a sex trafficking seminar with Route One on with Jasmine Grace Marino, founder of Bags of Hope, 

+ participated in a workshop with Sarah Durfey Dunham, founder of The Abolitionist Network. 

+ welcomed Cara Garrity from Route One to join us and share during the International Justice Mission Freedom Weekend 

+ And on Saturday, June 18 after our service, we will welcome Bonnie Gatchell, co-founder of Route One, to share more about how we can grow in awareness and advocacy in our city.

I was introduced to Bonnie back in May 2016, when another person from Emmaus City and I were generously invited to come to Boston and hear about how sex trafficking is being recognized and confronted by humble and courageous people in the greater Boston area. Bonnie helped lead the discussion. You can also hear more from Bonnie through the Tedx she gave at Wellesley College.

On that day in Boston, I learned that 83% of those who are being exploited in the U.S. are American citizens. And out of all being exploited, 40% are children. Nearly 90% of those in the commercial sex traded were sexually abused as children. For example, 90% of women who work in strip clubs were abused before 18 years old, and nearly 80% of these women who are working in the clubs experience shame and low value. And 1 out of 3 women in the U.S. has a whole have been abused in some capacity. The average age of women in the sex industry is 14-62 years old. Many of these statistics are provided by the U.S. Justice Department in their focuses on labor and sex trafficking.

In Boston proper alone, there are 250+ pimps. Pimping or street hustling tends to be a family affair that is passed down from a relative. It's less risky and more profitable to sell women than it is to sell drugs. If the world's oldest profession is prostitution, then the world's oldest oppression is being trafficked. 

Jasmine Marino, Survivor, Advocate, and Founder of Bags of Hope 

Along with learning the statistics and information above, Emmaus City Church had the privilege of hearing from Jasmine Grace Marino when we welcomed her to Worcester. Jasmine generously told us her story of being trafficked, while also sharing how she now lives and works to give other girls hope. She made it off the streets, and she believes other can, too. Jasmine put another face on the issue of sex trafficking in Massachusetts. She told us her story to help educate us about the complex trauma trafficking victims experience and the difficult, often messy work of recovery. The darkness and damage is real. Jasmine grew up in Revere. She met a boy who promised her more love and more possessions than she had received before only to be persuaded over time to be trafficked by him from a nice house in Chestnut Hill that was called a "stable home" with other "wife-in-laws." 

Infographic from the University of New England

How did she deal? She disassociated and unplugged. The fast amount of money became addictive. But the prostitution wasn't victimless. It wounded her mind, body, and soul. It often involved physical violence (ex. slaps and a forced abortion), control, and manipulation to keep her and other girls enslaved even when they want to get out. It was like domestic abuse on steroids. On her website, jasminegrace.org, she shares more of the details of her story through blog posts that include her journal entries from when she was held captive mentally and emotionally for eight years. She has also released her book, The Diary of Jasmine Grace: Trafficked. Recovered. Redeemed.

In reading her story, you will hear about grace of God in the backseat of a car, the very place where she had done so many transactions. She shared how the faithful love of Jesus and the local church God connected her with helped provide her with a glimpse of what she was always searching for: the unconditional love of Christ. The journey was never straightforward, and she continues to need healing, but God has pursued her every step of the way.

The Abolitionist Network Sex Trafficking Systems Diagram

After hearing from Jasmine, Emmaus City Church also invited Sarah Durfey Dunham, who not only helped Bonnie envision Route One, but also founded The Abolitionist Network, to come and help us learn more. From their website, the The Abolitionist Network connected with the Emmanuel Gospel Center in Boston states that they "equip leaders to understand and abolish systems of human trafficking." They are a community of leaders seeking to understand the systems driving human trafficking in Boston and beyond in order to better learn effective Church engagement. They ask: "What does it look like for our local congregations to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our neighborhoods; preventing, identifying and ultimately ending abuse and exploitation?" Below is a very helpful diagram they created to reveal how one steps into the world of sex trafficking in Massachusetts.

You can also check out The Abolitionist Network's "Exploitation Response Resource Sheet" to begin to understand what advocacy might look like. Other informative and helpful resources include the My Life My Choice and the WBGH Boston articles: Human Trafficking in New England: The Role of Nail Salons, Sexual and Human Trafficking in the Boston Area, and Human Trafficking: Child Exploitation. Also, for a heartbreaking story about how trafficking is often in plain sight, carefully read Fight the New Drug's article, "Florida Girl in Bathroom Sex Scandal Revealed as Former Sex Trafficking Victim" and "Alia's Story: How I was Sex Trafficked as a Popular Mainstream Porn Performer." And here is one of the most emotional videos I've watched from a survivor: I am Second - Annie Lobert.

Book resources include: 

+ Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls are Not for Sale: A Memoir by Rachel Lloyd 

+ The Just Church: Becoming a Risk-Taking, Justice-Seeking, Disciple-Making Congregation by Jim Martin 

Those who are being trafficked in our city need a safe person to be a reference because it takes advocacy, money, and counseling for those involved to get clean and sober. Jasmine shared that the deprogramming is very similar to those who have left cults. There is a bond that occurs between victim and abuser. They need help. It takes time to learn how to live life.

Emmaus City Church is praying and inviting other churches to consider how they might meet, know, and love more exotic dancers in Worcester through faithful care and compassion. What might a first step for you look like? Anna McCarthy shares her story in "I went to a strip club." Is God calling you to have a similar story? Please pray and consider joining us on Saturday, June 18.

Infographic from the University of New England

P.S. For a helpful infographic that pulls together all the images above, check out Fight the New Drug's post entitled "The Inseparable Link Between Porn and Sex Trafficking" featuring a powerful infographic created by the University of New England. Worcester Magazine has also provided some background in our city, "Sex Trafficking: Youth a Disturbing Target".

The Lord bless you and keep you always,

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

Make Halloween Crazy Good for Others in Worcester, Mass.

Fun and Fantastic Advice For the Phantasmagoric Holiday of Halloween 

Do you love Halloween? If you live in Worcester, Massachusetts, the answer is most likely a loud and resounding, "Yes!" 

If you want to see a day where more New Englanders willingly and excitedly step out their doors to spend time with their neighbors, look no further than when Halloween hits. 

In spite of the holiday's unique and corkscrew history, people love dressing up, and/or dressing their kids up, and participating in the spectacle, fear, and laughter of it all. And here's a fun fact for you: It's the second highest-grossing commercial holiday after Christmas. Let the crazy loose!

But maybe you want to be a bit more chill. Or maybe you're the Scrooge of Halloween. You're wondering if there could be a bit something more to make of this day when all the people around you are coming to your door. If so, check out this exceptional video about All Hallows' Eve:

Halloween: Trick or Treat?

" ... On the cusp of the customary All Saints Day 

The Christ-i-an kinsfolk made mocking display. 

These children of light both to tease and deride; 

Don darkness, doll down as the sinister side. 

In pre-post-er-ous pageants and dress diabolic, 

They hand to the damned just one final frolick. 

You see with the light of the dawn on the morrow, 

The sunrise will swallow such darkness and sorrow. ... "

And here's a link to FREE GUIDE: How To Be Missional This Halloween. Also, check out the posts and quotes for some food, er candy, for thought after the snazzy banner below.

3 Simple Ways To Be Missional on Halloween | " ... There is a sociological fact that cannot be denied: Halloween is the one day which neighbors are outside of their homes and engaging in something together. There is not another day during the year that we see so many faces and family in our immediate sphere of influence, together. We need to ask this question: 'In light of this understanding, how does God want me to put this day to use ... ?'" + Jeff Mangum

Halloween: Trick, Treat or Missional? | " ... We’ll be kicking off the holiday season, watching it rise with a thankful heart in November, and find transformation and hope in a manger in December. And through it all we’ll be looking for the people of peace that might want to talk a bit more, that might want prayer, or simply need a listening ear. Looking for people to love, to bless to, befriend. Yes, it's that time of year again. And no, its not my favorite celebration, but it is a missional opportunity. It’s a chance to build relationships and reach out. And if I have to do that dressed as Cleopatra – then so be it." + Jo Saxton

Halloween Is For Mission | " ... Just to be overly clear, the very people you (should) want to be growing in relationship with will be walking up your driveway, and ringing your doorbell. They will be coming to you. So, open the door. Smile. Be friendly. Talk to people. Ask them their names. ... " + Brian McCormack

3 Practical Ways to be Missional This Halloween | " ... Be THAT house. We have been blessed to be a blessing. Think about how this shows people the Father. Everyone is expecting to get a small fun size bar. It’s what they’ve earned by dressing up and having the courage to knock on your door and say “trick or treat.” What they know they haven’t earned is a full size candy bar … it speaks to this idea of grace and blessing. You don’t need to tell the kids this, but it starts to tell the story of what your house is about to the neighbors.  It tells a different story than what they expect or are used to ... " + Seth McBee

12 Simply Ways To Be On Mission This Halloween | "This coming Halloween offers a great opportunity for many to engage in new relationships with those around us or to revisit some old relationships with new missional intentionality. Regardless of what you think of the holiday and it’s roots, the culture we have been sent by Jesus to reach is going to celebrate Halloween. We all have in front of us a wide open door for missionary engagement in our neighborhoods. ... 

1. Give out the best candy
2. Think of the parents
3. Be present
4. Be encouraging
5. Party
6. Learn the stories
7. Attend the party
8. Join the community
9. Head to the 'watering holes'
10. Pay attention
11. Stay dependent
12. Open doors

+ Jeff Vanderstelt

What Christians Should Know About Halloween | " ... For those who are still bothered by Halloween's historical association with evil spirits, Martin Luther has some advice on how to respond to the devil: 'The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him for he cannot bear scorn.' Perhaps instead of fleeing the darkness in fear, we should view Halloween as an opportunity to mock the enemy whose power over us has been broken." + Justin Holcomb

I hope you were intrigued by some of the quotes and maybe even clicked on a few of the articles above. This Halloween, my family will be out and about on our street, and we will be giving out full size candy bars, grilled hot dogs, and water bottles to whoever comes by our fire pit in the driveway. As my friend, David, notes:

Tonight is the only night of the year your neighbors will come knocking on your door. Take advantage of the opportunity and be asking, "What is lacking on this night?" and bring that. It might be water, hot drinks, or even a sofa on your lawn. Maybe make a campfire. And of course, give the best candy, but give the best gift, a place to rest for weary travelers, a friendly conversation and a place of acceptance.

May our hallowed Jesus' grace and shalom transform this October 31 in Worcester, Massachusetts into something far beyond what those who celebrate Halloween could ever expect, imagine, or think.

Wouldn't that be "scary"? 

Christ is all,

Pastor Mike "Sully" Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

ECC City Group Videos | How We Enjoy Life w/ Jesus in the City

What does a City Group – a community of various people learning about Jesus, and considering how to follow His words, works, and way – look like in Worcester, Mass.?

Solid question. I think one answer would be to find a Bible and take a look at the Gospel of Mark or the Gospel of John with someone, checking out how Jesus lived among others. Listen to what He said, and wonder about who He is. Then connect with some people who believe in Him and tend to look like Him from time-to-time in how they live. See how their faith in Him shapes how they rest, work, and play the every day stuff of life with their neighbors and friends.

Another step might be to connect with us as we seek to do this with Emmaus City Church. You are always most welcome. Check out the Emmaus City calendar, and spend some time with us in some different Sabbath services of worship and with our City Groups. Whether you are skeptical, seeking, or stirring up some belief, we want to hear your story and share some of ours.

In the meantime, for some more information about how Jesus lived His day-to-day life, we see in the Bible that He lived a full life. He was faithful to attend synagogue and go to the temple, and He was faithful to spend time in the homes of others who wanted to learn more about God (Matthew 9:35; Matthew 8:14). He served others, while also spending time where people were most comfortable (Mark 10:45; Luke 10:38-42). And He thanked God for all of the above, whether He was seeing something new in the life of His followers (Luke 10:17-24), feeding a crowd full of hungry people (John 6:10-12), or was about to comfort many by raising His friend, Lazarus, from the dead (John 11:38-44). And in everything, He stayed in communion and step with God in prayer, word, and action so He would know where to spend His time next and what He was supposed to do with the people whose paths He would cross (Luke 5:15-16). Because of this, Jesus lived a full, life-giving life – with God, His friends, people in towns and cities, and people who needed Him and received Him like Zaccheus and his family, or the entire town He was introduced to by the Samaritan woman at the well (Luke 19:1-10; John 4:1-35).

So how can this look similar for us today in and around Worcester? Renovation in Atlanta, Georgia, Austin Stone in Austin, Texas, and Soma in Tacoma, Washington also follow Jesus' words, works, and way in similar ways in their cities. Check out some of the videos and quotes below for more of a feel of what you might encounter with Emmaus City.

Video Link 1 of 3: Renovation Church – Missional Community Life in the City

"We hold Sunday mornings ... to come together, to celebrate God, to hear the preached Word, to sing His praises, and at the same time know that's not it. That's not the end goal. That's not the end game. The end game is living sent lives together in community moving towards Jesus' kingdom reign." 

"Our mission is to glorify Jesus in renovating the city holistically through the gospel. That can't just happen with a Sunday morning service. If we just wanted to plant a service, we could do that, but the city would stay exactly the way that it is." 

"For us, City Groups are frontlines for cultural, social, missional and spiritual engagement. ... We have a heart for (our city), but the mission of God goes beyond (our city). It goes beyond (our neighborhood). ... (The Gospel) is for others and not just for ourselves. So my prayer is that the Christ that I know, the One who saved me, I can introduce others to Him on a consistent basis."

   

Video Link 2 of 3: Austin Stone Community Church – Missional Community Life in Apartments and Suburbs

"This neighborhood is the people we feel like God has put us in front of and said, 'This is where you're supposed to be.' ... the people around us, literally living two doors down, are the people we are supposed to be spending time investing in. And ultimately, we want to see those people get to experience what it's like to see love, to see relationship, to see service." 

"I think of what better way, as far as my perspective, to go through life, to be surrounded by other people that really love you and care about you, and also love Jesus, as well as to invite other people in to experience what that family, what that love, that relationship looks like. To hear it declared and to see it demonstrated are two incredible ways for people to see what Jesus did for us, ultimately."

       

Video Link 3 of 3: Soma Church – What Does Missional Community Life Look Like in the Daily Rhythms of Life? 

"We looked at what it would be like to live life ... not just life on Sunday for a couple hours, but looking at what it would mean to be God's people wherever we're at. ... For us, this picture of 'What would it look like to be Jesus' body filling the city, filling every place that we're in with His presence?' That's really what we saw. That's what we believe the church to be." 

"Every year, all of our (City Groups) sit down and identify, 'Who is it we believe God's sent us to, what place has He sent us to, and how are we going to radically reorient our lives for the sake of reaching those people?' Our day-to-day, our week is shaped by that ... The goal is to see it in the flow of life. ... what I'm really hoping for every person in a (City Group) is that ... they would get to experience what it means to be the people of God all week." 

"This isn't just an event. This has taste and flavor to when Christ first broke into my heart. ... I'm pursuing them very much corresponding to how God pursued me, and reached out to me, and chased after me. There is a reorientation that needs to happen and I also see that this reorientation is the gospel. This is what belief is about."  

Next post: Emmaus City Church in Worcester | Why We Gather for Jesus with Others

Soli Jesu gloria.

+ Sully

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

CN: Emmaus: Jesus' Loving Care and Pursuit of Us is Relentless

The Road to Emmaus by Daniel Bonnell

The Road to Emmaus Reveals that Jesus' Pursuit of Us is Relentless

Here is the previous link for this City Notes (CN) on Moving Towards Emmaus:

• CN: Moving Towards Emmaus: Hope in Time of Uncertainty 

Chapter Three | The Unknown Christ: Dispatches from the Emmaus Road

Name: Tatiana Goricheva

Biographical Information: Brilliant Russian scholar and philosopher who grew up and was educated in Leningrad during the Communist era. In the 1960s, when it became possible to obtain existentialist literature in the Soviet Union, she began reading the works of Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre and found their descriptions of human alienation in a world without meaning corresponded with her own experience. Together with many Russian intellectuals under Soviet rule, Goricheva experienced a religious conversion the led her to the Orthodox Church. She was part of a group which founded a seminar in Leningrad for the discussion of fundamental philosophical and religious questions, was active in the feminist movement, and helped set up an underground newspaper. Prior to the Moscow Olympics in 1980 she and many of her colleagues were given the choice of imprisonment or exile; Goricheva chose to move to the West and during this enforced exile she developed a penetrating critique of religion and culture in the context of great material prosperity.

" ... in a Yoga book a Christian prayer, the 'Our Father', was suggested as an exercise ...  I began to say it as a mantra, automatically and without expression. I said it about six times, and then I was suddenly turned inside out. I understood – not with my ridiculous understanding, but with my whole being – that he exists. He, the living, personal God, who loves me and all creatures, who has created the world, who became a human being out of love, the crucified and risen God. At that moment I understood and grasped the 'mystery' of Christianity, the new, true life. That was real, genuine deliverance. At this moment everything in me changed. The old me died. I gave up not only my earlier values and ideals, but also my old habits. Finally my heart was also opened. I began to love people. I could understand their suffering and also their lofty destiny, that they are made in the image of God. Immediately after my conversion everyone simply seemed to me to be a miraculous inhabitant of heaven, and I could not wait to do good and to serve human beings and God. (1986, 90-1)"

"When Christ preached, to reach the souls of men and women he had to transform the experience of fishermen. To penetrate the soul of modern people he has to melt a whole iceberg of impressions; he has to overcome history, education, politics, the trivialization of life, the collapse of morality, aestheticism, the revolution – think of all the things that humanity has piled up over these two thousand years! And it is necessary to return to the clear and sublime commandments for blessedness: 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God'. (1986, 38)" 

"I saw my first religious broadcast on television. I thank God that we have atheism and no religious education. What this man said on the screen was more likely to drive more people out of the church than all the clumsy chatter of our paid atheists. Dressed up in a posh way, the self-satisfied preacher had to talk of love. But ... (he) was a boring bad actor with mechanical and studied gestures. He was faceless. For the first time I understood how dangerous it is to talk about God. Each word must be a sacrifice – filled to the brim with authenticity. Otherwise it is better to keep silent. (1986, 90-1)"

"I'm now trying to love the well-to-do and self-satisfied church, which is in all things opposed to what proves to be the original idea of the church ... Difficult times have dawned for the church in the West, more difficult than for the church in the East. Eureka! I have the solution. Not those who have seen but those who believe are more blessed than those who have seen and then believe. So even the authentic Christians in the West must be more blessed than those of us who have come to faith in Russia. There, like Thomas, we have seen his wounds and touched concretely and visibly his now immortal body. We felt God, and we understood that He is more real than all the world around us. But here I meet hardly anyone with a comparable experience. And nevertheless I have met true believers. (1986, 96-7)" – pgs. 55-57

Chapter Four | Epiphany!

" ... they now 'urged him strongly' to accept their hospitality and remain with them overnight. To be sure, the reason stated for this invitation is that 'the day is almost over' and to travel alone in the gathering gloom would be an act of madness. Elsewhere Luke has recorded a story told by Jesus in which the extreme dangers of travelling alone on the roads of ancient Palestine outside certain times of the day is vividly illustrated (Luke 14:30)." – pg. 58

"When the Emmaus walkers urge their new friend, 'Stay with us', this is a decision for change; to invite him into the house involves an intellectual and spiritual openness which has the potential to result in truly revolutionary transformation. ...

Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard:

'Father in Heaven,

well we know that it is Thou

that giveth both to will and to do,

that also longing,

when it leads us to renew

the fellowship with our Saviour and

Redeemer,

is from Thee

Father in Heaven, longing is Thy gift

but when longing lays hold of us,

oh, grant that we might lay hold of the longing!

when it would carry us away,

that we also might give ourselves up!

when Thou art near to summon us,

that we also in prayer might stay near Thee!

When Thou in the longing

dost offer us the highest good,

oh, that we might hold it fast!' 

 ... When Luke records that Christ 'acted as if he were going further', he underscores a fundamental principle concerning the manner in which genuine faith and hope are communicated. In Kierkegaard's terminology, the moment of longing is given as a gift, but it may be spurned and then lost. The longing has to be taken hold of, held fast. Real faith is not something conventional and self-evident, even less can it be imposed or retained by force. Christ might have blinded his companions with a blaze of resurrection glory that would have had them falling in the dust at his feet, but instead he respects their freedom, offering them opportunity for the radical reorientation of their lives and the recovery of hope." – pgs. 59-60

"The Christ of the Emmaus road, who elsewhere in Luke's Gospel is said to have depicted God himself in a revolutionary manner as 'the waiting Father' (Luke 15:20), largely faded from Christian memory, despite constant celebration of rituals involving bread and wine which, it can be argued, contain distinct echoes of this very narrative. ... Christians in Western Europe and North America must learn, recognizing their Emmaus road situation as a gracious opportunity to encounter the God who, while absolutely not at our beck and call, still waits to be invited to remain with those whose hearts he sets on fire." – pg. 61

"'When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them'. The guest has become the host; those offering hospitality find themselves on the receiving end of the gift of grace; the seekers are surprisingly transformed into the sought! Something in the action of the stranger at this climactic point brings about a sudden, life-transforming moment of recognition: 'Then their eyes were opened and they recognised him'." – pg. 64

"It is worth recalling here that when Luke describes the events that led up to the death of Christ there are unmistakable references to the political dimension of the charges made against him. He is accused of 'subverting our nation' and opposing the 'payment of taxes to Caesar' (Luke 23:2). Later, Jesus is said to have fomented trouble 'all over Judea' and now to pose a threat to civil order at the very centre of power (Luke 23:5). Of course, the charges made against Christ were perverse in that they implied that he was guilty of the usual forms of insurrection, depicting him as simply the latest in a long line of political revolutionaries. But this should not lead us to ignore the fact that the sheer goodness of Jesus, his endless compassion for the suffering and the oppressed, and his bold and courageous declaration of the ethical demands of Israel's God, were indeed subversive of a society built on greed and structured in the interests of the privileged and powerful. As Richard Horsley and Neil Asher Silberman point out, there were alternative forms of execution in the ancient world, including beheading or stoning to death, and the fact that Christ was crucified is eloquent testimony 'to the depth and clarity of the threat that he posed' (1997, 86). How else shall we explain the fact that when the Roman governor Pilate offered to set free either Jesus or Barabbas (who is said to have led 'an insurrection in the city', and to have been a murderer, Luke 23:19), the religious and political leaders of the nation chose the violent revolutionary, shouting in chorus for the release of a terrorist whose threat they understood and could cope with. By contrast, the challenge posed by the Rabbi from Nazareth was of an altogether different kind and, as his following grew and a revolution of love and justice began to spread, this was a threat to 'normal politics' that was simply too great to tolerate. On the road to Emmaus Jesus had pointed out to his broken and despairing disciples that the experience of the crucified Messiah was absolutely consistent with the message and the biographies of the prophets who had preceded him. Their invariable experience had been of rejection and suffering; as a later Christian writer was to say, true prophets were tortured, flogged and imprisoned, during their lives they were 'destitute, persecuted and mistreated – the world was not worthy of them' (Hebrews 11:36-38). And these same prophets, anticipating the coming of One who would represent the culmination and fulfillment of the tradition to which they belonged, recognized that his victory over evil, and the bringing into history of a different order of things, would inevitably involve rejection, suffering and death: Christ had to 'suffer these things and then enter his glory'." – pg. 67-68

"As literary critic Jack Miles puts it in the brilliant opening of his book, Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God: ' ... mankind is forgiven, but the Lord must die. This is the revolutionary import of the epilogue that, two thousand years ago, a group of radical Jews appended to the sacred scripture of their religion. Because they did so, millions in the West today worship before the image of a deity executed as a criminal, and – no less important – other millions who never worship at all carry within their cultural DNA a religiously derived suspicion that somehow, someday, 'the last will be first and the first last' (Matthew 20:16).' (Miles, 2001, 3) In discussing the impact of the story of the crucifixion of Jesus on the Western conscience, Miles argues that it has resulted in an almost subliminal conviction, lodged 'deep in the political consciousness of the West', that 'the apparent loser may be the real winner unrecognized'. He suggests that it is because of this that 'in the West no regime can declare itself above review. All power is conditional; and when the powerless rise, God may be with them' (2001, 3). ... The same writer we have noticed insisting that the death of Jesus provided forgiveness 'for the sins of the whole world', immediately goes on to remind those who have recognized this fact that they 'must walk as Jesus did' (1 John 2:6). The letters of Paul, so profoundly influential within the emerging Christian movement in the great urban centers of the ancient world, have been described as containing 'a frontal assault on the empire', providing the followers of the crucified Messiah with the resources to 'reimagine the world as if Christ, not the powers, were sovereign' (Walsh and Keesmaat, 2004, 84). Perhaps most striking of all is the fact that the New Testament ends with an extraordinary work that explicitly summons Christians to withstand the seductive power of Roman propaganda and, even at the cost of their lives, to remain faithful to the Christ whom they confessed as the true saviour of the world. Richard Bauckham describes the book of Revelation as a 'thorough-going prophetic critique of the system of Roman power' and 'the most powerful piece of political resistance literature from the period of the early Empire'. He adds that the author of this book understood very clearly that the confession of Christ's Lordship led to an inevitable clash with 'Rome's divine pretensions' (Bauckham, 1993, 38)." – pgs. 69-71

" ... the world may be, as Camus saw so clearly, 'absurd', but genuinely humanistic values can survive this discovery and sustain people in lives that are truly good and life-enhancing. That such a reaction to the threat to meaning posed by death is possible is demonstrated by countless examples of humanists who have indeed lived exemplary lives, full of compassion and mercy and tirelessly committed to justice and equality in this world. However, the question must be asked whether this kind of 'heroic dedication' can survive in a historical and cultural context in which the spiritual resources for such a life have all but withered and died. As Ernest Becker observed more than thirty years ago, the one-dimensionality of late modern culture has unleashed upon the world an ideology of commercialism unprecedented in human history, resulting in a situation in which modern man 'is drinking and drugging himself out of awareness, or he spends his time shopping, which is the same thing' (Becker, 1973, 284). ... our Emmaus dialogue is more needed now than ever and offers hope that another way ahead might be found for the human family in which death is no longer denied, suppressed or trivialized. Such a path must go via the house at Emmaus where two despairing people looked into the face of the risen Jesus and bore testimony to the fact that they had been witnesses of the death of death." – pgs. 72-73

"'Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?' The reference to 'burning hearts' forms a contrast with their unknown companion's rebuke that they had been 'slow of heart' to believe the revelation granted to Israel's prophets. In other words, during the journey to Emmaus an unseen, inward transformation was already under way, triggered by a fresh understanding of the meaning of those Scriptures with which the disciples were so familiar. To use the language of the Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann, prophetic texts that had 'lingered' across the centuries, revered, lovingly preserved and constantly read, had suddenly exploded into life. The exposition of these texts by Jesus revealed a depth of meaning and a startling contemporary relevance that his followers had never previously dreamt of. ... Are we here brought face to face with the crisis of modern Christianity, especially in its Protestant form, in that preaching and teaching has become so predictable and boring that the last thing expected by those who continue to subject themselves to it is that their hearts might be warmed! Nearly fifty years ago, one of the great preachers of the twentieth century observed that most Protestant sermons involved 'the mere grinding out of a routine vocabulary – God, grace, sin, justification – which produces a kind of Christian gobbledegook that never gets under anybody's skin and at most elicits the reaction: 'Well, that's the way the minister has to speak, but what's it to me?' (Thielicke, 1965, 2-3). However, perhaps the modern Emmaus road, the place where death appears to reign unchallenged and life is reduced to creating strategies designed to avoid confronting reality, is precisely the context within which ancient texts and seemingly redundant narratives are likely to explode into life. ... it will demand the hard work and utter dedication of a new generation of prophetic teachers gifted with what Brueggemann calls 'a capacity for imagination and intuition, coupled with courage' and a determination to demonstrate how these ancient texts may be 'concretely relocated and specifically readdressed as illuminating and revelatory in contemporary contexts' (Brueggemann, 2000, 18)." – pgs. 74-76  

Chapter Four | Epiphany!: Dispatches from the Emmaus Road

Name: Edith Black

Biographical information: A brilliant American academic with a great gift for languages, Edith Black was a recognized expert in cuneiform studies at University College at Berkeley, California. In the 1960s she became involved in radical politics but eventually suffered a breakdown that led to a deep personal crisis. The text below is taken from an article with the title 'A rediscovery of the Christian Faith', and describes a pilgrimage that has all the hallmarks of the 'Emmaus walk' that we have discussed in this book.

"When I was at Union Theological Seminary I encountered God in the liberation movements of which I was a participant – in the civil rights, anti-war and student movements and in woman's liberation. The God of the biblical faith was for me the one who heard the cries of the oppressed and delivered them. I saw the dialectic of judgment and grace being worked out in the midst of social upheaval. I steeped myself in the prophets and developed, by exhaustive reading of Marxist theory, a sharply analytical, prophetic critique of American capitalism. But for me in those exciting, march-filled days God was always out there, fighting an oppressor who was out there, an oppressor in the evil structure of society, the principalities and powers. I had little understanding of the oppressor inside the deepest part of each of us.

My deep involvement in the movement enriched me tremendously and in no way do I look back on it with regret. But like so many other dedicated radicals, I quickly burned out ... I initially dropped out because my health broke down, but it wasn't this that kept me out, for had I known a loving, empathetic response to being sick on the part of my movement friends I would have regained strength to come back fighting. But that is exactly what I did not experience. I was sick and few visited me, hardly anyone from my family, my academic and movement friends ... If it wasn't for the love of my husband who stood by me and provided for me, a husband who learned how to love growing up in a missionary family, I think I would have gone stark raving mad. ... 

It was in my darkest hour, in the moment of deepest despair, that faith began to well up in me life a bubbling spring. In the midst of my greatest awareness of the tragedy of the human condition, the inevitability of human sin, I began, miraculously, to hope ...  I realized now that I had laid expectations on others that only a transcendent God could fulfill. I saw clearly for the first time that the gospel message is the final solution to the human dilemma, the only real answer to the agonizing question: why is truth so often on the scaffold and wrong so often on the throne? In Christ I saw embodied the suffering love which does not succeed on worldly terms (cross) but is nonetheless victorious (resurrection), the paradox which is beyond all human understanding.

What I experienced in the 'hour I first believed' can only be described as 'amazing grace', as a mighty onrush of love, as God's unconditional acceptance ...  Coming to know Christ can be likened to culture shock when the old ego-props are knocked down and the rug literally pulled out from under one's feet. A maturing relationship with God involves the pain of continual self-confrontation as well as the joy of self-fulfillment, a continual dying and rising again, a continual rebirth, the dialectic of judgement and grace. For the first time in my life I have begun to have the strength to face myself as I am, without excuse but equally important, without guilt. I know that I am sinful but I could not bear this knowledge if I did not also know that I am accepted.

One of the weaknesses of Marxist thinking is that love is not central to it. I have always treasured Che Guevara's words: 'At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that a true revolutionary must be guided by great feelings of love'. But why is it that he almost had to apologize? 'He who does not know love does not know God, for God is love.' That sums it all up for me. Loving care for each other, real sensitivity to each other's needs is the mark of true Christians, not right doctrines, right ritual etc., etc.

 I know now that struggle to humanize the world, the revolution, is a continual process without final resolution until that day when God acts decisively to pull it all together. But as a Christian I can participate in that struggle without succumbing either to despair or to a false optimism ... I know that I will always be one of Jesus' zealot disciples, with the disciples' question at the ascension forever on my lips: 'Now Lord will you finally deliver power to the people?' I will always walk the delicate tightrope between an idolatrous tendency to absolutize revolution and a pietistic copout. But it is on that kind of razor's edge that a Christian must always stand, living in the tension of being 'in the world but not of it'. (Black, 1973, 18-20)." – pgs. 78-80

Chapter Five | Return to the City

" ... it is precisely when the dreams we have trusted are exposed as fantasies that are powerless to deliver what was promised, or worse still, turn into living nightmares, it is then that the search for deeper foundations for life may begin in earnest." – pg. 82  

"We recall again Goricheva's searching comments concerning television evangelists who are 'boring, bad actors' and her conclusion that we have no right to speak of God unless every word is 'a sacrifice – filled to the brim with authenticity'. I suggest then that, although Christians confess that Christ is risen from the dead (and this confession is fundamentally important to the survival of the faith), they too need a fresh epiphany, a renewed sense of the presence of the One so confessed, and a transforming vision able to renew hope, reinvigorate faith, and prepare them for what is likely to be God's surprising ... future in the twenty-first century." – pgs. 82-83

"With the epiphany over, the two companions rise from the supper table, put on their coats and go out into the darkness of the night: 'They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem.' Despite the fact that the food on the table had been blessed by Jesus, it looks as though they leave supper uneaten, or perhaps take what they can from the table to sustain them on the journey. Epiphanies have a tendency to stimulate abnormal behaviour. What makes the action of these two people astonishing is that it runs flatly counter to the reasoning they had employed when trying to persuade the stranger to remain with them overnight. Then they had pointed out the dangers of travelling on the road when the day was 'almost over' and, it will be remembered, had urged this as a reason why he should accept their hospitality. Now such reasoning does not appear to enter their heads. The decision to go out into the night, when twilight has given way to complete darkness and the hazards on the road are massively increased, seems to have involved the minimum of discussion. It was an instinctive reaction to an experience that has utterly transformed their world and it leads them to disregard the dangers that had previously loomed so large. We should be warned: when religion ceases to be merely conventional and, resulting from life-transforming encounters that break apart people's existing view of reality, is infused with a passionate sense of missionary responsibility, it produces forms of behaviour that are bound to appear irrational and reckless to normal, well-adjusted people. Those who have 'seen the Lord' come to view themselves and the surrounding world in a completely new light: 

• Values that previously seemed of paramount importance become relative, replaced by a fresh order of priorities derived from allegiance to a new Lord and Master.
• Fears that paralysed action and set limits to the way in which a 'reasonable' life might be lived are relegated to become necessary risks in the pursuit of life-goals that far transcend the aim of merely surviving.
• Perceptions of what constitutes 'sanity' are radically revised: the socially constructed consensus that the 'good life' can be described in purely material and economic categories is seen to be a dangerous falsehood and the unchallengeable axioms of a culture build on such assumptions come to be viewed as ideological justifications for multiple forms of hideous idolatry.

... All of this, I suggest, is to be seen in the extraordinary actions of the Emmaus two as they begin their 'crazy' walk through the darkness of an eastern night. Not only are the real, physical dangers on the road ignored, but little prior planning is in evidence in relation to the challenge of gaining access to the city of Jerusalem in the dead of night. Remember that not many hours before this, these people had retreated from the city, slipping through gates where, one assumes, there was every possibility that they might have been apprehended as people posing a grave threat to national security. Now those gates will be locked and barred and anyone approaching in the darkness would be easily spotted and automatically come under suspicion. While we must be careful not to read too much into this narrative, the point to make here is simply this: from the perspective of normal politics and power the actions of these people are absurd and pathetic. However, things are not always what they seem to be. What if these 'religious crazies' are in fact people who have 'come to their senses'? What if these marginal characters are actually people in possession of a form of knowledge that is literally world-shaking? ... the journey to Emmaus involved a retreat from the city. The urban centre, the place of terrible violence, where the claims of the Messiah have been categorically rejected, is abandoned, left behind. At the same time, the walk to Emmaus is a journey to the suburbs, to relative peace and tranquility, where life moves at a different pace. As we noted earlier, for the despairing disciples this was a necessary retreat; these were people in urgent need of healing and recovery. However, once that healing has taken place (and taken place far more quickly than was anticipated) the disciples resolve to retrace their steps and re-enter the city. The experience they have known and the revolutionary knowledge they now possess cannot be confined within the suburbs but must be announced within the metropolitan centre." – pg. 85-90

"... when the epiphany comes, when vision and hope are restored and the imagination is purged of false images and renewed in line with God's priorities for the redemption of his whole creation, then it must become impossible to remain in the 'suburbs', sealed off from the realities of a wider world. Christians who have really 'seen the Lord' must retrace their steps, repent of their comfortable isolation, and build bridges which make possible a two-way traffic between the privileged and the oppressed. ... Hispanic theologian and historian Justo Gonzalez ... points out, when John of Patmos experienced his epiphany while incarcerated in a Roman penal colony, he caught sight of another city, a new Jerusalem, beside which Rome paled into insignficance. This coming city is a place where tears and death are eliminated, where the gates never close, and peoples of every race and tribe are welcomed. Such a vision presents a radical critique of Rome, and of every city built on greed and violence, where the public image of success and well-being involves a massive cover-up that conceals from view inconvenient facts about the underside of urban life. But if this vision challenged Rome then, it also challenges complacent, suburban churches now: 'Just as John's vision was a challenge to Rome's vision, so it is also a challenge to our cities, cities of alabaster buildings gleaming over the homeless huddled under bridges, cities where death walks the streets at night, where children live in fear and the most common visions are the hallucinations of addicts and alcoholics. Furthermore, if John's vision is true, and a great city of love and peace is the proper image for describing God's future with humankind, what does that say about those of us who have decided that the only way to enjoy life in peace is to abandon the city to its own misery, to create our own suburban sectarian little 'new Jerusalems' where we can live in peace while our cities burn?' (Gonzalez, 1999, 107) The biblical narrative that has formed the text around which this book is structured leaves us with no alternative but to conclude either that suburban Christians who 'see the Lord' will be compelled to follow the Emmaus two back to the city to share their vision in the metropolitan centre, or that those same Christians, remaining in comfortable isolation and wilful ignorance of wider urban realities, cannot have seen the Lord." – pgs. 92-93

"After the event that we know as Pentecost, the disciples continued meeting every day in the temple courts ... This community drew the admiration of fellow Jews who recognized in the Jesus movement a social model that recalled the ethical demands made upon Israel by her great prophets. The disciples presented, and they intended to present, a new social model for Israel. If the nation, drawn by their example of love and sacrificial care for each other, would turn to Jesus as Messiah, then it would become what it was always intended to be: a light to all the peoples of the earth. When that day came, the flow of Gentile proselytes would, as the prophets had predicted, become an unstoppable flood. ... this should not have been so surprising because there were precedents within Israel's history, crucial turning points at which God broke through existing concepts and traditions in ways that were completely surprising and astonishing. Thus, at one such major point of transition, a prophet is heard warning the people of Israel: 'Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past', because the 'new thing' God was to bring about would break through the bounds of all previous notions of himself and his ways of working in the world (Isaiah 43:18-19). So now, the disciples only gradually, and with considerable difficulty, come to appreciate the extent of the newness that God's future will involve, a future that will astonish and alarm the guardians of existing traditions." – pgs. 94-95

"Justo Gonzalez suggests that when John of Patmos is told that he must 'prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings' (Revelation 10:11), a task which the author of the book indicates involved much 'bitterness', he was, in fact, being asked to challenge the ethnocentric nature of existing churches with the vision of the international, multicultural community that God intended to call into existence in the crucified and risen Christ. 'The vision which John the Jew has is of a Gentile church, a church where the Gentiles, the nations, ta ethne, the goyim, will come and take their place right next to the tribes of Israel, and all together will claim the ancient promise made to the people of Israel, that they would be a kingdom of priests. That is a vision sweet as honey, for it shows the fullness of the mercy of God; but it is also a vision bitter to the stomach, because it shows that no people, no tribe, no language, no nation, can claim a place of particular honor in that fullness. And it is bittersweet because it involves radical change in the very congregations where John has served and which he loves.' (Gonzalez, 1999, 92)" – pg. 96

Epilogue

"One Sunday morning in a summer season in 1950s Paris, a visiting preacher from the United States concluded morning worship at the American Church in Quai d'Orsay ... as the members of the congregation emerged in the porch (after the service), one man of striking appearance approached the minister with outstretched hand and said warmly: 'Monsieur, Reverend, thank you, thank you for the service.' When the minister enquired as to the stranger's name, he received an unanticipated reply: 'I am Albert Camus. ... For the past Sundays, I came to hear Marcel Dupre play, but today I came to hear you. Would you have lunch with me tomorrow?' From this initial contact between the American Protestant minister, Howard Mumma, and the great French writer, Albert Camus, there developed a close friendship and a deep and fascinating dialogue ... The two men did meet for lunch the next day and Camus came straight to the point ... 'I am searching for something I do not have, something I'm not sure I can even define.' Thus began a remarkable friendship that extended over a number of years and resulted in conversations marked by great honesty, openness and passion. Mumma found himself drawn into a wider circle of French intellectuals, including Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, where passionate discussions took place concerning the meaning of human existence. In a manner he could never have anticipated, the Christian minister became a dialogue partner to leading French humanists in a way that beautifully fulfilled one of Camus' own most moving requests: 'Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow; don't walk behind me, I may not lead; walk beside me, and just be my friend.' ... At one point Camus told his American friend: 'To lose one's life is a very little thing. But to lose the meaning of life, to see our reasoning disappear, is unbearable.' Mumma responded by suggesting that there were narratives within the Bible that related closely to Camus' anguished questions, and the conversational Bible studies which the two men shared together appeared to provide the writer with a renewed sense of hope. Indeed, Mumma reports that Camus astonished him with a request for Christian baptism with the words: 'I want this. This is what I want to commit my life to.' ... What might be the significance of this remarkable story in the context of our discussion of the walk to Emmaus ... 

• Howard Mumma was willing to befriend the French philosopher, to simply listen to him and respect his deep and profound questions.

• It illustrates the grace of God at work within the world, creating the spiritual hunger and 'longing' that we have earlier noticed Kierkegaard describing.

• When these times come, they will surprise us with the discovery of just how limited has been our awareness of the extent of Christ's grace at work in the world.

• How might we reimagine and reshape the Christian community so that it ceases to be an obstacle to those who seek for truth? What kind of Church might be able to nurture discipleship within its bounds, while remaining open and welcoming to the evidence of epiphanies within other communities where people who had lost hope and cried to heaven for help have found an unknown Stranger draw near and set their hearts ablaze?" – pgs. 100-103

Kitchen Maid with the Supper at Emmaus by Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1618)

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+ Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

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