Carlops Zoom Devotion Time Sunday 26th April 2020
Welcome and lighting of candles (Adam and Galina)
Opening words (Chris)
Come Lord, to our homes and our living spaces
For you are always present with us.
Come Lord, for although we are apart
You are the one who creates community.
Come Lord to our minds and our hearts this morning,
For yours is the heart of all creation
Help us in our thinking, our being and our living,
For yours is the way of life, of laughter and of love.
Hymn 415 Thine be the glory
Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory thou o’er death hast won:
angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,
kept the folded grave-clothes, where thy body lay.
Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory thou o’er death hast won.
Lo! Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb;
lovingly he greets us, scatters fear and gloom;
let the Church with gladness hymns of triumph sing,
for her Lord now liveth; death hath lost its sting.
Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory thou o’er death hast won.
No more we doubt thee, glorious Prince of Life;
life is naught without thee: aid us in our strife;
make us more than conquerers, through thy deathless love;
bring us safe through Jordan to thy home above.
Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory thou o’er death hast won.
Bible reading (Julie)
Luke 24: 13-35.
Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
“What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
Reflection (Nancy)
How good it is to be matching our own pace with that of the gospel story — a walking pace, Captain Tom’s pace — that to which most of us have had to accustom ourselves by necessity in recent weeks, leaving the car behind.
(so much so that one of the many humorous messages circulating on the internet asks — ‘anyone else’s car getting three weeks to the gallon at the moment?’)
But to walk is to be given a gift — a gift of rhythm and movement, a gift of sight and sound, a gift of the feel and smell of the air, and all the countless other nuances, none of which is accessible inside a vehicle
Luke, the evangelist and beloved physician — physician not only to the body but to the soul —
and not least through this little story, unique to his gospel, of Jesus’ disciples returning from Jerusalem to Emmaus on that first Easter Day
with all its elements that we’ve grown to love and anticipate:
the easy companionship of a couple
with heads inclined each to the other, to hear more clearly things spoken quietly, the sharing of grief, of broken hopes and the deepest yearnings of the human heart….
between one verse and the next, someone drawing alongside them, from out of nowhere, no longer just two but three walking together
(did they exchange names, I wonder?)
but so engrossed do they become in the newcomer’s re-telling of the scripture — a scripture they thought they would have known, and did know, by heart — but not as it was being unfolded, as if new, before them….
the evocation of evening by an entirely spontaneous offer of hospitality, accepted ‘bide with us, for the day is far spent …’
the simplest of fare — bread and wine
and suddenly, as if the tables had been turned, it is the guest who is the host
bread… in his hands
and in my mind’s eye I can see, still, that moment of recognition, carved in wood by a friend in Virginia, a sculptor, five decades ago — the disciples, in dungarees and boots, poised forever on their feet in utter astonishment —
and Jesus, his hands holding the bread, the gnarled and rough hands of a tradesman,
in the act of breaking the bread — the hands of Jesus, with the imprint of the nails, just visible ..
How can I describe to you what I’ve seen?
How could they / the disciples?
I believe that Luke offers to us, within this beautifully composed story, a microcosm of an entire LIFETIME’S journey of and into faith — in the myriad numbers of ways in which faith is given, and nourished
As if faith were a verb, not a noun; a progression, rather than a possession
that life-force — given and glimpsed in the half-light of gloaming in which their eyes were opened;
a lifetime’s spiritual sustenance
What is faith but a celebration of Christ’s presence? And what is meant by that presence if it does not mean that he is risen? And might not every meal, however simple, in company or even alone, point to his risen presence with us?
And they told what things were done in the way,
and how he was known of them in the breaking of bread …..
Prayer (include brief quiet time) (Patsy)
Loving Creator we approach you with our prayers of thanks for all the good things you have given us in this particular time of shutdown and then, encouraged by your son Jesus Christ to ask you directly for help, we pray for people in need.
We thank you Lord for the opportunity and means to come together at the same moment of the week to join in praise, prayer and worship together. It is good to see the friends from whom we have been separated – even on Zoom – even although we miss seeing them in daily concourse very much. It is so encouraging to see our neighbours looking well and cheerful. Thank you for technology.
The past week has been exceptionally mild and beautiful and we thank you for the beauty of your world, the growth of plants in the Spring and the return of the swallows on Thursday, the sound of water in the running burns and the vigorous dawn chorus which seems so much louder than usual. We thank you for the privilege of living in such an environment where there is plenty of space to walk and good air to breath.
We know that all that we have comes from you, and we ask you to help us to protect the environment.
We pray for those who live in much less healthy conditions, here and abroad. We pray especially for our friends in Malawi and other countries where conditions of hygiene are dangerously difficult. Please help us to find ways to help them.
We pray for all those who are now ill, afraid of becoming ill, isolated, lonely or who are worried about people for whom they care, those with mental illnesses, people suffering from abuse, and those in any kind of trouble.
We pray for the bereaved who mourn who, due to the present shut down of normal social life, cannot benefit from the comfort of normal funeral services and social formal recognition of their loved one’s death or receive the physical comfort of sympathetic hugs from relatives and friends.
We pray for those – including homeless students – in our own locality and beyond who are shut out from their lodgings and unable to return to their own countries, penniless and dependent for the first time in their young lives on charity from strangers, while worrying about their own families far away.
We pray for refugees, whose plight and treatment becomes monstrously more inhumane as the virus situation develops alongside conditions of war.
We pray for doctors and street cleaners, health workers and those who keep supply lines of essential goods moving, social service workers, care home workers, postal workers, local shop keepers and all people of good will who help anyone they know is in need. We thank you for them all and ask you to be near to them all and send them comfort and love. Show us how to support them.
We pray for your guidance to direct our government and all those with power to enhance the lives of other people.
Loving God, we know that you made us, see us, understand us but still love us because you are Love, so we ask you in the name of your son Jesus Christ to hear our prayers.
Amen
Closing words and Benediction (Chris)
Sung Blessing
May the God of peace go with us, as we travel from this place;
May the love of Jesus keep us, firm in hope and full of grace.