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En Route To Emmaus - via the Lisburn Road (after Paula Gooder)

As I said I  used the piece posted yesterday in my sermon in the Agape Centre on the Lisburn Road. I was there because of lack of access to Grosvenor House due to the Belfast Marathon. Since the organisers have moved this event to a Sunday instead of the traditional May Day the local Methodist churches have chosen to come together that morning for a short communion service. I also preached to a combined congregation in the same place on the Sunday after Easter, a month ago, and then I  preached on the Emmaus Road story in Luke chapter Luke 24, although I stated then that I had taken so much of what I said from Paula Gooder's book "The Journey to the Empty Tomb" that I should have sent her a preaching fee for it!

But as part of that sermon I flagged up that next week, as part of bicentenary celebrations for the National Gallery in London, they are sending Caravaggio's “'The Supper at Emmaus” to the Ulster Museum nearby, where it will be displayed alongside his “Taking of Christ” from the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin. The exhibition opens on Friday 10th May. It is free and you don't need to book.

In honour of that I thought I would post this short poem/reflection that I read at the conclusion of my sermon last month. A number of people had asked me to post it at the time, but again, 80% of it is unashamedly ripped off from the Rev. Dr. Gooder, so I said I wouldn't do so until I had okayed it with her... She subsequently got back with her approval, so here it is...

We may walk away depressed and dejected
Disappointed and disillusioned,
But he walks with us.

We may wound one another with words,
Seeking to soothe our pain
By blaming and shaming each other,
But he stands between us.

We may declare our doubts
And what we would have done differently,
But he listens attentively.

We may wonder aloud
Whether he actually knows
What is going on in the world.
But he sees and hears it all.

And if we are open to it
He will be our companion
Explaining, correcting,
Unpacking, inspiring,
Blessing,
Until, breaking
into the familiar,
Comes the eye-opening,
World-changing recognition,
That the one for whom we have been waiting
Has been with us all along.

Selah

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